He was the last player to hit .400 in Major . from the SABR BioProject, More Ted Williams Pages at Baseball Reference. His lifetime batting average of .366 is a testament to his greatness, and it will likely remain the highest batting average of all-time for many years to come. At season's end, Williams was five hits shy of . The strike halted play in mid-August, denying Gwynn the opportunity to try and keep the four-plus months hot streak going. Does Ted Williams Own A More Impressive Streak Than Joe DiMaggio? Your email address will not be published. Five hits shy of joining himself in the .400 club.4. Not saying LH Joe DiMaggio would do better, no way to tell. And in his 22-year major league career, Williams accomplished things on . On July 12, 1943, a team of Armed Forces all-stars managed by Babe Ruth and featuring Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams played the Boston Braves in a fund-raising effort. Much of the play-by-play, game results, and transaction information both shown and used to create certain data sets was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by RetroSheet. Teddy Ballgame joined the club first when he went deep off Thornton Lee on September 17, 1939 then his son Don Lee on September 2, 1960. And because of Macks schedule adjustment, Williams didnt have just one off-day to think about how he close he was to dropping below .400, he now had two. The last player to hit just .400 in the majors was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941 before taking the next three seasons off . Williams' batting average was 47 points higher than Washington's Cecil Travis, who was second. Back with the Red Sox in 1946, Williams hit the first spring training pitch he saw for a home run on February 26 and then led the team to the World Series. Ted Williams centennial: Special season in 1941 ended with an iconic Williams got one more at-bat, leading off the seventh with the As now leading 6-0. Williams, a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger, hit.344 with 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, and 1,839 runs scored in his career. Regardless of your Barry Bonds opinion, the man hit for .370 in 2002 and also won the batting title in 2004 batting .362. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 4:51 PM ET, Park Factors And yet, despite all those league-leading numbers Williams finished second to DiMaggio for the AL MVP, likely because the Yankees won the pennant by 17 games over the Red Sox and DiMaggio stole the summer with his 56-game hitting streak. The Highest Batting Averages in a Season Since 1941 He was right about that and the list of batting champions below, reflects those great hitters who truly dominated during a single season of play. Did you know that during the opening ceremonies he invited one active player to be attendance and it was Tony Gwynn? In the All-Star Game in Detroit that year, Williams hit a game-winning home run. Aside from winning two Triple Crowns and being a two-time Most Valuable Player, Williams was also a 17-time All-Star. 1940 1942, 1946 1951, 1953-1960 Boston Red Sox AL. Ted Williams Worksheet for Kids | Early Life, Career and - KidsKonnect Baseball has seen some great players over the years, as they have come and gone. 'Ted Williams was the best pure hitter I ever saw,' Mays said. On a given day, a player would hit three of every ten at bats if they hit 300 with a 300 average. .406 Batting Average (1941) | .388 Batting Average (1957) His average was up to .40089. In 1911 he led the AL in runs, hits, RBIs, batting average and slugging percentage and saw 400 hits in a season on three different occasions. That year, the mean and the standard deviation for batting averages were 0.28062 and 0.03281. . Nomar Garciaparra, 2000: .372Four players posted a .372 average in their chase of Williams from 1997-2004, one of the best offensive eras in baseball history. Tony Gwynn, 1994: .394Many who watched Mr. Padre during the 1994 season will still argue that he could have topped .400 if his season hadn't been cut short by the players' strike in mid-August. Ted Williams plays in 1941 to hit .406 - MLB.com The Splendid Splinter posted the highest single-season batting average in the modern era by a player 38 years of age or older -- 10 points higher than 38-year old Ty Cobb's .378 in 1925. As mentioned above, Carew hit for .388 in 1977 and actually led the league in hitting on six different occasions. What Is A Good Batting Average For 10U Baseball Teams? His accomplishments are impressive, so its difficult to imagine anyone else succeeding in the same way. 5 - Ted Williams signed a five-year contract to manage the Washington Senators on February 21, 1969. [Top 1,000 / On Base Percentage Record Book] Did you know that he once got on base in eighty-four straight games (in 1949), an incredible feat that remains unmated to this day? To picture just how tough a time hitters have had trying to match Teddy Ballgame's .406, here's a look at the 10 players who have come the closest to reaching .400, in order of their season-ending average, over the last 75 years:1. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. So he got some hitting in, reporting to the ballpark on Friday for extra batting practice at the suggestion of manager Joe Cronin. In the first game at Philadelphias Shibe Park on Sept. 27, 1941, right-handed knuckleballer Roger Wolff, 30 years old and playing in just his second Major League game, held him to one hit in four at-bats, dropping his average further to .39955, rounded up to .400 in some observers eyes (and the official record books). Bob Feller (93.8% in 1962), 4. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. When Ted Williams hung-up his playing cleats in 1960, he ranked third all-time in home runs (1. Rather than sitting out one or both of the final two games of the season to protect his .400 average, the precocious slugger put it on the line and went 6-for-8 to secure his place in history. Lou Gehrig, 5. Say what you want about Walker playing in the steroid era and playing the majority of his games in notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field, but the Canadian could straight up rake (and run). Ted Williams is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, and there is no way to argue with that. August 30, 1918 But instead he chose to play, hitting 6 for 8 in the games, and finished the season at .406. Ted Williams was batting at .39955 going into the final day, a double-header, of the 1941 season. The Red Sox were coming off a three-game series in Washington where Williams went 2-for-10, dropping his average from .406 to .401. Total Zone Rating and initial framework for Wins above Replacement calculations provided by Sean Smith. Visit their online baseball cards to learn much more, or the Batting Average Record Book to see details. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with the Boston Red Sox. Ted Williams (Baseball Player) - On This Day He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1939 to 1960; his career . "Ted Williams is in a class by himself this season," said DiMaggio, quoted in . In 1958, the year Kubek played with him in the All-Star game, he won his sixth American League batting championship. Ted Williams impressive career totals are a testament to his skill as a hitter and his legacy as one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. "I'm tickled to death and I'm hoping I'll get into the air quick to start some slugging against the Axis," he told reporters. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with . The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, Splendid Splinter or Thumper, View Player Bio The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". 8,629th in major league history) Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. When his classification was changed to 1-A following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he made an appeal to his draft board which was upheld. (Age 20-233d, by Retrosheet. "If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again.". He was a master of the art of hitting, and his ability to consistently hit the ball with power and accuracy ensured that he was one of the most feared hitters in the game. In his best year with . He saw it the same way. He won 2 MVP awards. Join Baseball Almanac as we take a look at some additional numbers of interest as they relate to Ted Williams, easily (one of) "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived": 1 - Ted Williams has the highest on base percentage ever put together by any Major League ballplayer in history! 5.0. Ted didnt drink, so from time to time Id run into a bar room to get a drink, and hed wait outside until I got finished, drinking a soft drink. Mel Ott), and sixth all-time in batting average (1. Find out more. Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. - Batting Champion (1939-1940) Joe DiMaggio in The 100 Greatest American Athletes (Martin Gitlin, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 10/15/2018, They Said It, Page 254), During the 1968 season, Carl Yastrzemski had the lowest batting average that was still high enough to lead the American League. Miguel Cabrera currently leads all active players in career batting average with .308, right above both Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. If you're wondering, Ted Williams is the last player to hit over .400, doing so in 1941 with a .406 batting average. According to Baseball-Reference, Bill Bergen has the worst career batting average in terms of points. Ty Cobb, 4. Top 10 HIghest Batting Averages Since 1941. 1. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It was originally scheduled to be a three-day affair, with a game each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but As owner and manager Connie Mack rescheduled the opening game to be part of a Sunday doubleheader in order to boost attendance with the 22-year-old Williams chasing history. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. Ted Williams had 521 home runs over his career. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. despite complaining that the shift cost him 20 to 30 points on his lifetime batting average of . Players who came closest to .400 since 1941 - MLB.com .394 It's been 25 years since strike wiped out Gwynn's chance to hit In some instances the rules of the day (per the instructions set forth by Major League Baseball, Inc.) were used to determine the batting champion and Baseball Almanac is pleased to present the official list of batting title holders. One of the most impressive batting averages of all time belongs to Ted Williams. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. In 1952, at the age of 34, Williams was recalled to active duty for service in the Korean War.