I will be using bWAR for this.
The all time WARLORD is Babe Ruth with 182.5 WAR. The only player to get somewhat close to this in my lifetime has been Barry Bonds, with a respectable 162.8 (4th place).
The thing that makes the WAR record so hard to beat is the fact that Ruth played at a level so far beyond what the rest of the league was capable of. His OPS led baseball in 13 straight seasons. No one will ever be as dominant as Babe Ruth. The game has evolved and there is more parity in talent. I don't know if Babe Ruth would still be great today, but I know the value of the replacement player has improved drastically. If someone were to beat Ruth's record, they wouldn't have to be more dominant than Ruth, but have an all around package and everything go their way.
There are a few requirements for a modern hitter to break Babe Ruth's record.
1. He has to play for fuckin ever
WAR is a cumulative stat. Thus, if anyone is going to have a chance at breaking Ruth's record, this player is going to have to play a LOT of years in the MLB. This player is going to have to start early as well. Of the top 25 WAR players, only 3 (Cy Young, Tom Seaver, and Mike Schmidt) were older that 21 when they started their MLB careers. The most recent player in this list, ARod, started at 18. If a player starts at 18 and plays to 45, which seems to be roughly the old limit, then he only has to get 6.52WAR per season on average to break Ruth's record. Having a player start at 23 raises that average to 7.93, which seems a little less attainable outside of old timey pitchers throwing 50 complete games a season.
2. He has to be durable.
Again, since WAR is a cumulative stat, such a player needs to be a rock for his entire career. Not all of the top players had such durability, including Ruth himself. But I also doubt you are going to see many players put up a 9.1WAR season in 130 games like Ruth. While gone are the days of Cal Ripken where players tried to play every game every season, it isn't unreasonable to think our young WARlord will be playing at least 150 games a season on average once he gets past his rookie year. Any injuries are going to have to come at the end of his career, particularly nagging ones and things that slow him down.
3. He has to play a premium position and play it well.
In order to maximize yearly WAR, it is important that our hypothetical star play a position with a strong defense adjustment. This leaves us with CF, SS, 2B, and C. Pitcher would have been a possibility back in the day, but with relievers taking a larger and larger piece of the innings pie, it seems like hitter is the best way to go. A 2-way player would have a better chance, but they are exceedingly rare.
We can eliminate Catcher right off the bat. Catchers play less games per season, get injured more often, have shorter careers, and have worse stats due to wear and tear. The highest WAR of any catcher is Johnny Bench with 75.2. That puts him at 79th all time WAR and not even half of Ruth's total.
The Majority of high WAR players in history are OF. Odds are if someone were to beat Ruth, they would be doing it from CF, at least until later in their career.
4. He will need to be an athlete.
While Babe Ruth may have a beer swilling, hot dog eating, STD collecting hero, our modern player is going to have to be an athlete. They will need to be fast, run the bases well (not necessarily steal bases), and keep in good shape for their entire careers. Good baserunning and defense, at least in the beginning of a players career could add up to 5 or more WAR in a season. Our player is going to need this defense a lot in his early years while he can still rack up dWAR.
5. He will probably need to be a Righty.
The shift has complicated things for Lefty batters. Our hypothetical hitter will need to be able to beat the shift if they are a lefty. This might not be a problem early on, but become an issue as our player slows down with age. Since the shift has been established, older, slower lefties have been getting squeezed by the shift. Every WAR counts. Unless our batter is a Switch Hitter or can hit to all fields, he will probably be a righty.
6. He will need to be on a good hitting team, probably in a big market.
Our player is going to need some top-shelf offensive talent hitting behind him to make sure he isn't getting the Bonds treatment. To afford the salaries of both megahitters, this player will probably spend most of his career on a major market team.
7. He will probably be a 3 true outcomes hitter (and a really good one, duh).
Launch Angle, batspeed, barrel, OBP, dingers, and Ks. This player is going to probably not going to spend all that much time getting singles. That doesn't mean that he won't have a high batting average. Our player is going to need to hit at a high clip, but with a fat amount of XBHs and walks added in. I wouldn't be surprised if this hitter breaks the HR record, but more in a Hank Aaron style of consistent HR success over a long career.
8. He will get all the awards.
To start off our players career. He is going to win the RoY, or at the very least become a star in his first full season. He needs to hit the ground running and start accumulating WAR right away.
He will be a perennial All-Star. I am talking Hank Aaron 25 All Star appearances.
While Gold Gloves don't automatically go to the best defender, our guy will quickly become a big name for his bat and his defense. Expect a ton of Gold Gloves, probably some in his 30s as well.
Silver Sluggers will probably be the award our player wins the most. He will probably break Barry Bonds' record of 12 SS.
Expect our player to get MVP votes pretty much every season until his last couple, much like Hank Aaron. Since our player is going to need to be the best player in baseball for many of his seasons, expect him to come close to Bonds' 7 wins. Hank only won 1, but advanced stats would have given him more wins today.
9. He is going to be an all around good guy who never takes steroids (or never gets caught).
Any suspensions are going to kill our player's chance of winning the WARLORD title. Losing a season is probably going to cost our player at least 6 WAR. Also, he doesn't want to end his career like Bonds. Barry possibly could have gotten the career WAR mark if teams were willing to deal with him. His last two seasons he got 4.0 and 3.4 WAR respectively, but he retired at 42. Had he held on until his late 40s, he could have eked it out. But Bonds was a dick, so he got blacklisted.
10. He cannot pull a Pujols.
When his time is up, he has to retire. Pujols over the last 4 years has been worth -0.7WAR. Our player has to play well past his peak, but also retire before this happens.
So this his my hypothetical WARLORD.
Year | Age | WAR | Awards |
1 | 18 | 1.2 | |
2 | 19 | 7.3 | RoY, AS |
3 | 20 | 8.0 | AS, SS, GG |
4 | 21 | 9.1 | AS, SS, GG, MVP |
5 | 22 | 7.9 | AS, GG |
6 | 23 | 7.2 | AS, GG |
7 | 24 | 9.7 | AS, SS, GG, MVP |
8 | 25 | 8.9 | AS, SS, GG |
9 | 26 | 7.6 | AS, GG |
10 | 27 | 7.7 | AS, GG |
11 | 28 | 10.5 | AS, SS, GG, MVP |
12 | 29 | 11.2 | AS, SS, GG, MVP |
13 | 30 | 10.8 | AS, SS, GG, MVP |
14 | 31 | 8.9 | AS, SS, GG |
15 | 32 | 7.5 | AS, SS |
16 | 33 | 9.3 | AS, SS, MVP |
17 | 34 | 6.9 | AS, SS |
18 | 35 | 5.4 | AS, SS |
19 | 36 | 4.9 | AS |
20 | 37 | 5.2 | AS, SS |
21 | 38 | 3.9 | AS |
22 | 39 | 4.3 | AS |
23 | 40 | 4.0 | AS |
24 | 41 | 3.3 | AS |
25 | 42 | 3.3 | AS |
26 | 43 | 2.1 | |
27 | 44 | 2.8 | |
28 | 45 | 3.2 | |
29 | 46 | 2.1 | |
AVG | x | 6.4 | |
TOTAL | x | 184.2 (Record) | RoY, 24 AS, 13 SS (Record), 12 GG (OF tie), 6 MVP |
So recap, our CF (later RF) is a righty with good defense, speed, character, never has a serious injury, plays in front of another HoF bat on a big market team, who hits dongs and takes walks.
Our guy probably ends up with the HR record, and is top 5 for a ton of other categories. He goes into the HoF unanimously.
I hope this has been as fun for you to read as it was to write it.
submitted by As we approach the end of the first cycle of the new World Test Championship, I wanted to see what would happen if the world championship was decided on a challenge basis, as in combat sports, i.e. to be the champ, you have to beat the champ. I added a caveat: the world title would not be on the line in every series played by the champion. For a team to get a shot at the title, it would have to: - Tour the current champions as the #1 contender; or
- Tour the current champions after beating them at home; or
- Host the current champions after beating them away.
To be the #1 contender, a team would have to beat the current #1 contender away from home. A team does not lose its #1 contender spot if another team wins the title using rules 2 or 3. However, a team that has earned a title shot through rules 2 and 3 would lose the shot if the title changes hands. A drawn series favours the incumbent, whether champion or #1 contender. After applying these rules to the existing history of Test cricket, I found that the lineal world championship has been contested 60 times by eight teams.
In these posts, I will provide a brief history of these 60 series, spanning 138 years. By recounting this alternative history, I hope to demonstrate the soundness of this model of deciding the world Test champion and to revisit some of the most iconic series of all time, as well as to have something to do during the commercial breaks. (Parts 2, 3 and 4) --
PART ONE: THE EARLY YEARS (1882-1905) In the beginning, England played Australia, and that was that. The two sides played 30 Tests against each other over 15 years before South Africa played its first Test. As a result, in the first two decades of its existence, the world championship was exclusively contested by them. However, it wouldn't be too presumptuous to call their contests a world championship—after all, around this time, a couple of baseball leagues in the United States began calling their end-of-season showdown the World Series—and this exercise is basically an attempt to open up the Ashes structure to other teams. Aided by the vagaries of weather, uncovered pitches and playing conditions (three-day Tests in England; timeless Tests in Australia), they produced plenty of exciting cricket, made innovations to the game and drew crowds in the tens of thousands.
#1: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (1 TEST, 1882) One of the most consequential Test matches ever played, the August 1882 Test between England and Australia at The Oval gave birth to the Ashes as well as the lineal world championship. Seven of the eight Tests played before this one had been won by the home team, and England was heavily favoured to beat the touring Aussies. ("It will be observed that in
every instance the batting average of each member of the Australian team is lower than that of the English batsman placed opposite him, and that the bowling averages of the two men who had the largest share of the trundling for England are both better than either of those of the two bowlers who sent down the largest number of overs for Australia,"
Wisden noted.) Australia won the toss and were bowled out for 63 in 80 overs. In response, Frederick Spofforth took 7/46 to restrict England to 101 and then took 7/44 to defend a target of 85. Cue obituaries of English cricket, etc., as Australia were crowned the first ever world champions.
Result: Australia win by seven runs. Player of the Match: Frederick Spofforth (14/90)
#2: AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND (3 TESTS, 1882-83) Australia's reign as world champion lasted just 155 days. In the first ever Ashes series, Ivo Bligh's England and Billy Murdoch's Australia won one each of the two games in Melbourne, setting up a decider at the SCG. After Bligh won the toss and elected to bat, a 116-run sixth-wicket partnership between Walter Read and Edmund Tylecote helped England put on 247, before a 94 by Alec Bannerman brought Australia to within 29 runs. A 7/44 by Spofforth in the second innings restricted England to 123, but nearly seventy overs of unchanged bowling by Fred Morley (2/34) and Dick Barlow (7/40) bowled Australia out for 83. The 69-run win, after which a group of Australian women burned a bail and presented the ashes to Bligh, began England's first reign as world champions.
(Note: These three Tests featured the Australian XI that had toured England in 1882. A fourth Test was played at Sydney featuring a "full-strength" Australian side, which Australia won. I'm following Wisden and Cricinfo's convention of treating the fourth Test as a separate series. If you want to consider this a 2-2 series, or a 2-1 Australia win considering the first match does not seem to have had Test status, Australia's reign as world champions lasts until 1884-85, when England won the five-Test series, 3-2.) Result: England win, 2-1. Player of the Series: Walter Read (210 runs @ 42.00)
#3: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (3 TESTS, 1884) England's first defence of its world title began disastrously, as Frederick Spofforth (4/42) and Harry Boyle (6/42) dismissed the champions for 95 on the second day of the 1884 Ashes in Manchester. (There was no play on Day 1.) However, England fought back to restrict Australia to 182 and batted 130 overs to save the game on the third and final day.
In the second Test, the first ever played at Lord's, Ted Peate took 6/85 as England had Australia at 160/9 before a 69-run partnership between Tup Scott and Boyle. Allan Steel's 148 helped England take a 150-run lead the following day, and George Ulyett took 7/36 to set up an innings victory and retain the world title.
In the final Test at The Oval, centuries by Scott and Percy McDonnell, and 211 by Murdoch, forced the English captain, Lord Harris, to use 11 bowlers, including wicketkeeper Alfred Lyttelton, who ended up with 4/19 in 12 overs. However, declarations had not yet been invented, and Australia ended up batting 311 overs for its first-innings total of 551, before a 151-run ninth-wicket partnership between William Scotton and Walter Read saved the match.
Result: England retain, 1-0. Player of the Series: George Ulyett (11 wickets @ 17.63)
#4: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (3 TESTS, 1886) Having defeated Australia in the first ever five-Test Ashes series, in 1884-85, England were favourites to retain their world title a second time. In the Manchester Test, Australia was at 181/4 before losing six wickets for 24 runs. A Walter Read fifty helped England take a slight first-innings lead before Dick Barlow's 7/44 set up a four-wicket victory. A 164 by Arthur Shrewsbury and match figures of 11/74 by Johnny Briggs sealed the series with an innings victory at Lord's, while a 170 by WG Grace and 12/104 by George Lohmann completed the whitewash at The Oval.
Result: England retain, 3-0. Player of the Series: Arthur Shrewsbury (243 runs @ 60.75)
#5: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (3 TESTS, 1888) After weeks of bad weather, England's third title defence began on a Lord's wicket so bad "that many quite dispassionate judges thought the game would be so fluky, that victory would depend almost entirely upon success in the toss," according to
Wisden. Australia won the toss and, "never attempting to show correct cricket," slogged their way to 116. Charlie Turner (5/27) and JJ Ferris (3/19) then combined to bowl England out for 53, before George Lohmann (4/33) and Bobby Peel (4/14) bundled Australia out for 60. Set a target of 124, England only managed half the runs as "Turner and Ferris carried everything before them."
The wicket at The Oval was much better for batting, but Australia had collapsed to 50/7 by lunch on Day 1. They were bowled out for 80, before England scored 317 and dismissed Australia for 100 to seal an innings victory in two days. More rain meant that the Old Trafford pitch was almost as bad as the one at Lord's, and Turner took 5/86 to restrict England to 172 in the first innings, but Peel's match figures of 11/68 helped dismiss Australia for 81 and 70 to seal the series.
Result: England retain, 2-1. Player of the Series: Bobby Peel (24 wickets @ 7.54)
#6: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (3 TESTS, 1890) Australia's fourth attempt to wrest away the world title began in attacking style, with John Lyons hitting 55 in the first 45 minutes of play on a slow pitch at Lord's. However, his dismissal, with the team's score at 66, triggered a collapse as the rest of the side fell for 66 additional runs. Lyons then took 5/30 to restrict England to 173, before scoring 33 in 25 minutes as Australia scored 176. Set a target of 136, the English captain, WG Grace, remained unbeaten at 75 to seal a seven-wicket win.
On another slow pitch at The Oval, Australia were bowled out for 92 within two and a half hours, with debutant Fred Martin taking 6/50. They fought back to bowl England out for 100, but only managed 102 in their second innings. Defending a target of 95, Australia had England at 32/4, but a 51-run partnership between Maurice Reed and James Cranston helped England eke out a two-wicket win to retain the world championship. The dead rubber at Manchester was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Result: England retain, 2-0. Player of the Series: Fred Martin (12 wickets @ 8.50)
#7: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (3 TESTS, 1893) Yet another title defence began on a rain-affected Lord's pitch, but a century by Arthur Shrewsbury and 91 by Stanley Jackson took England to 334 on the first day. In response, Australia were at 7/2 and 75/5, before a century on debut by Harry Graham brought the challengers to within 65 runs of the English total. Shrewsbury and Billy Gunn then added 152 for the second wicket before seven wickets fell for 55 runs, but rain prevented play from resuming after lunch on Day 3 and the match was drawn.
A century by Jackson, and fifties by Shrewsbury, WG Grace, Andrew Stoddart, Albert Ward and Walter Read, took England to 483 in the first innings of the Oval Test, before Bill Lockwood (8/133) and Johnny Briggs (10/148) combined to bowl out Australia for 91 and 349, ensuring the world title would be retained. In the final Test at Manchester, a Gunn century in the first innings and a 78-run opening partnership between Grace and Stoddart in the second made sure the series victory was never really in doubt.
Result: England retain, 1-0. Player of the Series: Arthur Shrewsbury (284 runs @ 71.00)
#8: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (3 TESTS, 1896) A record crowd of over thirty thousand gathered at Lord's for the first Test of England's sixth defence of the world championship, which began in controversial fashion as the MCC committee refused to pick KS Ranjitsinhji, despite Ranji becoming the first amateur to score a thousand runs in a season, because he was not born in England. (The decision was made by former England captain Lord Harris, who was born in Trinidad.) Tom Richardson (6/39) and George Lohmann (3/13) soon returned the attention to the cricket, skittling out Australia for just 53 on the first morning. England built up a lead of two hundred with the loss of just four wickets, but then lost their final six wickets for 36 runs. Australia then lost their final seven wickets for 64 runs and set England a modest target of 109. Overnight rain caused the pitch to deteriorate, but the champions managed a six-wicket win. The Lancashire committee was happy to name Ranji in the team for the Manchester Test, and the maharaja scored 62 and 154* in response to Australia's first-innings total of 412. However, in the absence of adequate support, England could only set a target of 125, which Richardson's 6/76 was unable to defend.
There was more controversy before the deciding Test at The Oval, as five professional cricketers demanded that their match fees be doubled from £10 to £20, causing the Surrey committee to consider dropping them. Ultimately, the rebellion was thwarted, and three of the five (barring Lohmann and Billy Gunn) were named in the side. Rain prevented much play on Day 1, with England reaching 69/1 at stumps, and Hugh Trumble's 6/59 forced a collapse of 67/9, as England finished on 145. Jack Hearne took 6/41 to secure a 26-run lead, but Trumble responded with 6/30 to bowl England out for 84. Chasing 111 to finally win back the world title, Australia promptly collapsed to 25/9, eventually being dismissed for 44, with Hearne taking 4/19 and Bobby Peel finishing with 6/23.
Result: England retain, 2-1. Player of the Series: Tom Richardson (24 wickets @ 18.29)
#9: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (5 TESTS, 1899) It was seventh-time lucky for Australia as, after decisively beating England at home in the 1897-98 Ashes, they finally wrested away the world title in the first five-Test Ashes series on English soil. Ernie Jones's 5/88 earned Australia a 59-run first-innings lead in the first Test at Trent Bridge, and an 80 by Clem Hill helped set a target of 290. England were down to 19/4 on the final day, but a 93* by Ranjitsinhji saved the match. In the second Test, at Lord's, Jones took 7/88 to dismiss England for 206, before centuries by Hill and Victor Trumper took Australia to 421. Tom Hayward (77) and captain Archie MacLaren (88) tried to mount a fightback, but only two other English batsmen reached double figures and Australia was left with a target of just 26.
In the Headingley Test, Jack Worrall's attacking 76 on the first morning (the score was 95/4 when he departed) helped Australia reach 172 on a rain-affected pitch, and Hugh Trumble's 5/60 helped keep England's lead under fifty. Trumble then scored 56 to rescue Australia from 97/6, and rain prevented play on the final day. Then, after England amassed a 176-run first-innings lead in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, half-centuries by Worrall, Trumper and Monty Noble salvaged a draw.
England were 435/4 after the first day of the decisive Oval Test, thanks to centuries by openers Stanley Jackson and Hayward. However, despite Bill Lockwood's 7/71 in the first innings, Australia managed to bat for nearly 250 overs in their two innings, building on Syd Gregory's century in the first and half-centuries by the top three in the second, to save the match and finally end England's 16-year reign as world champions.
Result: Australia win, 1-0. Player of the Series: Ernie Jones (26 wickets @ 25.26)
#10: AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND (5 TESTS, 1901-02) Australia went into the first defence of their second world title having won two of their previous three home series against England, and with all the players who had won the title in 1899 available for selection. However, after winning the toss at Sydney and promoting himself to opener, the English captain, Archie MacLaren, scored an attritional century to help his team reach 464. Debutant Sydney Barnes then took 5/65 to bowl Australia out for 168, before fellow debutant Len Braund took 5/61 to secure an innings victory.
MacLaren put Australia in to bat on a rain-affected pitch in Melbourne, and Barnes took 6/42 to bowl the champions out for 112. However, Monty Noble responded with 7/17 as England were dismissed for 61, and a 99 by Clem Hill was followed by a century by No. 10 Reggie Duff to set England a target of 405. Noble (6/60) and Hugh Trumble (4/49) then combined to dismiss England for 175 and square the series. The third Test at Adelaide lasted six days, with a century by Braund being neutralised by Clem Hill's 98 and Trumble's 6/74 to set Australia a target of 315. Barnes had injured his knee in the first innings, so could not bowl in the second, and Hill scored 97, his third ninety in a row, to set up a thrilling four-wicket win.
Needing to win both the remaining Tests to win back the world title, MacDonald scored 92 in the first innings of the fourth Test, again at the SCG, as England scored 317 and reduced Australia to 48/4. However, all the remaining Aussie batsmen got starts and clawed their team to 299, before Noble and Jack Saunders took fifers and dismissed England for 99 in the second innings, setting up a seven-wicket victory to retain the championship. The dead rubber at the MCG was a low-scoring affair, with Hill being the only batsman from either side to score a half-century and Noble taking 6/98 to defend a 211-run target and win the series 4-1.
Result: Australia retain, 4-1. Player of the Series: Monty Noble (32 wickets @ 19.00)
#11: AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND (5 TESTS, 1903-04) Australia followed up its first title defence by winning the 1902 Ashes in England and beating South Africa on their maiden tour in 1902-03. In the first Test of their second defence, at the SCG, however, they were stopped in their tracks by a record-breaking debutant. After a Monty Noble century got Australia to 285, Tip Foster single-handedly overtook the Aussie total with 287, setting a record for the highest score by a visiting player in Australia that would stand for over a century, until Ross Taylor scored 290 in 2015. Trailing by 292, Australia were rescued by an unbeaten 185 by Victor Trumper, but England chased down the fairly straightforward target of 195 with five wickets in hand. A 7/56 by Wilfred Rhodes then gave England a 193-run first-innings lead in the Melbourne Test and, despite collapsing for 103 in the second innings, the challengers managed to win by 185 runs thanks to Rhodes's 8/68.
In the Adelaide Test, Australia hit back with its top four all crossing fifty, including a century by Trumper, in a first-innings total of 388, which was followed by a century by Syd Gregory in a second-innings total of 351 to set up a 216-run victory. However, Rhodes took 4/33 and Ted Arnold took 4/28 to give England a first-innings lead of 118 in the fourth Test at Sydney, before Bernard Bosanquet, the inventor of the googly, took 6/51 in the second innings to end Australia's second title reign. Australia won the final Test at the MCG, which started just two days after the fourth, by dismissing England for 61 and 101, but it was too little, too late.
Result: England win, 3-2. Player of the Series: Wilfred Rhodes (31 wickets @ 15.74)
#12: ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA (5 TESTS, 1905) Frank Laver took 7/64 on a batting-friendly pitch at Nottingham to restrict England to 196 in the first Test of their title defence, but Victor Trumper injured his back and the English captain Stanley Jackson dismissed three members of the Australian middle order (two of whom had crossed fifty) in a single over, eventually taking 5/52 as Australia were bowled out for 221. Jackson then scored 82 in the second innings, assisting his predecessor as captain, Archie MacLaren (140), and John Tyldesley (61) to set Australia a target of 402. Bernard Bosanquet then took 8/107 as England won by 213 runs.
The next two Tests, at Lord's and Headingley, were drawn, with England in a commanding position in both. Rain prevented play on the final day at Lord's, with England ahead by 252 with five second-innings wickets left, while defensive leg-theory bowling by Warwick Armstrong (5/122 in 51 overs unchanged) and obdurate batting by Monty Noble (62 in 166 minutes) in the second innings at Leeds kept the series alive.
Australia needed to win the final two Tests to regain the world championship, but a century by Jackson put England in a commanding position at Manchester, with a first-innings total of 446. Walter Brearley then took 8/126 over two innings, as Australia were bowled out for 197 and 169. The final Test, at The Oval, was drawn. Both teams took advantage of favourable batting conditions, with CB Fry, Reggie Duff and Tyldesley all scoring centuries.
Result: England retain, 2-0. Player of the Series: Stanley Jackson (492 runs @ 70.28, 13 wickets @ 15.46) --
CHAMPIONSHIP REIGNS
# | TEAM | DURATION (DAYS) | SUCCESSFUL DEFENCES |
1 | Australia | 155 | 0 |
2 | England | 6,043 | 6 |
3 | Australia (2) | 1,661 | 1 |
4 | England (2) | 532* | 1 |
submitted by Visit ESPN to view 2020 MLB stat leaders. MLB has enhanced its code of conduct pertaining to harassment and discrimination, has set up an anonymous hotline for those with information about sexual ... Batting Average Team Records. Baseball Almanac is pleased to present a record book full of baseball milestones for team related batting averages - including highest & lowest marks team batting averages, single season team batting average plateaus, and miscellaneous team related batting average records. Career BA Leaders:1.Ty Cobb+/.3662, 2.Rogers Hornsby+/.3585, 3.Shoeless Joe Jackson/.3558, 4.Lefty O'Doul/.3493, 5.Ed Delahanty+/.3458, 6.Tris Speaker+/.3447, 7.Billy ... Batting Average Records Did you know that the highest batting average over three consecutive seasons (1911-1913) is .408 (.4084), set by Hall of Famer Ty Cobb ? The highest batting average over four consecutive seasons (1922-1925) is .403 (.4039), set by Rogers Hornsby — who also set the record for highest batting average over five consecutive (1921-1925) seasons with .402 (.4024). Batting Average Year Bats; 201. Jesse Burkett+ (31).3631: 1900: L : Honus Wagner+ (31).3631: 1905: R: 203. Wade Boggs+ (29).3630: 1987: L : John Olerud (24).3630: 1993: L : Magglio Ordonez (33).3630: 2007: R: 206. Joe Torre+ (30).3628: 1971: R : Chicken Wolf (28).3628: 1890: R: 208. Lou Gehrig+ (31).3627: 1934: L: 209. Harry Walker (28).3626: 1947: L: 210. Hugh Duffy+ (26).3625: 1893: R: 211. Joe Kelley+ (25).3624: 1897 Team Records 2013 — 38 Wins 2015 — .327 Batting Average 2005 — 396 Runs Scored 2004 — 550 Hits 2003 — 51 Home Runs 2005 — 345 Runs Batted In 2016 — 143 Stolen Bases Hitting Player Records (Season) Highest Batting Average Josh Bolen 0.431 (2001) — Matt Reeb 0.421 (1994) — Brian Rothert 0.413 (1995) Most […] These are the MLB players with the highest career batting averages. 1. Ty Cobb, .3664 - Cobb’s name is synonymous with baseball, so it’s only fitting to kick off the career batting average ... Look for your favorite MLB slugger in this impressive list of baseball's top 500 career batting leaders. Babe Ruth made a total of 10,617 plate appearances in his active baseball career and has achieved a career batting average of .3421 in the Major League, and is inducted in the tenth place in our list of top 10 baseball players with the highest career batting average. Babe Ruth led the league once in his active career. 9. Dan Brouthers. Dan-Brouthers