Gehrig's best season?

[Appling]

Which was Lou Gehrig's top hitting season?
Some suggestions:

year - BA - HR - RBI - OPS - OPS+ / Remarks
1927 -.373 -47 -175 - 1.240 - 221 / Murderer's Row lineup
1930 -.379 -41 -174 - 1.194 - 203
1931 -.341 -46 -184 - 1.108 - 195 / AL RBI record
1934 -.363 -49 -165 - 1.171 - 208 / Triple Crown season
1936 -.354 -49 -152 - 1.174 190

[DoubleX]

I think his 1938 deserves an honorable mention. It was very distant from his best seasons, but considering that he was showing obvious signs of the crippling disease that first effects the skills and reflexes that are most vital for baseball, the numbers he put up that year are pretty extraordinary and attest to just what a talent Gehrig was:

.295, 29, 114, 0.932, 132 OPS+

Just for kicks, here's what Gehrig did in '37, his last healthy year:

.351, 37, 159, 1.116, 177 OPS+

I don't understand it when Gehrig's name is not mentioned with Ruth, Williams and Cobb among the best hitters. The guy could rake.

[Blackout]

1934, because Ruth was no longer the OBP threat that he was in previous years, but Gehrig still managed to knock in 165 RBIs.

[Appling]

I don't understand it when Gehrig's name is not mentioned with Ruth, Williams and Cobb among the best hitters. The guy could rake.

I guess Gehrig was just too much a nice guy, kind of boring off the field, not a great interview. He played in the shadows of first Babe Ruth, and later Joe DiMaggio. And he didn't WANT to be in the limelight -- he preferred a quiet home life. (Gary Cooper was a great casting decision for his movie. To many of us, Gary Cooper was Lou Gehrigl.

[johnny]

I think his 1938 deserves an honorable mention. It was very distant from his best seasons, but considering that he was showing obvious signs of the crippling disease that first effects the skills and reflexes that are most vital for baseball, the numbers he put up that year are pretty extraordinary and attest to just what a talent Gehrig was:

.295, 29, 114, 0.932, 132 OPS+

Just for kicks, here's what Gehrig did in '37, his last healthy year:

.351, 37, 159, 1.116, 177 OPS+

I don't understand it when Gehrig's name is not mentioned with Ruth, Williams and Cobb among the best hitters. The guy could rake.

My thoughts were the same. For what he went through in 1938 I find it the most amazing of all seasons. The numbers aren't gaudy by any degree but damn, the man was dying.
In Dimagio's later life he proclaimed Gehrig the best hitter he saw from that side of the plate. Fairly high praise, indeed.

[Edgartohof]

Any number of his seasons could have a case made for them, but I went with 1927.

One of his top BA years, good OBP, and his top power year - 47 HR's (3rd best), 18 triples (second highest), and 52 doubles (career high), almost the first 50/50, and 20/20/20 guy. And he was as usual, great in the Runs/RBI department, having his third and second best years in those stats respectively. He also had one of his "better" basestealing seasons, going 10-8. Hey, at least he was over 50%!

[johnny]

Didn't Lou have a fairly high number of steals of homeplate? I'm asking cause I can't find anything on it but it is stuck in my cortex as something I read...

[GiambiJuice]

47 HR was not Lou's career high. He hit 49 twice, I believe.

[Edgartohof]

47 HR was not Lou's career high. He hit 49 twice, I believe.

Not sure how I missed that - thanks.

[DoubleX]

In Dimagio's later life he proclaimed Gehrig the best hitter he saw from that side of the plate. Fairly high praise, indeed.

That is high praise, especially since DiMaggio got to see plenty of Ted Williams swinging away from the left side of the plate.

[Myankee4life]

I say his 1927 season followed closely by his 1934. His 221 OPS+ is just to high to go unnoticed. Plus he won an MVP that year.

1. 1927
2. 1934
3. 1930

[johnny]

I still think that given what he was dealing with his 1938 season is the most amazing -but not his 'best' in the sense of big numbers- of all. I didn't fully appreciate it until reading the latest Gehrig bio 'Lukiest Man' but when you consider that his body was fighting off ALS and yet still put up numbers that most would consider a very solid year 29 hmrs, 114 rbi's and .295.
I'll quote from page 248 of the bio circa 1938 average. 'In all liklihood he was learning to adapt to the changes in his body associated with the early onset of ALS. The nervous system works like a telephone network. Gerhig's brain was transmitting the same signals it always had: see the ball, hit the ball. The message went from the brain t the spinal cord and out to the arms and legs. But the diseease had begun to kill some of the lower mortor neurons -the telephone transmitter- located on his spinal cord. The phone lines weren't dead, but the connection wasn't very good and some of the messages were getting lost. Some muscles were responding and some weren't.'

[yanks0714]

Hard to beat a Triple Crown season....1934 is my pick.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Didn't Lou have a fairly high number of steals of homeplate? I'm asking cause I can't find anything on it but it is stuck in my cortex as something I read...

15 steals of home. Don't know how many were by Lou alone or on the front end of a double steal.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

No, luck for Lou in 1931. Lou and Babe tie for the lead in home runs with 46. In one game Lou hit a hard long drive to dead center field into the seats, I believe this was in Washington. Hit so hard the ball landed in the seats and bounced back on to the field. The runner on first Lyn Lary saw the center fielder with the ball and believed he had caught the ball for the third out. He rounded third and ran into the Yankee dugout. Not seeing this, Lou did his home run trot and when he reached home, the ump called him out for passing the runner.

My question, where was the third base coach on this one. Coaching third in that game none other than Yankee manager Joe McCarthy. It was said that Joe never coached another game, stayed in the dugout.

Lou ended up with his high in RBI's 184, should have been 186 and a league leading 47 home runs.