Who are the Best 'Road Hitters' Ever?

[willshad]

Im not asking who actually had the best numbers on the road for his career...I wager it would be Ruth or Williams. What Im asking is, which player was hurt the most by his home parks throughout his career, while performing at a much higher level on the road? It is often discussed which players BENEFIT the most from their home stadiums, but this topic is almost never discussed. Ive heard Joe Dimaggio was hurt by his home park...but its kind of hard to believe, since thats where some all time great hitters played. So who are some of the anti- Larry Walkers and Jim Rices?

[Proctor, CF]

Ive heard Joe Dimaggio was hurt by his home park

You heard correctly.

[RuthMayBond]

Piazza
McGwire
Biggio
Pedro Guerrero

[whoisonit]

Piazza

Pedro Guerrero

Did Dodger Stadium hurt them ?

[hellborn]

Goose Goslin was hurt by Griffith Stadium.
Joe D is the only hitter amongst the uber-superstar Yanks who was a righty, and the park did gouge his numbers dramatically. Yankee was not really a help to Ruth, Gehrig, or Mantle, though, and Gehrig had some of the best individual road seasons in history. The record suggests that Bill Dickey became adept at yanking HRs right down the line at Yankee, much as Ott learned to do at the Polo Grounds.
Willie Stargell generally hit better away than at Forbes Field as a young hitter, but his late life HR explosion is probably more due to Three Rivers being favorable for him. I believe that Forbes was reconfigured somewhat to help the righty Kiner and Greenberg, but never for lefties.
I would certainly look carefully at Astrodome guys like Joe Morgan, Jimmy Wynn, and Jose Cruz Sr. I seem to remember that Cruz would tend to hit 1HR at the Dome and about a dozen on the road per season, and may have turned out to be a 30HR hitter in a park like Fulton County or Wrigley.
I was surprised when I looked up Frank Howard and he actually hit quite well in Washington in his big years...think that Dodger was a lot tougher on him. I think that McGwire hit extremely well in Busch I, as Giambi did in Oakland. Home/road splits are certainly not cut and dried things, even factoring out the season to season jumps due to small sample sizes. A lot of guys hit very well in parks that didn't seem well suited to them at first glance, and vice versa.

[RuthMayBond]

Did Dodger Stadium hurt them ?

Yes. Shea doesn't tend to help either (Piazza)

[dgarza]

Biggio

How was Biggio better on the road?
Home : .288-.370-.445-.816
Road : .275-.356-.421-.777

[dgarza]

Ken Singleton was better on the road.
H : .276 .392 .428 .820
A : .288 .384 .443 .827

1977 was quite possibly his best year, but his H/A splits were amazingly off :
1977 H : .302 .432 .470 .903
1977 A : .354 .443 .545 .988

[dgarza]

John Olerud was hurt by playing in Seattle and played much better on the road.

2000
H : .250 .348 .405 .753
A : .320 .435 .473 .908

2001
H : .285 .382 .495 .876
A : .319 .420 .451 .870

2002 :
H : .275 .384 .443 .827
A : .325 .422 .536 .957

2003 : This year he was actually better in Seattle
H : .287 .399 .460 .858
A : .252 .346 .324 .670

2004
H : .220 .316 .333 .649 (Seattle only)
H : .248 .335 .386 .720 (whole year)
A : .270 .381 .363 .744

[Bill Burgess]

Although I wouldn't go so far as to say that their homeparks 'hurt' them, some of the best road hitters were reputed to be: Gehrig, Hornsby, DiMaggio.

They all posted some very nice road seasons' numbers. Especially Gehrig.

DiMag was singularly 'hurt' by Yankee Stadium. It's configuration, with it's expansive LF bulge, was deliberately designed to dampen enemy power, while it's RF short porch was deliberately designed to let the Babe hit lots of homers.

However, no hitter ever needed less architectural assistance than Ruth.

[dgarza]

Cal Ripken was also a better road hitter.

Career
H : .267 .336 .435 .771
A : .283 .344 .459 .803

1982
H : .246 .303 .415 .718
A : .282 .330 .531 .861

1986
H : .265 .344 .430 .774
A : .298 .365 .488 .853

1990
H : .213 .295 .350 .645
A : .287 .386 .480 .866

1991
H : .286 .343 .505 .848
A : .358 .403 .624 1.027

1992
H : .237 .310 .346 .656
A : .265 .335 .385 .720

1994
H : .305 .358 .470 .828
A : .345 .381 .427 .809

[RuthMayBond]

How was Biggio better on the road?
Home : .288-.370-.445-.816
Road : .275-.356-.421-.777

I got bad data? See if I got any more bad data

Ted Simmons
Jim Sundberg
ARod

[hellborn]

When Ruth hit 29HRs in '19, I think that he had 9 at home and 20 on the road...when he hit 54 in '20, his road number was not much different, but he had a lot more at home (Polo Grounds). It was tougher to get a ball out of RF in Fenway back in those days than it is now, and I wonder how many balls Ruth, who had tremendous power to all fields, hit out to LF that year.
Hornsby had some very favorable home splits in his biggest years in StL, but was very even H/R for his career. His big hitting year while playing in very tough Braves Field was an amazing feat. If you look at the splits for Hornsby's incredible '25 compared to '26, when he had what would be a great year for almost anybody but him, his road numbers were almost unchanged...he switched from mind boggling to mortal at home.
Could all be coincidence with Ruth and Hornsby, but I find this kind of stuff fascinating.

[dgarza]

I got bad data? See if I got any more bad data

Ted Simmons

H : .279 .338 .433 .770
A : .291 .357 .441 .798
Good find!

Jim Sundberg

H : .244 .324 .332 .655
A : .252 .329 .363 .692
Didn't suck as much on the road.

ARod

H : .276 .386 .534 .921 (Safeco numbers only)
H : .313 .394 .591 .984
A : .299 .383 .564 .948
Really a homer, just not at SafeCo.

[dgarza]

Other notable "Road" Scholars :

Dave Winfield
H : .276 .349 .463 .812
A : .289 .356 .485 .841

Orlando Cepeda
H : .292 .350 .492 .841
A : .300 .350 .506 .856

Reggie Jackson
H : .255 .349 .481 .830
A : .268 .362 .499 .860

Eddie Mathews
H 1956-1968 : .264 .365 .475 .840
A 1956-1968 : .272 .377 .504 .881

Bob Gibson
H : .190 .227 .281 .508
A : .220 .257 .319 .575

Justin Morneau
H : .267 .338 .478 .816
A : .283 .342 .516 .858

Albert Pujols
H : .329 .425 .610 1.034
A : .335 .421 .629 1.050

Rickey Henderson
H : .274 .398 .404 .802 : SB : 663/844 78.6%
A : .284 .404 .432 .836 : SB : 743/897 82.8%

Don Baylor
H : .253 .336 .421 .757
A : .267 .347 .449 .797

Joe Torre
H : .293 .360 .436 .796
A : .302 .370 .467 .837

Boog Powell
H : .265 .361 .446 .808
A : .266 .360 .477 .836

Elston Howard
H 1956-1968 : .270 .326 .398 .723
A 1956-1968 : .277 .317 .448 .765

Terry Kennedy
H : .257 .308 .386 .694
A : .271 .320 .385 .705

Bill Freehan
H : .253 .331 .406 .738
A : .271 .347 .417 .764

Wally Joyner
H : .288 .359 .430 .789
A : .290 .366 .449 .815

Gene Tenace
H : .238 .392 .415 .807
A : .244 .384 .441 .825

Micah Owings
H : .231 .279 .513 .792
A : .475 .475 .825 1.300