Did Ruth challenge .400 in '23

[White Knight]

Talented as hitters? This is certainly debatable.

Strictly in terms of the ability to actually hit the baseball, Williams certainly has a strong case. Consider that he hit .388 in 1957- at the age of 39 with hardly any footspeed and without a single infield hit!! (Consider he had only 5 infield hits in 1941). That in itself speaks volumes about sheer ability.

Only 709 K's in 9791 PA's with 521 homers and 1117 extra base hits...doesn't seem possible.

I responded to someone that said Ruth didn't have the talent to hit .500. I said true, but neither did Williams, Jackson, Cobb, or Hornsby. I stand by my statement. No one has ever had enough talent to hit anything near .500, and nobody ever will.

[csh19792001]

True, but nobody ever was that talented, not even Ty Cobb, Rodgers Hornsby, Joe Jackson, or Ted Williams.

Talented as hitters? This is certainly debatable.

Strictly in terms of the ability to actually hit the baseball, Williams certainly has a strong case. Consider that he hit .388 in 1957- at the age of 39 with hardly any footspeed and without a single infield hit!! (Consider he had only 5 infield hits in 1941). That in itself speaks volumes about sheer ability.

Only 709 K's in 9791 PA's with 521 homers and 1117 extra base hits...doesn't seem possible.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

The estimates I am basing this on are analyses that a line drive will produce a hit about .385 of the time so even if someone never struck out, and hit line drives every time, they would average about .385. Throw in some automatic hits (off the wall and over the fence) and the hitters ability to control where the ball goes, and it could move up from that, but there is an upper limit.

Hard to assume or figure on a line drive. Well the closest we can come to that is Batting Average Balls In Play

Here are some of the big hitters-BABIP

------------------Single season--------------Career
Cobb----------------.416--------------------.378
Hornsby-------------.422--------------------.365
Williams-------------.429--------------------.329
Ruth----------------.423--------------------.340
Heilmann------------.414--------------------.351
Gehrig--------------.393--------------------.332

Nothing on Cobb before 1913, no BABIP stats before 1913. May be out there at one of the stats geeks sites.

[bob]

Williams '41, Ruth '23 and Hornsby '25 Are the 3 that had a realistic shot at it, with Hornsby '22 being the only member of the 40/400 club.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Isn't Hornsby the ONLY player to do it?

Off the top of my head the only other players that were close that could have pulled it off with that type of power and consistent high averages are Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig...

Close but no cigar, close but still so very far away. Even a point or two a homer or two, still far away. There may be others but at a quick glance.........

Williams 1941--------37 Hrs----------.406 1957-----------38-----.388
Hornsby 1925--------39-------------.402
Ruth----1923--------41-------------.393

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Babe late in 1923.

I had some other paper work that I lost. Almost positive it had Babe at .387 on Oct. 1, 1923. I'll have to recheck that one. If true he had only 4 or 5 games to get up to .393 where he finished. Difficult to jump 6 points, .387 to .393 in 4 or 5 games, at the end of the season with a great number of at bats.

[SHOELESSJOE3]

Was Ruth over .400 late in the '23 season? Any other seasons?

Not sure how late, I think he was around .395 late in August, going from memory on that one. He was at .401 on August 17 after 111 games. Where ever he was late in the year, I did the math and 4 more hits anywhere in the season would have put him at .400.

[brett]

Was Ruth over .400 late in the '23 season? Any other seasons?