I was looking through MLB.com's stats page when I found this incredible fact.
Since 1900, 19 of the top 22 single season OBP marks belong to 3 men. I bet you know who they are: Ruth (7 appearances), Williams (8), and Bonds (4). This, to me, is a fantastic indicator of how incredible these guys where at hitting. Think about it, 106 years and only three men can match the top 19 seasons these guys put together. One of these men was John McGraw in 1900 (#14), so he barely snuck under the wire in terms of timing, the others were Mantle in 1957(#10) and Rogers Hornsby in 1924 (#17), and they were no slouches.
Anyway, the point is this: The top 9 OBP seasons since 1900 and 19 of the top 22 all belong to the same 3 hitters!
(It is not surprising that these three are also on top of the career OBP list: Williams (.482!), followed by Ruth (.469) and then Bonds (.443). Gehrig is a close 4th at .442 and then there's a big drop to #5, a tie between Jimmie Foxx and Frank Thomas (.425).)
No other major hitting stat is dominated in this way: 14 men occupy the top 22 spots in single season batting average since 1900, 14 in the top 22 HR, 19 in hits, 13 in RBIs, 12 in walks, 13 in stolen bases, 13 in runs, 12 in slugging percentage. None of these is even close.
It just incredible how far above everyone else these three men were in their ability to get on base. It's like they were playing another game. I mean, I don't even know what else to say, those numbers are just ridiculous.
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3 comments:
The fact that the top three players in all time OBP are also considered three of the best hitters of all time shouldn't be surprising but it just underlines the ridiculousness of those reactionaries who shun the stat purely based upon its association with the book Moneyball (this is a whole other discussion that Theo and I have to get together one weekend to write a hundred page long post about).
I hope I didn't incur the wrath of Barry Bonds by continually referring to him in the past tense. I did that figuring his God-like years are over, but I should note that at his current season clip he is still raising his career OBP.
I don't know what kind of wrath that would be, do you? Would it be full on insane 'roid rage? Or would it be more like an angry senior citizen (I say this because it seems like he has the lower body integrity of a 72 year old)? Or some sort of crazy combination of both?
I have to admit, I really like you but I almost wish this would happen just for comedy's sake.
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