Eighty five years ago, in the 1925 season, Rogers Hornsby, the Hall of Fame second baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals finished the year with a .403 batting average. It was good enough to garner his fifth straight National League batting title and his second Triple Crown in four season. It also capped off a streak of five years which, if this game is played for another million years, will never, ever be duplicated!It was the second consecutive .400 season for the man they called "Rajah" and it was his third .400 season in four as he sandwiched a paltry .384 batting average in 1923. Imagine, stringing together seasons hitting, .397, .401, .384, .424 and .403? That's exactly what he did from 1921 through 1925 and incredibly during that stretch of five years he hit .402!!!!!
The Holy Grail of hitters is the .400 mark. It has occurred twenty eight times since the games inception in 1869. However, in the modern era, which began with the birth of the American League in 1901, it has happened only thirteen times. More astonishingly than that is the fact that only eight players have hit that mark. Ty Cobb joins Hornsby in having done it three times (.420 in 1911, .409 in 1912 and .401 in 1922). George Sisler did in twice (.407 in 1920 and .420 in 1922). The other five to turn the trick in order are: Nap Lajoie (.427 in 1901), "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (.408 in 1911), Harry Heilman (.403 in 1923), Bill Terry (.401 in 1930) and Ted Williams (.406 in 1941).
The other two hitters with multiple .400 seasons have enjoyed similar stretches. Ty Cobb came close to Hornsby's feat hitting .397 from 1910 through the 1914 season. He did in fact hit .401 from the start of the 1910 campaign through the end of 1913 and in 1910, 11, 12 he batted .405. The other multiple achiever, George Sisler hit, .400 on the nose from 1920 through 1922. These are remarkable achievements! Cobb hitting .401 through four complete seasons and Sisler hitting .400 through three. However, "Rajah" is the king of the .400 hundred hitters; doing it for half a decade, through FIVE COMPLETE SEASONS!
PLAYER...........YEAR......AVG......HITS... PA.... OBP..... OPS
Nap Lajoie........1901 .......426....... 232..... 582....463...... 1.106
Joe Jackson......1911........408........233......641....468.......1.058
Ty Cobb.........1911.......420........248......654....467.......1.088
Ty Cobb.........1912.......409........226......609....456......1.041
George Sisler...1920........407........257......631.....449......1.082
George Sisler....1922.......420........246......654.....467......1.061
Ty Cobb........1922.......401....... 211...... 612.....462......1.026
Rog. Hornsby..1922.......401.......250.......704.....459.......1.181
Har. Heilman...1923.......403......211........626.....481.......1.113
Rog. Hornsby..1924........424......227.......640......507.....1.203
Rog. Hornsby..1925........403.....203.......605......489......1.245
Bill Terry........1930.......401.....254........710......452......1.071
T. Williams.....1941.......406....185.........606......553......1.287
Some interesting notes and observations about this very elite group of hitters.
* Shoeless Joe Jackson accomplished his feat in his rookie year.
* Shoeless Joe hit .408 and did not win a batting title.
* Ty Cobb joined Jackson as the only players to hit .400 in a season and not win a batting title. He hit .401 in 1920 and Sisler hit .420.
* Lajoie, Heilman and Hornsby batted right handed, the others are left handed swingers.
* Williams is the only player to hit .400 and not get 200 hits in that season.
* Williams had the highest on base percentage .553 during a .400 season.
* Williams had the highest OPS 1.287 in a .400 season.
* Hornsby is the only other player to have an on base percentage higher than .500.
* Hornsby hit the most home runs in a .400 season, 42 in 1922.
* Hornsby won the Triple Crown in two of his .400 seasons, 1922 and 1925.
* Lajoie did it in the least amount of plate appearences, 582.
* Lajoie has the record for the highest batting average in the modern era, .427.
* Hornsby and Terry hit .400 in over 700 plate appearances.
* Hitting .400 occurred 7 times from 1920-25. The nascent years of the "Live Ball Era."
*Five of the .400 season involved all time top ten number of hits in a season: #2,Sisler, 257 in 1920, #3, Terry, 254 in 1930, Hornsby, #6, 250, in 1922, Cobb,# 8, 248 in 1911 and Sisler again #9, 246, in 1922.
* Sisler held the record for hits in a season for 84 years until Ichiro had 262 hits in 2004.
* Every player who hit .400 is in the Hall of Fame with the exception of Shoeless Joe.
Have we seen the last of the .400 hitters? It has been nearly seven decades since Ted Williams accomplished this remarkable feat. The tale is forever woven into the fabric of baseball history. It was the last weekend of the season, Ted was hitting .3996 which rounded up to .400. At the time, it had been eleven years since Bill Terry of the NY Giants had cracked that barrier. Red Sox manager Joe Cronin had suggested that "The Kid" sit it out and take his .400 average for the season. Ted would have none of it, played both ends of the double header, went 6-8 and finished the year at .406. Since that time only two players have even cracked the .390 mark.
If the moment comes when a major leaguer reaches the .400 mark in a season, he will do so with a fanfare and whoop la that will make the McGwire/Sosa charade of 1998 seem like a picnic. The story of Ted Williams will be told and retold and a whole new generation will become familiar with the greatness that was Ted Williams. But I wonder how many stories will be told about Rogers Hornsby, "Rajah" the soft spoken second baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals who hit .400 hundred not just in a season but for HALF of a DECADE, making him the undisputed King of the .400 Hitters!
NEXT.....Those who have come the closest to .400 since "The Splendid Splinter" turned the trick in 1941.
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