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List of Major League Baseball batting champions
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In baseball, batting average (AVG) is a measure of a batter's success rate in achieving a hit during an at bat. In Major League Baseball (MLB), it is calculated by dividing a player's hits by his at bats (AB). In MLB, a player in each league[L] wins the "batting title" each season for having the highest batting average that year.[1][2] The American League (AL) winner is known as the "Rod Carew American League Batting Champion", while the National League (NL) leader is designated the "Tony Gwynn National League Batting Champion". Since 1957,[3] a player must have 3.1 plate appearances (PA) per scheduled game in that league (for a total of 502 over the current 162-game season) to qualify for the batting title.[4] However, if a player's lead in AVG is sufficiently large that enough hitless at bats can be added to reach this requirement and the player still would have the highest batting average, he wins the title.[4] Tony Gwynn, for example, had 159 hits in 451 ABs in 1996 (.353 average) but only 498 PAs.[5] Gwynn's batting average would have dropped to .349 (159 hits in 455 ABs) with four hitless ABs added to reach the 502 PA requirement, but this would still have been higher than the next-highest eligible player (Ellis Burks with a .344 average), so he was awarded the 1996 NL batting title.[6] MLB officially incorporated Negro League statistics into its record book on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.[7] On December 16, 2020, MLB announced that the records of Negro League Baseball from 1920-1948 would be designated as major league status.[8] From 2020-2024, MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau, completed a comprehensive review of the Seamheads database in coordination with Retrosheet. The MLB database combines statistics from the Negro Leagues with existing data from the AL, NL, and other Major Leagues throughout history.[7] As such, seven different leagues that existed during that time period are now recognized as being on the same level as MLB, which include: the Negro National League (I) (1920-1931); the Eastern Colored League (1923-1928); the American Negro League (1929); the East-West League (1932); the Negro Southern League (1932); the Negro National League (II) (1933-1948); and the Negro American League (1937-1948).
The first batting average champion in the NL was Ross Barnes; in the league's inaugural 1876 season, Barnes batted .429 for the Chicago White Stockings.[9] The AL was established in 1901, and Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie led that league with a .426 average for the Philadelphia Athletics.[10] Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, is recognized as the MLB all-time batting champion, with a career batting average of .372.[11] Gibson amassed career totals of 838 hits in 2,255 at-bats and 628 games,[12] and is also the MLB all-time career leader in Slugging (SLG) percentage and On-Base Plus Slugging (OPS) percentage.
Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, holds the second highest career batting average of .367, and led the AL in average in 11 (or 12) seasons.[13] Honus Wagner and Gwynn are tied for the second-most titles, with eight apiece in the NL.[5][14] It is unclear whether Lajoie or Cobb won the 1910 AL title, with some sources attributing the title to each man.[1910a] If Cobb is credited with the 1910 title, he won 9 consecutive titles from 1907 to 1915 and 12 total titles for his career. Otherwise, Rogers Hornsby won the most consecutive titles, with six from 1920 to 1925. Without the 1910 title, Cobb still led the league in five consecutive seasons from 1911 to 1915. Cobb holds the record for highest average in two and three consecutive seasons (.414 from 1911 to 1912 and .408 from 1911 to 1913), but Hornsby holds the record for four and five consecutive seasons (.404 from 1922 to 1925 and .402 from 1921 to 1925).[15] Wagner, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, and Gwynn have each won four consecutive titles. Lajoie also had a streak of four league-leading seasons from 1901 to 1904 if he is credited with the contested AL title in 1902.[1902a] At the 2016 MLB All-Star Game in San Diego, MLB announced that the AL and NL batting champions would henceforth be named in honor of Carew and Gwynn, respectively. Gwynn won all eight titles in the NL with the San Diego Padres, while Carew was a seven-time AL batting champion.[16][17]
Barnes' initial NL-leading average of .4286 (.429) in 1876 set the single-season record which stood for a decade.[18] Tip O'Neill topped this total with a .4352 (.435) average in 1887. O'Neill's batting average had to be calculated without counting walks as hits, because of the walk-as-base-hit rule being in effect that year only. Hugh Duffy broke O'Neill's record for highest mark in 1894 by posting a .4397 (.440) batting average with the Boston Beaneaters, which is considered the third highest mark of all-time.[18] Charlie "Chino" Smith holds the second highest mark of .4512 (.451) in 1929 with the New York Lincoln Giants.[19] Josh Gibson currently holds the highest mark in Major League history by posting a .4658 (.466) batting average in 1943 with the Homestead Grays.[7]
Under the current 3.1 PA qualification, players have posted a .400 batting average for a season 28 times.[20] Ted Williams' .4057 in 1941 is the most recent such season, one of 13 to occur since 1900.[20] George Brett in 1980 is the only player to maintain a .400 average into September since 1941.[21] Additionally, only Brett and John Olerud in 1993 maintained such an average into August.[21] With the modern scarcity of .400 hitters, recent players who have been above .400 early in the season, such as Chipper Jones in 2008, have drawn significant attention in the media.[21][22] Brett's .390 in 1980 and Gwynn's .394 in 1994 are the only seasons in which a player reached .390 since 1941. Carl Yastrzemski's .301 in the 1968 American League was the lowest batting average ever to lead a league. Willie Keeler's 1897, Zack Wheat's 1918, and Rod Carew's 1972 are the only three title seasons in which the winner hit no home runs.[23][24] Joe Mauer's 2006 title made him the first catcher to ever win an AL batting title, and his third title in 2009 surpassed Ernie Lombardi's previous record of two titles for a catcher in any league.[25][26][27][28]
The closest finish in a batting race came in 1945 when Snuffy Stirnweiss batted .309, topping Tony Cuccinello's .308 average for the American League title by .00008.[29][30] George Kell beat out Williams in 1949 by .00015.[29] The closest race in the National League came in 2003 when Albert Pujols held off Todd Helton on the last day of the season by .00022.[29][31] The closest National League race before that was in 1931 with Chick Hafey edging out Bill Terry by .00028.[29] Lajoie's .426 average in 1901 was 86 points higher than runner-up Mike Donlin's .340, the largest margin of victory for a batting champion. Cap Anson's .399 in 1881 was 71 points higher than Joe Start in 1881, the widest margin in the National League.
In 2024, Luis Arraez became the first player in MLB history to win a batting title with three different teams, and in three consecutive seasons: Minnesota Twins (AL) in 2022; Miami Marlins (NL) in 2023; and San Diego Padres (NL) in 2024.[32] Arraez played 33 games with the Miami Marlins and 117 games with the San Diego Padres in 2024, resulting in a .314 average, with a combined 200 hits in 637 at-bats. In 2020, D.J. LeMahieu of the New York Yankees won the AL batting title, thereby becoming the first player to definitively win batting titles in both the American and National Leagues; he had also won the NL batting title in 2016 as a member of the Colorado Rockies. However, Ed Delahanty would have that distinction if he is credited with the disputed 1902 American League title, as he was also the 1899 National League champion. The only other player to win titles in multiple leagues was Pete Browning, who won American Association titles in 1882 and 1885, along with the lone Players' League championship in 1890. Barnes and Deacon White each won National Association and National League titles, but the National Association is not regarded as an official league.[L] In addition, Oscar Charleston won batting championships in the Negro National League and Eastern Colored League. Charleston also holds the third all-time highest career batting average of .363 during a span of 21 years (1920-1941). In 1921, Charleston posted a career-best batting average of .434 with the St. Louis Giants. [33]
In 1990, Willie McGee posted a .335 average over 542 at-bats in the NL for the Saint Louis Cardinals before being traded to Oakland of the American League on August 29.[34] Although McGee finished the season in the AL, he had enough PA's in the NL to qualify for the NL batting title, which he won narrowly over Eddie Murray's .330. However, McGee batted .274 that season in the AL, bringing down his overall average to .324 and allowing Murray to lead the majors in batting average and not win a batting title.[34][35]
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Key
| Winner | Player with the highest batting average (AVG) in the league |
| AVG | The winner's batting average |
| Runner-up | Player with the second-highest batting average in the league |
| 2nd AVG | The second-highest batting average |
| League | Denoted only for players outside of the modern major leagues |
| † | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum |
National League
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American League
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Other Major Leagues
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Negro Leagues
In the 28-year major league history, nine players won a league batting title multiple times: Oscar Charleston (3), Josh Gibson (3), Monte Irvin (3), Oscar Johnson (2), Buck Leonard (2), Jud Wilson (2), Mule Suttles (2), Ted Strong (2) and Turkey Stearnes (2).
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Footnotes
- L Recognized "Major Leagues" include the current American and National Leagues and several defunct leagues in the American Association, the Federal League, the Players' League, the Union Association along with seven Negro league baseball leagues: the Negro National League (1920–31), the Eastern Colored League (1923–1928), American Negro League (1929), East-West League (1932), Negro Southern League (1932), Negro National League (1933–48), and the Negro American League (1937–48)[369][370]
- 1902a 1902b Sources differ whether Nap Lajoie or Ed Delahanty won the American League batting title in 1902 and differ slightly over Lajoie's precise statistics that season. The Hall of Fame credits Lajoie with 129 hits in 352 at bats (.368)[371] while MLB and Baseball-Reference.com show 133 hits in 352 at bats (.378).[372][373] According to Baseball-Reference a player qualified for a batting title prior to 1920 by appearing in 60% of his team's games—82 games in the 136 game schedule in 1902—and Lajoie appeared in 87 team games.[372][374][375] As such, Baseball-Reference credits Lajoie with the 1902 title, with Delahanty's .376 batting average placing second.[376] MLB's historical statistics leaderboards, however, use the modern standard of 3.1 plate appearances per team game (422 in that season) which Lajoie fell 37 short of.[372] Thus, MLB credits Delahanty with the 1902 title with his .376 average.[377] Similarly, the Hall of Fame lists the 1902 title on Delahanty's plaque and not Lajoie's.[371][378]
- 1910a 1910b Before the 1910 season, Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Automobile announced he would present a Chalmers Model 30 automobile to the player with the highest batting average at the end of the season. The 1910 race for best average in the American League was between Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers' widely disliked[379][380][381] Cobb. On the last day of the season, Lajoie overtook Cobb's batting average with seven bunt hits in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. Browns' manager Jack O'Connor supposedly told his third baseman Red Corriden to play back down the line all day, which allowed Lajoie easy bunt hits.[382] Cobb complained about the move, though American League President Ban Johnson said that a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway and Chalmers ultimately awarded cars to both players.[379][382]
- 1954 Rules in 1954 required 2.6 at bats per team game, 400 for a 154-game schedule (the rule was changed in 1957 to the current requirement of 3.1 plate appearances per team game), to qualify for the title and hitless at bats could be added to reach this total.[374] Ted Williams posted a .345 average in 1954 over only 386 at bats, and the required 14 hitless at bats dropped him to .3325, below Avila's league-leading .341 average.[235]
- a While Baseball-Reference.com lists both Yelich and Marte with a batting average of .329 in 2019, Yelich's average is higher (.3292) than Marte's (.3286) if extended to four decimal places.
- b The Major League Baseball (MLB) season in 2020 was less than half the length of a typical season, starting in late July and condensed into 60 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- s Suttles had 108 hits in 301 at-bats (.35880), while Wells had 113 hits in 315 at-bats (.35873)
- a Andrews played in 22 games and batted .398. However, among players with a minimum of 3.1 plate appearances / games, Baseball Reference lists Josh Gibson, who had batted .395 in 68 games in 1933, as leader among minimum qualifiers. In 2024, the MLB database lists Josh Gibson's 1933 season as having played 69 games with the Pittsburgh Crawfords.
- b David Whatley hit .396 in 27 games while Donald Reeves hit .384 in 40 games. Baseball Reference credits Whatley as having won the batting title.
- c Formerly, Johnny Washington was thought to have won the batting title.[383] Further research has moved Irvin up from .371 to .380 while moving Washington from .377 to .367
- d Formerly, Marshall Riddle was thought to have batted .377 and won the batting title.[384] Further research has found that Ed Mayweather batted .376 while Riddle batted .329
- e Cowan Hyde was once deemed the batting leader.[385]Bostock has been found to have batted .466 in 23 games while Cowan Hyde batted .387 in 15 games. Third place was Ted Strong, who batted .348 in 35 games. Baseball Reference considers Bostock to have won the batting title as of 2025.
- f Due to ongoing research, Baseball Reference labeled that Bob Harvey did not qualify for the batting title, having played 27 games and batted .430. Instead, Roy Campanella (34 games) and Bill Hoskins (30 games) were the top two finishers. Campanella collected 54 hits on 139 at-bats (.3884) that edged out Hoskins, who had 45 hits on 116 at-bats (.3879)
- g Wilson was formerly believed to have hit .421 in 22 games. However, he has now been found to have batted .379 in 31 games.[386]
- h Austin was thought to have batted .377 (in 47 games) while Campanella was at .385 (in 52 games).[387] However now Austin is thought to have batted .375 (in 50 games) while Campanella is now tabbed at having batted .369 (in 56 games)
- i At one point in time, Archie Ware was thought to be the batting champion with a .423 batting average.[388] Further research reveals Ted Strong batted .364 in 34 games, Clyde Nelson batted .361 in 19 games, and Ware batted .358 in 18 games.
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References
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