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Some Basic Baseball Facts Back to Baseball Trivia
Single season Records Batting average:
Hugh Duffy, .440, 1894; Home runs: The question is, "How long before someone breaks Barry Bond's 73 HR record?" Maybe Sosa or Griffey next? Maybe Bonds again. Prior to McGwire's and Sosa's record breaking '98 season of 70 and 66 HR's respectively, Roger Maris, 61 HR's in 1961 (162-game season), and Babe Ruth, 60 HR's in 1927 (154-game season), "shared" the record.Poor Roger always gets an asterisk by his record because he had a longer season. On one hand he held the ML HR record for almost 40 years and was league MVP twice, but he was a lifetime .260 hitter in 12 seasons hitting over 20 HR's only in four other seasons. Maris and Ruth were helped by Yankee stadium's famous "short porch" in right field. Ruth played when the right field foul line was 295 feet away, but it was 487 to center! It was 315 down the line for Maris. Although both did hit about half their home runs in other stadiums during their record-setting years. Maris was helped by expansion year pitching. Ruth and today's players were helped by "juiced ball" periods. The ball was "juiced" in the 30's to help stop declining attendance during the Depression. This helped Ruth's lifetime HR count and other records set during this period. Stolen Bases: Hugh Nicol, 138, 1887; modern era: Rickey Henderson, 130, 1982.
Lifetime Records Batting average: Ty Cobb,
.367 Home runs: Hank Aaron, 755; Babe Ruth is 2nd with 714. Runs Batted In: Hank Aaron, 2297; Babe Ruth, 2213. On Base Percentage: Ted Williams, .483; Babe Ruth, .474 Hits: Pete Rose, 4256; Cal Ripken, 3184. Walks: Rickey Henderson, 2179 Stolen Bases: Rickey Henderson, 1406. Way ahead of anybody else. Runs Scored: Rickey Henderson, 2288; Ty Cobb, 2246; Babe Ruth & Hank Aaron, 2174. At Bats: Pete Rose, 14,053; Cal Ripken, 11,151 Games: Pete Rose, 3562; Cal Ripken, 3001 Wins for a Pitcher: Cy Young, 511. Almost 100 more than the next winningest pitcher. Saves: Lee Smith, 473 Earned Run Average: Ed Walsh, 1.82; modern era: Hoyt Wilhelm, 2.52. Strikeouts: Nolan Ryan, 5714 Iron Man: Cal Ripken didn't miss a game in the Orioles' starting lineup between 5/29/82 and 9/19/98 (2632 games). The Leaders Among Active Players (through 2003) Home Runs: Barry Bonds, 650, and Sammy Sosa, 527, number four and number twelve, respectively, on the all-time home run list. RBIs: Barry Bonds, 1742 and Rafael Palmeiro, 1687. Batting Average: Todd Helton, .337, Nomar Garciaparra and Vladimir Guerrero, .323. At Bats: Rickey Henderson, 10,961 and Rafael Palmeiro, 9553. Pitching:
Congratulations to Barry Bonds!
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