.400 Seasons in Modern Baseball History
Highest Single Season Batting Averages in Major Leagues Since 1901
Nov 13, 2008
Every baseball fan knows what .400 means. It's the unachievable. It's the holy grail of hitting, something that no living man has accomplished. More than any other number in sports, .400 represents the epitome of excellence, the best a hitter can be. Since 1901 (which is the recognized beginning of the modern era of baseball), there have been a grand total of twelve .400 seasons, accomplished by eight players.
Napoleon Lajoie. In the first year of the new century, which was also the debut season of the American League, Napoleon Lajoie of the Philadelphia Athletics hit .426, which is still the highest average in the modern era. It was the only time that the infielder topped the magic number.
Ty Cobb. Cobb topped the big number three times in his career. He first broke the mark in 1911, when he hit a Major League best, and a personal career high of .420. The next season, in 1912, the Georgia Peach had a bit of a "down" year, when he only hit .409. Cobb then spent the better part of the next decade trying to rise once again to the heights of four hundred, but he couldn't do any better than .390 for a stretch of ten seasons. What a bum. Finally, in 1922, Cobb came out of his slump and hit .401.
Shoeless Joe Jackson. The man known who is best for his part in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, and his subsequent lifetime banishment from the game, bested the .400 mark in 1911, when he hit 408. Unfortunately for Jackson, that was the same year that Cobb hit .420, making Jackson the only player to hit better than .400 and not win the batting title.
George Sisler. In 1920, Sisler set a new record for base hits in a season with 257. He also topped .400 for the first time in his career, finishing the year at a .407 clip. He topped .400 again a mere two years later, batting .420 in 1922.
Rogers Hornsby. This guy had one of the greatest five year runs in baseball history from 1921 through 1925. During three of those seasons, Hornsby hit better than .400 (1922, 1924, and 1925). His best year came in 1922, when Hornsby hit .401 with 42 home runs and 152 RBI. It's the only time in history that a player topped .400, 40 home runs and 150 RBI in the same season.
Harry Heilmann. This Detroit Tiger hit .403 in 1923. He also hit 18 home runs, collected 44 doubles, 11 triples and knocked in 115 runs. Despite his great season, he lost the American League MVP vote to a fellow named George Herman Ruth.
Bill Terry. Terry hit .401 in 1930 for the New York Giants.
Ted Wiliams. On the last day of the 1941 season, the Boston Red Sox were scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics. Coming into the twin bill, Willimas was batting .3996, a number that would have rounded up to .400. Manager Joe Cronin told Williams that if he wanted to sit out the last day, he was free to do so. But Williams demanded to play, saying that he wanted to reach the mark in a complete season. He went 6 for 8 that day, and raised his average to .406.
Close to .400, But No Cigar
Since Williams broke .400, only a handful of hitters have even approached the mark. In fact, Williams was the first. In 1957, at the age of 38, the Splendid Splinter hit .388. Twenty years later Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins also hit .388. In 1980, Royals third baseman Goerge Brett came even closer, batting .390. Finally, in 1994, Tony Gwynn came very close. On August 11, he was batting .394. The next day the players went on strike. A month later, the season and the postseason were cancelled, and Gwynn's dream of batting .400 ended.
The List of .400 Hitters
1901 - Lajoie (.426)
1911 - Cobb (.420), Jackson (.408)
1912 - Cobb (.409)
1920 - Sisler (.407)
1922 - Sisler (.420)
1922 - Hornsby (.401)
1923 - Heilmann (.403)
1924 - Hornsby (.424)
1925 - Hornsby (.403)
1930 - Bill Terry (.403)
1941 - Williams (.406)
