The Top Hitters of the 1930s

In a Decade of Offense, These Hitters Were the Cream of the Crop

May 29, 2007

Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx were the top sluggers of the 1930s, but they were only the tip of the hitting iceberg in baseball's most offensive-rich decade.

Statistically, the 1930s were the best decade for hitters in the 140-year history of professional baseball. Although a few of these legends began their careers in the 1920s, they all did the majority of their damage hitting in the 1930s. Here are the Best Hitters of the 1930s.

1. Lou Gehrig (New York Yankees). With the exception of his illness-shortened 1939 season, Lou Gehrig had MVP-caliber seasons every year during the 1930s. Over the course of the decade, the legendary Iron Horse batted .343, averaged 36 home runs a year, and had 9 straight 100-RBI seasons (six of which exceeded 150 RBI). Gehrig won the 1936 MVP award, and finished in the top 5 in voting for that award every year from 1931 until 1937.

It all came to an end on April 30, 1939, when a physically debilitated Gehrig took himself out of the Yankee lineup, missing a game for the first time in fourteen years. The cause of his weakness was the terminal disease known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a horrible illness that gradually destroyed the patient's nervous and muscular systems until it left the afflicted paralyzed. The disease took away Gehrig's career and eventually his life, but the Horse took the disease. Since the 1940s, ALS has been commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Because of his illness, the Hall of Fame made an exception to their admission rules and voted to induct Gehrig that season. He remains the only player to receive a plaque in Cooperstown during the same year in which he played. Gehrig died on June 2, 1941. His career and life were memorialized in many ways, most famously by the plaque and monument that bear his name in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park.

2. Jimmie Foxx (Philadelphia A's, Boston Red Sox). Foxx broke into the Major Leagues in 1925 when he was just 17 years old. By the 1930s, he was the most feared hitter in baseball not named Ruth or Gehrig. Foxx won the first of back-to-back MVP awards in 1932 when he hit .364 with 58 home runs and 169 RBI. His 58 homers were the most ever hit by a right-handed batter until Mark McGwire smacked 70 in 1998. Foxx won the award again in 1933, a year he also won the American League Triple Crown by hitting .356 with 48 HR and 163 RBI.

After the 1935 season, Athletics' owner Connie Mack sold Foxx to the Boston Red Sox in an effort to save his team from the financial savagery of the Great Depression. Just three years later, in 1938, Foxx won his third AL MVP award when he hit .349 with 50 HR and 175 RBI.

Over the course of the decade, Foxx hit .338 with 415 home runs and drove in 1,413 runs. His career ended after the 1945 season and Foxx made the Hall of Fame in 1951.

3. Al Simmons (Philadelphia A's, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers). Simmons hit alongside Foxx to lead the Philadelphia A's to three straight American League pennants and two World Series titles from 1929 to 1931. Bucketfoot Al, as he was nicknamed, batted over .300 seven times during the decade (including a high of .390 in 1931). He also drove in more than 100 runs six times, with a decade high of 165 in 1930. The future Hall of Famer also batted .338 for the decade.

Simmons was so good for so long that he actually was one of the best hitters of the 1920s, a decade in which he played six seasons, batted .336, and averaged 19 home runs and 118 RBI.

Simmon finished his career with a .334 batting average, 307 home runs, 1,827 RBI and an oh-so-close to the 3,000 Hit Club total of 2,927 hits.

4. Mel Ott (New York Giants). Ott is among the least known member's of the 500 Home Run Club, which is a little odd since he played his entire career in New York City, for the class of the National League, the New York Giants. Like Jimmie Foxx, Ott debuted when he was only 17 years old, and came into his own just in time for the turn of the decade. In 1930, Master Melvin hit .349 with 25 home runs and 119 RBI. Over the ten year period from 1930 to 1939, Ott batted .320 with an average of 31 HR and 114 RBI.

5. Charlie Gehringer (Detroit Tigers). Gehringer was one of the best all-around hitter in history. He hit over .300 in nine of ten seasons during the 1930s. The one year that he missed, he batted .298. He also had seven seasons with more than 200 hits, six seasons with more than 40 doubles (inlcuding a high of 60 in 1936), seven years with more than 100 RBI, and eight years with more than 100 runs scored. In total, he hit .328 with 143 home runs and 905 RBI. Gehringer took home the 1937 MVP award and led the Tigers to the 1935 World Series championship.

Gehringer finished his career with a .320 batting average, 2,839 hits, 574 doubles, 146 triples, 184 home runs, 1,427 RBI and 1,174 runs scored. He also struck out just 372 times, and average of only 19 per season over the course of his 19-year career. Gehringer was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949.

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