INTRODUCTION NUMBERS GAME 33333 aseball is a game of numbers The sport's stories have always been told through statistics stats Fans use stats to compare modern players with one another and with players from past generations It is how the greatest and not so great achievements of Major League Baseball MLB are measured Teams use statistics to study the game and their own performances What are baseball's most important and fascinating statistics First you should know that the sport has had three distinct eras Conditions A during each era affected baseball stats and the way fans view them DEAD BALL ERA During MLB's Dead Ball Era 1900 1919 home runs were rare For instance the Detroit Tigers Ty Cobb won the batting Triple Crown in 1909 He led the American League that year with nine home runs All nine were inside the park home runs Compare that to another Tigers Triple Crown winner In 2012 Miguel Cabrera hit 44 home runs none of the big slugger's blasts were inside the park homers TY COBв
LIVE BALL ERA The Live Ball Era started in 1920 when baseballs began to be wound with a new yarn that helped them fly farther after being struck Banning spitballs and other changes to the rules also led to more scoring Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees did his part too In 1920 he hit more home runs 54 than any team in the American League AL STEROID ERA The Steroid Era was a period when many MLB players used performance enhancing drugs PEDS increasing power stats such as home runs It's hard to say when the Steroid Era began but its peak may have been 1998 That season St Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire's 70 homers were two more than the entire Cardinals team hit in 1991 The league had banned PEDs in 1991 but didn't test all players for them until 2003 անգ MARK MCGWIRE
CHAPTER ONE PLAYER SUPER STATS NO SICK DAYS MLB players gather stats during long and grueling seasons With 162 games on the schedule teams may go weeks without a day off Every single game for more than 16 seasons Cal Ripken Jr was in the lineup for the Baltimore Orioles The night Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's record for games played in a row fans and players gave Ripken a standing ovation that lasted 22 minutes CAL RIPKEN JR Most MLB Games played in a Row PLAYER FIRST GAME OF STREAK LAST GAME OF STREAK Cal Ripken Jr May 30 1982 September 19 1998 Lou Gehrig June 1 1925 April 30 1939 Everett Scott June 20 1916 May 5 1925 Steve Garvey September 3 1975 July 29 1983 Miguel Tejada June 1 2000 June 21 2007 Billy Williams September 22 1963 September 2 1970 Joe Sewell September 13 1922 April 30 1930 Stan Musial April 15 1952 August 23 1957 Eddie Yost April 30 1949 May 11 1955 TOTAL GAMES 2 632 2 130 1 307 1 207 1 152 1 117 1 103 895 829
SWING BATTER SWING The most popular player stat with fans might be batting average It measures how often a batter gets a base hit And what could be more important to a hitter than getting hits Batting 300 averaging three hits every 10 at bats over a full season is a solid average Hitting 400 or better has been done dozens of times in MLB history but not since 1941 when Ted Williams batted 406 for the Boston Red Sox JOSE ALTUVE STATS FACT Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve won the AL batting crown in 2014 with a 341 average At 5 feet 6 168 centimeters he was the shortest player to win a batting crown since Wee Willie Keeler in 1898 Altuve won it again in 2016 394 Highest Full season Batting Averages since 1941 YEAR PLAYER TEAM BATTING AVERAGE 1994 Tony Gwynn San Diego Padres 1980 George Brett Kansas City Royals 390 1977 Rod Carew Minnesota Twins 388 1957 Ted Williams Boston Red Sox 388 1999 Larry Walker Colorado Rockies 379 1948 Stan Musial St Louis Cardinals 2004 Ichiro Suzuki Seattle Mariners 372 2000 Nomar Garciaparra Boston Red Sox 372 2000 Todd Helton Colorado Rockies 372 1997 Tony Gwynn San Diego Padres 372 376
