Strange But True: The .400 Hitter

It is the dream of every major-league hitter that someday he will bat .400. As a rookie in 1939 Ted Williams batted .327, and the following year he hit .344. In 1941 he began to terrorize opposing pitchers in earnest. By midseason he was hitting .405.

In order to hit .400 a batter must get two base hits in every five at-bats. Only seven major leaguers had reached that mark: Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsbuy, Napoleon Lajoie, Harry Heilmann, George Sisler, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and Bill Terry. Many players had batted .390 or more, but .400 was the charmed circle.

Through August and September, Williams kept up his blistering pace, but by the final week of the season he was at .399. Red Sox manager Joe Cronin offered to give Ted a rest so that he would be fresh for the last couple of games.

“No,” Williams said quietly. “Either I can hit .400 for a whole season or I can’t. I’m going to find out.”

The last day of the season the Red Sox played the Philadelphia Athletics. In his first at-bat Ted got a single. The next time up he socked a home run. Then he got two more hits. In his fifth trip to the plate he was robbed of yet another hit. But he had 4 for 5, more than enough to boost him over the. 400 mark. That day the Sox were playing a doubleheader. No doubt other players than Williams might have been content to sit on the bench to preserve the .400 average. Ted insisted on playing. He got two hits in three at-bats. His final average was .406.

From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams

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When you can walk its length, and leave no trace, you will have learned.

3 Comments

  1. Isn’t Ted Williams cryogenically frozen somewhere? I famously know nothing about sprots (thus attracting my first internet troll ever on this very website, when I wondered why “Washington Football Team” couldn’t be named something a little less utilitarian) but I think I remember this.

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