Tuesday Trivia: Hit parade
 

When Ichiro Suzuki had 262 hits in 2004, breaking George Sisler's previous record of 257, he became the 7th person to amass 250 hits in a season.

Question: Can you name the 5 other players to compile 250 hits in a season?

Pretty sure it hasn't been done (except Ichiro) for a looong time. Pulling names out of the air I'll guess Ty Cobb and Bill Terry are two of the five.

Great guess Bob! Bill Terry is one of them. Terry had 254 hits in 1930, the year he hit .401. Ty Cobb's high for hits in a season was 248 in 1911.

Hornsby? Keeler?

Great guess Peter! Rogers Hornsby had 250 hits in 1922. Keeler's high was 239 in 1897.

Two down, three more to go.

Hugh Duffy? Carew?

Solid guesses Peter, but Hugh Duffy's high was 237 (in only 125 games) in 1894, the year he hit .440.
Carew's high was 239 in 1977, the year he hit .388.

I think Al Simmons had 250 one year.

You are correct! Al Simmons had 253 hits in his 2nd year in 1925, a year in which he hit .387.

Two more players to go

Willie Keeler? I know he's up there but might not be 250...

Not quite. See posts #4 and #5

Woops, my bad - Peter actually named both of my guesses then!

Shoeless Joe probably had either too many walks or missed too many games in his super high average seasons.

Boggs probably came close.

Didn't Babe Herman have one of those one-off super seasons in the 30s which were a hitter's decade if there ever was one?

I'm done, I'll look it up after this.

Shoeless Joe Jackson came close with 233 and 226 hits in 1911 and 12 with Cleveland, and had 218 in his final season with the Black Sox. He played in 147 games in 1911 with 56 walks, and all 154 games with 58 walks in 1912.

Boggs is tied with the highest in the last 93 years (other than Ichiro) with 240 hits in 1985.

Babe Herman hit 241 in 1930.

All great guesses

I should have known one of the two remaining, I never would have guessed the other one. Good trivia question.

So in addition to Ichiro and Sisler, 3 of the 5 other players to amass 250 hits in one season have been named: Bill Terry, Rogers Hornsby and Al Simmons.

Two more players remain.

Clue #1: George Sisler helped usher in the live-ball era by gathering 257 hits in 1920. All of the other players to compile 250 hits in a season besides Ichiro did it within 10 years after Sisler.

That's odd, given the 8 extra games...

We’ll that hint kills my next guess which was going to be Ed Delehanty. I would have bet on one 19th Century guy among them. Like Peter I’m giving up and gonna play Google

There were only 6 different 19th century players to amass at least 225 hits in a season and Ed Delahanty is one of them (238 in 1899).
The others are Tip O'Neil (225 in 1887), Billy Hamilton (225 in 1894), Jesse Burkett (225 in 1895), the aforementioned Duffy (237 in 1894) and Keeler (239 in 1897), and Jesse Burkett again (240 in 1896).

Paul Waner or Frankie Frisch?

Great guesses, but Paul Waner topped out at 237 hits in his sophomore effort in 1927. Frisch's peak was 223 hits in 1923.

Clue #2: One of the two players we haven't named that had 250 hits in a season won the triple crown. (We have already named Hornsby, Terry and Simmons)

Not sure anyone is still playing along, so I'll reveal the answers.

In addition to Ichiro, Sisler, and the 3 named players as part of this trivia--Hornsby, Bill Terry, and Al Simmons, the remaining two players to amass 250 hits in single season are Lefty O'Doul and Chuck Klein

A few facts about Lefty O'Doul and Chuck Klein:

1) O’Doul’s road to baseball began at age 15 in 1912 at the Bay View School in San Francisco. The school’s baseball coach, a woman named Rosie Stoltz, helped develop his fundamentals. He later noted, Stoltz “taught me the essential fundamentals of the game. She taught me to pitch, field and hit.” Their club won the city championship that first year. The following year, at age sixteen, O’Doul quit school to join his father in the slaughterhouse.

2) Playing for the San Francisco Seals in 1927, O’Doul won the first-ever PCL most valuable player award, batting .378 with 278 hits and 33 home runs. But he actually made his MLB debut in 1919 and had already made a few appearances between in 1919-20, 22-23 mostly as a below average pitcher. (His official Rookie season was 1923 at age 26)

3) Had his breakout year at age 32 in 1929, collecting 254 hits, batting .398, hitting 32 Home Runs and narrowly finishing 2nd in the MVP voting behind Rogers Hornsby. Finished his career with a .349 Batting Average—4th Best all-time.

4) After leaving the majors, O’Doul returned to his birthplace of San Francisco and managed the San Francisco Seals (PCL) for 17 years (a team he had briefly pitched for in 1916), as well as other teams, amassing more than 2,000 wins, a total surpassed by only eight men in minor league history. The most famous player he managed was Joe DiMaggio, another San Franciscan. About Joe he said “I was just smart enough to leave him alone.”

5) A renowned batting coach, his pupils include Ted Williams, Willie Mays, and Willie McCovey in addition to the DiMaggio brothers.


6) He trained countless Japanese in the skills of the game and fostered communication and interaction between those in the Japanese and American games both before and after the Second World War. He is also credited as one of the founders of Nippon Professional Baseball. For his efforts, O’Doul was the first American elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

7) The Tokyo Giants, sometimes considered "Japan's Baseball Team", were named by him in 1935 in honor of his longtime association with the New York Giants; the logo and uniform of the Giants in Japan strongly resemble their North American counterparts.

8) At age 60, he opened the sports bar/restaurant Lefty O’Doul’s in 1957, which was one of the longest running sports bars in the country, closing its doors in 2017 after almost 60 years.

1) When Chuck Klein graduated from High School in Indianapolis in 1923, Klein’s poor grades and lack of money foreclosed any chance at college. Needing to make his own way, he worked on a road crew swinging a pick axe, then at a steel mil, heaving 200-pound white-hot ingots into a blast furnace six days a week for 3 years. He later credited this hard labor with developing his unusual physical strength: “There is one thing I can say about working in a steel mill. If it does not kill you, it will make a man out of you.”

2) In 1929, Klein’s first full season in the majors, he hit .356 and set a new National League record with 43 home runs.

3) In 1930 Klein had a record-breaking season. He collected 250 hits, sixth most in major league history, (but not as many as fellow National Leaguer Bill Terry, who hit 254), and his 445 total bases topped the league and remains the fourth-most total bases collected by a player in a single season. Only Babe Ruth (457 in 1921), Rogers Hornsby (450 in 1922), and Lou Gehrig (447 in 1927) have had more. His 170 RBI ranked second to Hack Wilson’s all-time record 191 at the time. Klein also led the league in runs scored with 158, a new modern National League record that still stands (and the most in a season by someone not named Ruth or Gehrig). Klein also set the modern major league record for outfield assists with 44, a record that still stands today.

4) 1931 saw Klein lead the National League in Home Runs (31), Runs (121), RBI (121), Slugging (.584) and Total Bases (347) and finished 2nd in MVP behind Frankie Frisch (there was no MVP awarded in 1930).

5) In 1932, Klein led the National League in Home Runs (38), Runs (152), Hits (226), Slugging (.645), OPS (1.050), Total Bases (420) and even Stolen Bases (20) and captured the MVP award.

6) In 1933 Klein won the triple crown leading the League in Batting Average of (.368), Home Runs (28), RBI (120), hits (223), OBP (.422), slugging (.602), OPS (1.025), and Total Bases (365) and finished 2nd in MVP behind Carl Hubbell. It would be the last time Klein led the League in any category, despite playing another 11 year. Klein was a player who took full advantage of his homefield at the Baker Bowl, with its short right field wall. During his first five-plus years with the Phillies, Klein hit .420 at home and .296 on the road. His power differentials were equally staggering: in roughly the same number of at-bats, Klein totaled 131 home runs and 469 RBI at Baker Bowl, while hitting just 60 homers and 259 RBI in road games.
Yet in his first five full seasons (excluding his 64-game 1928 season), Klein averaged .359 with 36 home runs, 46 doubles, 139 RBI, 132 runs, 224 hits, and 396 total bases per season. Many considered him the Babe Ruth of the National League. It was this dominance that led Goudy chewing gum to select Klein along with Lou Gehrig as the spokesmen for their 1934 offering with each card either adorned with a "Lou Gehrig says" or "Chuck Klein says" on the bottom of the cards, along with their likenesses. The backs of the cards had quotes from Gehrig or Klein about each member of the set.