Interesting Trivia Question
 

Amongst all members of the HOF Ted Williams has the highest OBP at .482. Babe Ruth is second at .474. Who is number three? If you look it up please don't post an answer.

rickey henderson?

Barry Bonds?

Guessing Hornsby.

Long shot Hack Wilson

Frank Thomas?

FYI...NOT a HOFer (at least not technically), but he would certainly be near the top.

I know that Bill Joyce had a great career OBP, but he's not a HOFer either. I'm pretty sure he's at least in the top-10, unless some new guys passed him up.

Lou Gehrig had to walk a lot didnt he?

George Theodore.

No correct guess yet. It is surely a surprising answer.

Good point lol

Tony Gwynn?

Jim Thome

My Jim Thome guess was wong. :confused:

I looked it up - wow, very cool.

Great question, Jay, and I, too, looked it up. Never would have guessed that person in a lifetime!

Cheers, Mike

Interestingly, Tony Gwynn's OBP was under .400. His low OBP is being used as an argument to get Edgar Martinez into the HOF.

Maybe
 

ed Delahanty?

shoot! I wavered between guessing Delahanty and Billy Hamilton and Billy is fourth. But I wouldn’t have guessed number three either.

Damn, I was wrong - and given a dozen more opportunities, would have still been wrong!

Well obviously it's not one of the usual suspects so probably some turn of the century guy without a terribly long career.

Hornsby didn’t walk much at all.

First thought was Ty Cobb.. To obvious, so no.
Then Joe Jackson but he isnt in the HOF
Then Chipper Jones but he is not in the HOF yet

So it must be a 19th Century since Jay posted I thought.. Then again, Jay must be trying to throw us a curve ball meaning its a 20th Century player.

Guess Mickey Cochrane

Rod Carew?

Interesting given his motto, get a good pitch to hit. He must be top 10 though, no?

After reading all the comments, I caved and looked it up. The answer made me slap my forehead and say, “Oh, OK!” It’s arguably a little bit of a trick question. Interestingly, Hornsby #8 on the overall list, the highest on any right-handed hitter, and one of only two righties in the top 17. The highest-ranked active player (obviously not a HOFer yet) is #11, and is not who I would have guessed.

First thought was Ichiro. But he's not in HOF. Duh. Then thought it must be a trick question, like it's a pitcher. Thought Don Newcombe. But I have no clue, so off to google I go!

I would have guessed Trout so that must be wrong.

Not a pitcher
 

There are many routes to the HOF

As a little, but not very useful clue, his OBP was .466. He was not a pitcher and had a seventeen year MLB career, mostly as an infielder.

I'm going the pitcher route...Red Ruffing?

Brian

Utilizing Tim's thought, perhaps Tommy LaSorda?

Brian

Wasn’t he named above??

No, Trout is the only other active player in the top 50, but way down the list at #34.

There is no freaking way a pitcher has an all time high on base percentage.

Cabrera or Votto then.

I didn't have any good guesses so I looked it up.

It's really interesting.

Yeah, Votto is #11. Cabrera is way down at #78, #4 among active players. Can anybody guess who is #3 among active players, #60 all time?

I will put the correct answer out sometime after midnight EDT. As a final clue, this HOF and at least eight other fellow members share the same initials(just first and last names).

Smartest (baseball IQ at least) player ever -- John McGraw a 3B. Alternatively, another "Old Oriole" Hugh Jennings whose HBP drives his OBA up. Also most of their actual playing days was during the inflated average 1890's --

I was right about turn of the century, this makes sense, has to be McGraw.

That's it. I found it amazing that McGraw's OBP was that high. BTW, what got me on this topic was a WSJ article about someone pushing Edgar Martinez for the HOF. Martinez's OBP was a surprisingly high .418.

Pujols?

Nope, he's #7 active, tied for #124 all time.

Goldschmidt is #3 among active players.

My guess was DiMaggio. I didn't see trivia was already solved

Here's a nice link, if anyone wants to see.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...c_career.shtml