Quote:
Originally Posted by oldjudge
Not to rain on your parade but Williamson was a .255 lifetime hitter. He was also not a home run hitter. He hit a then record 27 HR in 1884 when the White Sockings played in a a park where the LF was 186 feet from home plate (prior to that season they were counted as doubles). Other than that year he never hit more than 9 HRs in a season and never led the league in HRs.
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I’m well aware of that. I cover all of that in the bio I made. All I’m saying is that a large number of his peers considered him the greatest player of the 19th century (or that they had ever seen) including the names I mentioned, much like Cobb’s peers would name him as the greatest.
All that aside he was still the single season home run king for 35 years until Ruth broke it.
As for the previous season (1883), you are right, anything over the fence counted as a double and Ed had 49 of them.