Hi Val! Thank you for the kind words. I am trying to provide a brief career overview, in a standard format, without losing (or abusing) the attention of readers (most of whom are, I assume) not intensely interested in the players or their history. If your question is Why not BA AND OBP? my answer is that it might begin to clutter the writing with "too many" (similar) numbers. If your question is Why OBP in lieu of BA? my answer is that I subscribe to the modern view that OBP is a richer statistic that conveys more meaningful information regarding the "value" of the player's offensive production.
I realize the players in question and the fans of their time were largely oblivious to OBP but keenly aware of batting average as a basis for evaluating and comparing offensive performance across teams, players, and seasons. That was then; this is now.
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