Where Have All the .400 Hitters Gone ?

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Posted By: Peter Thomas

As Ted Z pointed out, Williams at age 39 hit 388 in 1957. He played through sickness for the month of June that year - a month that he hit only 260 and hit 414 for the other 5 months of the year and there were not many leg hits in those legs. He won 6 batting titles in 1941(406), 1942(356), 1947(343), 1948(369), 1957(388)& 1958(328). Personally I think that if he had not lost the five years to the Wars and the plate appearance rule was as it is today, he would have hit 400 twice more and had 12 or 13 batting titles tying or surpassing Cobb's remarkable 12 in 13 years from 1907 to 1919, loosing only to Speaker's 386 in 1916. He would have likely won 2 or 3 during 1943, 1944 and 1945 and probably in 1952 and 1953, when he was fully recovered from the elbow broken in the 50 allstar game, he played in only 43 games but hit 407 with 14 hr and a had a .901 slg %, but spent the other 265 games in Korea. In 1954 and 1955 he had the highest average but not enough ab's but enough plate appearances under current rules. In 1949 he and Kell both had a 343 average, but Kell's was a higher 343. If he had not missed those 5 seasons and half of 1950 I think at the end of the 1960 season he would have had about 700 hr. Would he have played in 1961 to break Ruth's record - I think so. In 1960 he hit 316 with 29 hr in 113 games. A perfect man - no, a charitable man - yes, a brave man - yes, the greatest hitter - I think so.