I used the Lee Sinins Complete Baseball Encyclopedia and Baseball Reference to compile this list. It has the top 11 differentials between the leader and the 2nd place guy (I did 11 in this case since the Holmes year was a war year).
|
Player |
TB |
Diff |
Year |
|
Rogers Hornsby |
450 |
136 |
1922 |
|
Jim Rice |
406 |
113 |
1978 |
|
Stan Musial |
429 |
113 |
1948 |
|
Babe Ruth |
457 |
92 |
1921 |
|
Tommy Holmes |
367 |
88 |
1945 |
|
Babe Ruth |
391 |
85 |
1924 |
|
Stan Musial |
366 |
83 |
1946 |
|
Aaron Judge |
392 |
82 |
1922 |
|
Shohei Ohtani |
411 |
80 |
2024 |
|
Ty Cobb |
335 |
74 |
1917 |
|
Joe Medwick |
406 |
73 |
1937 |
Rice (1978) is the only batter with 400+ total bases in a season when no other batter in his league that year even reached 300+ total bases. Eddie Murray was 2nd with 293. Other Hall of Famers in the AL that year include Reggie Jackson, Carlton Fisk, George Brett and Rod Carew.
The next table has the top ratios of the leader's TBs to the TBs of the 2nd place guy.
|
Player |
TB |
Ratio |
Year |
|
Rogers Hornsby |
450 |
1.433 |
1922 |
|
Jim Rice |
406 |
1.386 |
1978 |
|
Stan Musial |
429 |
1.358 |
1948 |
|
Tommy Holmes |
367 |
1.315 |
1945 |
|
Stan Musial |
366 |
1.293 |
1946 |
|
Ty Cobb |
335 |
1.284 |
1917 |
|
Babe Ruth |
391 |
1.278 |
1924 |
|
Nap Lajoie |
350 |
1.254 |
1901 |
|
Babe Ruth |
457 |
1.252 |
1921 |
|
Aaron Judge |
392 |
1.265 |
1922 |
|
Shohei Ohtani |
411 |
1.242 |
2024 |
I noticed something else about Rice in 1978. That was one of three straight years (1977-78) when he had both 200+ hits and 350+ TBs. Reaching each of those levels three straight years is very rare (and even 2 straight has not been done very often). Here are the leaders in streaks in reaching those levels.
|
Player |
Years |
Streak |
|
Lou Gehrig |
1930-32 |
3 |
|
Joe Medwick |
1935-37 |
3 |
|
Jim Rice |
1977-79 |
3 |
|
Rogers Hornsby |
1921-22 |
2 |
|
Babe Ruth |
1923-24 |
2 |
|
Rogers Hornsby |
1924-25 |
2 |
|
Lou Gehrig |
1927-28 |
2 |
|
Chuck Klein |
1929-30 |
2 |
|
Al Simmons |
1929-30 |
2 |
|
Jimmie Foxx |
1932-33 |
2 |
|
Chuck Klein |
1932-33 |
2 |
|
Hank Greenberg |
1934-35 |
2 |
|
Joe DiMaggio |
1936-37 |
2 |
|
Lou Gehrig |
1936-37 |
2 |
|
Stan Musial |
1948-49 |
2 |
|
Don Mattingly |
1985-86 |
2 |
And there are not many cases of three straight years of both 200+ hits and 300+ TBs.
|
Player |
Years |
Streak |
|
Chuck Klein |
1929-33 |
5 |
|
Paul Waner |
1927-30 |
4 |
|
Bill Terry |
1929-32 |
4 |
|
Al Simmons |
1929-32 |
4 |
|
George Sisler |
1920-22 |
3 |
|
Rogers Hornsby |
1920-22 |
3 |
|
Lou Gehrig |
1930-32 |
3 |
|
Charlie Gehringer |
1934-36 |
3 |
|
Joe Medwick |
1935-37 |
3 |
|
Jim Rice |
1977-79 |
3 |
|
Steve Garvey |
1978-80 |
3 |
|
Don Mattingly |
1984-86 |
3 |
|
Kirby Puckett |
1986-88 |
3 |
|
Michael Young |
2004-06 |
3 |
I wonder if streaks like this are what make people want to vote for Rice or Mattingly for the Hall. For a short period fans and writers would see a guy get hits and extra-base hits at levels rarely seen. You would be pretty impressed. This ignores other valuable things like on-base percentage. But it would look like these guys were reaching some unusual heights.
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