Saturday, December 20, 2025

Which batters led their league in total bases by 100 or more since 1900?

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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