This was his fourth appearance, and the first against Boston. Ironically, along with Joe DiMaggios 56-game hitting streak that has stood the test of time since 1941, Boston Red Sox icon Ted Williams .406 average put up that very same year is unsurpassed. Ted Williams career batting statistics for Major League, Minor League, and postseason baseball . ), Latest-in-season .400 bids since Ted Williams. It came up the runway about 1,500 feet before he was able to jump out and run off the wingtip. August 30, 1918 One of the most prolific hitters in the history of Major League Baseball, Ted Williams was a true master of the sport. On a given day, a player would hit three of every ten at bats if they hit 300 with a 300 average. 1941 was an iconic year in baseball history, highlighted by the great individual accomplishments of Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees and Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox. As a member of the American League, these achievements have been achieved. But what made Williams so remarkable was his lifetime batting average, a staggering .344. But with a full season at his disposal this time, Gwynn tailed off down the stretch, batting .328 over the final two months of the season.Last day at .400: July 14How short was he? (Fun fact: A year earlier, John Olerud was still hitting .400 as of August 2, but he slumped down the stretch and finished with a .363 mark in 1993.). Miguel Cabrera currently leads all active players in career batting average with .308, right above both Jose Altuve and Mike Trout. The Red Sox trailed, 11-10, and Mack brought in his third pitcher of the day, Tex Shirley, a 23-year-old right-hander making his fifth appearance. The SPORTS REFERENCE and STATHEAD trademarks are owned exclusively by Sports Reference LLC. If you're wondering, Ted Williams is the last player to hit over .400, doing so in 1941 with a .406 batting average. (Sunday was also scheduled to be Lefty Grove Day as Philadelphia feted the 41-year-old Red Sox hurler who had spent his first nine seasons with the Athletics. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". 6' 3" / 205. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Short Answer. In the fourth, with the Sox now down 4-0, Williams smoked a double that slammed into the right-field wall, leaving a hole in a speaker mounted there. The strike halted play in mid-August, denying Gwynn the opportunity to try and keep the four-plus months hot streak going. He hit 3,000 hits in his 2,135th game at the age of 34 years and 243 days, making him the youngest player in history to achieve the mark. Ironically, along with Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak that has stood the test of time since 1941, Boston Red Sox icon Ted Williams' .406 average put up that very same year is unsurpassed. Stan Musial, 1948: .376Vin Scully once said that Musial was "good enough to take your breath away," and in 1948 he reached perhaps his most dizzying heights. Ted Williams, who has a lengthy career that spans two decades, is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in history. When the pair returned to the team hotel, Cronin and a coach were sitting in the lobby. Williams, the only Major League Baseball player to hit over.400 in 1941, had an incredible year that year, batting.406. In his best year with . Did you know that those who finished ahead of The Thumper were 7. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". If anybody shifted that way on Musial, he would have wrecked them, by slapping base hits into left. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. The Panama native racked up nearly three times as many career hits as strikeouts (3,053 vs. 1,028) and his 1,018 walks nearly equal the strikeout total. Become a Stathead & surf this site ad-free. Ted Williams was born on Friday, August 30, 1918, in San Diego, California. The achievement of a .400 batting average in a season is recognized as "the standard of hitting excellence", in light of how batting .300 in a season is already regarded as solid. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. Wins Above Replacement 6X (14th All-Time) | On Base Plus Slugging 10X (2nd All-Time) Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for BATTING POSE PSA 4 VG-EX TED WILLIAMS 2013 TOPPS TRIPLE THREADS #1 GRADED *TPHLC at the best online prices at eBay! He was also a marine fighter pilot in Korea in 1952-1953. Williams was a great hitter who could hit for both average and power while also drawing walks, making him one of the most feared hitters the game has ever seen. . Top 10 HIghest Batting Averages Since 1941. LF Ted Williams (1939-1960) . He was a master of the art of hitting, combining great hand-eye coordination and power with a keen knowledge of the strike zone. . He struck out a batter every 5.56 at bats, a seven at bat differential between Ted and the rest of his opponents. Ted Williams, 1957: .388A full 16 years later, Williams proved he had plenty of magic left in his bat in 1957. All Win Expectancy, Leverage Index, Run Expectancy, and Fans Scouting Report data licenced from TangoTiger.com. His plaque reads, "A .344 career hitter with 521 home runs and 1,839 RBI in 19 seasons with the Red Sox, Ted Williams was voted A.L. Average hits per week: 6.7 Extra hits needed per week: 0.2 T3. So he was worried about this.. Author. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. There is one major qualification to Walker's 1999 season, which is that his average in the thin home air at Coors Field (.461) was a full 175 points higher than his clip on the road (.286). Stan Musial 5. The last player to hit just .400 in the majors was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941 before taking the next three seasons off . Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 1966. [Texas Rangers Managers]. His accomplishments are impressive, so its difficult to imagine anyone else succeeding in the same way. As mentioned above, Carew hit for .388 in 1977 and actually led the league in hitting on six different occasions. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Musical hit .376 in 1948 but his success hitting went beyond that. Ted Williams was known by the nicknames "Teddy Ballgame . MVP in 1946 and 1949. For our next entry, we turn the calendar all the way back to 1977 toreview the magical year for Minnesota Twins All-Time great Rod Carew. A piece of the loudspeaker . "Giant centerfield Willie Mays compared (Ted) Williams and ( Stan) Musial to sportswriter Roger Kahn. Mel Ott), and sixth all-time in batting average (1. by Retrosheet. Between games, the 41-year-old Grove was honored before taking the mound to start the nightcap. Its extremely difficult to hit a baseball and the sport considers players who are successful three out of 10 times in their careers to be Hall of Fame worthy. Williams returned to the United States in December and was discharged from the Marines on January 28, 1946. Javascript is required for the selection of a player. Williams was the last hitter to hit at least .400 after finishing with a batting average of .406 in 1941. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Copyright 1999- Instead, the Splendid Splinter played both games, went . Carew saw his average drop to .374 on Aug. 26, but the eventual American League MVP made one last run, batting .441 over his final 31 games to finish seven hits shy of .400. 22 - Ted Williams was an inaugural inductee into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame, one of twenty-two enshrined in 1995. So he got some hitting in, reporting to the ballpark on Friday for extra batting practice at the suggestion of manager Joe Cronin. Did you know that Joe Glenn, who caught Babe Ruth last pitching appearance in 1933, was Williams's catcher? But Williams was locked in, leading off the second inning with a single to pull his average back up to .405. He also had a career slugging percentage of .634, which is the third-highest of all time. - Batting Champion (1939-1940) Joe DiMaggio in The 100 Greatest American Athletes (Martin Gitlin, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 10/15/2018, They Said It, Page 254), During the 1968 season, Carl Yastrzemski had the lowest batting average that was still high enough to lead the American League. As already mentioned, Williams .406 batting average is the highest off all-time while no other player has crossed the .400 mark. The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, Did not play in major or minor leagues (Military Service), Salaries may not be complete (especially pre-1985) and may not include some earned bonuses, Note, this is done in an automated way, so we apologize for any errors, & please. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. The Splendid Splinter answered when his country called 1941-05-02 MLB player Ted Williams' lowest average (.308) in year he hit over .400. He had a career batting average of .344, which is the sixth highest in Major League Baseball history. 1941-05-25 Ted Williams raises his batting average over .400 for 1st time in 1941. Here is a look at our 10 best mlb hitters of all time of all time rankings list: 1. The Splendid Splinter led the league in walks eight times. Williams, a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger, hit.344 with 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, and 1,839 runs scored in his career. 93.4 - Ted Williams was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, his first year of eligibility, receiving votes from 93.4% of the writers. At season's end, Williams was five hits shy of . Except for a stretch from July 11-24, when his batting average dipped as low as .393, he'd been hitting above .400 since May 25. Along with John Olerud in 1993, Brett remains just one of two players on the list that played in over 100 games when batting for the record. Other factors in Gwynns favor that season:He was hitting at least .300 since the first game,and his average had been steadily climbing since mid-May. 5.0. He'd gone 2-for-5 with a run scored in a rout of the Chicago White Sox, but all that did was improve his batting average . He could have sat out the games and achieved the .400 average for the year, through rounding. MVP Season 150 Runs, 43 HRs, 159 RBIs, 162 BBs, 368 TBs, .343 BA (1949), Official Site for "The Splendid Splinter", MLB Hall Of Famer Ted Williams #9. The former Boston slugger is the only baseball player to ever hit for over .400. In 1957, the season in which he turned 39, that .388 average won the batting championship by more than 20 points over Mickey Mantle's career-best .365. Ed Delahanty, 5. From 1939 to 1960, he spent his Major League Baseball career for 19 years mainly as a left fielder for the Boston Red Sox. 2. Christy Mathewson, 6. As well, he was the youngest player in the history of the game to achieve 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 hits. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? Cobb finished his career with a .366 batting average which is best of all-time. Bill Bergen, who played from 1901 to 1911, holds the record for the lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats. Willie Mays, and 1. hitting catcher has a better batting average and on-base percentage against . Bergens record-breaking batting average will always be remembered, whereas Cobb will be remembered for his incredible accomplishments and his status as one of the greatest players of all time. It's still only April, but Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday is on pace to tie the highest season batting average since Hall of Famer Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, becoming the last big leaguer to top the magic .400 barrier. The day Ted Williams put his .400 season on the line. "Another time he was hit in the wingtip tank when I was flying with him. * Ted Williams himself lists Joe D in his book as the 5th greatest hitter ever, and he would be 6th with Williams included on his own list. His .408 batting average in 1911 will likely stand forever as the rookie record. Ted Williams. Ted Williams is the best pure hitter I ever saw. 6 years has to be a record for appearances on some of these lists. A left-handed batter, Williams got his start in professional baseball while still a high school senior, playing for the Pacific Coast League's San Diego Padres. Find out more. 1942-06-02 Red Sox star Ted Williams enlists as a US Navy aviator. Its unfortunate that the shortened-campaign stole a chance at baseball history, but the San Diego Padres Hall-of-Famers .394 in 1994 still stands as the closest anybody has come to the Splendid Splinter after all these decades. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location,
Logos were compiled by the amazing SportsLogos.net. In 1941, he had the highest batting average of his career when he hit for .406. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. To put it politely, the team didn't have talent like Ted Williams or Jackie Jensen blocking Pearson's path in the outfield. In his first career season with the Boston Red Sox, his batting average was .329. But its not quite so simple as a choice between Sit or Play. From June to August 1945, Williams went through the Corsair Operational Training Unit at Jacksonville. Lou Gehrig, 3. This is only his third big-league season and his batting average in his first two years has been .267 and .260 respectivelyhe entered . [Top 1,000 / On Base Percentage Record Book] Did you know that he once got on base in eighty-four straight games (in 1949), an incredible feat that remains unmated to this day? He then went to NAS Pensacola in Florida for intermediate training where he set records in aerial gunnery. BOSTON Seventy years ago today, Ted Williams was hitting under .400. Ted Williams had done it. Williams flew 39 combat missions before being pulled from flight status in June of 1953 after an old ear infection acted up. I am going to play ball this season, he announced. The dedication Williams showed to being the best hitter he could be on the field was responsible for his success on the field, but it will almost certainly never be duplicated. But getting to know him a little later, the quote would be full . Did you know Ted Williams was there at the helm, due to their relocation from D.C. to Arlington, for the last Washington Senators game (September 30, 1971), AND the first Texas Rangers game (April 15, 1972)? George Brett, 1980: .390The greatest hitter in Royals history actually began the 1980 campaign 1-for-7, and did not see his average rise above .300 until his last game of May. The Hawk became the second member when he went deep off Pedro Borbon on June 10, 1977 then off his son Pedro Borbon (Jr.) on August 16, 1995. Nomar Garciaparra, 2000: .372Four players posted a .372 average in their chase of Williams from 1997-2004, one of the best offensive eras in baseball history. Five hits shy of joining himself in the .400 club.4. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. At the age of 23 he hit .406 in 1941 winning his first of hour HR titles and first of six batting titles. "It was something that required a kind of nonstop consistency," Williams said of his .406 season in 1991. Did you know that Christian Yelich was the first Milwaukee Brewers player to win a batting title? 17 hits shy of .400.T6. The As started 22-year-old Fred Caligiuri, making wanna guess? the official stats partner of the NBA, NHL and MLB. In mid-August 1941, Joe DiMaggio, the New York Yankees center fielder who famously set a major league record by getting a hit in 56 straight games in a streak that ended on July 17 that season, was asked about overtaking Williams for that year's batting crown. What was Ted Williams' average? These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. Only Robinson Cano and Trea Turner represent the other two of five active players with a career batting average above .300. No other player has crossed the .400 line in a season since then, and probably never will. Four of the top five players are also right-handed hitters, with Cano being the lefty of the bunch. The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, Splendid Splinter or Thumper. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. He would bat a more human-like .304 over his final 13 games to finish five hits shy of history.Last day at .400: Sept. 19How short was he? Rod Carew, 1977: .388Carew and Williams each batted .388 exactly two decades apart, but we'll start with Carew, who maintained a .400-plus average into July en route to his sixth career batting title. Though Williams' .406 average was just a footnote in wire-service accounts in 1941, it's status grows more mythical with each passing year. Bud still does presentations for groups about Ted Williams but said this year was his final fantasy camp. These batting averapes cannot be compared directly because the distribution of major league batting averages has changed over the years. Join our linker program. I can do this by playing ball this year. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Williams singled, raising his average to .404. Pujols and Cabrera are the only players with five-digit career plate appearances. Johnny Sain walked the Babe in his one plate appearance as the old time Yankees lost 8-5. For the casual baseball fan, you may unfortunately remember George Brett best fromwhen he went bonkers during the pine tar game. Aside from that, the career-long Kansas City Royal was one of the best hitters in baseball through the 1970s and 80s, taking the proverbial baton from Carew. Five hits shy of .400.T3. he also finished with two of the most amazing . Standard Batting; Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards; 1936: 17: BOS-min: AA: 42: 107: 107: 18: 29: 8: 2: 0: 11: 2 . Thanks to the MLB strike of 1994, we never got the chance to see if the late Tony Gwynncould reach .400 that year. He saw it the same way. We'll never know how many total at-bats Gwynn would have ended up with if his 1994 season had gone to completion, but he would have needed just three more hits to finish at .400 during his strike-shortened campaign.2. Williams being sworn into the U.S. Navy Reserve on May 22, 1942. Williams was batting cleanup, his customary spot in the lineup during the second half of that season (after generally batting third before the All-Star Game). Do you know what National League player had the lowest average, but still won the batting title? Did you know that after we heard the audio recording of that historic moment, we immediately created an entire page of research here on Baseball Almanac dedicated to those players who hit a home run in their last at bat? And in his 22-year major league career, Williams accomplished things on . The Kid, Teddy Ballgame, Splendid Splinter or Thumper, View Player Bio Since Ted Williams achieved a lifetime batting average of .344, the highest batting average since his time has been held by Tony Gwynn with a career batting average of .338. vs. BAL 3 AB, 1 H, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB. Year by Year Leaders for Batting Average Major League Baseball Batting Champions. Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. 15 hits shy of .400.T6. Ted Williams, 1957: .388 At the age of 38, Williams found out first-hand how hard it is to record a .400 average. Williams was first sent, with teammate John Pesky, to the Navy's Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Massachusetts, for six months. Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball, Subscribe to Stathead Baseball: Get your first month FREE. Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. . Musial is the best all around hitter.'" By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. His career batting average of .344 is a testament to his greatness as a hitter. He hit two All-Star-Game home runs at Fenway Park and finished the season at .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBIs, and was named the American Leagues Most Valuable Player. Three innings later, Williams started the fifth with his 37th home run; he was now batting .402. In baseball, batting average (AVG) is a measure of a batter's success rate in achieving a hit during an at bat, and is calculated by dividing a player's hits by his at bats. Facing Fowler to lead off the second, Williams singled to right. Seven hits shy of .400.T3. "If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again.". Williams spent his entire career with the Boston Red Sox and finished with a .344 career batting average, 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, and 1,839 runs batted in. Rogers Hornsby, 3. He went on a mid-summer tear, batting .432 in July and .463 in August, but simply had too much ground to make up at season's end. Ted Williams was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1966. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. On September 28, 1941, the last day of Major League Baseballs regular season, Boston Red Socks first baseman Ted Williams had six hits in eight at- He becomes the first player in nearly 80 years to hit. "Once, he was on fire and had to belly land the plane back in," Glenn said. Ted Williams played for 1 team, the Boston Red Sox. Significant homerunsIn the second game of a doubleheader against Kansas City.Williams knocks the ball six rows deep in the right-field grandstand and gives the Red Sox a 1-0 victory. Babe Ruth, 48 years old, pinch-hit in the 7th inning and flied out to right, but the all-stars won 9-8 on a Ted Williams home run. Stan Musial, one of the finest players in the majors during the late 1940s and in history, ended his holdout 75 years ago Saturday. The runner-up in our five-part series documenting the best years of Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams brings us to his 1941 season. In 1941, he had the highest batting average of his career when he hit for .406. On September 28, 1960, at Boston's Fenway Park, Red Sox star Ted Williams hits a home run in the last at-bat of his 21-year career. Is he the greatest player of all-time? Given the fact that we are just weeks away from the close of the season, we can makea safe assumption that Williams ongoing streak will remain intact. Ted Williams once commented about those that fail 'only' seven times out of ten attempts will be the greatest in the game. Note: Ted Williams served in the Armed Forces (WWII & Korea) for almost 5 full seasons during his career, which makes his career stats all the more remarkable. We walked for over three hours, and my feet were burning. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Larry Walker, 1999: .379Two seasons after claiming the NL MVP Award, Walker followed up with his best season at the plate by average. From September to December 1943, Cadet Williams took primary training at NAS Bunker Hill, Indiana. To picture just how tough a time hitters have had trying to match Teddy Ballgame's .406, here's a look at the 10 players who have come the closest to reaching .400, in order of their season-ending average, over the last 75 years:1. Did you know that prior to Ted Williams, the only inductees who received more votes were 5. Where what happened yesterday is being preserved today. The southpaw had pitched two innings against the Red Sox in 1940 but had spent most of 41 in the Minors. He also had an incredible 2,654 hits, which ranks him 11th on the all-time list. What they did at that time, they teamed up a reservist with a regular to fly together most of the time just because the regular Marine pilots normally had more instrument flying experience and things like that. Gwynn spent his entire career with the San Diego Padres and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. He batted .316 as a 42-year-old in 1960 and his lifetime average of .344 is only topped by Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Tris Speak. The flip side is that Bob Feller's opponents hit only .228 against him in his 18 year career, 121 points lower than Williams hit against him. . 1940 1942, 1946 1951, 1953-1960 Boston Red Sox AL. 14 hits shy of .400.T6. "I'm tickled to death and I'm hoping I'll get into the air quick to start some slugging against the Axis," he told reporters. It was originally scheduled to be a three-day affair, with a game each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but As owner and manager Connie Mack rescheduled the opening game to be part of a Sunday doubleheader in order to boost attendance with the 22-year-old Williams chasing history. Ty Cobb, on the other hand, was one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and his accomplishments are incredible. "He slid it in on the belly. Williams was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1939, with the Boston Red Sox. During his time in the Major Leagues, Ted Williams hit an impressive 521 home runs and had a career batting average of .344. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. Hank Aaron, 4. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. He also hit for .388 in 1957, which Rod Carew tied in 1977. "If I had known hitting .400 was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it again. The Boston left fielder entered the last game of the season that year with a .3995 batting average. 2 - Ted Williams had two Triple Crown performances, first in 1942 (36 HRs / .356 AVG / 137 RBI), then a second time in 1947 (32 HRs / .343 AVG / 114 RBI). 1. All rights reserved. The camp was capped off by being presented with the Coaches Award for spirit and . Born: Luke Appling (94.0% in 1964), 3. Ted Williams hits .406 in 1941 . copyright=new Date(); Gwynn, 1997: .372In his second chase of Williams, Gwynn flirted with the .400 mark until the middle of July, and remained above .390 until the middle of August, sparking hope that this could be the time he made history. The same cannot be said of Ted Williams. Ted also led the league in runs (135), walks (147), on-base (.553) and slugging (.735) percentages. . Ted didnt drink, so from time to time Id run into a bar room to get a drink, and hed wait outside until I got finished, drinking a soft drink. All Rights Reserved by Baseball Almanac, Inc.Hosted by Hosting 4 Less. Allan Simpson. ", Latest-in-season .400 bids since Ted Williams. Shoeless Joe Jackson, 4. 93.4 - Ted Williams was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, his first year of eligibility, receiving votes from 93.4% of the writers. He had a .344 batting average, 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, 1,839 RBIs and 1,798 runs scored. On September 28, 1941, Boston Red Socks first baseman Ted Williams had six hits in eight at-bats, raising his average to. Many thanks to him. 394 batting average in 1994 is the closest anyone has come to hitting .400 . 18 July 2001. 'Ted Williams was the best pure hitter I ever saw,' Mays said. 5 - Ted Williams signed a five-year contract to manage the Washington Senators on February 21, 1969. Lets break down the highest batting averages in a MLB season of all-time. Did you know that in both of those historic seasons, The Kid did not win the Most Valuable Player Award (losing to Joe Gordon in '42 and Joe DiMaggio in '47)? The Cardinals star missed out on the NL Triple Crown by just one home run, and he hit remarkably better on the road (.415) than at home (.334) that season. All Rights Reserved by Baseball Almanac, Inc.Hosted by Hosting 4 Less. (Williams was erased on a double play, but the Red Sox rallied with two outs. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Williams was 4-for-5 at the plate in the first game raising his batting average to .404. Well, it was the year Ted Williams set the record for the highest batting average ever in a MLB season. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. With new kids he never had faced or seen before, he lost his edge. Did you know that when Willie McGee won his 1990 batting title, he started the season in the National League, was traded to an American League team on August 29th, and became the first player in baseball history to win a batting a title in a league that they were not currently playing in? Ted Williams impressive career totals are a testament to his skill as a hitter and his legacy as one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball. OF. Bergen hit.170 in 3,028 at-bats during his career, his lowest average since his playing career began.