Inbaseball,batting average (BA) is determined by dividing a player'shits by their totalat-bats. It is usually rounded to three decimal places and read without the decimal: A player with a batting average of .300 is said to be "batting three hundred". If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken beyond the .001 measurement. In this context, .001 is considered a "point", such that a .235 batter is five points higher than a .230 batter.
Henry Chadwick, an English statistician raised oncricket, was an influential figure in the early history of baseball.[1] He is credited with creating the modernbox score, in 1859, and the practice of denoting astrikeout with a "K".[2] Chadwick wrote in 1869: "In making up a score at the close of the match the record should be as follows:–Name of player, total number of times the first base was made by clean hits, total bases so made, left on bases after clean hits, and the number of times the first base has been made on errors..."[3] This led to the recording of "clean" hits—times a batter reached base without benefit of anerror.[3] In 1869, another early baseball proponent, Alfred Wright, published an end-of-season summary that included the average number of times a batter had "clean" hits on aper game basis.[3] In 1871, a writer for theNew York Clipper, Hervie Dobson, proposed that a batter's "average is found by dividing his total 'times first base on clean hits' by his total number of times he went to the bat"—hits divided by at bats.[3] By 1874, some teams were calculating batting averages, and by 1876, it was being calculated by all teams of theNational League.[3]
In modern times, aseason batting average of .300 or higher is considered to be excellent, and an average higher than .400 is a nearly unachievable goal. The lastMajor League Baseball (MLB) player to do so, with enoughplate appearances to qualify for the batting championship, wasTed Williams of theBoston Red Sox, who hit .406 in 1941.[4]
Note that batting averages arerounded;[5] entering the final day of the 1941 season, Williams was at 179-for-448, which is .39955 and would have been recorded as .400 via rounding.[6] However, Williams played in both games of adoubleheader, went 6-for-8, and ended the season 185-for-456,[7] which is .40570 and becomes .406 when rounded.[6]
Since 1941, noAmerican League orNational League player has hit .400 or above—the highest single-season average in those leagues has been .394 byTony Gwynn of theSan Diego Padres in 1994.[4]Wade Boggs hit .401 over a 162-game span with Boston from June 9, 1985, to June 6, 1986,[8] but never hit above .368 for an MLB season.[9] There have been numerous attempts to explain the disappearance of the .400 hitter, with one of the more rigorous discussions of this question appearing inStephen Jay Gould's 1996 bookFull House.Josh Gibson hit .466 in 1943 while playing for theHomestead Grays of theNegro National League, one of several leagues withinNegro league baseball that are now recognized by MLB.[10]
Gibson holds the record for highest major-league career batting average at .371, four points higher thanTy Cobb, who has the second-highest career average at .367.[11][a] The record for lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats belongs toBill Bergen, a catcher who played from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a .170 average in 3,028 career at-bats.[12]
Hugh Duffy, who played from 1888 to 1906, is credited with the highest single-season batting average, having hit .440 in 1894.[13] The modern-era (post-1900) record for highest batting average for a season is held byNap Lajoie, who hit .426 in 1901,[13] the first year of play for theAmerican League. The modern-era record for the lowest batting average for a player that qualified for the batting title is held byChris Davis, who hit .168 in 2018.[14] While finishing six plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title,Adam Dunn of theChicago White Sox hit .159 for the 2011 season, nine points lower than the record.[15] The highest batting average for arookie was .408 in 1911 byShoeless Joe Jackson.[16]
The league batting average in MLB for the2018 season was .248, with the highest modern-era MLB average being .296 in 1930, and the lowest being .237 in 1968.[17] For non-pitchers, a batting average below .230 is often considered poor, and one below .200 is usually unacceptable. This latter level is sometimes referred to as "TheMendoza Line", named forMario Mendoza—a lifetime .215 hitter but a good defensive shortstop.[18]
Sabermetrics, the study ofbaseball statistics, considers batting average a weak measure of performance because it does not correlate as well as other measures to runs scored, thereby causing it to have little predictive value. Batting average does not take into accountbases on balls (walks) or power, whereas other statistics such ason-base percentage andslugging percentage have been specifically designed to measure such concepts. Adding these statistics together form a player'son-base plus slugging or "OPS". This is commonly seen as a much better, though not perfect, indicator of a player's overall batting ability as it is a measure of hitting for average, hitting for power, and drawing walks.
In1887,bases on balls (walks) were counted as hits by the major leagues in existence at the time. This inflated batting averages, with 11 players batting .400 or better, and the experiment was abandoned the following season. Historical statistics for the season were later revised, such that "Bases on balls shall always be treated as neither a time at bat nor a hit for the batter."[19]
In rare instances, players have concluded their careers with a perfect batting average of 1.000—through the 2021 season, there were 94 such players in major-league history, 83 of whom recorded exactly one hit in one at bat.[20] Only one player with a 1.000 average has had three hits—outfielderJohn Paciorek (1963), who had three hits in three at bats; he also had two walks, and scored four runs.[21][22] Players who had two hits in their only two at bats include: pitcherFrank O'Connor (1893),[23] catcherMike Hopkins (1902),[24] pitcherDoc Tonkin (1907),[25] pitcherHal Deviney (1920),[26] pitcherFred Schemanske (1923),[27] pitcherChet Kehn (1942),[28] second basemanSteve Biras (1944),[29] and pitcherJason Roach (2003).[30] PitcherEsteban Yan, who played in 472 major-league games from 1996 to 2006, mainly in theAmerican League (where pitchers have rarely batted since the introduction of thedesignated hitter in 1973), also had two hits in his only two at bats, one a home run.[31]
The MLB batting averages championships (often referred to as "the batting title") are awarded annually to the player in each league with the highest batting average.Ty Cobb holds the MLB andAmerican League (AL) record for most batting titles, officially winning 11 in his career.[32] TheNational League (NL) record of eight batting titles is shared byHonus Wagner andTony Gwynn. Most of Cobb's career and all of Wagner's career occurred during thedead-ball era, which was characterized by higher batting averages by star players (although the overall league batting average was historically at its lowest during that era) and much less power, whereas Gwynn's career took place in thelive-ball era.
To determine which players are eligible to win the batting title, the following conditions have been used over the sport's history:[33]
From 1967 to the present, if the player with the highest average in a league does not meet the minimum plate-appearance requirement, the remaining at-bats until qualification (e.g., five at-bats, if the player finished the season with 497 plate appearances) are hypothetically considered hitless at-bats; if his recalculated batting average still tops the league, he is awarded the title. This is officially Rule 10.22(a), but it is also known as the "Tony Gwynn rule" because the Padres' player won the batting crown in 1996 with a .353 average on just 498 plate appearances (i.e., he was four short). Gwynn was awarded the title since he would have led the league even if he had gone 0-for-4 in those missing plate appearances. His average would have dropped to .349, five points better than second-placeEllis Burks' .344.[34] In 2012, a one-time amendment to the rule was made to disqualifyMelky Cabrera from the title. Cabrera requested that he be disqualified after serving a suspension that season for a positivetestosterone test. He had batted .346 with 501 plate appearances, and the original rule would have awarded him the title overSan Francisco Giants teammateBuster Posey, who won batting .336.[35][36]
The highest recorded single-season batting average inMinor League Baseball is .462, accomplished byGary Redus in 1978, when he played for theBillings Mustangs,[37][38] an affiliate of theCincinnati Reds in theRookie Advanced-levelPioneer League. Redus was 117-for-253 in 68 games,[39] as the Pioneer League only plays from June to early September. Redus went on to play in MLB from 1982 through 1994, batting .252 during his MLB career.[40]
InNippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the leader in career batting average isIsao Harimoto, a member of theJapanese Baseball Hall of Fame, who hit .319 in his NPB career.[41]Ichiro Suzuki batted .353 in NPB,[42] but does not have enough NPB career at-bats to qualify for the league's title.Sadaharu Oh had a batting average of .355 in 1973 season.Randy Bass had a batting average of .389 in 1986 season.
InKBO League (KBO), the leader in career batting average isJung-hoo Lee, who hit .340 in his KBO career and is currently an active player.Baek In-chun had a batting average of .412 in 1982 season. This is the highest batting average of one season in KBO League.
recorded batting averages are rounded to three decimal places
All-Time Totals, sorted by AVG
