Unbreakable Baseball Records

Lifetime on base percentage (OBP)

 Ted Williams .4817 Only one recent player (Bonds) is close – 5th at .4443. All the others in the
top ten are old-timers (Ruth, McGraw, Hamilton, Gehrig, Hornsby, Cobb, Foxx, and Speaker)

Lifetime on base + slugging (OPS)

 Babe Ruth (1.1636 = .4739 + .6897). Only, Williams is close (1.1155 = .4817 + .6338). Everyone
else is an old-timer except Bonds (4th), who got his .4443 OBP through BB, not BA – and his
slugging percentage (.6069) shows it, held down by a lower BA. Nobody today with power has a
high enough BA even to approach this.

Batting walks lifetime

 Bonds 2558. Followed by Ricky Henderson at 2190, Ruth at 2062, Williams at 2021. This might
be approachable given Henderson’s outlying 2190 ahead of Ted and the Babe, but it is surely
less approachable than lifetime batting K’s: Jackson 2597, Thome 2548, Adam Dunn 2379, Sosa
2306, A-Rod 2237, Galaragga 2003. Modern day players strike out a LOT! Contrast these guys
with Williams (709), Musial (696), Cobb (680) and Hornsby (679). DiMaggio had only 369, but
only 13 seasons.

Pitching strikeouts lifetime

 Nolan Ryan 5714. Second place is Randy Johnson at 4875, only two other guys over 4000.
Nobody will ever get near this they way they pull pitchers today.

Pitching walks lifetime

 Nolan Ryan 2795. Along with the three just below, among the most untouchable. No one else
even passed 2000; second place is Carlton at 1833. Even so, Ryan is third in excess of K’s over
BB’s, with 2919. Only R. Johnson at 3378 and Clemens at 3092 are ahead of him.

Innings pitched lifetime

 Cy Young 7356. Even if you toss this because half his career was pre-1900 (and all of Pud
Galvins’s 6003 IPs came before 1900 – in a 15-year career!) then the post-1900 leader is Walter
Johnson with 5914 (followed by Niekro 5404, Ryan 5386, Gaylord Perry 5350, Don Sutton 5282,
Spahn 5243, Carlton 5217, and Alexander 5190) Nobody in this day of pitch counts is getting
close to Cy or even to Walter.
Pitching – Complete Games

 The all-time laugher in unbreakable records. Cy Young had 749; in the modern post -1900 era
Walter Johnson had 531. Spahn had 360+. Robin Roberts 305, and then it really falls off – even a
stalwart like Ryan had only 222. The active leader is Verlander with … 37!! Kershaw and
Wainright are tied, I believe, at 28. Current dominant pitchers like Cole and deGrom have … 4! I
think Cy and the Big Train are safe!

Pitching wins lifetime

 Finally, an ordinary stat! Cy Young 511 (and 315 lifetime losses!) Again, even if you toss him
because half the wins came pre-1900, Walter Johnson leads with 416, then Mathewson and
Alexander at 373, then Spahn at 363. Nobody these days will approach that.

Shutouts lifetime

 Walter Johnson 110. Pete Alexander 90. Mathewson 79, Young 76, Eddie Plank 69, Spahn 63,
Ryan 61, Seaver 61, Blyleven 60. Guys are now leading baseball seasons in shutouts with two or
three.

Triples lifetime

 Triples are the just about the most untouchable of all hitting records! Lifetime: Wahoo Sam
Crawford, with 309. No active player has even 100. The MLB season record is Chief Wilson
(who?) with 36 in 1912; never had more than 14 in any other season in a 9-year career in which
he batted .269 lifetime. Go figure. Crawford is 2nd in post-1900 season-high triples with 26 in
1914.

Inside the Park Home Runs lifetime

 Sort of a made-up stat – but for my money, the most exciting play in baseball, especially if you
can tear your eyes away from watching just one thing. (See Arnold Hano in A Day in the
Bleachers -- the flight of the ball, the outfielder chasing it, the middle infielder going out to get
the relay, the hitter running the bases … what’s the pitcher doing? He doesn’t need to back up
third, or home either …)

Anyway … lifetime leader is Jesse Burkett (1890-1905, 55 ITPHR of 75 total lifetime). Highest
post-1900 player is Sam Crawford (51 of 97 lifetime); next is Tommy Leach (48 of 63); next is Ty
Cobb (46 of 117); tied with Honus Wagner (46 of 101). The highest post-1920 totals are Rogers
Hornsby (33) and Max Carey (27). Highest post-1950 total is Willie Wilson with 13. Nobody is
going to catch Sam Crawford on this one either!
Greatest Pitchers - Chart
Wins Strikeouts Complete Games Innings Pitched ERA Shutouts Hits/9

1. Cy Young 511 1. Ryan 5714 1. Young 749 1. Young 7356 1. Ed Walsh 1.816 1. Johnson 110 1. Ryan
2. Walter Johnson 417 2. Randy Johnson 4875 2. Galvin 646 2. Galvin 6003 2. Addie Joss 2. Alexander 90 3. Koufax
3. G. C. Alexander 373 3. Clemens 4672 3. Keefe 534 3. Big Train 5914 3. Jim Devlin 3. Mathewson 79 40. Seaver
3. Christy Mathewson 373 4. Carlton 4136 4. Nichols 532 4. Phil Niekro 5404 4. Jack Pfeister 4. Young 76 41. Johnson
5. Pud Galvin 365 5. Bert Blyleven 3701 5. Big Train 531 5. Ryan 5386 5. Smoky Joe Wood 5. Ed Plank 69 48. Gibson
6. Warren Spahn 363 6. Seaver 3640 6. Bobby Mathews 525 6. Perry 5350 6. Mordecai Brown 6. Spahn 63 54. Clemens
7. Kid Nichols 362 7. Don Sutton 3574 6. Mickey Welch 525 7. Sutton 5281 7. John Ward 7. Ryan 61 60. Feller
8. Greg Maddux 355 8. Gaylord Perry 3534 8. Charles Radbourn 488 8. Spahn 5244 8. Mathewson 2.133 7. Seaver 61 112. Mathsn
9. Roger Clemens 354 9. Big Train 3509 9. John Clarkson 485 9. Carlton 5218 9. Al Spaulding 9. Blyleven 60 145. Carlton
10. Tim Keefe 342 10. Maddux 3371 10. Tony Mullane 468 10. Alexander 5190 10. Tommy Bond 10. Sutton 58 245. Spahn
11. Steve Carlton 329 14. Gibson 3117 13. Alexander 436 13. Maddux 5008 12. Big Train 2.167 13. Gibson 56 324. Alexder
14. Nolan Ryan 324 23. Young 2803 14. Mathewson 435 16. Clemens 4917 52. Alexander 2.560 14. Carlton 55 [Link]
18. Tom Seaver 311 30. Spahn 2583 21. Spahn 382 18. Mathewson 4789 62. Young 2.627 26. Clemens 46 469. Young
23. Lefty Grove 300 31. Feller 2581 42. Grove 298 19. Seaver 4783 96. Koufax 2.761 35. Feller 44 546. Grove
37. Bob Feller 266 39. Mathewson 2502 63. Feller 279 44. Grove 3941 (skipped ERA for most) 44. Koufax 40
47. Bob Gibson 251 51. Koufax 2396 74. Gibson 255 45. Gibson 3884 71. Grove 35
208. Sandy Koufax 165 59. Grove 2266 75. Carlton 254 49. Feller 3827 71. Maddux 35
66. Alexander 2198 100. Seaver 231

Top 14 (points per category) Wins Strikeouts Complete Games Innings Pitched ERA Shutouts Hits/9 TOTAL

1. Walter Johnson 2 9 5 3 12 1 41 73

2. Christy Mathewson 3 39 14 18 8 3 100 185

3. Nolan Ryan 14 1 100 5 100 7 1 228
4. Grover Cleveland Alexander 3 66 13 10 52 2 100 246
5. Cy Young, 1890-1911 1 100 1 1 62 4 100 269
6. Warren Spahn 6 30 21 8 100 6 100 271
7. Tom Seaver 18 6 100 19 100 7 40 290
8. Roger Clemens 9 3 100 16 100 26 54 308
9. Steve Carlton 11 4 75 9 100 14 100 313
10. Bob Gibson 47 14 74 45 100 13 48 341
11. Bob Feller 37 31 63 49 100 35 60 375
12. Greg Maddux 9 10 100 13 100 71 100 403
13. Lefty Grove 23 59 42 44 100 71 100 439
14. Sandy “dead last” Koufax 100 51 100 100 96 44 3 494
 Baseball’s Greatest Hitters – Notes on Rankings

It was bothering me to use raw numerical tallies in all our rankings, wondering whether we were recognizing longevity
rather than effectiveness or dominance (and penalizing guys like Williams, DiMaggio, Feller, and Mays, who lost some
prime years through no fault of their own.) And then Clark made his observation about imputing numbers to seasons
lost to war (or injury) -- that may seem a logical way to put things on an even footing, but it's not really right, because it's
not reality.

Then it occurred to me how much weight we give to averages in baseball (batting average, OBP, slugging average, ERA,
etc.) So, I thought -- where it seemed to make sense to do so -- that I'd work with hitting averages to do the ratings.
Here's an overview of what I came up with; the attachments tell the complete story:

Categories retaining my original approach: Points according to the player's rank among all players historically -- Batting
average, batting titles, home run titles, RBI titles, OBP, slugging percentage, and Triple Crowns.

Note on Triple Crowns: I revised TC scoring to break ties in number of triple crowns by counting number of times the
player won two legs. For example, Williams and Hornsby are tied with two TCs, but the Rajah won two legs two other
times and Teddy only once, so Hornsby gets 1 point and Williams 2. I broke ties among the four other one-time winners
the same way. Since there have been 13 TC winners, the rest of our dozen start tied for 14th place at zero TCs, and I
broke that tie by counting number of times the player won two legs. (The Babe did it six times! Can you believe that?
That's a new tidbit in my storehouse of knowledge.)

Categories ranked by averages: Seasonal averages in home runs, RBI, hits, and strikeouts. (I continue to think GIDP is a
better measure of rally-killing than a K, but they only started keeping that stat in 1933. However, the lack of GIDP only
reinforces the idea to include strikeouts -- in reverse order, of course, as you guys have suggested.)

When I ranked by averages, I initially did so by 1-12 within our select group, then realized that doesn't do enough to
reward top performance and "punish" lesser performance. So I took the rankings and awarded points based on that
initial ranking, plus the differences in the seasonal averages one player to the next. This is clearer in the table on the
second attached page, but here's an example: Ruth is first in HR seasonal average with 37.6, Bonds is second with 34.0.
Gehrig is third with 32.9. So Ruth gets 1 point, Bonds gets 5.6 (+1 for the difference between first and second, +3.6 for
the difference between 37.6 and 34.0. Similarly, Gehrig gets 7.7 (+1 from Bonds 5.6 for being third, +1.1 for the
difference between 34.0 and 32.9. I did the same in the RBI, hits, and strikeouts categories. I hope that makes for some
rough justice in assigning points here.

By the way, I adjusted number of seasons to ignore -- not count as a season for denominator purposes -- years of
September rookie call-ups or a few games playing out the string (e.g., Ruth with the Braves in 1935); or I combined other
partial seasons to count as a full season (Gehrig 1923, 1924, 1939 are combined to make his 15th season.) Fairly
arbitrary, I know, but I tried to be fair, and besides ... the unbridled authority of the guy making up the table. I have
noted the number of seasons I used in the table on the second attached page.

Categories from previous tabulations omitted here: Runs scored and OPS. Runs scored is a measure of other team
members' ability to bat a guy in, not a measure of his own batting ability. His ability to get on base to be batted in is
already measured by OBP. And OPS is simply the sum of OBP and slugging, both of which have already been point-
counted by rank among all players. If we include OPS as another category, I think we're overemphasizing -- counting
essentially the same thing twice in the all-time list. So, I left it out in this tabulation.

Result is kind of an interesting re-arrangement. As much as I dislike him, DiMag gets 6th, on the strength of his averages
over the shortest career here and the fact that he along with the five others above him are the only ones without a
"100" counting against him. Maybe if we specified a minimum 15-year career I could shit-can him; but someone in our
group will surely be a DiMaggio fan, so I guess we'll play with what we have.
I'm comfortable with the top 5, especially the top guy, and Gehrig coming in second lends credence to what someone
said about his unrecognized dominance, first in the Babe's shadow, then in DiMaggio's. Nice to see the figures working
for him.

The bottom four are our "modern" players -- Aaron, Bonds, Mantle, and Mays -- all victimized to one degree or another
by "100s" counting against them. They primarily get whacked on batting average and OBP, and I think those are
probably due to (1) the slider coming to the fore after WWII (look how much DiMaggio's batting average dropped); (2)
late-inning relief pitching as a front-line weapon rather than mop-up; and (3) the more frenetic pace (a much longer
season, made even more debilitating by a long playoff schedule; much more night baseball, and day games following
night games; jetting coast to coast instead of more leisurely train rides, etc.)
 Baseball’s Greatest Hitters
Ranking Seasonal Averages

Name/ Home Runs Runs Batted In Hits Strikeouts

Seasons Avg. Rank Pts. Avg. Rank Pts Avg Rank Pts Avg. Rank Pts

Williams 29.8 7 16.2 105.1 5 30.9 152 9 38 40.5 5 17.8

17.5

Gehrig 32.9 3 7.7 133.0 1 1.0 181 1 1 52.6 6 30.9

15

Hornsby 17.7 11 32.3 93.1 7 44.8 172 3 12 39.9 4 16.2

17

Ruth 37.6 1 1.0 116.5 3 17.5 151 10 40 70.0 9 51.3

19

Foxx 31.4 5 11.2 113.1 4 21.9 156 7 32 77.1 11 61.4

17

DiMaggio 27.7 9 20.3 118.2 2 14.8 170 4 15 27.7 1 1.0

13

Cobb 5.0 12 46.0 84.5 11 57.4 178 2 5 28.9 2 3.2

23.5

Musial 21.5 10 27.7 88.6 10 52.3 166 5 20 31.6 3 6.9

22

Aaron 32.8 4 8.8 99.8 6 37.1 164 6 23 60.1 7 39.4

23

Bonds 34.0 2 5.6 90.7 8 48.2 133 12 60 68.4 8 48.7

22.5

Mantle 29.6 8 17.4 83.8 12 59.1 134 11 58 95.0 12 80.3

18

Mays 31.4 5 11.2 90.6 9 49.3 156 7 32 72.7 10 56.0

21
 Baseball’s Greatest Hitters II
Points Assigned by Category

Batt. Batt. HR HR RBI RBI Hits Slug. Triple

Name Avg. Titles Avg. Titles Avg. Titles Avg. OBP Avg. Crns. Strikeouts Total

Williams 7 7 16 8 31 5 38 1 2 2 18 135

Gehrig 16 43 8 26 1 3 1 5 3 5 31 142

Hornsby 2 4 32 26 45 5 12 8 11 1 16 162

Ruth 10 43 1 1 18 2 40 2 1 14 51 183

Foxx 39 24 11 8 22 11 32 10 4 3 61 225

DiMaggio 41 24 20 26 15 22 15 63 10 16 1 253

Cobb 1 1 46 100 57 5 5 9 77 4 3 308

Musial 30 4 28 100 52 22 20 23 16 16 7 318

Aaron 100 24 9 8 37 5 23 100 20 15 39 380

Bonds 100 24 6 26 48 53 60 6 5 18 49 395

Mantle 100 43 17 8 59 53 58 17 18 6 80 459

Mays 100 43 11 19 49 100 32 100 17 18 56 545

 Baseball Books

Anthologies

The Fireside Book of Baseball – Charles Einstein (4 Vols. – 1956, 1958, 1968, 1987) The classic desert
island book – if you could have only one, this would be it. Some fictional short stories, mostly non-
fiction features and biographical sketches. The best articles are the real time newspaper reports on
classic games. The first volume is the best – they’re all great, but Einstein chose the best material for
the first.

Non- fiction: Chronicles

The Boys of Summer – Roger Kahn. The Dodgers in the Golden Age, and the gold standard of chronicles.
The Summer of ’49 – Roger Angell The silver standard, even though it breaks my heart to read it.
Five Seasons – Roger Angell The 1972-76 seasons; the bronze medal winner.
The Last Best League – Jim Collins. About the Cape Cod summer league and the major league dream.
Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? – Jimmy Breslin. Casey Stengel and the 1962 Mets.
Dynasty: The 1949-1964 New York Yankees Dartmouth’s own Peter Golenbock and his boyhood idols.
The Kid: The Life of Ted Williams – Ben Bradlee, Jr. Emphasis on Ted’s life outside the game.

Non-fiction: Memoirs

The Long Season – Jim Brosnan Broke clubhouse omerta; not as controversial as those that followed.
Veeck: As in Wreck – Bill Veeck and Ed Linn. Baseball’s master showman.
Ball Four – Jim Bouton Ballplayers have feet of clay, and Bouton shows them all. Scandalous!
Strike Two, The Umpire Strikes Back, and The Fall of the Roman Umpire – Ron Luciano. Hilarious stories;
the best are Nolan Ryan and the exploding fastball, Ted Williams watching the bat hit the ball, and Dick
Williams and “You’re going to have to throw me out.”
Fear Strikes Out –Jimmy Piersall. Trying too hard and wound too tight. Very compelling.
Catcher in the Wry – Bob Uecker. From the “just a bit outside …” broadcaster. Funny guy.
The Wrong Stuff – Bill Lee. The Red Sox Spaceman describes the planet he lives on.
The Bronx Zoo – Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock. NY newspaper strike wins the 1977 pennant.
Non-fiction: Inside Baseball

A Day in the Bleachers – Arnold Hano. September 29, 1954, Willie and The Catch.
Nine Innings – Daniel Okrent June 10, 1982: Brewers-Orioles The detailed anatomy of baseball.
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game – Michael Lewis. Billy Beane and his A’s magic.
Three Nights in August – Buzz Bissinger. Cards-Cubs; strategy and moves pitch by pitch.
The Greatest Game Ever Pitched – Jim Kaplan. Spahn-Marichal, July 1963, 1-0, 16 innings.
Smart Baseball – Keith Lewis. Rules of baseball; tough cases. Also, traditional stats vs. newer stats.
Bottom of the 33rd – Dan Barry. Rochester Red Wings (Cal Ripken) vs. Pawtucket Red Sox (Wade Boggs)
Off Speed – Terry McDermott. Felix Hernandez’ perfect game, pitch by pitch.
The MVP Machine – Lindbergh and Sawchik. Beyond” Moneyball” – spin rates and launch angles.
The Physics of Baseball – Robert Adair. How far can you hit a baseball? Math nerds want to know!

Non-fiction: Nostalgia

The Glory of Their Times – Mark Harris. The old-time greats in their own words. Classic oral history.
The Image of Their Greatness – Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig Priceless pictures.
Baseball When the Grass Was Real – Donald Honig. The purists’ Bible.

Fiction

The Natural – Bernard Malamud. Can’t understand why he allowed the movie’s Hollywood ending.
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. – Robert Coover. The prediction of nutcase fantasy baseball.
Bang the Drum Slowly – Mark Harris. The dying catcher; great movie too.
The Southpaw – Mark Harris. Rookie Henry Wiggins, a left-hander in a right-handed world.
The Art of Fielding – Chad Harbach. A recent entry in the baseball sweepstakes, and pretty good.
For Love of the Game – Michael Shannon. The book for Kevin Costner’s farewell perfect game.
Shoeless Joe – W.P. Kinsella. The basis for the film “Field of Dreams”.
Finding George Washington, a Time Travel Tale – Our own Bill Zarchy. Baseball time-transports George.
The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant – Douglass Wallop. Far better than the musical “Damn Yankees.”