Back in late September, I took a look at the players seeking a .300/.400/.500 season. That is, a .300 batting average, .400 on-base percentage and .500 slugging percentage. It's quite the feat to do this in a season. These days, only a handful or fewer players get there.
You know what's pretty amazing? Doing it for an entire career. Now, across baseball history, we shouldn't be comparing numbers straight up because of changes in the ball, ballparks, bats, balls, PED testing and myriad other factors. We have the Deadball Era, stupid offensive eras like the 1930s and the so-called "Steroid Era."
So instead of acting like what follows is a collection of the 18 best all-around hitters ever, instead just enjoy it and remember that we need more stats than just the triple-slash line when it comes to judging careers (by single-season, there are few better, however).
We'll put in a minimum of 5,000 career plate appearances, since the Hall of Fame requires at least 10 seasons in the majors and that gives us 10 500-PA seasons. We are left with just 18 players in baseball history with a .300/.400/.500 line. Sorted by OPS+ -- to make era comparisons easier -- here is the club (thanks, baseball-reference.com play index).
|
Player
|
Average
|
OBP
|
Slugging
|
OPS+
|
Hall of Famer?
|
|
Babe Ruth
|
.342
|
.474
|
.690
|
206
|
Yes
|
|
Ted Williams
|
.344
|
.482
|
.634
|
190
|
Yes
|
|
Lou Gehrig
|
.340
|
.447
|
.632
|
179
|
Yes
|
|
Rogers Hornsby
|
.358
|
.434
|
.577
|
175
|
Yes
|
|
Shoeless Joe Jackson
|
.356
|
.423
|
.517
|
170
|
No, ineligible
|
|
Ty Cobb
|
.366
|
.433
|
.512
|
168
|
Yes
|
|
Jimmie Foxx
|
.325
|
.428
|
.609
|
163
|
Yes
|
|
Stan Musial
|
.331
|
417
|
.559
|
159
|
Yes
|
|
Hank Greenberg
|
.313
|
.412
|
.605
|
158
|
Yes
|
|
Tris Speaker
|
.345
|
.428
|
.500
|
157
|
Yes
|
|
Frank Thomas
|
.301
|
.419
|
.555
|
156
|
Yes
|
|
Mel Ott
|
.304
|
.414
|
.533
|
155
|
Yes
|
|
Manny Ramirez
|
.312
|
.411
|
.585
|
154
|
Not on ballot yet
|
|
Harry Heilmann
|
.342
|
.410
|
.520
|
148
|
Yes
|
|
Edgar Martinez
|
.312
|
.418
|
.515
|
147
|
On ballot
|
|
Chipper Jones
|
.303
|
.401
|
.529
|
141
|
Not on ballot yet
|
|
Larry Walker
|
.313
|
.400
|
.565
|
141
|
On ballot
|
|
Todd Helton
|
.316
|
.414
|
539
|
133
|
Not on ballot yet
|
There are an awful lot of gigantic names not on here, such as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio and, well, we could go on and on.
How does this make everyone feel about the Hall of Fame cases of Edgar Martinez and Larry Walker? It's certainly worth our consideration. Note that the list consists of Hall of Famers, an ineligible player, a man who probably won't make it due to PED ties (Ramirez), a man that probably won't make it by virtue of playing half his games in Coors Field (Helton), a man who will make the Hall when eligible (Jones), Walker (who played 597 of his career 1988 games in Coors) and Martinez (who seems to be penalized for being a DH).
Again, this isn't even close to the whole picture. Just a fun snapshot of Walker and Martinez being in some pretty exclusive company.
Also, Ruth's and Williams' numbers were laughably good. Wow.
