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36-635: They were also known colloquially as the "Brewettes", after the city's established baseball team, and the "Schnitts" (a term for glass of beer served half-full). By 1944 the AAGPBL added the Milwaukee Chicks and the Minneapolis Millerettes to the league's roster. The Chicks were a well balanced squad that counted with talented players as Josephine Kabick , Merle Keagle , Connie Wisniewski and Alma Ziegler . With Max Carey at

72-536: A per game basis. In 1871, a writer for the New 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. By 1874, some teams were calculating batting averages, and by 1876, it was being calculated by all teams of the National League . In modern times,

108-463: A season batting average of .300 or higher is considered to be excellent, and an average higher than .400 a nearly unachievable goal. The last Major League Baseball (MLB) player to do so, with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting championship, was Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox , who hit .406 in 1941. Note that batting averages are rounded ; entering the final day of

144-401: A .230 batter. Henry Chadwick , an English statistician raised on cricket , was an influential figure in the early history of baseball. He is credited with creating the modern box score , in 1859, and the practice of denoting a strikeout with a "K". 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

180-566: A 1.000 average has had three hits—outfielder John Paciorek (1963), who had three hits in three at bats; he also had two walks, and scored four runs. Players who had two hits in their only two at bats include: pitcher Frank O'Connor (1893), catcher Mike Hopkins (1902), pitcher Doc Tonkin (1907), pitcher Hal Deviney (1920), pitcher Fred Schemanske (1923), pitcher Chet Kehn (1942), second baseman Steve Biras (1944), and pitcher Jason Roach (2003). Pitcher Esteban Yan , who played in 472 major-league games from 1996 to 2006, mainly in

216-512: A catcher who played from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a .170 average in 3,028 career at-bats. Hugh Duffy , who played from 1888 to 1906, is credited with the highest single-season batting average, having hit .440 in 1894. The modern-era (post-1900) record for highest batting average for a season is held by Nap Lajoie , who hit .426 in 1901, the first year of play for the American League . The modern-era record for lowest batting average for

252-497: A one-time amendment to the rule was made to disqualify Melky Cabrera from the title. Cabrera requested that he be disqualified after serving a suspension that season for a positive testosterone test. He had batted .346 with 501 plate appearances, and the original rule would have awarded him the title over San Francisco Giants teammate Buster Posey , who won batting .336. Different sources of baseball records present somewhat differing lists of career batting average leaders. There

288-524: A player that qualified for the batting title is held by Chris Davis , who hit .168 in 2018. While finishing six plate appearances short of qualifying for the batting title, Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox hit .159 for the 2011 season, nine points lower than the record. The highest batting average for a rookie was .408 in 1911 by Shoeless Joe Jackson . The league batting average in MLB for

324-415: A player's on-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. In 1887 , 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

360-494: Is consensus that Ty Cobb leads this category. Further rankings vary by source, primarily due to differences in minimums needed to qualify (number of games played or plate appearances ), or differences in early baseball records. Baseball-Reference.com includes the Negro League teams considered major leagues by Major League Baseball. The below table presents the top ten lists as they appear in four well-known sources, with

396-401: Is determined by dividing a player's hits by their total at-bats . It is usually rounded to three decimal places and read without the decimal: A player with a batting average of .300 is "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

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432-558: Is shared by Honus Wagner and Tony Gwynn . Most of Cobb's career and all of Wagner's career took place in what is known as the Dead-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 the Live-Ball Era . To determine which players are eligible to win

468-408: The 2018 season was .248, with the highest modern-era MLB average being .296 in 1930, and the lowest being .237 in 1968. 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 "The Mendoza Line ", named for Mario Mendoza —a lifetime .215 hitter but a good defensive shortstop. Sabermetrics ,

504-528: The American League (where pitchers have rarely batted since the introduction of the designated hitter in 1973), also had two hits in his only two at bats, one a home run. The MLB batting averages championships (often referred to as " the batting title ") are awarded annually to the player in each league who has the highest batting average. Ty Cobb holds the MLB and American League (AL) record for most batting titles, officially winning 11 in his career. The National League (NL) record of eight batting titles

540-923: The Black Sox Scandal of 1919). The highest recorded single-season batting average in Minor League Baseball is .462, accomplished by Gary Redus in 1978, when he played for the Billings Mustangs , an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds in the Rookie Advanced -level Pioneer League . Redus was 117-for-253 in 68 games, 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. In Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB),

576-653: The Borchert Field in Milwaukee. In addition, the high ticket prices charged for AAGPBL games failed to encourage significant fan support. Due to lack of community support and skepticism of journalists, the Chicks moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan prior to the 1945 season. The AAGPBL drew 260,000 fans during the 1944 season, which represented a 49 percent raise over the previous year. Batting average (baseball) In baseball , batting average ( BA )

612-609: The Homestead Grays of the Negro National League , one of several leagues within Negro league baseball that are now recognized by MLB. Gibson holds the record for highest major-league career batting average at .372, six points higher than Ty Cobb who has the second-highest career average at .366. The record for lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats belongs to Bill Bergen ,

648-469: The Minneapolis Millerettes joined the Kenosha Comets , Racine Belles , Rockford Peaches and South Bend Blue Sox . The number of games in the schedule also increased to 118, while the final Scholarship Series faced first-half winner Kenosha against Milwaukee, second-half champ, in a Best of Seven Series. In that season the ball was decreased in size from 12 inches to 11½ inches. In addition,

684-554: The San Diego Padres in 1994. Wade Boggs hit .401 over a 162-game span with Boston from June 9, 1985, to June 6, 1986, but never hit above .368 for an MLB season. There have been numerous attempts to explain the disappearance of the .400 hitter, with one of the more rigorous discussions of this question appearing in Stephen Jay Gould 's 1996 book Full House . Josh Gibson hit .466 in 1943 while playing for

720-439: The 1941 season, Williams was at 179-for-448, which is .39955 and would have been recorded as .400 via rounding. However, Williams played in both games of a doubleheader , went 6-for-8, and ended the season 185-for-456, which is .40570 and becomes .406 when rounded. Since 1941, no American League or National League player has hit .400 or above—the highest single-season average in those leagues has been .394 by Tony Gwynn of

756-629: The AAGPBL championship title, they had no local financial backing and could not compete with the American Association Milwaukee Brewers . In fact, the Chicks were forced to play all seven games of the series at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium because the Brewers were using the Borchert Field in Milwaukee. In addition, the high ticket prices charged for AAGPBL games failed to encourage significant fan support. Due to lack of community support and skepticism of journalists,

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792-470: The Championship Title, beating the Kenosha Comets in the postseason. During the seven-game series Wisniewski went 4–1 with a 0.40 ERA in five complete games, including two shutouts , two one-run games and one two-run game, winning three of four matchups with Kenosha's Helen Nicol , who finished with a 17–11 mark (.607) and had led the league with a minuscule 0.93 ERA. Although the Chicks won

828-510: The Chicks moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan prior to the 1945 season . On August 27, 2000, the surviving Chicks were honored by the Milwaukee Brewers before a game against the San Diego Padres . The Brewers celebrated the Chicks' 75th Anniversary in 2019 with a special theme night, including a reproduction 1944 baseball cap giveaway. Mayor Tom Barrett declared the same day, June 29, 2019 as "The Milwaukee Chicks Day" throughout

864-478: The base paths were lengthened to 68 feet. As a result, batting averages decreased to low .200 as pitching continued to dominate for second straight season. No batters surpassed the .300 mark, with South Bend's Betsy Jochum collecting the highest average at .296. Once again Kenosha's Helen Nicol led all pitchers in earned run average , turning in a minuscule 0.98 mark, while Minneapolis' Annabelle Lee hurled

900-439: The batting title, the following conditions have been used over the sport's history: From 1967 to the present, if the player with the highest average in a league fails to 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

936-559: The city of Milwaukee. Tributes to the club may be found in American Family Field . 1944 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season The 1944 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season marked the second season of the circuit. The AAGPBL expanded in its second year of existence by adding two franchises to the original four-team format. At this point, the Milwaukee Chicks and

972-458: 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." 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. Only one player with

1008-404: The first perfect game in league history against Kenosha. Among pitchers who threw no-hitters were Rockford's Carolyn Morris (two) and Mary Pratt , and Kenosha' Elise Harney and Nicol. The final series was extended from three to seven games. The series went to the limit of seven games and Milwaukee clinched the championship, four to three. Despite losing Game 1, Connie Wisniewski earned

1044-425: 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..." This led to the recording of "clean" hits—times a batter reached base without benefit of an error . 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

1080-500: The four wins to set a series record, pitching a four-hit shutout in decisive Game 7 to give the Chicks the title. Although the Chicks won the championship, they had no local financial backing and could not compete with the American Association Milwaukee Brewers . In fact, the Chicks were forced to play all seven games of the series at Kenosha's Lake Front Stadium because the Brewers were using

1116-416: The helm, the Chicks led the league in runs scored (492), batting average (.207), stolen bases (739) and tied for first in home runs (12). The best offensive support came from Keagle, who hit .264 with 47 runs batted in , and led the AAGPBL hitters with seven home runs and 145 total bases . The one-two pitching staff was led by Kabick, who posted a 26–19 record for a .578 winning percentage and topped

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1152-550: The leader in career batting average is Isao Harimoto , a member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame , who hit .319 in his NPB career. Nori Aoki , an active NPB player, has a career NPB batting average of .316 as of April 2023 . Ichiro Suzuki batted .353 in NPB, but does not have enough NPB career at-bats to qualify for the league's title. Sadaharu Oh batting average of .355 in 1973 season. Randy Bass had

1188-439: The league in wins and innings pitched (366), while Wisniewski went 23-10 (.697) with a 2.23 earned run average . A daring base runner, Ziegler established at second base as a flashy defender who made outstandings plays routinely, being considered the spark plug of the team. The Chicks went 30–26 in the first half of the year, but dominated the second half (40-19) and had the best overall record (70-45). They then went on to win

1224-596: 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-place Ellis Burks ' .344. In 2012,

1260-462: The rankings and degree of precision (decimal places) as provided in the source. The main article linked above is sourced from Baseball-Reference.com, which is also presented here. None of the players listed below are still living; each is an inductee of the Baseball Hall of Fame , except for Lefty O'Doul , Pete Browning , and Shoeless Joe Jackson (who is ineligible due to his alleged role in

1296-467: The study of baseball 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 account bases on balls (walks) or power, whereas other statistics such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage have been specifically designed to measure such concepts. Adding these statistics together form

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