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43-397: Although the league lasted less than one season, it featured one of the strongest teams in the history of Negro league baseball, the 1932 Detroit Wolves . The league provided a foundation for the development of the second Negro National League , which would become the premier league for African American baseball players. By early 1932, facing the severe financial problems associated with

86-536: 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,

129-463: 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

172-401: 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

215-566: 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

258-580: A 2.77 earned run average (ERA) that was the best in the EWL. Bertrum Hunter , a right-handed pitcher from Arizona, led the league in both wins (10) and strikeouts (72). He appeared in 16 games for the Wolves, 10 as a starter, and compiled a 10–2 record with a 2.93 ERA. William Bell , a right-handed pitcher from Texas, ranked second in the league with a 2.47 ERA. He compiled a 4–2 win–loss record. Smokey Joe Williams , another right-hander from Texas, compiled

301-545: A 5–1 record and a 2.72 ERA. Williams was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. Ray Brown compiled a 7–7 record in 16 games with a 3.67 ERA. He went on to fame with the Homestead Grays and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. The following players participated in games for the 1932 Detroit Wolves. Batting average (baseball) In baseball , batting average ( BA )

344-509: A Crawfords team anchored by the great pitcher Satchel Paige . In the face of dismal league attendance, by late May Posey invited the Crawfords to join the league and allowed the Grays and other East–West League teams to schedule games with the Crawfords. By the end of the year, Posey's new league was defunct and his Grays were severely weakened. In the following year, 1933, Greenlee organized

387-512: 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

430-497: 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

473-524: 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

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516-415: 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

559-440: A roster, the Wolves signed players from the recently disbanded Negro National League. In particular, the Wolves signed seven players from the 1931 St. Louis Stars team. The former St. Louis players were: Cool Papa Bell ; Willie Wells ; Mule Suttles ; right fielder Quincy Trouppe ; third baseman Dewey Creacy ; and pitchers Ted Trent and Nate Hunter . In early June, the Wolves sent Suttles, John Henry Russell, and Creacy to

602-534: A second Negro National League (1933–1948) . The Homestead Grays and Baltimore Black Sox of the old East–West League were franchises of the new league, though Homestead was expelled part-way through the season after a dispute. Because initially the new Negro National League operated in both the Eastern and Midwestern regions in many of the same cities as the East–West League, it was sometimes also referred to as

645-494: 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

688-401: 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

731-558: 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

774-408: 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 ,

817-528: 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

860-654: The Baseball Hall of Fame : center fielder Cool Papa Bell , first baseman Mule Suttles , shortstop Willie "The Devil" Wells , and pitchers Ray Brown and Smokey Joe Williams . After the 1931 season, the Negro National League (NNL) disbanded. The Detroit Stars , which had represented the City of Detroit in the NNL since 1920, were also disbanded at that time. The Detroit Wolves were organized prior to

903-923: 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),

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946-751: The Great Depression , the nation no longer had any functioning major Negro leagues. The first Negro National League , which operated primarily in the American Midwest, limped through the 1931 season following the death of its founder, Rube Foster , but formally disbanded in March 1932. In the Eastern states, the Eastern Colored League folded in 1928, and its successor, the American Negro League , folded after

989-468: The Homestead Grays in exchange for Giles (first baseman), Allen (second baseman), and Jud Wilson (third baseman). The team featured a powerful lineup of batters, scoring an average of 5.5 runs per game against EWL opponents. Center fielder Cool Papa Bell , a native of Mississippi, ranked second in the league with a .340 batting average and also ranked among the league's leaders with 40 runs scored (fourth) and nine stolen bases (tied for second). Bell

1032-473: 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 ,

1075-554: 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

1118-760: The "East–West League." Beginning in 1937, the Negro American League was organized in the Midwest, and the Negro National League was concentrated in the East. Because the league folded before the end of the season, no team was declared a champion. Statistics compiled by John B. Holway, which include some non-league games, show the Detroit Wolves with the best record in the league. The Wolves, owned by Posey who also owned

1161-452: The 1929 season. In this environment, Cum Posey, the owner of the Homestead Grays , undertook an ambitious plan to create a single league that encompassed teams in the East and Midwest. Posey was facing a strong local competitor, Gus Greenlee 's Pittsburgh Crawfords , and hoped that a new league would bolster the Grays and isolate the Crawfords. In January 1932, Posey organized the East–West League. The league featured eight teams located in

1204-481: The 1932 season as part of the newly formed East–West League (EWL). Cumberland Posey was a leader behind the formation of the EWL and the owner of the Wolves. Described by one sportswriter as "the smartest man in Negro baseball," he was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Dizzy Dismukes , an Alabama native and right-handed pitcher, was hired as the team's manager. In an effort to build

1247-439: 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

1290-425: The EWL by appearing in 63 games and playing 538 innings. Creacy also led the league's third basemen with 72 putouts and 92 assists. Shortstop Willie Wells , a Texas native, ranked first among the league's shortstops with 87 putouts and second with 111 assists. Considered one of the best defensive shortstops of his era, Wells was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. The Wolves' pitching staff compiled

1333-540: The East and Midwest, at least two of which (Homestead and Detroit) were owned by Posey. The plans for the new league were ambitious relative to the previous Negro leagues. The Al Munro Elias Bureau was hired to compile statistics, and the league would hire salaried, traveling umpires . The league began play in May, but attendance was poor because of the severe financial conditions of the Depression. Teams soon abandoned

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1376-587: The Homestead Grays, drew many of their players from the Kansas City Monarchs and the St. Louis Stars . Their roster included Cool Papa Bell , Ray Brown , Mule Suttles , Willie Wells , and Cyclone Joe Williams , while their pitcher/manager was Dizzy Dismukes . Despite a strong winning record, the Wolves were disbanded due to poor attendance. As a result, many of the players were reassigned to

1419-643: The Homestead Grays. According to Holway, the batting champion was catcher Bill Perkins , who hit .449 for Homestead and .408 overall, including his games played for the non-league Pittsburgh. Besides, Suttles led the league teams with 9  home runs , though three players with non-league Pittsburgh hit more ( Rap Dixon with 11 HR and Josh Gibson and Oscar Charleston each with 10). In addition, Suttles led in home run rate with 31 HR per 550  AB . The top league pitchers were Harry Salmon (14–6 with Homestead) and Bertrum Hunter (12–4 with Detroit), with Satchel Paige of non-league Pittsburgh holding

1462-439: 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

1505-458: 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

1548-425: 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

1591-550: 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

1634-596: 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,

1677-669: The overall lead in wins with a 21–9 record. 1932 Detroit Wolves season The 1932 Detroit Wolves baseball team was a Negro league baseball team that competed in the East–West League (EWL) during the 1932 baseball season . The team compiled a 28–9 record (26–5 against EWL opponents) and won the EWL pennant , finishing six-and-a-half games ahead of the second-place team. The Wolves played their home games at Hamtramck Stadium in Hamtramck, Michigan . The team included on its roster five players who were later inducted into

1720-487: The planned schedule and turned to better paying bookings with white semipro teams. Within a month, it was clear that the league could not continue. In June the Detroit Wolves folded, and by early July the league had ceased operations. The poor financial performance of the league weakened Posey's Grays in their competition against Greenlee's Crawfords. Greenlee recruited a number of Grays star players, including Josh Gibson , Cool Papa Bell , and Oscar Charleston , who joined

1763-400: 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

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1806-467: 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

1849-466: Was one of the first Negro league players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame , receiving the honor in 1974. First baseman Mule Suttles , an Alabama native, was the team's leading slugger and led the league with 48 RBIs and 22 doubles and ranked second in the league with 30 bases on balls and a .524 slugging percentage. Suttles also led the EWL with 468 putouts. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. Third baseman Dewey Creacy led

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