Iron Man....Gold Year
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 10:36 am
Somebody asked me last night what the greatest hitting year a player ever had was.
Granted, this is about as subjective of a question as one can get. But, interesting none the less.
I thought about the Hornsby .400 years, his grouping of years from 1921-25 IS the greatest grouping of hitting ever.
I thought about the steroid years and the absolute fear and terror that pitchers and Managers had when facing Barry Bonds.
But, I'll discount Bonds for the sake of this argument (and most others to tell the truth)
Babe Ruth's 1921 and 1927 years were over the top. Comparative to the rest of the league in 1921, Ruth was Morganna pitted against Roseanne Barr in a MILF contest.
I also know that Larry Walker, Ricky Henderson, Ted Williams had over the top years. Not to mention every player taken in the Shawn Child's all-time draft, but I knew this person wasn't asking from a fantasy perspective.
I also needed to answer on spur of the moment with no computer or notes to help me.
I so leaned on taking the Hornsby 1922 year which is Numerish-wise probably the greatest year ever.
But took Lou Gehrig's 1927 year.
I admit, I may be a little biased as I have made this my year to learn everything possible I could about the 1927 Yankees.
Gehrig, of course had less homers than teammate Babe Ruth. 60-47.
But, it was two teammates, Ruth and Earle Combs who prevented Gehrig from pulling off something never seen in baseball history.
A Triple Crown that would put even Miguel Cabrera to shame.
A Triple Crown in every extra base hit category.
Gehrig led baseball with 52 doubles. He was second to Combs with 18 triples. And second to the Babe in homers.
It was second all-time to the Babe's 1921 year for total extra base hits. 119-117.
The thought of these two hitters having a 75 per cent chance of an extra base hit every game during a year is hard to fathom now.
But, it's not just the extra base hits.
All newspaper accounts exclaimed how Gehrig hit the ball so consistently hard in 1927.
Impossible to defense because a screaming liner could go opposite field as well as the right field bleachers.
Gehrig had something for everybody that year.
For the baseball fan, besides the extra base hits, he would lead the league in rbi with 175 and he would finish second in runs scored too. He also finished fourth in hitting with a .373 batting average.
For the Sabrmetrician, Gehrig was second in walks and had a 109/84 bb/k ratio.
And his WAR was higher than that of Mike Trout.
For a guy like me who likes statistical oddities and fascinating facts, there is this-
You know how you look at a box score and see a player of yours with a 4-0-0-0.
We shrug our shoulders and move on to the next player on our team.
Imagine this, through 155 games in 1927, Gehrig had just six 4-0-0-0
That, and one 3-0-0-0 were the only seven times that Gehrig would not reach base in 155 games.
During the last game of the World Series, Gehrig did something he did not do all year. He went 0 for five.
I know others will think there are greater years, and there are some wonderful years out there.
That's all well and good.
We can not prove something that is subjective.
But for me, give me Lou Gehrig, 1927.
Granted, this is about as subjective of a question as one can get. But, interesting none the less.
I thought about the Hornsby .400 years, his grouping of years from 1921-25 IS the greatest grouping of hitting ever.
I thought about the steroid years and the absolute fear and terror that pitchers and Managers had when facing Barry Bonds.
But, I'll discount Bonds for the sake of this argument (and most others to tell the truth)
Babe Ruth's 1921 and 1927 years were over the top. Comparative to the rest of the league in 1921, Ruth was Morganna pitted against Roseanne Barr in a MILF contest.
I also know that Larry Walker, Ricky Henderson, Ted Williams had over the top years. Not to mention every player taken in the Shawn Child's all-time draft, but I knew this person wasn't asking from a fantasy perspective.
I also needed to answer on spur of the moment with no computer or notes to help me.
I so leaned on taking the Hornsby 1922 year which is Numerish-wise probably the greatest year ever.
But took Lou Gehrig's 1927 year.
I admit, I may be a little biased as I have made this my year to learn everything possible I could about the 1927 Yankees.
Gehrig, of course had less homers than teammate Babe Ruth. 60-47.
But, it was two teammates, Ruth and Earle Combs who prevented Gehrig from pulling off something never seen in baseball history.
A Triple Crown that would put even Miguel Cabrera to shame.
A Triple Crown in every extra base hit category.
Gehrig led baseball with 52 doubles. He was second to Combs with 18 triples. And second to the Babe in homers.
It was second all-time to the Babe's 1921 year for total extra base hits. 119-117.
The thought of these two hitters having a 75 per cent chance of an extra base hit every game during a year is hard to fathom now.
But, it's not just the extra base hits.
All newspaper accounts exclaimed how Gehrig hit the ball so consistently hard in 1927.
Impossible to defense because a screaming liner could go opposite field as well as the right field bleachers.
Gehrig had something for everybody that year.
For the baseball fan, besides the extra base hits, he would lead the league in rbi with 175 and he would finish second in runs scored too. He also finished fourth in hitting with a .373 batting average.
For the Sabrmetrician, Gehrig was second in walks and had a 109/84 bb/k ratio.
And his WAR was higher than that of Mike Trout.
For a guy like me who likes statistical oddities and fascinating facts, there is this-
You know how you look at a box score and see a player of yours with a 4-0-0-0.
We shrug our shoulders and move on to the next player on our team.
Imagine this, through 155 games in 1927, Gehrig had just six 4-0-0-0
That, and one 3-0-0-0 were the only seven times that Gehrig would not reach base in 155 games.
During the last game of the World Series, Gehrig did something he did not do all year. He went 0 for five.
I know others will think there are greater years, and there are some wonderful years out there.
That's all well and good.
We can not prove something that is subjective.
But for me, give me Lou Gehrig, 1927.