The Pecan Park Eagle

Ted Williams:Nobody Wins Til Somebody Gets On.

When I was a kid baseball fan, back in the post World War II days, all we cared about were batting averages and home runs when it came to picking our biggest heroes.. As we got older, most of us came to see that a lot of the guys who did these things well didn’t necessarily propel their clubs to pennants. Harry Walker stands out as a hitter who batted for a high average by getting a lot of dink hits when they didn’t mean much in a game. Walker’s .363 batting average in 1947 for the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals (10 games) and 7th place Philadelphia Phillies (130 games) won him a batting championship, but didn’t help his Philly club all that much. Ralph Kiner of the 1940s and 1950s also is a poster boy for how a mighty home run hitter alone cannot elevate a club from the doldrums. Hall of Famer Kiner played out nine of his ten major league seasons for perennial losers Pittsburgh and Chicago of the National League.

The thing is this: To win n baseball, a club needs a lot of batters in the lineup who have an ability to get on base – some way, some how. Once that happens, the high average and home run hitters grow in importance to the goal of scoring runs and winning ball games.

Today we take a quick look at the all time leaders in OBP (On Base Percentage).

Using the Wikipedia explanation, which makes the stat as clear as any explanation I could find or conjure up on my own, “On-base percentage is calculated using this formula:

where

• H = Hits
• BB = Bases on Balls (Walks)
• HBP = times Hit By a Pitch
• AB = At bats
• SF = Sacrifice Flies

NOTE: Sacrifice flies were not counted as an official statistic until 1954. Before that time, all sacrifices were counted as sacrifice hits (SH), which included both sacrifice flies and bunts. Bunts (sacrifice hits since 1954), which would lower a batter’s on-base percentage, are not included in the calculation for on-base percentage, as bunting is an offensive strategy – often dictated by the manager – the use of which does not necessarily reflect on the batter’s ability and should not be used to penalize him. For calculations of OBP before 1954, or where sacrifice flies are not explicitly listed, the number of sacrifice flies should be assumed to be zero.”

I’m not really sure how baseball handles catcher interference calls, those rare instances in which a batter is awarded first base because a catcher’s glove is extended so far over the plate as to make contact with the bat on a swing. These interference calls are very infrequent and my guess is that they would simply be added as both an “ABCI” on the bottom and a “CI” on the top of our OBP equation. (If any of you know for sure, please leave a comment.)

At any rate, here’s our list of the Top 15 Career OBP Leaders through the 2010 season, plus their OBP percentages and years of MLB service.. Please note that the list is heavily sprinkled with Hall of Famers, shown in bold type:

1. Ted Williams, .4817 (1939-1942, 1946-1960)

2. Babe Ruth (.4740) (1914-1935)

3. John McGraw (4657) (1891-1906)

4. Billy Hamilton (.4552) (1888-1901)

5. Lou Gehrig (.4474) (1923-1939)

6. Barry Bonds (4443) (1986-2007)

7. Bill Joyce (.4349) (1890-1898)

8. Rogers Hornsby (.4337) (1915-1937)

9. Ty Cobb (.4330) (1905-1928)

10. Todd Helton (.4284) (1997-2010)

11. Jimmie Foxx (.4283) (1925-1942, 1944-1945)

12. Tris Speaker (.4280) (1907-1928)

13. Albert Pujols (4250) (2001-2010)

14. Eddie Collins (.4244) (1906-1930)

15. Ferris Fain (.4241) (1947-1955)

Look! Ted Williams and Babe Ruth were great players, all right, but not simply because of their abilities for hitting for average and power. These guys could be counted on to reach base almost half the time they each came to bat. Get on base enough – and your club is going to score and knock in the runs it needs to win in baseball. Sometimes we jump into complexities of analysis so fast that we bypass the obvious main goal in the game: to score more runs than the other guys do.

Tags: Baseball, History, on base percentage

This entry was posted on November 16, 2010 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.