In baseball, numbers speak louder than words when we don’t get lost in the self-aggrandizing pursuit of creating new stats that appear as Arabic to the English-comprehending eye. But everybody pretty much gets it that a .341 American League and MLB leading batting average is pretty darn good – especially in a year when no other player passed the .340 mark and only one other came close. People also understand that an MLB leading hit total of 225 in a year in which no one else passed the 200 hit mark is equally quite impressive – as in – Hall of Fame impressive, if this 2014 performance is continued at anything approaching this one season level over time.. And let’s remember too – we fans also have little trouble being impressed by the fact that the same man who did these hitting things also was the guy who lead the American League this season with 56 stolen bases.
Hail again to you, 2014 batting king Jose Altuve!
And while you’re perusing these two charts of impressive one-season hitting from baseball history, please find two examples of numbers speaking for themselves – and with the names of those he now keeps company in the great hall of records as testimonials to his potential for greatness over time.
The other day, Matt Musil of Channel 11 Sports interviewed Jose Altuve in the batting cage and noted that the recently married young Astro was now “off the market” to his adoring single female fans. Jose appeared to blush, but came right back with a statement that went something close to “that’s right, I’m now signed up to a long-term deal!”
Now all we need is two more “long-term deals” – one is a contract that will keep Jose Altuve a Houston Astro for a very long time – and another from Altuve that he will stay in spirit and performance the player he is now – and we think he will. And we have faith that he will – because this is the man that he is – a man gifted with a great talent for baseball, a blazing passion for giving the game his best shot every day, and a basic natural understanding that performance discipline boils down to “doing what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.”
Courtesy of Baseball Almanac, we hope you enjoy these two charts on the highest season hit totals in MLB and American League history:
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