Where Albert Belle and Babe Ruth Have Something In Common
Posted by Sky on October 26, 2007
During Game 1 of the World Series, FOX showed a piece of trivia during one of Todd Helton's at-bats: He's one of only three players to have two seasons with at least 100 extra base hits. Those seasons were in 2000 and 2001.
Of course, when I see a fact like that, I have to know who the other two guys are. My buddy Brian and I came up with a list of candidates: Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Albert Belle, Barry Bonds, ARod, Stan Musial, Hack Wilson, and Albert Pujols. Turns out we nailed one name and also came up with two that just missed by a single extra base hit. Yep, both Albert Belle and Babe Ruth had one season with at least 100 XBH and one with exactly 99. (Actually, Ruth had two seasons with 99 XBH and one with 97. Yikes.)
Think about 100 XBH for a minute. Even if you hit 50 homeruns, you also have to tack on 50 doubles. There have been fluke seasons like that, but to do it twice? Crazy. Mark McGwire "only" had 91 XBHs in his 70-homerun 1998.
Here are the players with 100 XBHs in one season:
Player **XB** Babe Ruth 119 Lou Gehrig 117 Barry Bonds 107 Chuck Klein 107 Todd Helton 105 Sammy Sosa 103 Todd Helton 103 Albert Belle 103 Stan Musial 103 Hank Greenbe 103 Chuck Klein 103 Rogers Horns 102 Luis Gonzalez 100 Jimmie Foxx 100 Lou Gehrig 100
So, yes, Lou Gehrig and Chuck Klein are the other two players with multi 100 XBH seasons in addition to Todd Helton. Look how far ahead of the pack the top two guys on the list are. Wow.
Here's every player with multi 90+ XBH seasons:
Player Num Babe Ruth 6 Lou Gehrig 5 Hank Greenberg 4 Stan Musial 3 Rogers Hornsby 3 Jimmie Foxx 3 Chuck Klein 3 Todd Helton 2 Albert Belle 2 Ken Griffey 2 Joe Medwick 2 Albert Pujols 2
Keep in mind that many of the players at the top of the list didn't have 162-game seasons.
And, finally, players with five or more 80+ XBH seasons:
Player Num Lou Gehrig 10 Babe Ruth 9 Stan Musial 6 Hank Greenberg 6 Alex Rodriguez 6 Willie Mays 5 Albert Pujols 5 Vladimir Guerre 5 Ted Williams 5 Rogers Hornsby 5 Jimmie Foxx 5
Three of today's stars are featured prominently on this list: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, and Vlad Guerrero. Remember that Pujols has only been in the league for seven seasons (and he also had a 79 XBH year in 2005.)
October 26th, 2007 at 11:41 am
[...] Helton is one of three players to post two seasons with at least 100 extra base hits. Can you name the other two? Here’s a [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
"Think about 100 XBH for a minute. Even if you hit 50 homeruns, you also have to tack on 50 doubles."
Don't forget about triples! There have been four 100 XBH seasons in which the player had less than 50 HRs and less than 50 doubles.
October 26th, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Paul Waner got to 80 XBH in 1932 with a mere 8 bombs.
October 26th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
How much does Denver help Helton? In 2000 he had 56 XBH in 302 AB (18.5%) at home, and 47 XBH in 329 AB (14.3%) on the road. In 2000 he had 60 XBH in 297 AB (20.2%) at home, and 45 XBH in 290 AB (15.5%) on the road. Lifetime: 452 XBH for 2856 AB (15.8%) at home, and 337 XHB for 2807 AB (12.0%) on the road.
By the way, is 60 XBH at home a record for a single season?
The other night Joe Buck said something to the effect of...(and this is not an exact quote) "Todd Helton is a great hitter and some people claim it's because he plays so many games in Denver, but Helton hits just as well away from Denver as he does in Denver!" That's an outright lie. Helton's lifetime average in Denver is .367, while away from Denver it is .295. His lifetime OPS in Denver is 1.128, while away from Denver it is .896.
October 26th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Chuck Klein, huh? Never would have guessed it. Was Helton the only one to do so while hitting more doubles than home runs?
October 26th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
It used to seem like home run hitters were also doubles hitters, but not so much any more.
October 27th, 2007 at 11:07 am
How about Albert Belle making the list by collecting 50 doubles & 50 home runs in the same season? Although he did hit one triple he didn't need it to reach the century mark. Also it's amazing that the two greatest players in XBHs (Ruth & Gehrig) were hitting back-to-back in the same line-up for over a decade.
Jack
October 28th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Todd makes a good point. To a very rough approximation, in this high-offense era we're currently in (although seem to be coming out of, thankfully,) it seems that doubles have been converted to home runs. Whether that's thanks to smaller parks, bigger muscles, or whatever. Just off the top of my head, it seems rarely for guys to get 40 doubles these days, and it's common for a power hitter to have 40+ homers but fewer than 30 doubles. I'll do a post on this later today to see if my instinct is (unexpectedly) right or (as usual) wrong.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Albert Belle was a monster. He and Frank Thomas are my nominations for recent players most likely to be unfairly forgotten down the road.