Fun With Retrosheet: League Leaders With the Fewest Games Played
Cliff Blau recently mentioned to me that Vince Barton led the NL in getting hit by pitches in 1931 despite playing only 66 games and wondered what were the fewest games for players leading their respective leagues in a hitting category.
So since major league baseball returned to a 150+ game schedule in 1904 (and ignoring the shortened seasons of 1918-19, 1981 and 1994-1995), here are the leaders in the various categories with the fewest games played:
CAT G # Year Player AB 143 622 1941 Johnny Rucker R 118 114 1987 Paul Molitor H 139 198 1959 Harvey Kuenn 2B 118 41 1987 Paul Molitor 3B 97 14 1992 Deion Sanders HR 102 10 1904 Harry Davis RBI 133 107 1914 Frank LaPorte BB 115 104 1990 Jack Clark IBB 98 17 1955 Ted Williams SO 101 99 1944 Pat Seerey HBP 66 9 1931 Vince Barton SH 29 15 2003 Jason Schmidt SF 116 12 1961 Leo Posada GDP 107 26 1933 Ernie Lombardi SB 85 18 1941 Danny Murtaugh CS 101 18 2003 Alex Sanchez
RBI wasn’t an official stat in 1914 in Frank LaPorte’s day and he led the Federal League, a borderline major league. If you don’t count him, the leader with the fewest games played was Ray Boone who collected 116 RBIs in 135 games to tie Jackie Jensen for the most in the AL in 1955.
Pat Seerey also topped the AL in strikeouts while playing only 105 games in 1948 and led the league four times in all without ever having more than 414 at-bats in a season.
And Cliff was right to point out Barton. With the exception of sacrifice hits, where pitchers now and then lead the league, no player has ever led a league in one of these categories while appearing in as few games as Barton did in 1931. He was a rookie that year and didn’t join the Cubs until July 17th and didn’t start a game until July 20th , when the Cubs reshuffled their outfield, replacing disappointing Hack Wilson with the rookie. He quickly became one of the NL’s pitcher’s favorite targets. The Philly hurlers hit him four times in two games before the end of the month, and in less than two weeks he had already taken over the leadership in getting plunked . He ended up hitting 13 HRs and driving in 50 runs in less than half a season, but a low batting average and a poor start the next season soon spelled the end of his career.
Rookie Danny Murtaugh didn’t play his first game until July in 1941 and had only one stolen base after swiping three in a September 3rd double – header , but teams didn’t run much in 1941 and he narrowly took the crown from teammate Stan Benjamin . Despite having the circuit’s top two base stealers, the Phillies had a dreadful offense in 1941, scoring nearly 100 runs less than the second worst offense in the majors that year , on their way to 111 losses.
Other league leaders in 1961 got more publicity than Leo Posada, but I suppose he can take some solace in having made this list.
While we were on the subject, I thought it might be interesting to see the earliest date that a player had clinched at least a tie for the league leadership. Perhaps an example might make it clear what I’m getting at. Frank Robinson led the NL in doubles in 1962 with 51. Willie Mays was second with 36. On July 28th, Robinson hit his 36th double so, theoretically at least, Robinson could have taken the rest of the year off and still tied for the lead.
Now I realize that we shouldn’t take this too seriously, and that Robinson’s absence over the last two months of the season could very well have changed how many doubles the rest of the players hit, but I decided to go ahead with this anyway. I looked at the games from 1920 to 2010 (again ignoring shortened seasons) and here’s what I found.
CAT G TOT 2ND Date Player AB 143 679 624 1953- 9-11 Harvey Kuenn R 112 152 124 1932- 8- 9 Chuck Klein H 123 228 184 1946- 8-28 Stan Musial 2B 101 51 36 1962- 7-28 Frank Robinson 3B 57 23 10 2007- 6- 6 Curtis Granderson HR 47 47 19 1926- 6- 5 Babe Ruth RBI 92 170 119 1935- 7-27 Hank Greenberg BB 76 232 127 2004- 7- 9 Barry Bonds IBB 29 120 26 2004- 5- 9 Barry Bonds SO 93 119 81 1936- 7-24 Jimmie Foxx HBP 27 24 10 1973- 5-15 Ron Hunt SH 41 39 14 1990- 5-26 Jay Bell SF 71 13 11 2007- 6-19 Carlos Lee GDP 69 36 23 1984- 6-26 Jim Rice SB 36 57 22 1964- 5-25 Luis Aparicio CS 50 23 16 1967- 6-12 Don Buford
I had a good idea who would have clinched at least a tie for a league leadership the earliest and, sure enough, it was Barry Bonds, who had 26 intentional walks in his first 29 games of 2004 , on his way to a ridiculous 120.
Jim Rice’s 36 grounded into double-plays in 1984 is the major league record, but he was an even more amazing GDP machine in the early going that year, hitting into an average of one every three games, a pace that would have given him 53 for the season. The next year, he once again had a ton of these in the first three months of the season, hitting into his 26th on June 25th , a day earlier than in 1984. Despite that, he doesn’t make the list for his 1985 performance because Cal Ripken grounded into 32 DPs that season, tying tied him for the most in major league history for a player not named Rice.
When Aparicio stole his 22nd base on May 25, 1964 , the next highest total in the league was only five.
The previous chart looked at the earliest date in a season where a player had tied the league’s runner-up. Here’s a similar chart of the players that did this in the fewest games.
CAT G TOT 2ND Date Player AB 139 622 603 1941- 9-23 Johnny Rucker 139 639 610 1951- 9-21 Dom DiMaggio R 112 152 124 1932- 8- 9 Chuck Klein 112 119 98 1960- 8-20 Mickey Mantle H 123 244 211 1922- 9- 1 George Sisler 123 228 184 1946- 8-28 Stan Musial 2B 94 56 40 1937- 8- 5 Joe Medwick 3B 57 23 10 2007- 6- 6 Curtis Granderson HR 47 47 19 1926- 6- 5 Babe Ruth RBI 92 170 119 1935- 7-27 Hank Greenberg BB 76 232 127 2004- 7- 9 Barry Bonds IBB 29 120 26 2004- 5- 9 Barry Bonds SO 83 102 87 1948- 8-15 Pat Seerey HBP 20 9 7 1931- 8- 5 Vince Barton SH 24 17 13 1999- 8- 5 Shane Reynolds SF 62 18 11 1983- 6-21 Andre Dawson GDP 69 36 23 1984- 6-26 Jim Rice SB 36 57 22 1964- 5-25 Luis Aparicio CS 50 23 16 1967- 6-12 Don Buford
In addition to all those strikeouts, Pat Seerey’s year also included a June trade and a four home run game .
Here is a list of the pitchers who locked up at least a tie for the leadership of a category the earliest in a season:
CAT G TOT 2ND Date Player G 47 64 47 1926- 8- 8 Firpo Marberry CG 6 9 4 2008- 4-29 Roy Halladay SHO 5 3 2 2005- 5- 1 Jon Garland 6 4 2 2010- 5- 1 Roy Halladay GF 30 62 23 1950- 7- 1 Jim Konstanty SV 49 62 42 2008- 7-23 F. Rodriguez IP 33 346.2 265.2 1953- 8-18 Robin Roberts H 32 324 243 1953- 8-16 Robin Roberts HR 25 40 29 1957- 7-25 Robin Roberts R 32 151 119 1951- 8- 8 Murry Dickson ER 28 127 94 1942- 8-11 Jim Tobin BB 16 204 99 1977- 6-16 Nolan Ryan IBB 31 11 9 2007- 6-16 Luis Vizcaino SO 22 364 221 1999- 7-20 Randy Johnson 21 347 217 2000- 7-20 Randy Johnson WP 11 9 6 1925- 5-20 Lefty Grove HBP 8 7 5 1946- 5-18 Bobo Newsom W 29 31 22 1931- 8- 3 Lefty Grove L 28 22 18 1963- 7-27 Roger Craig
Roy Halladay also clinched at least a tie for his league’s lead in complete games before the end of May in 2005 and 2010 . The only other pitcher to do this before the end of June was Curt Schilling in 2001. Halladay pitched four straight complete games in April of 2008, losing three of them.
I did not include any saves leaders prior to 1969. If I had, the earliest pitcher to clinch a tie for the lead would have been Firpo Marberry when he picked up his ninth save on June 10, 1926 and Jim Turner who got his fifth save exactly nineteen years later.
Randy Johnson actually had more strikeouts in 2001 than either 1999 or 2000, including 220 by July 20th, but Curt Schilling’s 293 strikeouts that year kept Johnson off the list.
Rookie Lefty Grove threw eight wild pitches in his first 54.2 major league innings (up through the games of May 26th ), but then threw only one more the rest of the season .
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