Suzuki & the Gods of Batting

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:37 am

It's still April, but the Times is already asking whether Suzuki will hit .400. The article is a good read. I have a few comments:

Kawakami, who was called the God of Batting, was known for a famous expression - one that has been passed through the generations: He said that when he was hitting well, he could see the pitch stop. He called it the "true way" of hitting.

*Perhaps we'll have more Gods of Batting as more players get eye surgery. (See Cheating post for details.)*

There are a multitude of reasons the [.400] barrier has not been broken in the modern game, the main one being that managers today use more pitchers. Suzuki faces late-inning specialists geared specifically to getting him out.

*This sounds plausible. Anyone know if there is statistical evidence to back it up? Did Ted Williams get most of his hits off tired pitchers in the late innings?*

His quick pace could also put him in another select group next month. Suzuki needs only 49 hits for 1,000 in his major league career. He has played 653 games.

The fastest player to reach 1,000 was Chuck Klein, in his 683rd game in 1933. The second fastest was Paul Waner, in his 711th game in 1930.

*Neither Klein nor Waner ever hit .400*

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:38 pm

I have heard the theory about hitters not hitting .400 anymore because of late-inning specialty relievers. It does sound plausible, but I too would be interested in knowing whether there are any numbers to prove that Williams and hitters of his day got most of their hits late in the game.

And Bill Madden in the New York Daily News did a piece earlier this year about Chuck Klein and how his stats were grossly inflated because he played his home games in the Baker Bowl, which apparently had very hitter friendly dimensions.

Ichiro is amazing. I was watching an out-of-market game the other night when the Mariners were in Anaheim. He came up in the 9th with the Mariners down by three and a man (or maybe it was two men) on. He started running to first, swung and nearly hit the ball out--he drove right fielder Vladimir Guerrero back to the wall before he caught it. How in God's name (or any deity of your choice's name) does he get good wood on the ball while running?

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 1:11 am

wordygurdy wrote:

And Bill Madden in the New York Daily News did a piece earlier this year about Chuck Klein and how his stats were grossly inflated because he played his home games in the Baker Bowl, which apparently had very hitter friendly dimensions.

Dimensions: Left field: 335 ft. (1921), 341.5 ft. (1926), 341 ft. (1930), 341.5 ft. (1931); center field: 408 ft.; right-center: 300 ft.; right field: 272 ft. (1921), 279.5 ft. (1924), 280.5 ft. (1925); backstop: 60 ft.

Fences: Left field: 4 ft. (1895), 12 ft. (1929); center-field clubhouse: 35 ft. (with 12 ft. screen on top, 1915); right field: 40 ft. (tin over brick, 1895), 60 ft. (40 ft. tin over brick, topped by 20 ft. screen, 1915).

ballparks.com

Note that Klein, a left-handed hitter (.320 lifetime), played two-plus seasons with the Cubs and five-plus in Shibe Park after the Phillies abandoned the Baker Bowl in the middle of the 1938 season. When he was traded to Chicago in 1934, his average dropped from .368 to .301 and his doubles from 44 to 27. (He'd had earlier seasons of 59 and 50 doubles.) After he returned to the Phillies in 1936, his numbers were never the same.

baseball-reference.com

Anyway, asking if somebody will hit .400 is similar to pre-election polls that ask who will win â€” except those do have a shred of usefulness. Poll respondents have been known to vote, but they have little influence over batting averages.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 10:06 am

Thanks, Oed. I thought about going to ballparks.com and looking up the Baker Bowl and then finding out which side of the plate Klein hit from and trying to decide whether the Baker Bowl dimensions would have favored him, but I was too darn tired! It's a great site, isn't it? You can get lost for days in there.

Interesting about his being a much worse hitter away from the Baker Bowl, though. And yet he's in the Hall. Now that I think about it, I think Madden's piece had come out around the time of the Hall election in January, and his point essentially was that Klein was considered by knowledgeable baseball fans to be among the "second-tier" Hall of Famers, along with Tony Perez and Bill Mazeroski (maybe Maz should be in the "third tier" or the "upper tier"?).

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Wed Apr 27, 2005 12:37 pm

There's a lot of guys in the Hall who don't belong there, IMHO. But then, I didn't see them play, and it seems like a lot of votes come from "You shoulda seen him," especially with fielders.

There probably should be official "tiers" in the Hall. The players know the difference, as do the knowledgeable fans, but it's ridiculous to have Mazeroski and Mays that close together other than alphabetically.

Faldage · **Posted:** Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:49 am

wordygurdy wrote:

I have heard the theory about hitters not hitting .400 anymore because of late-inning specialty relievers. It does sound plausible, but I too would be interested in knowing whether there are any numbers to prove that Williams and hitters of his day got most of their hits late in the game.

You wouldn't have to prove that the old players got most of their hits late in the game, just that today's players get fewer than the old players did.

wordygurdy wrote:

How in God's name (or any deity of your choice's name) does he get good wood on the ball while running?

When considering the abilities of any Japanese player it is good to have read Sadaharu Oh A Zen Way of Baseball.

Testy Copy Editors

Suzuki & the Gods of Batting

Who is online

What They're Saying

Useful Links