As you would expect with a rate measure, there is a disproportionate number of current players on this list, because they have not played in the decline phase of their careers which would bring them way down the list. Going back to the all-time top batting averages, though, it was the opposite. Vladimir Guerrero is currently 33^rd on the all-time BA list.  No one else is in the top 50. Not until the 50-100 rankings will you find Jeter, Ramirez, Piazza, A-Rod, and Big Hurt. Obviously the style of the game as changed. Players have much more power, but don’t get nearly as many hits. I’m sure the reasons for this are complex, but I wonder if motivation to achieve excellence in the most revered statistics of the day is part of it. This reminds me of the story of Ty Cobb when pestered by the press about not hitting home runs like Babe Ruth, boasted that he could hit home runs if he wanted, then proceeded to hit four homers over the next two days.  Of course, more likely it is the other way around. Since hitting runs became such a more important talent, counting home runs and RBIs became more important.

What would a career totals list look like that was a career accumulation of getting On Base and Slugging? Most simply it would be Hits + BB + Total Bases:

12029 H. Aaron       

11574 P. Rose            2B-3B-OF

11363 S. Musial

11299 T. Cobb                  CF

10813 W. Mays                  CF

10803 C. Yastrzemski

10784 Barry Bonds (June 16, ’06)

10728 B. Ruth                  +P

 9996 T. Speaker               CF

 9885 E. Murray

 9833 R. Henderson

 9761 R. Palmeiro

 9736 F. Robinson

 9625 M. Ott

 9557 T. Williams

 9547 D. Winfield

 9481 C. Ripken                SS

 9294 G. Brett                 3B

 9289 L. Gehrig

 9267 P. Molitor            2B-3B-DH

 9240 H. Wagner                SS

 9136 A. Kaline

 9082 E. Collins               2B

 9054 J. Foxx

 8975 A. Anson

 8838 R. Yount                 SS-CF

 8793 R. Jackson

 8721 P. Waner                 SS

 8680 R. Hornsby               2B

 8659 M. Mantle

 8532 H. Baines

 8374 C. Biggio (June 16, ’06) 2B

. . .

 7294 C. Fisk                   C

 7120 T. Simmons                C

This career stat seems to do a good job of rewarding players who were good at positions other than the primary “hitting” position. You don’t have to hit as well at those other positions in order to continue playing in the majors. Meanwhile all those hits, walks, and extra bases from those extended years get accumulated. Still, when you think that some one such as Yaz is 6^th on this list by extending his career a long time by playing first base at a level just barely over replacement level, this list becomes unsatisfactory. The ideal career stat would take out replacement levels of stat accumulation. That would be require a very complicated procedure of determining the replacement level for each year, each league, each position, and ideally each home stadium.

I don’t have the time or tools to do that. What would help would be to account for outs made in the process of accumulating all those walks, hits, and bases. So, I did just that – subtracted ABs and doubled the hits to account for the outs portion of the At Bats. That resulted in this top 10 (11 since there is a tie for 10^th):

5202 GH Ruth                    +P

4284 Barry Bonds (June 15, ’06)

4505 T. Williams

4061 T. Cobb                    CF

4021 S. Musial

4009 L. Gehrig

3566 J. Foxx

3437 R. Hornsby                 2B

3436 H. Aaron

3315 T. Speaker                 CF

3315 W. Mays                    CF

This seems to be an excellent indication of all-time hitting greatness. However, does this look a little too slugger heavy? Is this a satisfying compromise between peak impact and career length? I only looked at the top 100 leaders in total bases and the numbers drop quite steadily. There were three of these players who only had 100-something points. I’ll guess there are no more than another 100 players who have between 100-500 points who were not in the top 100 of total bases, and maybe another 200 who have between 0-100. Everyone else comes out negative. Surely, there have been more than three to four hundred hitters in baseball who contributed overall to their teams’ line-ups during their career. If you start taking fractions of at bats and weighted factors on each type of hit, you could get more accurate, but you’re already getting too complicated for most people. However, we are not “most people”. So, I looked at the expected BA/OBA/SlgA of a typical replacement player at a typical position over the years. I used .250/.300/.350. In 100 At Bats, that would produce 65 H+BB+TB and 75 outs. If this level is worth 0, then an out is worth 65/75 of a base or .87.

And, while we are at it, let’s throw in a base for a stolen base and take two away for getting caught trying. An out committed trying to steal is more damaging than an out at the plate, as it has erased a base-runner. Now the only problem with this stat is that Caught Stealing was not recorded until about 75 years ago or so. To be fair as possible to those ancient warriors I gave an estimated 25% of the Stolen Base total for Caught Stealing of players who had, at least, 300 career Stolen Bases. Those who had less, I ignored as typically their SB success rate was not as good. Then in creating this final player offensive greatness list I ignored all Stolen Bases for players with less than a 67% success rate. Here are the top 75. Those players below with estimated Caught Stealing have an asterisk (*). ^ indicates 19^th century star.

5920 GH Ruth                    +P

5353 Barry Bonds (June 15, ’06)

5300*T. Cobb                    CF

5152 T. Williams

4975 S. Musial

4695 L. Gehrig

4647 H. Aaron

4335 W. Mays                    CF

4328*T. Speaker                 CF

4279 J. Foxx

                   20

4119 R. Hornsby                 2B

3900 M. Ott

3788 M. Mantle                  CF

3691 R. Henderson

3641 F. Robinson

3559*E. Collins                 2B

3405 F. Thomas (June 15, ’06)

3377*H. Wagner                  SS

3348 C. Yastrzemski

3295 R. Palmeiro

                   30

3234 P. Waner

3204 J. Bagwell

3153 A. Simmons

3118 W. Boggs                   3B

3051 P. Rose                 2B-3B-OF

3109 H. Heilmann

3047 C. Gehringer               2B

3041 G. Brett                   3B

3007*A. Anson (Cap)^

3015 G. Sheffield (on June 15, ’06)

                   40

3008 E. Delahanty^

2999 K. Griffey, Jr.(on June 15, ’06)

2987 M. Ramirez (on June 15, ’06)

2979 E. Murray

2970 P. Molitor              2B-3B-DH

2958 A. Kaline

2956 J. Dimaggio

2925 L. Walker

2920 J. Burkett^

2911 T. Gwynn

                  50

2858 L. Goslin (Goose)

2833 N. Lajoie                  2B

2828 J. Morgan                  2B

2822 M. Schmidt                 38

2801 F. McGriff

2770 T. Raines

2711 D. Winfield

2685 E. Matthews                3B

2623*R. Connor^

2621 R. Carew                   2B-1B

                  60

2579 W. Williams (Billy)

2567 W. McCovey

2563 E. Snider (Duke)           CF

2534 G. Sisler

2515 H. Killebrew            3B-1B-OF

2498 R. Clemente

2497 R. Alomar

2426 S. Sosa

2421*S. Crawford

2404 W. Stargell

                 70

2383 M. Piazza (on June 17, ’06) C

2369 D. Evans

2302 S. Rice (not Jim 2228)

2288 C. Biggio (on June 17, ’06) 2B

2267 J. Medwick

After Piazza, probably no other catcher would even be in the top 100. I guess neither Bench nor Cochrane’s peaks lasted nearly as long as Piazza’s. Fisk wasn’t a comparable hitter. Ivan Rodriguez didn’t walk.  The ranking as far as offense goes: Cochrane leads the rest at 1919, Torre (who spent precisely half of his career catching) is at 1868, Berra, I-Rod, Simmons, and Bench are all in the 1700s,  Fisk is only 1646, and newly Hall elected Gary Carter was only 1322.

Notice Honus Wagner is the only shortstop on the list. Ripken comes very close (79^th) with 2202. while Banks at 2103 and Yount at 2056 are very close behind him.

Of course, this is still not the ultimate greatness list. Lou Gehrig hit in a hitter’s era in a stadium possibly designed for him. It seems unfair he should be ahead of Hank Aaron with nearly as many points hitting mostly in a pitcher’s park in a pitcher’s era. Secondbaseman Hornsby played in a hitter’s era, while five rankings down is probably a better secondbaseman Collins who had to smack those dirty old baseballs of the century’s first decades. Besides equipment differences, park factors, there are differences in population of player pool, franchise expansion, coaching and training, etc. And, where is Ozzie? Of course, no direct defensive consideration is made. This is only career batting achievements in the context of the outs made in the process of accumulating bases. I welcome anyone trying to put those achievements in all those other contexts. I know some stats such as Win Shares have been devised to neutralize them as much as possible, but seem to have other deficiencies that I don’t wish to go into in this essay. In the meantime, I think this is a more satisfying look at how much the greatest hitters contributed to their teams’ offence than any single famous milestone list.