Snowing Under the Competition

In 1920 Babe Ruth startled the baseball world by hitting 54 home runs, while his nearest competitor in the AL, George Sisler, hit only 19. In 1962, young Willie Davis of he Dodgers stole 32 bases, normally enough to lead the league, but teammate Maury Wills stole 104 that season. Both Ruth and Wills outclassed their closest rivals by essentially a 3-1 margin, a domination that was almost embarrassing to the runners-up.

In 1971, Ron Hunt was hit by pitches a record 50 times. The season averages indicate that the number 2 player in that category in the NL was teammate Rusty Staub, who was hit only 9 times. This gave Hunt more than s 5-1 margin.

The prime examples of major league runaway races in the various batting departments since 1900 are shown below:

 

Year	League	Stat	Leader		Runner-up
1971	NL	HBP	Ron Hunt	50	Rusty Staub	9
1962	NL	SB	Maury Wills	104	Willie Davis	32
1920	AL	HR	Babe Ruth	54	Geo. Sisler	19
1946	NL	3B	Stan Musial	20	Reese-Cavarretta	10
1904	NL	2B	Hans Wagner	44	Bus Mertes	28
1946	NL	Hits	Stan Musial	228	Dixie Walker	184
1921	AL	Runs	Babe Ruth	177	John Tobin	132
1935	AL	RBI	H.Greenberg	170	Lou Gehrig	119
1922	NL	TB	Rog.Hornsby	450	Emil Meusel	314
1901	AL	Bat.	Nap.Lajoie	.426	Mike Donlin	.340
1921	AL	Slug.	Babe Ruth .	.846	H. Heilmann	.606

 

This article originally appeared in the 1972 “Baseball Research Journal.”