League Leaders with Fewest Games Played
From SABR member Tom Ruane at Retrosheet on October 14, 2011:
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:
Stat 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
Read the full article here: http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/RuaneT/retro_fun2.htm#A111014
Originally published: October 14, 2011. Last Updated: October 14, 2011.