.500 batting average would make hitters and pitchers even.

I've long held that the essence of the game is slow pitch softball, in which the pitcher facilitates getting the ball in play.  Baseball has devolved into a pitcher dominated bore, which may be approaching a tipping point beyond which it will not recover.  Too many pitchers are throwing too many pitches too fast from too close.

For those who mindlessly drone on about the perfect state of baseball and how any changes should be to reign in the hitters from reducing their overwhelming rate of failure, here are complimentary sets of data about how few occurrences there have been since 1901 when the hitters have even been even.

Hitters: most At Bats (AB) in a season with a .500 Batting Average (BA):

Rk	Player	AB	BA	PA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Gil Coan	42	.500	47	1947	25	WSH	AL	11	5	21	3	2	0	3	5		6	0	0		0	2	1	.553	.667	1.220	*9
2	Rudy Pemberton	41	.512	45	1996	26	BOS	AL	13	11	21	8	0	1	10	2	0	4	2	0	0	0	3	1	.556	.780	1.336	*9/H7
3	Cameron Maybin	32	.500	36	2008	21	FLA	NL	8	9	16	2	0	0	2	3	0	8	0	1	0	0	4	0	.543	.563	1.105	/*8
4	Tripp Sigman	29	.517	32	1929	30	PHI	NL	10	8	15	1	0	2	9	3		1	0	0			0		.563	.759	1.321	/*87

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 6/11/2015.

Pitchers: most AB in a season with a .500 BA against:

Rk	Player	AB	BA	IP	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	GS	CG	SHO	GF	W	L	W-L%	SV	H	R	ER	BB	SO	ERA	FIP	ERA+	HR	BF	2B	3B	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	PO	BK	WP	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	Pit	Str
1	Brady Raggio	38	.579	7.0	1998	25	STL	NL	4	1	0	0	2	1	1	.500	0	22	12	12	3	3	15.43	5.85	29	1	43	3	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.605	.737	1.341	262
2	Joe Horgan	37	.514	6.0	2005	28	WSN	NL	8	0	0	0	1	0	0		0	19	15	14	4	5	21.00	3.85	21	0	44	8	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.558	.730	1.288	249	146	94
3	Wilton Lopez	35	.514	6.1	2014	30	COL	NL	4	0	0	0	1	0	0		0	18	8	8	0	4	11.37	8.03	40	3	36	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500	.829	1.329	255	115	78
4	Bruce Chen	34	.500	6.1	2015	38	CLE	AL	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000	0	17	9	9	1	4	12.79	8.48	32	3	35	3	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.514	.853	1.367	276	123	84
5	Duaner Sanchez	30	.500	6.0	2003	23	PIT	NL	6	0	0	0	2	1	0	1.000	0	15	11	11	1	3	16.50	7.86	28	2	34	2	0	0	2	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	.529	.767	1.296	240	110	67
6	Nate Minchey	30	.533	6.0	1996	26	BOS	AL	2	2	0	0	0	0	2	.000	0	16	11	10	5	4	15.00	6.51	35	1	36	2	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	0	0	0	1	.583	.700	1.283	222

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/11/2015.