BB and SO: 1903-2021 from the AL and NL and ONLY the AL and NL.

For American League (AL) and National League (NL) seasons 1903-2021 (August 22, 2021).

1950 is the most recent season when the combined AL and NL BB (Bases on Balls) exceeded their SO (Strike Outs).

BB/SO:

I found the data needed for these charts in a Google Docs spreadsheet I had created years ago with data through 2017 from baseball-reference.com

Data for seasons 2018 - 2021 was added by copy/paste from:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/bat.shtml

If you cruise down memory lane past season 1949 you will note that the number of teams becomes erratic. That matter is addressed in an earlier post today:

Historic Major League stats now include "Negro Leagues" in baseball-reference.com. A closer look. Sunday, August 22, 2021

... here's the problem. The data I initially found at https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/bat.shtml now includes data from the "Negro Leagues"...

So what's the big deal? Rational thought takes another hit.

_______________________________

It's one thing to include an individual who never played in AL or NL for display purposes. But it's quite another to include such data in summary data for a season, especially without an extra special warning beyond the yellow banner now at the top of each page.

The decision by MLB, Inc. to classify Negro Leagues as major leagues is dubious at best. But what's not reasonable is to accept the data from those leagues as major league quality. There is actual AL and NL data that's still missing from the early 1950s because of the stringent standards that are almost totally ignored with Negro League data, including the standards and selection of official scorers.

Negro League data is anecdotal. That's a nice way of saying that it's crap. Not the players. The data.

https://radicalbaseball.blogspot.com/search/label/Negro%20Leagues