Career months 1.000 OPS: Ruth & Williams all six.

I was minding my own business watching the Yankees struggle against a much weaker team when I wondered what were Ted Williams career monthly splits, especially OPS (On base Plus Slugging averages). So I looked him up on baseball-reference.com.

Wow. Ted Williams had OPS of at least 1.000 for all six months of the baseball season. Wow. Then I wondered about Babe Ruth. Wow, but even better, as one of Ruth's months was over 1.200, which Williams never had. Lou Gehrig was next: four months and the other two almost. Then Jimmie Foxx: same as Gehrig. Ty Cobb: zip. I quickly realized that there was a bias against non home run hitters. There was only so much even Cobb could do with his record batting average (.366). Cobb's career OPS was .945. Cobb is number 22 in career OPS and his 117 home runs are by far the fewest among those players. Next fewest was Rogers Hornsby with 301. Even Cobb's On Base Percentage (really average) .433 was only number six among these 22 behind Williams, Ruth, Gehrig, Bonds and Hornsby. Cobb's Slugging average of .512 was dead last, number 22.

Careers, In the Regular Season, from 1903 to 2021, Playing in the AL or NL, requiring Plate Appearances >= 5000 and On-Base Plus Slugging >= .944, sorted by greatest On-Base Plus Slugging:

Rk	Player	OPS	PA	OPS+	HR	From	To	Age	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	Pos	Tm
1	Babe Ruth	1.164	10626	206	714	1914	1935	19-40	2503	8399	2174	2873	506	136	2214	2062	34	1330	43	113		2	123	117	.342	.474	.690	971/H83	BOS-NYY-BSN
2	Ted Williams	1.116	9792	191	521	1939	1960	20-41	2292	7706	1798	2654	525	71	1839	2021	258	709	39	5	20	197	24	17	.344	.482	.634	*79H/1	BOS
3	Lou Gehrig	1.080	9665	179	493	1923	1939	20-36	2164	8001	1888	2721	534	163	1995	1508	102	790	45	106		2	102	100	.340	.447	.632	*3/H976	NYY
4	Barry Bonds	1.051	12606	182	762	1986	2007	21-42	2986	9847	2227	2935	601	77	1996	2558	688	1539	106	4	91	165	514	141	.298	.444	.607	*78H/D9	PIT-SFG
5	Jimmie Foxx	1.038	9677	163	534	1925	1945	17-37	2317	8134	1751	2646	458	125	1922	1452	133	1311	13	71		69	87	76	.325	.428	.609	*3H52/7916	PHA-BOS-CHC-PHI
6	Hank Greenberg	1.017	6098	159	331	1930	1947	19-36	1394	5193	1046	1628	379	71	1274	852	82	844	16	35		66	58	30	.314	.412	.605	*37/H	DET-PIT
7	Rogers Hornsby	1.010	9481	175	301	1915	1937	19-41	2259	8173	1579	2930	541	169	1584	1038	22	679	48	216		3	135	69	.359	.434	.577	*465H/3978	STL-NYG-BSN-CHC-SLB
8	Mike Trout	1.002	5660	176	310	2011	2021	19-29	1288	4656	967	1419	268	49	816	865	109	1215	86	0	52	58	203	37	.305	.419	.583	*87/D9H	LAA
9	Manny Ramirez	.996	9774	154	555	1993	2011	21-39	2302	8244	1544	2574	547	20	1831	1329	216	1813	109	2	90	243	38	33	.312	.411	.585	79D/H	CLE-BOS-LAD-CHW-TBR
10	Mark McGwire	.982	7660	163	583	1986	2001	22-37	1874	6187	1167	1626	252	6	1414	1317	150	1596	75	3	78	147	12	8	.263	.394	.588	*3/HD59	OAK-STL
11	Mickey Mantle	.977	9910	172	536	1951	1968	19-36	2401	8102	1676	2415	344	72	1509	1733	148	1710	13	14	47	113	153	38	.298	.421	.557	*8397H/645	NYY
12	Joe DiMaggio	.977	7672	155	361	1936	1951	21-36	1736	6821	1390	2214	389	131	1537	790	111	369	46	14		130	30	9	.325	.398	.579	*8/79H3	NYY
13	Stan Musial	.976	12721	159	475	1941	1963	20-42	3026	10972	1949	3630	725	177	1951	1599	298	696	53	35	53	243	78	71	.331	.417	.559	3798H/1	STL
14	Frank Thomas	.974	10075	156	521	1990	2008	22-40	2322	8199	1494	2468	495	12	1704	1667	168	1397	87	0	121	226	32	23	.301	.419	.555	D3/H	CHW-OAK-TOR-TOT
15	Larry Walker	.965	8030	141	383	1989	2005	22-38	1988	6907	1355	2160	471	62	1311	913	117	1231	138	7	65	153	230	76	.313	.400	.565	*9H/387D45	MON-COL-TOT-STL
16	Johnny Mize	.959	7372	158	359	1936	1953	23-40	1884	6443	1118	2011	367	83	1337	856	150	524	52	20		99	28	12	.312	.397	.562	*3H/9	STL-NYG-NYY
17	Jim Thome	.956	10313	147	612	1991	2012	20-41	2543	8422	1583	2328	451	26	1699	1747	173	2548	69	1	74	165	19	20	.276	.402	.554	3D5H	CLE-PHI-CHW-LAD-MIN-TOT-BAL
18	Todd Helton	.953	9453	133	369	1997	2013	23-39	2247	7962	1401	2519	592	37	1406	1335	185	1175	57	3	93	186	37	29	.316	.414	.539	*3/H79D	COL
19	Jeff Bagwell	.948	9431	149	449	1991	2005	23-37	2150	7797	1517	2314	488	32	1529	1401	155	1558	128	3	102	221	202	78	.297	.408	.540	*3/HD9	HOU
20	Mel Ott	.947	11348	155	511	1926	1947	17-38	2730	9456	1859	2876	488	72	1860	1708	128	896	64	109		82	89	90	.304	.414	.533	*95H8/74	NYG
21	Ralph Kiner	.946	6256	149	369	1946	1955	23-32	1472	5205	971	1451	216	39	1015	1011	90	749	24	9	7	126	22	18	.279	.398	.548	*7/83H	PIT-TOT-CHC-CLE
22	Ty Cobb	.945	13103	168	117	1905	1928	18-41	3034	11440	2245	4189	724	295	1944	1249	0	680	94	292			897	212	.366	.433	.512	*89/H73415	DET-PHA

Finally I wondered if baseball-reference.com had a way to run an ad hoc query to find all career months with OPS at least 1.000. It did.

I figured that 800 plate appearances (PA) per month should do the trick for a full career. I found 58 occurrences. But Williams was missing a month. Back to his page and for some reason Williams had only 604 PA for April. Re-run the query with 600 PA as the minimum and it picked up two more unexpected players: Kevin Youkilis and Rusty Greer. Go figure. The individual career month with OPS at least 1.000 with the most PA: 2,638 for Cobb contemporary Tris Speaker. His July OPS was 1.000 even. Speaker's career OPS was .928 but he had that one big career month.

The data gathered can be viewed by clicking this link. The data in the first overview tab is the summary and it's described and repeated below. There are two active players: Mike Trout (four 1.000 months) and Bryce Harper (1). The number of 1.000 months for each player are shown in the first and last column. The players are sorted and grouped on that. The 1.000 OPS is in bold. The values for the other months are filled in for context.

The players with more than one 1.000 OPS month have only one month with OPS less than .900: Jim Thome Sept/Oct: .889.

Finally, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron are shown below the others, not to embarrass them, but because their absence is so shocking. Their long careers may have contributed to lowering their numbers.

#		April/March	May	June	July	August	Sept/Oct	#
6	Babe Ruth	1.089	1.168	1.207	1.202	1.133	1.132	6
6	Ted Williams	1.088	1.100	1.106	1.146	1.091	1.145	6
5	Rogers Hornsby	1.029	.965	1.040	1.024	1.002	1.010	5
5	Barry Bonds	1.132	1.049	.999	1.055	1.084	1.054	5
4	Lou Gehrig	.991	1.046	1.208	1.072	1.111	.996	4
4	Jimmie Foxx	1.049	1.082	1.043	1.082	.981	.998	4
4	Hank Greenberg	.918	1.017	1.026	1.052	.967	1.072	4
4	Mike Trout	1.013	1.005	1.051	1.033	.965	.957	4
3	Mark McGwire	1.032	1.041	.963	.912	.924	1.029	3
3	Manny Ramirez	.982	.958	.980	1.022	1.028	1.001	3
2	Stan Musial	.955	.969	1.003	.941	.980	1.001	2
2	Jim Thome	.918	.946	1.024	.956	1.000	.889	2
		April/March	May	June	July	August	Sept/Oct
1	Mel Ott	.984	.934	.974	.895	1.030	.888	1
1	Tris Speaker	.912	.913	.920	1.000	.908	.892	1
1	Joe DiMaggio	.964	.930	.963	1.080	.975	.938	1
1	Johnny Mize	.874	.956	.898	1.054	.949	.959	1
1	Ralph Kiner	.839	1.021	.958	.926	.940	.938	1
1	Mickey Mantle	.972	1.013	.983	.993	.957	.933	1
1	Frank Thomas	.917	.998	1.016	.978	.965	.965	1
1	Larry Walker	.956	.939	1.072	.914	.942	.978	1
1	Todd Helton	.911	.943	.893	.946	1.028	.996	1
1	Chick Hafey	.771	.874	.913	1.018	.883	.874	1
1	Kevin Youkilis	.861	1.003	.823	.831	.870	.749	1
1	Rusty Greer	.824	.838	.829	.847	1.010	.824	1
1	Carlos Delgado	.920	.877	.893	.948	1.002	.946	1
1	Bryce Harper	1.029	.880	.850	.852	.939	.932	1
		April/March	May	June	July	August	Sept/Oct
0	Willie Mays	.926	.982	.933	.870	.972	.982	0
0	Hank Aaron	.954	.916	.925	.944	.926	.914	0