Debs Garms. Who? Led NL in BA in 1940. PA: 385, AB: 358, Hits: 127. But he played in 100 games! And Ted Williams 1954.

Argh. I noticed Debs Garms after my previous post:

Batting Average (BA) champs 1903-2021 percent above league. Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Batting Average ("Leading the league in hitting."): minimum requirements for averages. Those requirements have changed a lot since early in the previous century. Monday, December 27, 2021

You can't make up stuff like this.

_______________________

Ted Williams in 1954 did not qualify for Batting Average (BA). Tuesday, April 5, 2016

In 1954 Ted Williams played in 117 games: 526 plate appearances (PA), 386 at bats (AB), American League (AL) leading 136 Bases on Balls (BB) and 133 Hits. Since the 162 game schedule started in the AL in 1961, 502 PA qualifies a batter for rate or average stats. It shouldn't. The criteria in 1954 was silly but Williams should not have qualified for BA. He just didn't have enough AB (#43) or Hits (#24).

________________________

In 1940 Debs Garms had fewer PA, AB, Hits than Ted Williams had in 1954. Yet Garms qualified and Williams did not. I don't think either should have qualified.

1. PA should not be used as a qualifier for any average except OBP where it is the denominator. Now it's 3.1 PA per scheduled game: 3.1 * 162 = 502.

2. AB would be the common sense qualifier for BA. It's mostly a matter of deciding how many. 3.1 AB per scheduled game would work but even that is a bare minimum.

3. How about using the number of hits as the qualifier? I've been using an average (AB/HR) to judge home run hitting and applying it to the top n in a season, where n is the number of teams; 8 teams, top 8 in HR; 15 teams, top 15 in HR.

That might be too limiting for BA. How about one hit for every scheduled game? Let's see how that would work.

In 1940 18 batters had at least 154 hits. Highest BA:

Rk	Player	BA	H	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Stan Hack	.317	191	1940	30	CHC	NL	149	686	603	101	38	6	8	40	75	7	24	3	5		3	21	22	.395	.439	.834	*5/3H
2	Johnny Mize	.314	182	1940	27	STL	NL	155	666	579	111	31	13	43	137	82	24	49	5	0		10	7	2	.404	.636	1.039	*3/H
3	Frank McCormick	.309	191	1940	29	CIN	NL	155	676	618	93	44	3	19	127	52	10	26	5	1		23	2	3	.367	.482	.850	*3
4	Dixie Walker	.308	171	1940	29	BRO	NL	143	605	556	75	37	8	6	66	42	6	21	1	6		7	3	3	.357	.435	.793	*897/H
5	Enos Slaughter	.306	158	1940	24	STL	NL	140	570	516	96	25	13	17	73	50	2	35	2	1		4	8	3	.370	.504	.874	*9H

Enos Slaughter had the fewest AB of the 18: 516, way more than the 358 of Debs Garms.

Let's drop that to the 127 hits that Debs Garms had:

35 qualify, about double, with Debs Garms way ahead of Stan Hack in BA.

Rk	Player	BA	H	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Debs Garms	.355	127	1940	33	PIT	NL	103	385	358	76	23	7	5	57	23	1	6	1	3		3	3	7	.395	.500	.895	5H7/9
2	Stan Hack	.317	191	1940	30	CHC	NL	149	686	603	101	38	6	8	40	75	7	24	3	5		3	21	22	.395	.439	.834	*5/3H
3	Johnny Mize	.314	182	1940	27	STL	NL	155	666	579	111	31	13	43	137	82	24	49	5	0		10	7	2	.404	.636	1.039	*3/H
4	Jim Gleeson	.313	152	1940	28	CHC	NL	129	551	485	76	39	11	5	61	54	3	52	6	6		8	4	9	.389	.470	.859	879/H
5	Frank McCormick	.309	191	1940	29	CIN	NL	155	676	618	93	44	3	19	127	52	10	26	5	1		23	2	3	.367	.482	.850	*3

How many actually qualified using the NL criteria in 1940? 64 Number 32 had BA .282.

Rk	Player	BA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Debs Garms	.355	1940	33	PIT	NL	103	385	358	76	127	23	7	5	57	23	1	6	1	3		3	3	7	.395	.500	.895	5H7/9
2	Ernie Lombardi	.319	1940	32	CIN	NL	109	414	376	50	120	22	0	14	74	31	12	14	7	0		18	0	0	.382	.489	.871	*2H
3	Johnny Cooney	.318	1940	39	BSN	NL	108	404	365	40	116	14	3	0	21	25	0	9	1	13		7	4	5	.363	.373	.736	*8/3H9
4	Stan Hack	.317	1940	30	CHC	NL	149	686	603	101	191	38	6	8	40	75	7	24	3	5		3	21	22	.395	.439	.834	*5/3H
5	Johnny Mize	.314	1940	27	STL	NL	155	666	579	111	182	31	13	43	137	82	24	49	5	0		10	7	2	.404	.636	1.039	*3/H

In this case, Debs Garms didn't rob anyone. There was no other NL batter with a BA anywhere near Debs Garms.

Let's take a quick look at Ted Williams in 1954. Using Williams 133 hits as the criteria, 24 qualified, led by:

Rk	Player	BA	H	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Ted Williams	.345	133	1954	35	BOS	AL	117	526	386	93	23	1	29	89	136	17	32	1	0	3	10	0	0	.513	.635	1.148	*7/H
2	Bobby Avila	.341	189	1954	30	CLE	AL	143	638	555	112	27	2	15	67	59	1	31	1	19	4	9	9	7	.402	.477	.880	*4/6H
3	Minnie Minoso	.320	182	1954	28	CHW	AL	153	676	568	119	29	18	19	116	77	7	46	16	6	8	20	18	11	.411	.535	.946	*798/5H
4	Irv Noren	.319	136	1954	29	NYY	AL	125	480	426	70	21	6	12	66	43	3	38	1	3	7	4	4	6	.377	.481	.859	798H/3
5	Nellie Fox	.319	201	1954	26	CHW	AL	155	706	631	111	24	8	2	47	51	1	12	5	15	4	13	16	9	.372	.391	.763	*4
6	Yogi Berra	.307	179	1954	29	NYY	AL	151	652	584	88	28	6	22	125	56	6	29	4	1	7	9	0	1	.367	.488	.855	*2/H5

Of the 24, Williams had the fewest hits. How many qualified using the rule at the time? 35 stathead.com still lists Williams at the top using "Qualified for Batting Title". How quaint. So I ran it again omitting that and substituting the rule that year: 2.6 AB per team game: 2.6 * 154 = 400. That's a nice round and reasonable number. And it's AB, not PA. Somehow 38 qualified even though Ted Williams was omitted. Go figure. Here are the tops:

Rk	Player	BA	AB	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Bobby Avila	.341	555	1954	30	CLE	AL	143	638	112	189	27	2	15	67	59	1	31	1	19	4	9	9	7	.402	.477	.880	*4/6H
2	Minnie Minoso	.320	568	1954	28	CHW	AL	153	676	119	182	29	18	19	116	77	7	46	16	6	8	20	18	11	.411	.535	.946	*798/5H
3	Irv Noren	.319	426	1954	29	NYY	AL	125	480	70	136	21	6	12	66	43	3	38	1	3	7	4	4	6	.377	.481	.859	798H/3
4	Nellie Fox	.319	631	1954	26	CHW	AL	155	706	111	201	24	8	2	47	51	1	12	5	15	4	13	16	9	.372	.391	.763	*4
5	Yogi Berra	.307	584	1954	29	NYY	AL	151	652	88	179	28	6	22	125	56	6	29	4	1	7	9	0	1	.367	.488	.855	*2/H5
6	Harvey Kuenn	.306	656	1954	23	DET	AL	155	696	81	201	28	6	5	48	29	4	13	1	6	4	19	9	9	.335	.390	.725	*6

Fox and Kuenn led in hits: 201. Williams had 133.

It's unfortunate that Bobby Avila was caught up in the Williams stuff. Avila had 169 more AB than Williams: 555-386. And 56 more hits: 189-133. With 169 more AB would Williams have had a higher BA than Avila? In this case, there was a worthy alternative.