Hornsby (twice), Cobb, Heilmann, Terry lose .400 Batting Average when adding Sacrifice Flies to At Bats.

Hang in there for a bunch of preliminary stuff. It's worth it.

https://stathead.com/tiny/DcBEU

For single seasons, from 1903 to 2024, Playing in the AL or NL, in the regular season, requiring Batting Average >= .400 and At Bats >= 400, sorted by descending Sacrifice Hits.

Rk	Player	SH	BA	AB	Season	Age	Team	Lg	G	PA	R	H	1B	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	SF
1	Ty Cobb	27	.401	526	1922	35	DET	AL	137	613	99	211	149	42	16	4	99	9	13	55	24	.462	.565	1.026	169	297
2	Harry Heilmann	23	.403	524	1923	28	DET	AL	144	627	121	211	138	44	11	18	115	9	7	74	40	.481	.632	1.113	194	331
3	Bill Terry	19	.401	633	1930	31	NYG	NL	154	710	139	254	177	39	15	23	129	8	3	57	33	.452	.619	1.071	158	392
4	Rogers Hornsby	16	.403	504	1925	29	STL	NL	138	606	133	203	113	41	10	39	143	5	3	83	39	.489	.756	1.245	210	381
5	George Sisler	16	.420	586	1922	29	SLB	AL	142	655	134	246	178	42	18	8	105	51	19	49	14	.467	.594	1.061	170	348
6	Rogers Hornsby	15	.401	623	1922	26	STL	NL	154	704	141	250	148	46	14	42	152	17	12	65	50	.459	.722	1.181	207	450
7	Rogers Hornsby	13	.424	536	1924	28	STL	NL	143	642	121	227	145	43	14	25	94	5	12	89	32	.507	.696	1.203	222	373
8	George Sisler	13	.407	631	1920	27	SLB	AL	154	692	137	257	171	49	18	19	122	42	17	46	19	.449	.632	1.082	181	399
9	Ty Cobb	11	.419	592	1911	24	DET	AL	146	656	148	248	169	47	24	8	127	83		44	42	.466	.620	1.086	196	367
10	Ty Cobb	8	.409	553	1912	25	DET	AL	140	610	119	226	166	30	23	7	83	61	34	43	30	.456	.584	1.040	200	323
11	Joe Jackson	6	.408	571	1911	23	CLE	AL	147	641	126	233	162	45	19	7	83	41		56	42	.468	.590	1.058	193	337
12	Ted Williams	0	.406	456	1941	22	BOS	AL	143	606	135	185	112	33	3	37	120	2	4	147	27	.553	.735	1.287	235	335

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 5/23/2025.

Why sorted by Sacrifice Hits (SH). And why are there no values for Sacrifice Flies (SF)? From the Glossary:

SH -- Sacrifice Hits (Sacrifice Bunts)

BA -- Hits/At Bats
For recent years, leaders need 3.1 PA
per team game played
Bold indicates highest BA using current stats

AB -- At Bats

PA -- Plate Appearances
When available, we use actual plate appearances from play-by-play game accounts
Otherwise estimated using AB + BB + HBP + SF + SH,
which excludes catcher interferences.
When this color click for a summary of each PA.

OBP -- (H + BB + HBP)/(At Bats + BB + HBP + SF)
For recent years, leaders need 3.1 PA
per team game played

_________________

SH included SF. This post will break out SF and add them to AB and recompute BA.

Rogers Hornsby .400 Batting Averages impacted if Sacrifice Flies were added to his At Bats.  Monday, May 12, 2025

Rogers Hornsby famously had:

BA >= .400 in 3 of 4 years (1922-1925) AND

BA >= .400 cumulative 1921-1925...

AB	H	theBA
2,679	1,078	.40238895

Batting Average (BA): Ted Williams percent above league .406 v. .388 considering SF.  Sunday, January 23, 2022

https://stathead.com/tiny/fMazJ

Rogers Hornsby: 35 Sacrifice Flies in 1921-1925

1,078/(2,679+35)=.39719970523

Let's break down those 35 SF per year.

Player	Year	BA	Age	PA	AB	H	theBA	SF	H/(AB+SF)
Rogers Hornsby	1921	.397	25	674	592	235	.39695946	9	.39101498
Rogers Hornsby	1922	.401	26	704	623	250	.40128411	9	.39556962
Rogers Hornsby	1923	.384	27	487	424	163	.38443396	3	.38173302
Rogers Hornsby	1924	.424	28	642	536	227	.42350746	5	.41959335
Rogers Hornsby	1925	.403	29	606	504	203	.40277778	9	.39571150
Player	Year	BA	Age	PA	AB	H	theBA	SF	H/(AB+SF)
Total		Tot		3,113	2,679	1,078	.40238895	35	.39719971

Adding in his 35 SF changes Hornsby's cululative BA from .402 to .397.

And instead of having three .400 BA in four years Hornsby has only one.

Doing this puts Hornsby on equal footing with Ted Williams when Williams had a .406 BA in 1941 when SF were lumped into At Bats (AB). Otherwise Williams would have had BA .413.

Batting Average: adding Sacrifice Flies to At Bats 1954-2024 in individual seasons.  Monday, May 12, 2025

__________________________

Let's add SF to AB for all the .400 BA and see the difference.

Ruth & Gehrig had Sacrifice Flies? Who knew? Read how SF impacted their Batting Averages.  Tuesday, May 13, 2025

I think that the Sacrifice Fly is the stupidest scoring rule of any applied frequently. It should be eliminated and past data normalized to reflect consistency...

The Strange Story of the Sacrifice Fly
What did Ted Williams really hit in 1941?
by John Thorn  Dec 12, 2019

I knew, from years of editing Total Baseball, that sacrifice flies were counted in 1908–1930 and in 1939 but inseparably from sacrifice hits; thus a batter who advanced a runner to any base while being retired himself would be spared an at bat. For purposes of his batting average his sacrifice would be chalked up as a non-event, like a walk...

For 1940–1953, however (as in the years 1931–1938) sacrifice flies were counted as outs, even though they registered as RBIs. Ever since 1954 sac flies were once again accounted in batting average as non-appearances (like walks) and as RBIs...

So that leaves us wondering about 1941 in particular, when Ted Williams hit .406 with no sacrifice bunts but an unknown number of sac flies...

It turns out that Williams had eight sacrifice flies in 1941 over seven games (in one game he had two). [See Addendum below.] Had these been counted as non-appearances, instead of outs, his season’s at bats would have been diminished from 456 to 448 — and his batting average would have been not .406 (0.40570175438) but instead .413 (0.41294642857)...

_______________________

Finding their SF turns out to be pretty easy.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruthba01.shtml

Then click Finders & Advanced Stats, then Event Finder.

Set the Seasons to all of Ruth's: 1914-1935.

Then simply pick Event Type: Sacrifice Flies.

Hit the button for Get Results.

Babe Ruth: 80 Sacrifice Flies in 1914-1935

___________________________

Ted Williams in 1941 has the only .400 BA that did not exclude SF from his AB when figuring BA. We'll leave Williams alone and change the other eleven.

Batting Average (BA): Hits/AB. Instead: Hits/(AB+SF).

Event finder will be used for individual batters, other than Williams, who had .400 BA. This will be used to find SF for seasons in which it was not shown as a stat separate from SH.

+++++++++++++++++

Joe Jackson

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=jacksjo01&year_min=1908&event=modSF&type=b

Joe Jackson: 54 Sacrifice Flies in 1908-1920

Ty Cobb

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=cobbty01&year_min=1905&event=modSF&type=b

Ty Cobb: 91 Sacrifice Flies in 1905-1928

George Sisler

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=sislege01&year_min=1915&event=modSF&type=b

George Sisler: 103 Sacrifice Flies in 1915-1930

Rogers Hornsby

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=hornsro01&year_min=1915&event=modSF&type=b

Rogers Hornsby: 118 Sacrifice Flies in 1915-1937

Harry Heilmann

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=heilmha01&year_min=1914&event=modSF&type=b

Harry Heilmann: 133 Sacrifice Flies in 1914-1932

Bill Terry

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=terrybi01&year_min=1923&event=modSF&type=b

Bill Terry: 70 Sacrifice Flies in 1923-1936

Ted Williams

https://stathead.com/baseball/event_finder.cgi?request=1&player_id=willite01&year_min=1939&event=modSF&type=b

Ted Williams: 23 Sacrifice Flies in 1939-1960

_____________________

There is no data for 1911, so Cobb and Jackson are not changed, nor is Williams as mentioned.

Sacrifice Hits (SH) = Sacrifice Flies (SF) + Sacrifice Bunts (Sbunt)

Dif: shows when they don't add up. If anything, the batter could have SF + Dif but we don't know.

Averages are recomputed to have enough decimal places to differentiate things like three .401 BA.

The Dif and Dif% at the right is an additional perspective that had been used in recent posts. Dif: batter BA - League BA. Among these seasons, Cobb in 1912 had the biggest %Dif: 53.83%.

Batting Average: adding Sacrifice Flies to At Bats 1954-2024 in individual seasons.  Monday, May 12, 2025

Player	Year	BA	AB	Age	Team	Lg	PA	H	theBA	SH	SF	Sbunt	Dif	H/(AB+SF)	Lg BA	Dif	%Dif
Ty Cobb	1911	.419	592	24	DET	AL	656	248	.418919	11					.273109	.134947	49.41%
Joe Jackson	1911	.408	571	23	CLE	AL	641	233	.408056	6					.273109	.135570	49.64%
Ty Cobb	1912	.409	553	25	DET	AL	610	226	.408680	8	5	3	0	.405018	.264761	.142529	53.83%
George Sisler	1920	.407	631	27	SLB	AL	692	257	.407290	13	7	6	0	.402821	.283431	.117710	41.53%
Ty Cobb	1922	.401	526	35	DET	AL	613	211	.401141	27	7	16	-4	.395872	.284519	.116765	41.04%
George Sisler	1922	.420	586	29	SLB	AL	655	246	.419795	16	12	3	-1	.411371	.284519	.118153	41.53%
Rogers Hornsby	1922	.401	623	26	STL	NL	704	250	.401284	15	9	6	0	.395570	.292195	.127600	43.67%
Harry Heilmann	1923	.403	524	28	DET	AL	627	211	.402672	23	9	6	-8	.395872	.282511	.120160	42.53%
Rogers Hornsby	1924	.424	536	28	STL	NL	642	227	.423507	13	5	6	-2	.419593	.282931	.140577	49.69%
Rogers Hornsby	1925	.403	504	29	STL	NL	606	203	.402778	16	9	6	-1	.395712	.291537	.111240	38.16%
Bill Terry	1930	.401	633	31	NYG	NL	710	254	.401264	19	17	1	-1	.390769	.303481	.097783	32.22%
Ted Williams	1941	.406	456	22	BOS	AL	606	185	.405702	0					.276916	.128786	46.51%

Here's a breakdown of Plate Appearances (PA):

PA = AB + BB + HBP + SH (+ SF when available and SH only has bunts)

Player	Year	BA	AB	BB	HBP	SH	thePA	Dif
Ty Cobb	1911	.419	592	44	8	11	655	-1
Joe Jackson	1911	.408	571	56	8	6	641	0
Ty Cobb	1912	.409	553	43	5	8	609	-1
George Sisler	1920	.407	631	46	2	13	692	0
Ty Cobb	1922	.401	526	55	4	27	612	-1
George Sisler	1922	.420	586	49	3	16	654	-1
Rogers Hornsby	1922	.401	623	65	1	15	704	0
Harry Heilmann	1923	.403	524	74	5	23	626	-1
Rogers Hornsby	1924	.424	536	89	2	13	640	-2
Rogers Hornsby	1925	.403	504	83	2	16	605	-1
Bill Terry	1930	.401	633	57	1	19	710	0
Ted Williams	1941	.406	456	147	3	0	606	0

PA come out pretty close, especially for seasons so far back.

Bottom line: if SF are added to AB in figuring BA, FIVE of the nine seasons which had SF applied: BA drops below .400: Hornsby (1922 & 1925), Cobb (1922), Heilmann, Terry.

Here's the impact on their career BA:

Player	SF	H	AB	BA	theBA	H/(AB+SF)	Dif	%Dif	First	Last	Player
Ty Cobb	91	4,189	11,440	.366	.366171	.363282	.002890	0.79%	1905	1928	Ty Cobb
Joe Jackson	54	1,772	4,981	.356	.355752	.351936	.003815	1.07%	1908	1920	Joe Jackson
Harry Heilmann	133	2,660	7,787	.342	.341595	.335859	.005736	1.68%	1914	1932	Harry Heilmann
George Sisler	103	2,812	8,267	.340	.340148	.335962	.004186	1.23%	1915	1930	George Sisler
Rogers Hornsby	118	2,930	8,173	.358	.358497	.353395	.005102	1.42%	1915	1937	Rogers Hornsby
Bill Terry	70	2,193	6,428	.341	.341164	.337488	.003675	1.08%	1923	1936	Bill Terry
Ted Williams	23	2,654	7,706	.344	.344407	.343382	.001025	0.30%	1939	1960	Ted Williams

***   The End   ***