1894 by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Page 16

You can see that batting .400 is not a common occurrence, 28

times by 20 players. In fact it has happened less than fifty home runs per annum, which has been done 46 times by 30 players.

Yet five of the 28 happened in 1894.

Some might postulate that aberrations tend to coincide with changes; rules, expansions, or performance enhancing drugs becoming commonplace, which is consistent with the 50 home run barrage. Four occurrences were recorded in each of 1998 and 2001, and 28 of the 46 seasons were recorded after 1995, some by players casual fans would not have heard of otherwise.

The writer does not wish to harp, but when Brady Anderson can belong to a club Lou Gehrig never was invited to, something is totally out of whack.

But, the 19th century changes were put in place in 1893 when there was just one .400 hitter, and the major leagues had actually contracted from 25 teams in 1890, and performance enhancing steroids were not yet invented.

1894

Page 17