Players simply did not strike out as often back then. AL strikeouts per game 1937- 7.14 1938- 6.93 1939- 7.01 1940- 7.63 1941- 7.11 Compared to... 2004- 12.82 2005- 12.14 2006- 12.54 The highest 100 single season strikeout totals all happened in 1967 or later. More than 3/4 of them occurred in the past 20 years. MLB leader in strikeouts during Joe DiMaggio's career: 1936- Jimmie Foxx, 119 1937- Vince DiMaggio, 111 1938- Vince DiMaggio, 134 1939- Dolph Camilli, 107 1940- Chet Ross, 127 1941- Dolph Camilli, 115 1942- Joe Gordon, 95 1946- Ralph Kiner, 109 1947- Eddie Joost, 110 1948- Pat Seerey, 102 1949- Duke Snider, 92 1950- Roy Smalley, 114 1951- Gus Zernial, 101 Sure, the season was eight games shorter back then, but those numbers don't compare to those of today's leaders who fan on average more than one time per game. ___ On the huge list of players who have struck out 1000 or more times, only two (Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx) finished their careers prior to 1959.
Tommy Holmes, 1945, Boston Braves 154 G 636 AB 125 R 224 H 47 2B 28 HR 117 RBI .352/.420/.577 Strikeouts? Nine. He led the league in home runs and fewest strikeouts- the only player to ever do so.
Even Ruth only K'd once every 8 plate appearances, and Foxx once for every 7.4. The turning point was Mickey Mantle - he struck out once every 5.8 plate appearances in his career (and even once every 6.5 plate appearances in his Triple Crown year), and was in the top 3 in the AL in strikeouts in 10 of his first 11 years, but was so good when he hit the ball (and the team was so successful), that strikeouts suddenly became acceptable if you were a power hitter. Given that, Willie Mays' much better numbers (1 K every 8.1 plate appearances) are pretty impressive, and Albert Pujols' (1 K every 10.3 plate appearances) are ridiculous (assuming he can keep that up).
The 10 hardest batters to strike out (Hall of Famers in bold) 1. Joe Sewell (1920-33) 63 to 1 AB/K ratio 2. Lloyd Waner (1927-45) 45 to 1 3. Nellie Fox (1947-65) 43 to 1 4. Tommy Holmes (1942-52) 41 to 1 5. *Tris Speaker (1907-28) 36 to 1 6. *Stuffy McInnis (1910-27) 35 to 1 7. Andy High (1922-34) 34 to 1 8. Sam Rice (1915-34) 34 to 1 9. Frankie Frisch (1919-37) 34 to 1 10. Dale Mitchell (1946-56) 34 to 1 *strikeout totals prior to 1913 are unavailable Sewell played a record 115 consecutive games in 1929 without striking out. He played in 1,903 games and struck out only 114 times. ___ I should note that only Frisch, Speaker, and Mitchell were taller than 5'10". Sewell and High were 5'6".
Lloyd Waner was one of the worst players to ever get into the Hall of Fame (a lifetime OPS under .750, and an All-Star only once in his career) - he only made it because his much better brother Paul did. Nellie Fox was an even worse hitter, but was an excellent fielder at a harder position, and a 12-time All-Star. Tris Speaker is the impressive guy on that list - a slugging percentage of .500 (and OPS of .928), and he typically struck out about 15 times a year.
While you are correct about Lloyd Waner, it is important to note that in the first 6 years of his career there was no All-Star Game. His best four seasons came in years with no Midsummer Classics.
You're right, and he presumably would have made it at least a couple of times in those years. Even then, he only broke .435 in slugging once in his career, and was only in the top 6 of the MVP voting twice (5th and 6th, respectively). He was in the top 3 in singles 7 times in his career (and led the league 4 times), but was only in the top 10 once (9th) in OBP, which shows just how useless he really was.
His career BFW number is -5.6. (BFW is the total of a guy's batting wins, basestealing, and fielding wins and indicates how many games the player won or lost for his team compared to an average player.) That is a pretty pathetic number. Paul's number was a very respectable 33.8. The top 10 in batter-fielder wins: 1. Barry Bonds, 124.7 2. Babe Ruth, 112 3. Nap Lajoie, 95.2 4. Ted Williams, 86.5 5. Rogers Hornsby, 86 6. Ty Cobb, 85.7 7. Willie Mays, 84.4 8. Hank Aaron, 83 9. Tris Speaker, 82.7 10. Honus Wagner, 82.2 active players in the top 100 entering this season: Bonds (1st on list), Alex "Touch 'Em All" Rodriguez (23rd), Frank Thomas (27th), Ken Griffey, Jr. (29th), Mike Piazza (45th- tie), Gary Sheffield (45th- tie), Ivan Rodriguez (49th), Manny Ramirez (56th- tie), Scott Rolen (69th), Jeff Kent (72nd), Jim Thome (78th), Jim Edmonds (81st), Vladimir Guerrero (85th), and Craig Biggio (97th). I don't know exactly how great of a stat this BFW is exactly, but from looking at the top 500 list, it appears to be fairly accurate. A list of the top 500 players of all-time would not look substantially different than the list of top 500 BFW players.
