And Now the Greatest 1-2-3 Batting Punch
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by user Harold Friend
It is difficult enough for a team to have two great hitters batting consecutively, but only a few great offensive powerhouses have ever had a truly formidable 1-2-3 batting punch. While the 1927 Ruth and Gehrig, the 1937 DiMaggio and Gehrig, the 1961 Maris and Mantle, and the 2005 Ramirez and Ortiz are among the best of the 1-2 punches, it is more difficult to find the greatest 1-2-3 batting punches in baseball history.
We can start with Gehrig-Ruth and add Bob Meusel in 1927. Gehrig batted .373 with 47 home runs and 175 RBIs, Ruth batted .356 with 60 home runs and 164 RBIs, and Meusel batted .337 with 8 home runs and 103 RBIs. The trio had a combined .356 batting average with 115 home runs, 442 RBIs, and a .687 slugging average.
The key, of course, is the third batter. The second best 1-2 batting punch in for a single season was NOT the 1961 Mantle-Maris combination but rather Gehrig and DiMaggio in 1937. Gehrig had one of his usual seasons, batting .351 with 37 home runs and a .643 slugging average. DiMaggio hit .346 with 46 home runs, an incredible 167 RBIs and a .673 slugging average. The third hitter was Bill Dickey, who hit .332 with 29 home runs and a .570 slugging average. These three had a combined .344 batting average with 112 home runs, 459 RBIs, and a .631 slugging average. Incredible, but not quite as incredible as the 1927 Gehrig-Ruth-Meusel combination.
Mantle and Maris in 1961 don't come close to Gehrig-Ruth or Gehrig-Dimaggio, and although Elston Howard had a great season, hitting .348, his season was not as productive offensively as that of either Meusel of Dickey. Bill Skowron had a 28 home run season, but he batted only .273 with a .472 slugging average. Johnny Blanchard batted .305 with 21 home runs, but he was a part time player.
The 1961 Tigers, with Kaline, Colavito, and Cash were about as fearsome as the 1961 Yankees’ Maris, Mantle and Howard. Kaline batted third, hitting .324 with 19 home runs, 82 RBIs, and a .515 slugging average. Colavito batted fourth, hit .290 with 45 home runs, 140 RBIs, and a .580 slugging average, while Cash, batting fifth, batted .361 to win the batting title. He of the corked bat hit 41 home runs, had 132 RBIs, and slugged .662.
A more recent trio was the 1996 Seattle Mariners’ Alex Rodriguez batting second, Ken Griffey Jr. third, Edgar Martinez fourth, and Jay Buhner fifth. The lineup changed a lot, but Rodriguez usually batted second, with Griffey Jr. third and Martinez and Buhner being moved around. Selecting Rodriguez and Griffey Jr. is easy, but the third choice is difficult. Martinez batted .327 to Buhner’s .271 but Buhner led in home runs, 44 to 26, in RBIs, 138 to 103, but Edgar actually had a higher slugging average, .595 to .557.
The following summarizes the 1927 Ruth-Gehrig-Meusel, the 1937 DiMaggio-Gehrig-Dickey, and the 1996 Rodriguez-Griffey Jr.-Martinez OR Rodriguez-Griffey Jr.-Buhner:
RUTH-GEHRIG-MEUSEL combined numbers:
Batting Average: .356 Home Runs: 115 Slugging Average: .687
DiMAGGIO-GEHRIG-DICKEY combined numbers:
Batting Average: .344 Home Runs: 112 Slugging Average: .631
MARIS-MANTLE-HOWARD combined numbers:
Batting Average: .308 Home Runs: 136 Slugging Average: .622
KALINE-COLAVITO-CASH combined numbers:
Batting Average: .324 Home Runs: 105 Slugging Average: .593
RODRIGUEZ-GRIFFEY Jr.-MARTINEZ combined numbers:
Batting Average: .330 Home Runs 111 Slugging Average .619
RODRIGUEZ-GRIFFEY Jr.-BUHNER combined numbers:
Batting Average: .312 Home Runs 129 Slugging Average: .605
An often overlooked destructive 1-2-3 batting punch was Barry Bonds, Rich Aurelia, and Jeff Kent in 2001. The Giants' outfielder who became a giant in more ways than one, depending on one's point of view, hit .328 with 73 home runs, 137 RBIs, and an interesting .863 slugging average. After the 1998 season, the season that Roger Maris' single season home run record was shattered for the first of what would be many times, Bonds lifetime slugging average was .554. Holy statistical anomoly.
Anyway, Aurelia hit .324 with 37 home runs, 97 RBIs, and a .572 slugging average. Aurelia's lifetime average is .276. He averages 19 home runs a season and a .436 slugging average. Kent batted .298 with 22 home runs, 106 RBIs, and a .507 slugging average.
BONDS-AURELIA-KENT combined numbers:
Batting Average: .316 Home Runs: 132 Slugging Average: .630
Many teams had two great hitters batting consecutively in the lineup. The 1947 Pirates had Ralph Kiner and Hank Greenberg, but when they were teammates, Greenberg was well past his peak. St. Louis had Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, but neither hit a lot of home runs. They were merely great hitters. Ty Cobb might have been the best hitter of all time, but he despised the home run. All he did was hit over .400 three times, two of them consecutively. Cobb's teammate Sam Crawford was a great hitter, but he and Cobb didn't play in the lively ball era, which meant that their home run totals were low because the game was so different.
Finally, if one were to simply ask, "Which team had the greatest four or five hitters on the roster, recognizing that one or more of them might have been past his peak, a team to challenge would be the 1928 Philadelphia A's. Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Jimmy Foxx, Eddie Collins, and Mickey Cochrane were on the 1928 A's. They finished 2 1/2 games behind the Yankees.
References:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
Date
Sat 06/03/06, 8:17 am EST
