Feeling Powerless? Rarities and Oddities about Zero-home Run Seasons.

Readers of Baseball Roundtable are aware of how I am drawn to baseball rarities in the off-season.  In this post, we’ll look at some of the unique statistics surrounding zero-home run seasons. If you enjoy this you may want to check out my posts on 20-game winners (click here) and 100-RBI seasons (click here).

Rarities and Oddities – MLB Batting Champions with Zero Home Runs

There have been only two MLB batting champions to log zero home runs in a season in which they won the crown … and they came 75 years apart. 

Wee Willie Keeler, 1897 Orioles

Photo: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1897, 5’-4”/140-pound Baltimore Orioles’ outfielder Willie Keeler won the NL batting title with a .424 average, stroking out a league-leading 239 hits. In the process, he set a still unmatched record for base hits in a season in which the player hit zero home runs.  Of those 239 hits, 193 (81 percent) were singles. Keeler opened the 1897 season with a 44-game hitting streak (still MLB’s longest streak from Opening Day).  Keeler was an accomplished bunter and a renowned contact/slap hitter. Over his career, Keeler struck out just 136 times in 9,619 plate appearances.

_____________________________________

“I keep my eyes clear and I hit ‘em where they ain’t.”

                   Willie Keeler (Baseball’s Greatest Quotations, Paul Dickson, 1991)

_________________________________________

Hall of Famer Keeler played 19 MLB seasons (1892-1910 … in the NL, the Giants, Brooklyn Statistics, Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas and, in the AL, New York Highlanders).   He was a two-time batting champion and collected 200 or more hits in eight seasons.  Of his 2,932 hits, 86 percent were singles. Keeler finished with a .341-33-810 career stat line, with 1,719 runs scored and 495 steals.

Willie Keeler had 33 career home runs – of which only two cleared the fences.  Of the others, thirty were inside-the-park and one left the field on the bounce (it was a different time).

_________________

Rod Carew, 1972 Twins

Photo: Hostess via tradingcarddb.com, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1972, Hall of Famer Rod Carew won his second (of seven) AL batting titles.  He hit .318-0-51, with 51 RBI and 61 runs scored in 142 games – 143 of his 170 hits (84 percent) were singles. 1972 was his only season without a home run.

Carew, like Keeler, was an accomplished bunter (in 1974, he had 29 bunt singles) and contact hitter. Carew played 19 MLB seasons (1967-85 … Twins, Angels). The 18-time All Star won seven batting titles, the 1967 AL Rookie of the Year Award and the 1977 AL MVP Award.  He hit over .300 in 15 of his 19 seasons and finished with .328-92-1,015 stat line, with 1,424 runs scored and 353 steals.

_________________________________

“He (Rod Carew) has an uncanny ability to move the ball around as if the bat were some kind of magic wand.”

                                                              Pitcher Ken Holtzman

____________________________________

Most Hits in a Zero-Home Run Season

As usual, one thing led to another and I began digging a little deeper into the rarity of zero-homer seasons. As you might expect, they have become rarer over time.  Starting with a base of players with seasons of at least 100 hits and zero home runs, there were 873 such seasons in MLB history. Not rare at all, although about two-of-every three (593 or 67.9 percent) occurred before 1930.

So, I looked for something a little rarer and ramped up to 150 hits and no home runs.  Now. we were down to 177 such campaigns – still not rare air.  But, using 200 or more hits turned the trick.  There have been only seven seasons of 200 or more hits and zero home runs. Let’s take a look at them – and the players were delivered them.

Willie Keeler, 1897 Orioles (NL) – 239 hits

Willie Keeler has the most hits in a zero-homer season at 239. You’ve already read about him in the opening of this post, so we can move on to number-two.

________________

Napoleon Lajoie, 1906 Cleveland Naps – 214 hits

In 1906, second baseman Nap Lajoie hit .355 for Cleveland, with a league-leading 214 hits and a league-topping 48 doubles, but zero home runs.  He drove in 91 runs and scored 88 in 152 games.

In a 21-season MLB career (1896-1916 … Phillies, Athletics, Naps), he hit .338-82-1,599, with 1,504 runs scored and 380 steals. Looking for a trivia question? Lajoie is the only player with a 200-hit, zero-home run MLB season, with more career RBI than runs scored.

The Hall of Famer led the league in batting average five times, hits four times (topping 200 hit each time), doubles five times (a high of 51 in 1910), home runs once, total bases four times, RBI three times and runs once. He hit over .300 in 17 seasons, but reached double-digits in home runs just once.

The Triple Crown … and Then Some

In 1901, while with the Philadelphia Athletics, Nap Lajoie, won the Triple Crown with a .426 average, 14 home runs and 125 RBI.  He also led the AL in runs scored (145), hits (232), doubles (48) and total bases (350).

_________________

Jesse Burkett, 1898 Cleveland Spiders, (NL) – 213 hits

In 1898, Cleveland LF Jesse Burkett hit .341 for the Spiders, with 213 hits, 114 runs scored, 42 RBI, 19 steals and zero home runs.  In fact, that season just 27 of Burkett’s hits (12.7 percent) went for extra bases.

Hall of Famer Burkett played 16 MLB seasons (1890-1905 … Giants, Spiders, Cardinals, Browns). He won three batting titles (twice hitting over .400), led the league in hits three times (topping 200 hits in six seasons) and twice led the league in runs scored (topping 100 in nine seasons).

1898 was the only full season in which Burkett failed to hit at least two home runs, Over his career, Burkett hit .338, with 75 home runs, 952 RBI, 1,720 runs scored and 389 steals.

________________

Hughie Jennings, 1896 Orioles NL – 209 hits

In 1896, Hughie Jennings banged out 209 hits (.401 average) and drove in 121 runs, despite not going yard a single time (87 percent of his hits were singles).

Jennings played 18 MLB seasons (1891-1903, 1907, 1909-10, 1912, 1918 … Louisville Colonels of the American Association and NL Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas and Phillies, and AL Tigers).  Over 1,284 games, he hit .312-18-840, with 992 runs scored and 359 steals. Jennings scored 100 or more runs in five seasons, had two seasons of 200+ hits and stole 50+ bases three times.

Hughie Jennings recorded 121 RBI in 1896, the MLB record for a zero-home run season.

Jennings holds the MLB record for career “hit by pitch” at 287 and the MLB single-season record at 51 (1896 Orioles). He led the NL in HBP six consecutive seasons (1894-1898.) Once again, for Baseball Roundtable,  one thing led to another – and to this chart.

________________

Johnny Pesky, 1947 Red Sox – 207 hits

In 1947, Red Sox’ 23-year-old rookie SS Johnny Pesky hit .324-0-39, with 106 runs scored and 12 stolen bases (83 percent of his 207 hits were singles).

Pesky played in ten MLB seasons (1942, 1946-54 … Red Sox, Tigers, Nationals). He hit .307-17-404, with 867 runs scored and 53 steals.  Over his career, he topped 100 runs scored in six seasons, exceeded 200 hits three times and hit .300+ six times.

What Might Those Numbers Have Been?

As a 23-year-old rookie in 1942, Johnny Pesky hit .331-2-51, with 105 runs scored and a league-topping 205 hits.  Pesky then missed three years of baseball action due to military service. He returned to the Red Sox as a 27-year-old and picked up right where he left off,  again leading the AL in base hits with 208 – going .335-2-55, with 115 runs scored in 153 games. In 1947, his third MLB season, he led the AL in hits for a third time (207), going .324-0-39, with 106 runs scored.  What might his career numbers have been if he had not missed those three prime years wile in the Navy?

________________________________________

Milt Stock, 1920 Cardinals – 204 hits

Cardinals’ third baseman Milt Stock went .319-0-76, with 85 runs scored in 1920 (83 percent to his hits were singles). Stock played 14 MLB seasons (1913-26 … Giants, Phillies, Cardinals, Robins). He went .289-22-696, with 839 runs scored and 155 steals.  Stock hit .300+ in five seasons (a high of .328 in 1925) and twice recorded 200+ hits in a season. From 1919 through 1922, he hit over .300 in four consecutive seasons.

Another One Thing Leads to Another 

From his fourth plate appearance on June 21, 1918 until his fifth plate appearance on August 22, 1921, Milt Stock went 1,690 plate appearances without a home run, Stock falls far short of the MLB record, held by Thomas Thevenow, who hit his second career regular-season MLB home run (both were inside-the-parkers) in his final at bat of a game played on  on September 22, 1926 and then played 12 more major-league seasons – going another 1,003 games and 3,607 consecutive plate appearances without a four-bagger. In a 15-season MLB career Thevenow (primarily a SS) hit .247 (1,030 its in 1,229 games). Notably, Thevenow hit a third MLB home run in 1926.  This one was also an inside-the-parker and came in Game Two of the Cardinals-Yankees World Series. St. Louis won the Series four games-to-three and Thevenow hit .417 (10-for-24), with five runs scored, one double, one homer and four RBI.

________________

One Final Chart:

Doc Cramer, at the top of this list, played 20 MLB seasons (1929-48 … Athletics, Red Sox, Nationals Tigers). He hit .296-37-842, with 1,357 runs scored. He was a five-time All Star, had 200 or more hits in three seasons, 100+ runs in three seasons, and hit .300 or better in seven seasons. He had 2,705 career hits (80 percent of them singles).

Okay, maybe one more chart:

Most Seasons with Zero Home Runs and 500 or More Plate Appearances – Seven

Donie  Bush had zero home runs and 500 or more plate appearances for he Tigers in 1909,  1914, 1916-19,  and for the Tigers and Nationals in 1921. He played 16 MLB seasons (1908-23 … Tigers, Nationals) and went .250-9-445, with 1,281 runs scored.

Jim Slagle … Slagle put up seasons of 500 or more plate appearances and zero home runs for the Cubs in 1900,  1902-03 and 1905-07. In a ten-season MLB career (Senators, Phillies, Boston Nationals, Cubs), he hit .268-2-344, with 781 runs scored and 274 steals in 1,300 games.

Primary Resource:  Baseball-Reference.com.

A REMINDER … .

There is still time to cast your vote(s) in the Baseball Roundtable (unofficial) 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame Fan Balloting (and qualify for the prize drawing).  Click here to go directly to the ballot.  Click here for a post taking a look at the careers of the players on the ballot.

Baseball Roundtable – Blogging Baseball Since 2012.

Baseball Roundtable is on the Feedspot list of the Top 100 Baseball Blogs.  To see the full list, click here.

Baseball Roundtable is also on the Anytime Baseball Supply Top 66 Baseball Sites list.  For the full list, click here. 

I tweet (on X) baseball @DavidBaseballRT

Follow/Like Baseball Roundtable’s Facebook Page here.  Find More baseball commentary; blog post notifications; PRIZES.

Member: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR); Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; The Baseball Reliquary.

P1017