Interesting Stat Facts

[ProfessorGAC]

Got a bug up my nose about Hack Wilson's 191 RBI season in 1930. Not sure why I got interested in it.
Anyway, I did some digging & found:
- The 3 guys hitting ahead of Wilson batted .367, .355, & .335. These numbers say, on average, there was only a 27% chance one of those guys weren't on base when Wilson came to the plate.
- The guy hitting behind him hit .289, and the catcher hit 6th, at .339 with 37 homers.
- Wilson hit .356
I was wondering why they would pitch to a guy that hit 56 HR with an average of .356.
I think these numbers might help explain 191 RBI. Opportunities to drive in runs must have been huge.
And yet, the team only won 90 games and didn't win the pennant.
Pitching must not have been that great. Five guys averaging .335 or higher & they didn't win the pennant.

[brush]

1. Wasn't that before Jackie Robinson and other Black and POC...

players were integrated into the game as well? Negro League teams quite often beat major league players after the season during barnstorming games.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Yeah, Way Before

Another 17 years before JR played for the Dodgers.
Fun fact: Cap Anson tried to sneak POC on the Cubs before 1900. He tried to pass off one guy as a dark skinned Cuban & another as a Native American.
Priggish newspaper writers did some digging and found out one guy was from Michigan & the other from Kentucky.
That was 50 years before JR.
A couple other teams tried the same between the mid 1880s and 1920. Once that racist Landis became commissioner, nobody tried it again.

[patphil]

3. Unfortunately Wilson's career was cut short by alcoholism.

[underpants]

4. I dove in a bit but I have a question I can't find an answer to

1930
585 at bats - that’s an average of 3.8 ABs in 154 games.
191 RsBI
105 walks
84 strikeouts.
Those account for 65% of his at bats.

The question I have is WHEN did he accumulate his hits 208 of which 56 were HR’s? A starting pitcher at the time often went well into the latter innings so later in the game they were surely wearing out. That could offer some of the explanation to his performance as well as the lead up hitters before him.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Great Question

I saw an analysis a few years that showed that 1927 to 1930, Ruth hit around .330 for those years, but hit almost .400 after the 6th inning.
There was even a term used by NY sportswriters about those Ruth/Gehrig Yankees, "five o'clock thunder". It was because of the barrage of runs closer to the end of the game.
I think (!) that it was Bill James that wrote it, but I couldn't swear to it.
How many homers & hits happened against a tired arm?

[rurallib]

6. I seem to remember reading during my youth that 1930 was a statistical anomaly

that averages were way higher in 1930 across the board than normal years.

Here is a quick story on that year:
https://www.baseballhistorycomesalive.com/1930-the-year-offense-in-baseball-went-off-the-charts/

[underpants]

7. That's a great explanation. Thanks.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Great Find!

Interesting piece.
Might be the first instance of the tighter wound balls.