Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 12, 2007
Hanley and History.

Hanley Ramirez knocked out two home runs and a double Tuesday night to bring his extra-base hit total for the season to seventy-seven. It's very likely he'll end the year with eighty or more extra-base hits. There was a time when that was an impressive accomplishment. Take a look at the period from 1982-1992, the eleven non-strike seasons leading up to the offensive boom of the 1990s:

Players with 80+ extra base hits, 1982-1992
PlayerSeasonEXBH
Robin Yount198287
Kevin Mitchell198987
Don Mattingly198586
Don Mattingly198686
Cal Ripken Jr.199185
George Bell198783
Hal McRae198281
Mark McGwire198781
Juan Samuel198780
Dave Parker198580
Howard Johnson198980

Just one dozen players accomplished the deed, and three of those came in the big home run year of 1987. From 1993 to 2006, players reached 80 extra-base hits 112 times, including three such seasons in the strike shortened 1995 season. (We've had two reach that level already in 2007.) Twenty years ago, a season like this would win Hanley the MVP, now it's a common occurrence.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:55 AM | Sluggers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

It's pretty impressive that Ramirez doesn't even rank first (or second!) in extra-base hits among MLB's lead-off hitters.

Posted by: gordon at September 12, 2007 02:34 PM
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