what happened to the .300 hitter?

As our attention turns to the beginning of the baseball playoffs, here’s an excerpt from JoeBlogs, the Substack of the sportswriter Joe Posnanski. You can read the whole post here.

In the newspapers, teams were listed in the order of batting average, not the order of how many runs they scored. On the radio, on television, we were introduced to players by their batting averages. Hi everybody. Meet Jay Buhner. He’s hitting .271!

‍ ‍The player with the highest average was crowned the batting champion, a most regal title. And of course, batting average was used constantly outside of baseball. Politicians would talk about their batting averages. Lawyers and surgeons and salespeople would talk about their batting averages. I remember once, many years ago, taking my busted-up car to an auto mechanic who said he couldn’t guarantee that he could fix it … “but,” he added humbly, “I have a pretty high batting average.”

The point is that batting average was everywhere. It was in the air. And, yes, of course, much of it was silly and misguided.

So was the song “Come on Eileen.” I still dance when I hear it.

And I mourn the .300 hitter. Does the fact that [Pete Crow-Armstrong] is hitting .281 in any way diminish the preposterously wonderful season he’s having? Of course not. But I wish he was hitting .300. I wish Shohei was hitting .300. I wish Bobby Witt Jr. was hitting .300. That round number just looks better by their names.

I hear the argument from batting average enthusiasts that while batting averages may not be great analytical tools for teams looking to increase run production, they do speak directly to the fun of baseball— a single being more fun than a walk and all that. Maybe there’s something to that. Maybe there isn’t.

What I do know is that for me it’s a bummer to look at the leaderboard and not see a single player batting .320.

It’s a bummer for me to look at the Cubs, the highest-scoring team in baseball, and not see one regular hitting anywhere close to .300 (PCA leads the regulars at .281).

The Dodgers are the most expensive collection of players ever assembled, and they don’t have a single .300 hitter (though Freddie Freeman is hitting .297—there’s a chance there).

Aaron Judge has been hurt, yes, but the regular (more than 30 games played) with the highest batting average on the New York Yankees at the moment—bleepin’ Murderer’s Row and all that—is Cody Bellinger. He’s hitting .264. …

It should be easy enough to let go of batting average for all the reasons we talk about and just accept that we have better stats, and baseball is played differently now, and batting average is so flawed, and pitchers all throw 100 with exploding sliders and demon sweepers. Strikeouts are inevitable. Defenses are better positioned—you can’t hit em where they ain’t when they’re everywhere.

And the one guy who defies the time by putting the ball in play and never striking out, Luis Arraez, is playing on his fifth team since 2022 because nobody has any idea what his batting average is even worth.

I know all this.

But there’s a part of me that can’t let go, won’t let go.

Too-rah-loo-ra
Too-rah-loo-rye-ayyy
And we can sing just like our fathers.

Come on Eileen.