A Great Baseball Trivia Question.Test Your knowledge

cobb only had 19 in a row. does that count?

Ted Williams just missed. He was below .400 in his next-to-last season. The tricky part is that the rookie phase and / or the decline phase can nail even the best OBP guys.

Are we counting only years with more than 100 PA? That is, could the player have some years below .400 OPB that had less than 100 PA?

Ruth, for example, may be below 100 PA during his pitching years and his last bad year. Would being below 100 PA get him off the hook for those years?

Also wondering about Joe Jackson. He avoided a decline phase due to the Black Sox scandal and had a lifetime average around. .358 BA. If he got enough walks, that could do it.

If not for one year of .399 in 1954 Fain Ferris would have had it.

Are we counting only years with more than 100 PA? That is, could the player have some years below .400 OPB that had less than 100 PA?

Seasons with less than 100 PA don't count. My guy had two seasons in the majors as a teenager with less than 100 PA and low OBP.
Went to the minors for a while, then came back at age 26 and had a string of 7 years with OBP above .400.
He was back in the minors for 10 more years before hanging it up.

He has never been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Hall of Fame.

Johnny Bassler

That's him.

Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Awards
1921 26 DET AL 119 463 388 37 119 18 5 0 56 2 1 58 16 .307 .401 .379 .780 101
1922 27 DET AL 121 454 372 41 120 14 0 0 41 2 1 62 12 .323 .422 .360 .782 108 MVP-6
1923 28 DET AL 135 478 383 45 114 12 3 0 49 2 2 76 13 .298 .414 .345 .759 103 MVP-7
1924 29 DET AL 124 456 379 43 131 20 3 1 68 2 1 62 11 .346 .441 .422 .864 125 MVP-5
1925 30 DET AL 121 433 344 40 96 19 3 0 52 1 1 74 6 .279 .408 .352 .760 96
1926 31 DET AL 66 228 174 20 53 8 1 0 23 0 0 45 6 .305 .447 .362 .810 112
1927 32 DET AL 81 256 200 19 57 7 0 0 24 1 0 45 9 .285 .416 .320 .736 92

Above is copied and pasted from baseball-reference. Three top 10 MVP seasons. Played catcher.
One wonders what got him sent back to the minors? Could it be the fascination with the long ball and low importance placed on OBP in that era caused a player who should have had a long career to be unappreciated?

Here is one I saw on MLB network program touting the greatest OF arms in history.

Jesse Barfield closed out his 12 year career in 1992 owning the second highest rate of outfield assists per 1,000 innings for any player born in the 20th century.

Who had the highest rate?

They did not give the answer but betting as sharp as this group is it will be known before the weekend is over.

JImmy Ryan