The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-09
FEW MEN HAVE MADE RECORD
Only .Twenty-nine Big Leagoers
 Have Turned Trick.
The Rseerss. sAsw TA.t Jess. Burkett
 Was the .Grestest ss Tsem
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have made batting more difficult fin re- cent years are the. foul-strike rule and were changes In the rules. such as re- ducing the number of balls. that had their effect So the day of the 400 hitter is past, unless present conditions oa Datting and pitching are changed,
 Big league batsmen who have laid against the ball for. q record of .400 or better for. a seasons work are com 1871 there have. been twenty-nine of them. as follows: National League Apssn 1,s stw,ceG Brcuthsrs Barnes Charles Fsrsason. Kssier Asysrle,, As, stenzel. Turner. Dnffy. Thompson ltwicel, Jim White and George Wright. American Association = Browning. Esterbfook. b Mack. rip o'Neiii. Orr, Radf0rd, Tank Robinson, Denny Lyons and Stoyeyi ttwice).S American League l-Lajoie.f Union Association--Dunlap. big league harness are Clarke. Lajoie and .Keeler. Had Hans WaGneri and Ty Cobb been playing when s.4O0 batting was possible there isn't any doubt that they together with one or two others, such as Sam Crawford and Mike Don Hn. Ross Barnes and Jesse Burkett are the only two players who ever bat eG4 sNVW L4IEGl B1lftc6 AIlQ tAS O&AiS AWO who ever did 50 fin two consecutive
 Burke4t Great Batsaan. In point of general percentage and % present sen whose s records are 1 avail i. able Burkett, the little thick-set chap whp gwatted left-handed and used to be such a terror t0 boxxaen. tops all tie rest. "A study of his record and chat of other stickers who did wonders at years of consecutive hard hitting Is worthy of study. From 1893 to 1902 Burkett batted steadily in the 800 al League and one in the American. Here are his figures in the order in which he made them: .372, .367. .423, l .41o. .ss2. ..s45. .402. .860. 1882. and .306. Of the players who have hourished since 1878 old Pop Anson has made the 1 greatest record for hard consecutive Hitting. Whatever the conditions were, kett was a left handed hitter. while Anse hit right-hAnded The noted Chi cago leader could clout them all in his day, and he faced some classy pitch he never hit below .soC. and in 1888. 1894, -1sss. 1898 and 1887 he also bat l ted 300, verify a wonderful record. For fifteen consecutive years he thumped body else has such a long stretch of earnest awaiting to his credit. though Wagner may get there Anson's ff- teen-year record includes the follow isss. .s3s. .S62. .so7, .sio. .sT1. .42i. .S4s. .a41, .3f1. General average .352.
 l Wagner. 6 right-hander. has been hitting in the 800 class steadily since l aSD7, and for twelve straight years has i not gone below that mark. His near 1 est approach to zoe was in 1899. when l he sbatted .2s0. Ills figures are as fol- lows: .544, :soS. sess :sse; sag. .s2s; average, .s4s. Dan Brouthers was some slugger. He hit over 300 for fourteen straight seaaons- 1881 so .les4 inclnslve-sn.d made ss the foIlsowiHg as peT- p1n 41s, .s0s. .S7s, .346. .34s. 1885. :34S, .s44. General average. .352. Brouthers was a left-banded batsnan.
 le Others with notable records. in con secutive 300 batting are:
 Eight Fansoun sluggerM
 Hamilton, leftahander-1-.301, .324, .33s .a46, .395, S9s, .3e3. .363, .344. .36e, .3e6, .ss2. Twelve eensecutise years Gen 7'T5 Deiehanty' rigIit- -hander-.sta, .s7o. .4OO,- .3ss, .8s4,. SIT. .3al. .40s. .3ls, .Ss7 azs, Eleven es9sReseertiye sse years. Gen erea aeorEs syeses Bsvis s'i iieft-handsrs7s .s45. ss0, .sfs. .sss. .3Os.S .a4S, .325. 1908. Nine consecutive years General average 'ISi Mcaraw leftshander-.s2s. $40. ..s7s. ,s5s. .sas. .Ss4., ss0. .9s7, .sSa. Nine consecutIvs years General average. ,Sss.
 SIS. Eteven conaecutive years. Gen
 Keeisr. Vieft-hander--.s23. .3sT, .ss4. ss2. .43s. .s7s. SIS: .sse. .sb5. .4sa. .s1s. years. General average. .s57.
 Duffy, right -hander-.311. 1928, .340, .So2 .s7s, .33s. .s52. .so2. .s41, .s1s. Ten consecutive years General average. Lajoie. right-hander--.sss.-.s2 .s2S. .a4O, .422. .369. .356, 1881, 1928, .355. Ten consecutive years. General average, Of Of these twelve players six----Anson Wagner. Delehanty. Kelley, Duffy and La5oie-were or are right handed bat ters. so there is no choice In that re-
 Of ali the men who have batted .4oo in their time. Tip o'Neill, of the old St Louis Browns. made the highest one years percentage. His batting aX- eiEist points short of 500. and repre- sents exceedingly close to base hit for every two times up. or course O'Neill had the benefit of rules whfcn anything but ordinary pitchers that were in the American Association that year. Some of the twirIers who faced him were Guy Hecleer, Tony Mullane, Lynch and weyhing. They were the best there were at that time. Ramsey. Kilroy--the most noted left-hapders of their day-Weyhing, Terry. Mullane. Hecker-those were names to conjure with
 Stop and look over the pitchers that were kings of the mound when Anson was lining the drives out to safe spots {; Radhourn Burlington. whitney. Spald- ing Mcbride. Baldwin. Bond, Ward and Keefe. Those were some of the accomplished pitchers whom Anson had to face at different times in his luminous career. Also he met such Welch and Calvin. Dan Brouthers piled up i1is big average against much tha same lot of proficient artists.
 WARneP's Wonderful Work.
 Wagner has done some of his phe- romenal batting against such latter
 lrown. willis. Young Demeen ani
 When Burkett was cloutIne out hls 423 and 410 averages Tn 1895 and 1898 pitchers who were at their best and who faced him were Rreltenateip. Rhines Nichols. Rusie. Dwyer. McMa- hon, Fraser. McJames and HawleY. In the American League when he batted .S0s. Burkett went against Youne Grinith McGinnity Joss Muffin; Moore q and Howell among others, His rec 1901 was made with the foul strike rule In vogue. The foul-strike rule has not bothered Wagner to any extent in the last eight vesrs, while KeeleF hit over 500 six times after It came Into use, and IAJoie four times; ,, NaYi has not affected Wagner. but botN Reeier ana Ia1ole have fallen below