Evening star., 1950-12-17
Official so Averages
Give MusiaI Battinq
Title for Fourth Time
BY the Associated Press

BY the Associated Press
NEW YORK. Dec. 16.-The Ma
tional League today officially
crowned Stan Musial of st. Louis
as the circuits batting champion
for 1885, making him the first
Ilefthanded batter ever to capture
the honor four times.
The 30-year-o first baseman-
outf1elder won with mark of
.346, the lowest average Of his
four winning years. 1t was six
points more than the figure posted
by Johnny Hopp, ex-Pittsburgh
first baseman who was batting
$40 at the time he was traded to
the Yankees near the end of the
season.
Musial succeeds Brooklyn's s
Jackie Robinson, who won the
1949 race with a .342 average.
Stan first won the batting title
in 1943 with a .357 average. He
was tops again in '46 with .355,
and first in '48 with .376.
Trails Wagner, Hornsby.
Two National League immortals,
Honus Wagner and Rogers Horns
by, are the only others with more
batting titles than Musial. Both
were righthanders. Wagner won
the crown eight times while
Hornsby was first seven times.
i Musial, native of Donora, Pa,
broke one other record. BY scoring
more than 100 runs for the sew
enth consecutive time, he snapped
a tie with Bill Terry of the Giants
and Stan Hack of the Cubs.
In addition, the 6-foot, 175-
FOUNDER ran up the longest bat
ting streak of the campaign, a
30-game run which was stopped
by five Brooklyn pitchers on
July 27.
j Musial played in 146 games,
divided between first base and
the outfield, raped out 1872 hits
in SIS tries, scored los runs, hit
Al doubles, triples, % homers
and drove in 100 runs.
The leagues top 10 hitters in
cluded:
1-Musial. .346; 2-Hopp. Pitts
burgh, $40; 3-Robinson, Brook
lyn, 1928; 4EDuke Snider, Brook
lyn, .321; 5-Walker Cooper,
Cincinnati-Boston, .313: 6-Del
Ennis, Philadelphia, .311; Tied
Kluszewski, Cincinnati, BOT; g.
Carl Furillo, Brooklyn. and Bob
Elliott. Boston. .3O5 each; 10
Andy Pafko. Chicago, and Sid
Gordon, Boston, .304 each.
Three other regulars made the
select 800 circle. They were
Richie Ashburn. Philadelphia,
1903, and Ed Stanky and Monte
Irwin of the Giants, each with
! 300.
Besides Musial. Ralph Kiner of
Pittsburgh. Gil Hodges of Brook
lyn, and Gordon, had a hand in
record breaking. Kiner, by lead
ing the loop in homers with At,
made it the fifth time he has
grabbed that honor, extending
his own record. He also bettered
Hack Wilson's homer mark of IS
for two seasons, with 101. He
clouted 81 in 40.
New Marks for Hodges.
! The Pittsburgh Slugger made it
four years in succession that he
hit over 40 homers and he thus
snapped a tie with Johnny Mize,
former National Lacquer now with
the Yankees.
Hodges set a modern National
League record August 81 by hit
ting four homers in a nine-in
ming game against Boston. He hit
for II total bases that night, es-
tablishing modern major league
standard.
Gordon hit four homers with
the bases filled during the season,
tying record shared by many.
Robinson. who lost his batting
, crown to Musial, also lost his
Dase-stealing title to Sam Jethroe
the fleet Boston rookie Jethroe
stole IS bases. Robinson, slowed
by injuries, only stole IL bases.
Other leaders in various depart
! ments included:
Runs batted in-Ennis, 1876.
Runs-Earl Torgeson, Boston
9 l2O.
Homers-Kiner, At.
Triples-Ashburn, IA.
: Doubles-,Red Schoendienst. st
) Louis, 43.
? Singles-Ed Watkins, Philadel-
. phia, 143
Sacriflces-Schoendienst, 16.
Most times at bat-Schoen-
! dienst, 642.
Hits-Snider, 1879.
Total bases-Snider, 343.
1t was the 18th time in the
/ history of the league no player
3 made 200 hits.