page_title: Chuck Klein
section_title: Peak years
hierarchical_section_title: Chuck Klein / MLB career / Peak years
caption_attribution_description: English: 1933 Chuck Klein Baseball card. Copyright records indicated that the copyright wasn't renewed, thus it's in the public domain.
context_page_description: Charles Herbert Klein, nicknamed the "Hoosier Hammer", was an American professional baseball outfielder. Klein played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
  Klein led the National League in home runs four times, and won the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1932. In 1933 he became one of six NL players to win a batting Triple Crown. In 1930 he set the NL record for extra-base hits with 107. On July 10, 1936, he hit four home runs in a game, becoming the fourth player to do so. He was the first player to be selected to the All-Star Game as a member of two different teams. Klein was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
context_section_description: Klein hit .356 in 1929, his first full season, and won the NL home run title. In the middle of the season the Phillies added a 15 foot screen on top of the short right field wall, the timing was peculiar as Klein was coming off of a torrid July where he hit 14 home runs, and was making a run at the home run record. The notoriously stingy owner of the Phillies William Baker defended the addition of the screen stating "a number of accidents happen[ing] on Broad street owing to the balls going over the fence and hitting pedestrians, also damaging automobiles, breaking windshields, etc." For the remainder of the season, due to the new height of the right field wall, Klein only hit 4 home runs in the 25 games he played at Baker Bowl after August 1st. In those 25 home games however, he hit 12 doubles. On the last day of the season, the Phillies played a doubleheader against the New York Giants. The Giants' star slugger, Mel Ott, was tied with Klein for the lead with 42. In the first game, Klein homered to put him one ahead of Ott, who was held to a single. In the second game, the Phillies' pitchers walked Ott five straight times, including once with the bases loaded. Early in the 1930 season before their season debut with the Giants, New York press acknowledged that Klein's home run record was tainted, because of what happened with Ott in the last game the previous season. "He calls me the pop fly home run champ." Klein said in referring to Ott. "Say, I can hit a ball farther with one hand than that little runt can with two. Bring on those Giants. I'll eat them up!"
  In 1930, Klein enjoyed one of the best offensive years in baseball history, batting .386 with 250 hits and 158 runs scored, all career highs. He also set career bests and still-standing Phillies records with 59 doubles, 170 runs batted in (RBI), a .687 slugging percentage and 445 total bases. No player has had as many total bases in a season since. His 107 extra-base hits that year are a National League record, tied by Barry Bonds in 2001. Along with his batting prowess, Klein was also a good defensive right fielder; he is tenth on the all-time list for assists for a right fielder. 1930 marked the second straight season where Klein had collected at least 200 hits, along with his hitting records he set the single season mark for assists by a right fielder with 44. This is due to the height that was added to the right field wall in 1929 which caused more balls to fall in right field. On July 1, 1931, in a game against the Chicago Cubs, Klein hit for the cycle, going 4-for-5 with five RBI. At the end of the season, he led the National League in runs scored with 121 and RBI with 121. He also lead the league in home runs for the second time in his career with 31, and amassed at least 200 hits for the third season in a row.
  After the 1932 season, Klein was awarded the National League MVP award. During the season, he led the league in home runs for the third time, as well as hits and runs scored, he also became the first player in the live-ball era to lead the league in both home runs and stolen bases. No player since has led the league in both categories in the same year. He finished the season with 226 hits, marking the fourth year in a row that he exceeded the 200 hit mark. On May 26, 1933 the Phillies lost a 14 inning game to the St. Louis Cardinals, during this game Klein hit for the cycle for the second time in his career. On July 6 of 1933, he became the first Phillies player ever to bat in an All-Star Game after receiving a majority of the fan's votes. At the end of the season, he became the fourth NL player since 1901 to win the Triple Crown with a batting average of .368, and led the NL in home runs with 28 and RBI with 120. At the end of the season, due in part to Carl Hubbell's brilliant pitching season, and the Giants winning the 1933 World Series, Klein finished second in MVP voting behind Hubbell.
caption: Klein's 1933 Goudey baseball card
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