List of Major League Baseball career assists as an outfielder leaders
In baseball, an assist (denoted by "A") is a defensive statistic, baseball being one of the few sports in which the "defensive" team controls the ball. An assist is credited to every defensive player who fields or touches the ball (after it has been hit by the batter) before the recording of a putout, even if the contact was unintentional. For example, if a ball strikes a player's leg and bounces off him to another fielder, who tags the baserunner, the first player is credited with an assist . A fielder can receive a maximum of one assist per out recorded. An assist is also credited if a putout would have occurred, had another fielder not committed an error. For example, a shortstop might field a ground ball cleanly, but the first baseman might drop his throw. In this case, an error would be charged to the first baseman, and the shortstop would be credited with an assist. An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right  fielder. An outfielder's duty is to try to catch long fly balls before they hit the ground or to quickly catch or retrieve and return to the infield any other balls entering the outfield. Outfielders normally play behind the six other members of the defense who play in or near the infield. By convention, each of the nine defensive positions in baseball is numbered. The outfield positions are 7 (left field), 8 (center field), and 9 (right field). These numbers are shorthand designations useful in baseball scorekeeping and are not necessarily the same as the squad numbers worn on  player uniforms. Tris Speaker is the all-time leader in career assists as an outfielder with 449. Speaker is the only outfielder with more than 400 career assists.