Career singles for "The Babe"

[Denny La Rowe]

I've been looking and looking on the web to find out how many singles Ruth hit in his career. Does anybody out there know?

Thanks,

Denny

[RuthMayBond]

I've been looking and looking on the web to find out how many singles Ruth hit in his career. Does anybody out there know?

Thanks,

DennyWell,
2873
-506
-136
-714
looks a lot like 1517

[Chicoutimi CP]

Babe Ruth had 1517 singles in his career. He's not even in the MLB Top 100 career leaders in that category.

[digglahhh]

Babe Ruth had 1517 singles in his career. He's not even in the MLB Top 100 career leaders in that category.

Kind of exemplifies hit greatness, doesn't it?

[Brad Harris]

Bill Mazeroski had more singles than Ruth! (He must be a Hall-of-Famer!) :laugh

[SABR Matt]

Let that be a lesson...you can do a lot more with power than with contact. :)

[The Commissioner]

That means that approximately 47.2% of all of the Babe's hits were for extra bases. That has to be one of the highest percentages (of course, within a certain minimum parameter) ever. However, a cursory look produced two sluggers with even better EBH percentages. One you would probably guess, but the other was a bit of a surprise to me. So far, 49.2% of all of Barry Bonds' hits have been for extra bases. Hank Greenberg also had a higher percentage, although with a lot fewer at bats, than Ruth with 48%.

[Ubiquitous]

Low average, high walk, high homer guys probably have high %. The so called 3 true outcome type players. Rob Deer, Dave Kingman, Inky, and so forth.

Doing a quick check, Kong at 45%, Deer at 46%, and Inky at 40%. When I get home I can do it with a database to find the highest 10.

Mcgwire is at 51.7%

[Ubiquitous]

There have in the entire history of baseball been only 4 players as of right now that have managed to his more extra base hits then singles. Though I did set the criteria at at least 100 hits (over 4,000 players), and 3 of the 4 players are still active. Mark McGwire is the king of the extra base hit with 56 more xbh then singles and 51.7% of all his hits being extra bases. He is followed by Adam Dunn, Bobby Estalella, and Russel Branyan. Bobby actually has a slightly higher % of his hits going for extra bases at 52.3%.

If we use 500 hits as a cutoff then the top 20 from best to worst is:

Mark McGwire
Adam Dunn
Barry Bonds
Carlos Delgado
Hank Greenberg
David Ortiz
Troy Glaus
Babe Ruth
Gorman Thomas
Jim Thome
Brian Daubach
Rob Deer
Albert Belle
Richie Sexson
Mike Schmidt
Lance Berkman
Darryl Strawberry
Dave Kingman
Greg Vaughn
Manny Ramirez

Thats 51.7% to 44.9%

[The Commissioner]

There have in the entire history of baseball been only 4 players as of right now that have managed to his more extra base hits then singles. Though I did set the criteria at at least 100 hits (over 4,000 players), and 3 of the 4 players are still active. Mark McGwire is the king of the extra base hit with 56 more xbh then singles and 51.7% of all his hits being extra bases. He is followed by Adam Dunn, Bobby Estalella, and Russel Branyan. Bobby actually has a slightly higher % of his hits going for extra bases at 52.3%.

If we use 500 hits as a cutoff then the top 20 from best to worst is:

Mark McGwire
Adam Dunn
Barry Bonds
Carlos Delgado
Hank Greenberg
David Ortiz
Troy Glaus
Babe Ruth
Gorman Thomas
Jim Thome
Brian Daubach
Rob Deer
Albert Belle
Richie Sexson
Mike Schmidt
Lance Berkman
Darryl Strawberry
Dave Kingman
Greg Vaughn
Manny Ramirez

Thats 51.7% to 44.9%

Great research!!! Thanks.

I never, in a million years, would have guessed that Berkman would be on that list.

[Ubiquitous]

Berkman walks a lot, strikes out more then moderately and hits lots of doubles as well as homers. Put them altogether and thats a lot of extra bases even if with the somewhat high batting average. But yeah I never would have guessed Berkman. I would have guessed Troy Glaus and Jim Thome in a heartbeat but not Lance. Jim Thome is the modern poster child for High Walk, High Strikeout, and lots of power with a somewhat low batting average.

[RuthMayBond]

Jim Thome is the modern poster child for High Walk, High Strikeout, and lots of power with a somewhat low batting average.If .284 is somewhat low

[RuthMayBond]

There have in the entire history of baseball been only 4 players as of right now that have managed to his more extra base hits then singles. Though I did set the criteria at at least 100 hits (over 4,000 players), and 3 of the 4 players are still active. Mark McGwire is the king of the extra base hit with 56 more xbh then singles and 51.7% of all his hits being extra bases. He is followed by Adam Dunn, Bobby Estalella, and Russel Branyan. Bobby actually has a slightly higher % of his hits going for extra bases at 52.3%.Now who the heck would have guessed Estalella?