Overlooked Pre-war Players
 

I was looking at some records today and noticed the single season record for doubles is held by Earl Webb (67 in 1931). I like to think that I know a pretty good amount of baseball history but I'd never heard of this guy. Impressive stats all around IMO but a very short 7 year career. This got me thinking about other players who may fall into Mr. Webb's camp. Would love to hear some other examples.

John Owen 'Chief' Wilson had 36 triples in 1912. Two players had 31 in the 1890's and no one else has had more than 26 since.

You better believe THAT record will never, ever be broken. I can see someone at least getting close to the doubles record, but they will never be in the same area code as this one.

Wilson played right field for nine years, first six with the Pirates - led the league with 107 RBIs in 1911 on a team with Honus Wagner. Wilson hit exactly .300 in both 1911 & 1912 ; was part of the 1909 World Champions as a second-year player. Hit .269 for his career.

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That's another one I noticed in the records I was looking at! Amazing that someone got 36 triples in a season! I guess the large numbers were a result of larger parks? It seems that triples were a lot more common back then than they are now.

My avatar is a T205 is Wilson

Charlie Hollocher's 1922 season 152 games and he only struck out 5 times. I know Joe Sewell had two seasons where he struck out 4 times, but at least he had a career long enough to get in the HoF.

I remember telling a few people at work about these guys and no one knew either of them or could believe that they played full seasons with so few strike outs.

Hollocher has a really sad story.

Not any records set...that I'm aware of, but two really good pre-war pitchers were Sam Leever and Lon Warneke.


...and, just barely pre-war...Cecil Travis hit .356 and led the Majors in hits the same year of DiMag's streak and Ted's .406. He was also 5-for-7 in his ML debut...he could hit!


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