Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, June 8, 2008

Is batting .400 an impossible feat in modern times?

Atlanta's Chipper Jones is off to the best start of his career, batting .420 as of Saturday, but can he maintain it and become the first player in 67 years to hit .400 or better for a season?

Associated Press

 ATLANTA -- Bobby Doerr had the best seat in the house for the last player to hit .400, and he was still around as a coach when the most enduring run at the hallowed mark came up short.

Now, from his home in Oregon, the oldest living player in the Baseball Hall of Fame is rooting for Chipper Jones.

"I hope he can go ahead and do it," the 90-year-old Doerr said, reached by phone between fishing trips. "That would be good for baseball."

The Atlanta Braves third baseman is off to the best start of his career, currently holding a staggering .420 batting average.

But it's only June, so Jones refuses to get too excited.

"I don't think anybody can do it," he said bluntly.

Still, the very fact that Jones has made it this far -- the deepest into the season anyone has been at .400 in eight seasons -- is enough to at least stir the memories of Ted Williams, the last player to average four hits for every 10 atbats, a milestone that's stood the test of time for 67 years.

Jones, the son of a coach, was virtually born with a bat in his hand. He knows what he's up against.

"The simple fact of the matter is that no one has done it in a very, very long time," he said. "And we're talking about maybe the greatest hitter ever to step on the field is the one who did it. Man, I just don't see myself in the same league as him. I really don't."

Four-hundred. Think about it.

In a sport that cherishes numbers, .400 is one that stands like a beacon far off shore -- in sight but out of reach, a rare nugget in a Holy Grail of remarkable feats (Cy Young's 511 wins, Hack Wilson's 191-RBI season) that supposedly can't be duplicated in this modern era.

Doerr, a teammate and good friend of Williams, remembers that 1941 season as if it were yesterday. The Splendid Splinter went into the final day with an average that would have rounded up to .400 -- though, ahead of his time as always, he didn't think that was good enough.

(The Elias Sports Bureau says it wouldn't consider .3996, Williams' average going into that last day, to be a .400 season.)

Boston Red Sox manager Joe Cronin gave Williams the option of sitting out a doubleheader at Philadelphia to protect his average. Williams wouldn't hear of it, deciding to play both games. As any longtime fan of the game can recite by heart, he went 6-for-8 that day, finishing with a .406 average.

"There was no way he was going to sit that out," Doerr said. "He didn't want to be a .400 hitter that way."

Doerr, who was referred to as "the silent captain" of the Red Sox by Williams, provides some insight into the sort of mind it takes to hit .400.

"I fished with Ted. I was with him for years, since he first broke into baseball. We were close friends," Doerr recounted. "Anything he did was a challenge. I think Chipper Jones is the same way. He probably has that makeup to handle it better than a lot of players."

Although the laid-back Jones doesn't have Williams' fiery personality, they certainly took the same studious approach onto the field.

Williams was one of the first players to use a lighter bat, and he wouldn't leave it on the ground in the spring because he feared it would soak up moisture and become slightly heavier.

"He knew half an ounce made a big difference," Doerr said. "That's how sharp Ted was. He used to have a scale in the clubhouse to weigh his bats. He would bone them down to get the handle just like he wanted. He was so ahead of everybody on things like that, the little detail things."

Between at-bats, Jones can often be seen in the dugout thumbing through scouting reports. He always goes to the plate with a purpose.

"The game situation dictates what I'm trying to do," he said.

According to Elias, Jones is the first to be at .400 this late in the season since a pair of players in 2000. Colorado's Todd Helton stayed there through June 10, while Nomar Garciaparra of the Red Sox held on until July 20. Both finished with .372 averages to win the batting crowns in their respective leagues.

So, can Jones, a career .310 hitter in his 15th year, stay at .400 over an entire season? The odds are against him, of course, but here's a few things working in his favor:

n He's very selective. Jones, who collected his 400th career homer Thursday, rarely swings at bad pitches, forcing the pitcher to put the ball where he wants it.

n He's a switch-hitter, which usually gives him a better look at breaking balls since they're moving toward his sweet spot rather than dipping away.

n He's batting in front of fellow switch-hitter Mark Teixeira, another of baseball's most feared sluggers. Although most teams prefer to pitch around Jones, it's not an easy choice, and he often gets to see pitches that wouldn't have come his way with a less-imposing hitter on-deck.

But there are several key obstacles to anyone hitting .400 again:

n In Williams' day, there were just eight teams in each league and no interleague play. The Red Sox played the other seven AL teams 22 times a year, giving hitters plenty of chances to get familiar with opposing hurlers.

n Relievers were an anomaly in the 1940s. Starters were expected to go the distance, or at least pitch seven or eight innings, so hitters got to face tiring pitchers who often worked more than 300 innings a year. Today, teams carry 11 or 12 pitchers and have all sorts of specialists for every situation. Plus, pitches such as the slider and split-finger fastball have made things tougher for the hitters.

n With all the television outlets, talk radio shows and Internet bloggers, the pressure on someone trying to hit .400 is much greater today than it was in the 1940s.

n The 36-year-old Jones also rarely beats out infield hits, having battled leg and foot problems the past few seasons. If anyone is going to hit .400, he figures it will be a singles hitter with speed, such as Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki.

Atlanta pitcher Tom Glavine agrees.

"You figure a guy who's going to hit .400 is a guy who is a contact hitter, beats out a lot of balls, has 25 or so infield hits a year," Glavine said. "Chipper's not that kind of player. All his hits are getting through or over."

George Brett is the player with the most sustained run on .400 since Williams. In 1980, the Kansas City third baseman was hitting .401 on Sept. 4, according to Elias, but he fell off over the final month to finish at .390.

When Brett slumped in September, "it was a big disappointment for everyone," said Frank White, a teammate of Brett's.

The highest average since Williams was put up by another Hall of Famer. In 1994, San Diego's Tony Gwynn was at .394 when a strike ended the season in August.

Jones, who sat out that season with a knee injury, still remembers "the Tony Ticker" -- the media's running tab on Gwynn's progress. Unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to tack another six points on his average.

"Tony could pretty much do whatever he wanted," Jones said. "You couldn't play a game of defense on him. He would absolutely eat you up. He could steer the ball anywhere. He could pretty much take any pitch, wherever it was thrown, and hit it anywhere on the baseball field."
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA