WHY I THINK LEFTY O’DOUL SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN

 WHY I THINK LEFTY O’DOUL SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN

By- Damien 

Lefty O’Doul is fourth on the all-time list for batting average. Period. Only Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson ever outhit O’Doul. Lefty’s career batting average stands at .349, which today would win anyone a batting title. O’Doul captured two with his keen batting eye and powerful bat. O’Doul could also run like a scared rabbit, hit for power, and hardly ever struck out. O'Doul's biggest claim to fame is the instrumental role he played in popularizing baseball in Japan, where it still thrives today. He actually started out as a pitcher, but suffered a sore arm in 1925 and stuck exclusively to playing the outfield. O’Doul started his career slowly, as he spet the first four seasons of his career as a reliever. After the 1923 season, O'Doul came down with a sore arm and was converted into an outfielder on account his his hitting prowess. O’Doul hit .319 in 114 games in 1928 at the age of 31 and scored 67 runs. He took off in 1929, capturing his first batting title with a robust .398 mark. O’Doul also scored 152 runs, smacked and 32 home runs, knocked in 122 runs, and led the NL in hits (254) and OBP (.465). He finished second in the MVP voting to Hornsby. O’Doul came back in 1930 to hit .383 with 22 homers and 97 RBI’s. He also scored 122 runs, slugged .604 and had 37 doubles among his 202 hits. He hit .336 in 1931 and won his second batting title in 1932 with a .368 mark. O’Doul hit 21 homers that year and got 219 hits, which was his third 200-hit season. He finished third in the MVP voting that season, and even though he did enough to win the MVP both in 1929 and in 1932, the voters didn’t really like him enough to bestow on him such an honor. O’Doul slipped to .284 in 1933 and hit .316 as a platoon player in 1934, retiring after that year. Lefty O’Doul was one of the game’s greatest players, a guy you could count on for one or two hits every game, and a marvelous contact hitter with power, one of the great rarities in baseball. 

LIFETIME STATISTICS

Games career: 970 season high: 154 in 1929

At Bats career: 3,264 season high: 638 in 1929

Hits career: 1,140 season high: 254 in 1929 led NL: 254 in 1929

Doubles career: 175 season high: 37 in 1930

Triples career: 41 season high: 11 in 1931

Home Runs career: 113 season high: 32 in 1929

Runs career: 624 season high: 152 in 1929

Runs Batted In career: 542 season high: 122 in 1929

Stolen Bases career: 36 season high: 11 in 1932

Walks career: 333 season high: 76 in 1929

Strikeouts career: 122 season high: 21 in 1930

Batting Average career: .349 season high: .398 in 1929 led NL: .398 in 1929, .368 in 1932

On Base Percentage career: .413 season high: .465 in 1929 led NL: .465 in 1929

Slugging Percentage career: .532 season high: .622 in 1929

Total Bases career: 1,736 season high: 397 in 1929

Sacrifice Hits career: 39 season high: 13 in 1929

Fielding Percentage career: .964 season high: .979 in 1932

Double Plays career: 7 season high: 5 in 1929 led NL LF: 5 in 1929

Putouts career: 1,594 season high: 320 in 1929 led NL LF: 283 in 1929, 284 in 1931, 307 in 1932

Assists career: 61 season high: 21 in 1923 led NL LF: 12 in 1929

DID YOU KNOW?

-went 1-1 on the mound in 77 ⅔ innings, mostly as a reliever 

-named the Tokyo Giants, the best Japanese team ever 

-finished 25th in the 1931 NL MVP voting

-has the highest career batting average of any eligible MLB player who is not in the Hall of Fame 

-hit 35 doubles in 1929, 32 in both 1931 and 1932, eight triples in 1932 and 14 homers in 1933

-had as many homers than strikeouts in 1928 (eight and eight), 1929 (32 and 19), 1930 (22 and 21), and 1932 (21 and 20)

-was an all-star in the very first all-star game in 1933 

-had six career five hit games 

-went 1-for-1 with a two-run single and a run scored in his only World Series, 1933, when his Giants beat the Washington Senators 

-his 397 total bases in 1929 are the 34th most of all time

-led the NL in singles in 1929 (181) and 1932 (158) 

-led the NL in times on base in 1929 (334), the 16th highest mark of all time 

-led the NL in singles in 1929 and 1932

-led the NL in plate appearances (732) in 1929

-led NL leftfielders in games in 1929, 1931 and 1932, and led all NL outfielders in games in 1929 

-set the NL record for hits in a season in 1929, and his .398 batting average that year is the highest mark ever that did not top .400 

-ranks 30th in career OBP, 47th in slugging percentage, 22nd in OPS, and 39th in at bats per strikeout 

-was inducted into the Bay Area Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981, the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002, and Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2013