List of Major League Baseball career batting average leaders
In baseball, the batting average (BA) is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats. It is usually reported to three decimal places and pronounced as if it were multiplied by 1,000: a player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred." A point (or percentage point) is understood to be .001. If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken to more than three decimal places.
Catcher Josh Gibson, whose career ended in 1946, has the highest batting average in Major League Baseball (MLB) history.[a] He batted .372 over 14 seasons, mostly with the Homestead Grays. In addition, he also holds the single-season record for highest batting average in major league history at .466 in 1943. Gibson never recorded a batting average of under .316 in any qualifying season. Ty Cobb is second all-time with a career batting average of .366. He won a record 11 batting titles in the American League from 1907–1909, 1911–1915 and 1917–1919. Oscar Charleston is third with a career batting average of .364. He is the only player to have won consecutive Triple Crowns, having done so in 1924 and 1925.
A player must have a minimum of 5,000 at-bats to qualify for the list. For Negro League players, the minimum is set at 1,800 at-bats, or 5,000 at-bats combining both Negro League and AL/NL appearances.
Key
[edit]| Rank | Rank among leaders in career batting average. A blank field indicates a tie. |
| Player | Name of the player. |
| BA | Total career batting average. |
| * | Denotes elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame. |
|---|---|
| Bold | Denotes active player.[b] |
List
[edit]Different sources of baseball records present somewhat differing lists of career batting average leaders. Until the incorporation of statistics from Negro league baseball into major-league records in 2024, Ty Cobb was the consensus leader. Subsequently, he was supplanted by Josh Gibson on the official MLB leaderboard.[1]
As of 27 September 2024[update], no active player appears in the below list; the active player ranking highest is Jose Altuve in 149th with a .3060 career batting average.[2]
Source:[2]
See also
[edit]
- List of Major League Baseball players with a .400 batting average in a season
- List of Major League Baseball career on-base percentage leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career slugging percentage leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
Notes
[edit]- ^ The list presented includes players and statistics from defunct leagues considered "major" by Major League Baseball, not only the National League and American League.
- ^ A player is considered inactive if he has announced his retirement or has not played professionally for a full season.
References
[edit]- ^ Castrovince, Anthony (29 May 2024). "What to know about Negro Leagues stats entering MLB record". MLB.com. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ a b "Career Leaders & Records for Batting Average". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 10, 2024.