Swing Batter

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Exactly 100 years ago in 1925, Rogers Hornsby batted .403 for the St. Louis Cardinals, his third season of batting over .400. He won the Triple Crown that season.

In addition to his .403 average, the Rajah of Swat led the National League in RBIs with 143 and slugged 39 home runs to win NL MVP honors. Hornsby along with Ty Cobb are the only hitters in the Modern Era with three seasons of batting at least .400. The great Ted Williams managed to break the .400 barrier once, batting .406 in 1941, the last major league hitter to hit over .400, 84 long years ago.

Now you may think this is all leading up to an article on Aaron Judge and his prospects of hitting .400. Judge is batting a ridiculous .423 after Sunday’s 7-5 loss to the Rays at Yankee Stadium.

But it is not. That will come later if Judge can continue such a lofty batting average through May. There is no sense talking about .400 this early in the season.

What I am getting to is something that was a hard-and-fast rule for Rogers Hornsby, who also became player-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals 100 years ago, something pointed out by historian Bill Francis, senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

In a wonderful article in the Hall’s Memories and Dreams magazine, Francis profiles Hornsby. Within the article is this nugget from Francis, who also is a great follow on Facebook and Instagram because of his tremendous knowledge of Cooperstown and the surrounding area.

“If it’s close enough to call it’s sure as hell close enough to hit.’’ – Rogers Hornsby

Francis notes that, “According to his players, one of Hornsby’s hard-and-fast rules was if a batter took a third strike with a runner on second or third base, it cost him $50.’’

Swing batter.

Hornsby defended his rule by saying, “If it’s close enough to call it’s sure as hell close enough to hit.’’

Bravo, Rogers Hornsby.

And $50 in 1925 was a hefty sum.

That would get any hitter’s attention. That would be equivalent to $913.71 today, so nearly $1000. Could you imagine if a manager did that in today’s coddled MLB World, where hitters so often stand like statues as the third strike zooms past them? It happens all the time, and worse yet, it happens so often with the bases loaded.

On Sunday alone, while watching the Mets lose 6-5 to the Cardinals and the Yankees loss to Rays and other games, I saw it several times, including Mets slugger Pete Alonso taking a called third strike on a 3-2 pitch from lefty reliever JoJo Romero for the second out of the eighth inning of Game 1, the biggest out of the game. Romero’s slider was in the perfect spot and Alonso tossed the bat away thinking it was ball four, but extremely jacked umpire Jim Wolf had other ideas. Alonso has been Mr. Met so far this season, batting .344 to lead the National League.

Yes, you tip your cap to Romero but what did Rogers Hornsby say: “If it’s close enough to call it’s sure as hell close enough to hit.’’

And I would want my .344 hitter taking a swing there instead of leaving it in the hands of the umpire. So, if this were 100 years ago, and if Alonso were a member of Hornsby’s Cardinals, that called third strike with the bases loaded would have cost the Polar Bear $50. The Cardinals swept the doubleheader with a 5-4 win in Game 2.

It’s not 1925, of course, it’s 2025, I get it, and before all those with Old Man Yelling at Clouds Derangement System (OMYCDS) want to get in my grill, Hornsby’s point was “go down swinging’’ or foul it off or lace that pitch to right field. This is not about Pete Alonso, who is carrying the Mets, this is about a mindset that has crept into hitting in 2025, something that has been coming for quite some time as batting averages in the majors plummet.

Only 11 teams are hitting above .250. It’s no coincidence that every division leading team is above .250, except for the Mariners who are at .245. Second place teams are over .250 too. Even though the Nerd Scam has been going on for quite a while in MLB that batting average is not important, it is important.

The Cubs have turned it around this year and are tied with the Yankees at .262 for the best mark in baseball while the Padres are third at .260, the Dodgers are fourth at .257 and the Tigers are sixth at .255. The Mets are 10th with a .253 mark.

There is much more involved, but a solid batting average surely helps. Many of those teams have made an effort to hit the ball to all fields, a good start to get batting average rolling again.

It is a big part of producing a winning team and kudos to super sluggers Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso for hitting the ball to all fields and making the most of their terrific batting skills.

One of my pet peeves is that some broadcasts don’t even show a player’s batting average as he comes to the plate. In fact, it’s a treat to watch an old game on YouTube to see batting average, RBIs and home runs plastered on the screen as Johnny Bench, Thurman Munson or Keith Hernandez comes to the plate. I would consider both Judge and Alonso old school players, they certainly know the importance of batting average. In the nightcap against the Cardinals, Alonso ripped an RBI single to left in the third inning, his 31st RBI of the season.

Hall of Famer Jim Kaat points to “team leaders’’ struggling with terrible batting averages. The Twins Carlos Correa is batting .216. Kaat who has a terrific sense of humor noted “Other than Aaron Judge and a few others (like Alonso) MLB batters might want to change their walkup music. U2’s hit song ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ would be good for most of them.’’

That would work. Strikeouts matter. The dreadful Rockies lead all of baseball with 344 strikeouts. It is no surprise, although the number is shocking, that the Rockies are dead last in batting average with a .209 mark.

Put the ball in play. It makes the game more exciting too. There are too many Inertia Innings where nothing happens except Ks.

The game used to be about action and that is what made it America’s Pastime. As Yogi Berra once said, “How can you think and hit at the same time?’’

Too many of today’s hitters seem frozen by too much information at the plate. Derek Jeter (.310 lifetime average) looked fastball always and reacted to everything else.

Ted Williams once said, “Hitting is the most important part of the game. It is where the big money is, where much of the status is, and the fan interest.’’

The Splendid Splinter played his final game in 1960, 65 years ago but those words still ring true.

Some of today’s batting averages are absurdly low. My friend and ex-MLB player Jeff Frye points to the fact that Joc Pederson remains the cleanup hitter for the Rangers even though after Sunday’s 8-1 thumping of the Mariners, Pederson went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .094. Yikes. Cody Bellinger is hitting .200, he did get his 200th career home run Sunday but the game ended when he took a called strike three. The Dodgers’ Max Muncy is hitting .182 while Michael Conforto looks completely lost, hitting .144. The Orioles are struggling, and catcher Adley Rutschman is hitting .216. The Royals’ Hunter Renfroe is at .160. The Blue Jays’ big free agent signing Anthony Santander is hitting .178. Phillies superstar Bryce Harper, one of the faces of the game, is batting only .234.

There are many more. It’s not pretty.

The good news is that after only seven players hit over. .300 in 2024, 19 players are currently batting over .300 and others are knocking on the door. I believe batting average is beginning to creep back into the important category.

Hornsby knew hitting like no one else and in the Francis piece he points to an article in Baseball Magazine where submariner Carl Mays said the following: “I have faced Ty Cobb at bat plenty of times, and I have faced George Sisler, Tris Speaker and Eddie Collins. I was on the same ballclub for years with Babe Ruth, and I know what those fellows can do and what they can’t do. They are a great bunch of hitters. But there isn’t one in the bunch who can shake hands on an equality with Rogers Hornsby when it comes to plain, unadulterated batting ability. He’s the greatest hitter I ever saw.’’

Too many of today’s hitters are willing to take strike three because they are looking for something else or they think it is a ball or strikeouts don’t matter. That’s why the average Major League batting average is .239.

Let me add that Hornsby took over as player-manager for a struggling Cardinals team in 1925 and in 1926, his first full season as player-manager, he led the Cardinals to the NL pennant and a World Series title, beating the Yankees in seven games. He tagged out Babe Ruth at second base as the Babe made a huge mistake, trying to steal second, for the final out of the World Series. Hornsby batted .358 across 23 seasons, the second highest average in Major League history behind Ty Cobb’s .367. Rogers Hornsby was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1942, one year after Ted Williams hit .406.

Swing batter.