After Ted Williams: The 16 Players Who Hit .400 Across an 80‑Game Stretch

 Batting .400 is incredibly difficult. It hasn’t been done since 1941, when Ted Williams hit .406 (and famously did not win MVP). A lot of time has passed since, and the probability of seeing it happen again only seems more impossible with time. In 1941, MLB as a whole hit .261. In 2025, it was .245. I got curious and wanted to see, since 1941, who has even gotten close to hitting .400? For this exercise, I sampled all 80-game stretches (a nice round number for about a half-season of games) since 1941 to see any instance where a player hit over .400 during a season. Here are those 16 instances.

Jackie Robinson – 5/8/1949-8/2/1949. Total hits: 124, total at-bats: 309, average: .401

Robinson got off to a slow start in 1949, hitting just .222 through his first 18 games before this hot streak. 1949 ended up being Robinson’s signature season, where he won NL MVP and led the league in stolen bases (37), bWAR (9.3), and batting average, where he ultimately ended at .342.

Ted Williams – 6/19/1957-9/29/1957. Total hits: 96, total at-bats: 239, average: .402

It’s only fitting that the second player to have a stretch like this was Williams again. These were his final 80 games to close out the season, and what’s most impressive to me is that he was hitting .401 on June 5th, his 41st game of the season—a completely separate stretch of games. After June 5th, the lowest his season batting average ever got was .343, displaying remarkable consistency the whole year. Ultimately, he finished at .388, the third highest batting average we’ve seen in a season since 1941 and finished second in AL MVP voting. It was also his age 38 season.

Tito Francona – 4/17/1959-8/9/1959. Total hits: 98, total at-bats: 241, average: .407

This one surprised me the most. I can’t say I knew Francona for more than being Terry’s father, but it’s true: in 1959, this hot streak led him to a season average of .363, finishing 5th in AL MVP voting, and accumulating 4.8 of his 13.9 career bWAR.

Roberto Clemente – 5/25/1969-8/28/1969. Total hits: 123, total at-bats: 307, average: .401

Technically this was over 82 games—he appeared in two games as a defensive substitution where he did not record a plate appearance—but for these calculations we’re counting games where they appeared in at least 1 plate appearance. Clemente ended up hitting .345 for the season and wasn’t close in the MVP voting, but 1969 went down as another great season in his legendary career.

Rod Carew – 4/16/1977-7/17/1977. Total hits: 126, total at-bats: 310, average: .406

No surprise that this came in Carew’s signature 1977 MVP season, where his final .388 average stands as the third-highest batting average we’ve seen since 1941 (tied with the previously mentioned 1958 Ted Williams) and was the sixth of the seven batting titles he would have in his career.

George Brett – 5/30/1980-10/1/1980. Total hits: 137, total at-bats: 315, average: .435

Another one that isn’t surprising to see in their signature season: Brett hit .390 in his MVP season, the second highest we’ve seen since 1941. Brett had just enough PAs to qualify for the title at 515, and he famously needed to turn just 5 of his outs into hits to bat .400. On September 19, the Royals’ 148th game of the season, Brett was still batting .400 for the season. The .435 average during this stretch is by far the highest on this list, and this 80-game stretch might have an argument for one of the best ever: .435/.493/.737 with 21 home runs, 90 RBI, and 40 walks to only 15 strikeouts.

Wade Boggs – 6/26/1985-9/22/1985. Total hits: 138, total at-bats: 332, average: .416

I feel like we don’t make a big enough deal out of how much Boggs dominated as a hitter in the modern era. In his first seven seasons, he won the batting title five times, slashing .356/.445/.485. Boggs ended up hitting .368 for the season, his career high, but that was just one of four times he hit over .360 in his career.

John Olerud – 4/11/1993-7/7/1993. Total hits: 113, total at-bats: 278, average: .406

The second non-hall of famer on the list, unlike Francona, Olerud goes down as a certified hall-of-very-good player. Olerud finished with a .363 average to lead the league, and also led in doubles, on-base percentage, and OPS to finish third in AL MVP voting. Olerud was hitting .400 as late as August 2nd in the season.

Larry Walker – 4/9/1997-7/14/1997. Total hits: 123, total at-bats: 302, average: .407

Walker’s torrid stretch came with a 1.206 OPS, but eye-popping numbers were something people were used to from him during this time. Walker ended at .366 for the season, which was second to Tony Gwynn’s .372. Walker still won MVP, and this was the first of a three-year stretch where Walker hit .369 overall.

Tony Gwynn – 4/9/1997-7/15/1997. Total hits: 133, total at-bats: 327, average: .407

Who was Walker second to in batting average in 1997? Tony Gwynn himself, and funny enough, his stretch of hitting .400 came in almost the exact same date range as Walker. A lot of the entries on the list come in some of the signature seasons of baseball’s greatest batting average hitters, and while Gwynn is certainly a legendary contact hitter, I would have expected his 1994 season when he hit .394, the highest we’ve seen 1941. The Padres only played 117 games before a work stoppage famously ended the season, so who knows how things would have unfolded had the season continued. Gwynn hit 15 home runs and had only 11 strikeouts during this stretch in 1997.

Nomar Garciaparra – 4/11/2000-7/31/2000. Total hits: 122, total at-bats: 298, average: .409

Garciaparra finished at a league-leading .372 average in 2000, and even though offense was going through a surge during this era, I don’t think we appreciate what Garciaparra was doing enough while playing shortstop. He was hitting .333 for his career through 2000, his fourth full season. Through age 29, he had 41.3 bWAR, and that’s with missing almost all of the 2001 season.

Todd Helton – 5/26/2000-8/20/2000. Total hits: 117, total at-bats: 290, average: .403

In Helton’s breakout season, this 80-game stretched also featured 51 walks to only 22 strikeouts and a 1.203 OPS. Like Garciaparra, Helton hit .372 for the season to lead the National League.

Ichiro Suzuki – 6/30/2004-9/27/2004. Total hits: 149, total at-bats: 349, average: .427

In Ichiro’s signature season, he hit .372 with a record 262 hits. 149 of those came in this stretch, 131 of which were singles. With the sheer volume of at-bats Ichiro was getting by batting leadoff every game and putting almost every ball into play, hitting .427 over this span is really impressive.

Chone Figgins – 5/31/2007-9/18/2007. Total hits: 131, total at-bats: 310, average: .409

Okay, time for the second most surprising name to show up. Chone Figgins was a really good player for the Angels, but I can’t say I ever recall him hitting this well for this long. He ended the year hitting .330, the only time he hit over .300 in his career. Figgins played in 115 total games in 2007, hitting .126 in his games outside of this stretch.

Josh Hamilton – 6/1/2020-8/31/2010. Total hits: 127, total at-bats: 310, average: .410

Hamilton’s hot streak also came with 22 home runs and powered him to the AL MVP award. His final .359 average led the league and was by far the best of his career. Watching Hamilton in his peak, I definitely remember him more for his power, but he always put up good averages with the Rangers and was a great overall hitter—even if it slipped my mind that he was once .359 good.

Joey Votto – 6/30/2016-10/1/2016. Total hits: 115, total at-bats: 286, average: .402

This is the one stretch on the list that I distinctly remember happening. Probably because it was relatively recent, and because it coincided perfectly with first half/second half splits. Prior to the All-Star break, in his first 86 games of the season, Votto was hitting just .255. In the second half, he hit a scorching .408 in 72 games to bring him to a .326 total on the season that we were more accustomed to seeing from him.

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