By: Neil Munro

Canadian Baseball Network

As the 2016 Major League Baseball season gets underway, it is a good time to examine the best individual performance that Canadian ball players have posted in the 140 year history of MLB. The quality of so many excellent season accomplishments by Canadian batters might come as a surprise to some observers. A player managing a hypothetical 2016 statistical line with 110 runs scored, 184 base hits, 31 home runs, 112 RBI and a .334 batting average would not crack the top ten in a single one of these categories.

As a consequence, very few active players have much chance to post sufficiently impressive statistics to make it into the top 15 in almost any batting category. Nonetheless, the standards necessary for inclusion in the all-time lists are outlined for your inspection below. 

The first three tables are indicative of a player’s iron man status in that the only requirement is to remain healthy and hold down a regular spot in the batting order for the full season. In point of fact, there have been eight Canadians who have participated in every one of their team’s games in a season (altogether a total of 15 times). These occasions are listed below. As you can see, the vast majority were accomplished in the nineteenth century when fewer games constituted a full schedule and so most do not appear in the table of top overall Canadian performances. 

Played in Every Scheduled Game

As you can see from the charts below, in 2008 Morneau also had the most at bats by any Canadian, the year he played all of his team’s 163 contests. Joey Votto did surpass Morneau’s total plate appearances in 2013, the year he played in all of Cincinnati’s 162 games.

That season, Votto batted second in the lineup, so he had more times coming up to bat. Total plate appearances include at bats, walks and all other (rarer batting outcomes such as being hit by a pitch and sacrifices).  

Season Leaders in Games Played

Season Leaders in At-Bats

Season Leaders in Plate Appearances

The next three categories are certainly the most important in terms of run production. Quite frankly, the only active player with a chance to produce 2016 statistics which will land him in the top 15 spots here is Joey Votto. Russell Martin will not play enough games as a catcher to bat in over 100 runs and Justin Morneau’s best chance at a high RBI total were to remain in Colorado (his buy-out option with Colorado was purchased and he is still a free agent as of this writing). This presents a good opportunity to reflect on the tremendous season that Tip O’Neill had in 1887. He played with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association in 1887 when he scored 167 runs. Baseball historians have traditionally considered the AA to be an inferior league in comparison to the founding National League and as a result, have considered most of its players batting and fielding statistics to have been inflated.

Still it must be noted that O’Neill’s 167 runs scored represents the fourth highest figure ever compiled in that statistical category. The three players who exceeded his total are Billy Hamilton (198 runs in 132 games with Philadelphia in 1894), Babe Ruth (177 runs scored in 152 games with the 1921 Yankees) and Tom Brown (also 177 runs with the 1891 American Association Boston Reds in 137 games). Lou Gehrig also scored 167 runs with the 1931 Yankees (in 155 games). In terms of runs scored per game the rations of these four players are: Hamilton (1.500), O’Neill (1.347), Brown (1.292), Ruth (1.164) and Gehrig (1.077). Just for the full picture it should be noted that Billy Hamilton also had a ratio of 1.350 runs per game in 1895. So O’Neill has the third best ratio of runs per game in any baseball season behind only Hamilton’s 1894 and 1895 figures).

It is interesting to note that Justin Morneau tied Larry Walker for the best RBI figure by a Canadian when he plated 130 teammates in 2006. Walker and Morneau were the MVPs in these respective years despite the fact that neither player led his league in RBI. Just two Canadians have ever topped their league in RBI – O’Neill in 1887 (123) and Sped Johnson of the 1891 American Association Columbus Solons (113).

If you actually remember that baseball club, you are indeed a true baseball aficionado! Larry Walker easily holds down the top single season total bases figure with his 409 bases in 1997. This represents the 18th best figure in that regard in baseball history. In point of fact he is tied for 18th with Lou Gehrig and Rogers Hornsby – some pretty fair Hall of Fame company.

Season Leaders in Runs Scored

Season Leaders in Total Bases

Season Leaders in Runs Batted In

The next four charts outline breakdowns of high season totals in base hits and in hitting for power (doubles, triples and home runs). Tip O’Neill is the runaway leader among Canadians in base hits, and although his 225 hits made in 1887 is “merely” the 56th best figure in major league history, his ration of hits made to games played (1.815) is the third best ever recorded. He trails only Hugh Duffy (who banged out 237 safeties in 125 games in 1894) and Wee Willie Keeler (with 239 hits in 129 games in 1897). In O’Neill’s great 1887 season he also captured the Triple Crown (.435 batting average, 14 home runs and 123 RBI).

His 14 home runs might not seem like much but this was the dead ball era and only three batters ever blasted more home runs than this in the entire history of the American Association. O’Neill also boasts the best doubles figure ever accrued by a Canadian (52) and remains to this day, the only better ever to lead his league in doubles, triples and home runs in the same season.

Although almost all of the top fifteen batters with the highest totals in triples come from the 19th century, Jeff Heath is probably the best Canadian batter at legging out triples. He has the top figure (his 20 in 1941 makes him one of the very few major leaguers to garner at least 20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 home runs in the same year) and three of the top 15 performances overall.

An interesting note about the best doubles hitters concerns Larry Walker and Joey Votto. Walker tied for the league lead in doubles in the strike-shortened 1994 season with 44 doubles in just 395 at bats while Joey knocked out 44 doubles in just 374 at bats in 2012 (a year in which he missed 51 games as a result of an injury).

These two remain the only batters in major league history with more than 40 doubles in fewer than 400 at bats. In all, four different Canadian batters have led their respective leagues in doubles, including Jack Graney of the 1916 Cleveland Indians – a batter not known for his extra base power. Five different Canadian sluggers have banged out 30 or more home runs in a season (in a total of 13 different occasions). Larry Walker’s league leading 49 HR in 1997 easily tops the list.

Season Leaders in Hits

Season Leaders in Doubles

Season Leaders in Triples

Season Leaders in Home Runs

The next four tables show the best season performances in the percentage categories. The category of OPS (on-base average plus slugging percentage) is considered to be the best single indicator of batting prowess that is used to rank ball players today. The other three more standard categories include batting average, slugging percentage and on-base average. Canadians have been the batting champs of their leagues six times in the past.

Justin Morneau’s 2014 batting crown (.319) does not even make it into the top 15 in this category in the table below. Undoubtedly, the most impressive batting average performance was Tip O’Neill’s 1887 crown. His .435 average remains the second highest ever achieved in the history of major league baseball (behind the .440 posted by Hugh Duffy in 1894).

However, high batting averages, like virtually all batting categories, are a product of their times and the condition of play in a specific era. Fourteen of the 21 highest batting averages in history were achieved in the 25 years of play in the nineteenth century. All but one of the best twenty-one occurred more than 90 years ago (the lone exception was Ted Williams’ .406 stint in 1941). In more modern times, Larry Walker captured three batting crowns in his career.

Canadians have led their leagues in on-base average seven times – Joey Votto accounting for four these in consecutive seasons no less. Votto’s 2012 OBA crown of .474 requires a special mention here. He was injured shortly after the All-Star break in 2012 and missed more than 50 games in the second half. In the end he had just 475 plate appearances that year, 27 short of the minimum required for leading in a percentage category.

However, when baseball’s rule 10.22 was applied, he did qualify and is listed as the official 2012 OBA NL leader. Rule 10.22 allows for adding enough phantom hitless at bats to a player’s actual number to determine if he is still leading in a percentage category after this imaginary adjustment. In Votto’s case, he would have had an OBA of .448 in 502 appeearances, still well ahead of the second place .408 posted by Buster Posey.

Canadians have been the league leader in slugging percentage on four occasions, topped by Larry Walker’s two phenomenal years exceeding the .700 mark. His 1997 and 1999 slugging percentages are the 25th and 27th best in major league history. Once again, all of the top 30 major league slugging performances were a product of their times; all but two posted by Ted Williams were achieved in either the recent steroid era or the 1920 to 1939 period of extremely high slugging and run production.

As indicated above, probably the most cherished percentage title today would be that of OPS (the sum of a player’s on-base average and slugging percentage). Canadians have taken the OPS crown four times as well. Here Tip O’Neill’s 1.180 of 1887 edges out Walker’s two stellar performances of 1997 and 1999. Canadians have cracked the 1.000 OPS barrier eight times, five by Larry Walker alone. It is worth highlighting four additional 1.000 OPS years posted by Canadians who did not qualify for league leadership and do not appear in the tables below. In each case, severe injuries significantly hindered their progress or longevity as batting stars.

Joey Votto was clearly the best hitter in both major leagues in 2012 but then he missed most of the second half. He was threatening the major league single season doubles record (67) and was the runaway leader in slugging percentage, on-base average and OPS while batting .344 at the mid-season break. He never really returned to that high level of batting proficiency until his outstanding second half of 2015. Hopefully we are in store for several more great seasons from the Cincinnati first-sacker.

Justin Morneau was tearing up the American League through the first half of 2010 when he suffered a serious concussion in a collision on the base paths. At the time he was also the dominant AL slugger that year and was well on his way to another MVP performance. After his injury, it was another couple of seasons before he resumed his duties as a regular first baseman and his batting figures have not approached those of his stellar years between 2006 and 2010 since.

Larry Walker had a rare off-year in 2003 after two fine campaigns in 2001 and 2002 in which he won one batting crown (in 2001) and was runner-up in 2002 while posting excellent power statistics both seasons. His return to top form was cut short by injuries in 2004 and he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals later that year. His stats in less than half of a full year in 2004 (17 HR and 47 RBI) showed the promise that he could continue his high level of achievements for several more seasons. In the end, his injuries pretty forced his retirement prematurely by the end of 2005. Perhaps those missed extra years of batting proficiency would have cemented his status as a sure Hall of Fame candidate.

George Selkirk had made steady progress in his first three seasons as a Yankee outfielder, eventually replacing Babe Ruth in right field in 1935. By 1936 he was established as a .300 batter with good power (and an excellent fielder). In 1937 he really came into his own, batting .347 with 17 HR and 54 RBI in his first 53 games.

Once again, injuries significant hampered his progress, limiting him to just 256 at bats when the season concluded. He took more than a year to regain a similar level of batting proficiency after 1937 and after his fine year in 1939, he never really approached the promise that his great start to the 1937 season had foretold.

The top 15 performances in the four percentage categories follow in the tables below.

Season Leaders in Batting Average

Season Leaders in On-Base Percentage

Season Leaders in Slugging Percentage

Season Leaders in OPS

The next seven categories of batting statistics, while seemingly not as important as runs, RBI or home runs are still quite essential in contributing to a team’s offensive production. Some might argue that walks are just as critical as runs scored or RBI. The players with the best seasons in one-base hits are usually labelled as “singles hitters” but the exception in the list here is Tip O’Neill who was a terrific slugger in every respect. 

Doc Miller’s very fine 1911 season is the only one in which a Canadian led his league in this category. Joey Votto has become extraordinary at collecting walks in recent years. He not only has the two best seasons in Cincinnati franchise history in receiving walks, he also now has two of the best 50 years of bases on balls in major league history and threatens to add significantly to that ranking. He has already had five seasons in which he was the NL leader in walks.

Intentional walks have only been officially recorded since 1955, although extensive data for this category has been extracted from examining box scores since 1940. The definition of a “sacrifice hit” has varied substantially over the years so the best totals in that category should be viewed with some suspicion from a comparison standpoint. The definitions used for both SH and SF have been consistent since 1954 so contrasts since then are valid. 

It is surprising that no Canadian has ever led his league in stolen bases. This is the only batting or base-running category for which this is true. Hit by pitch for both batters and pitchers have been recorded since the mid-1180s, and the distribution of our best at getting plunked is quite consistent over the last 130 seasons.

Season Leaders in Singles

Season Leaders in Bases on Balls

Season Leaders in  Intentional Walks

Season Leaders in Stolen Bases

Season Leaders in Hit-by-Pitch

Season Leaders in Sacrifice Bunts

Season Leaders in Sacrifice Flies

The next three batting categories shown might well be ones that a player would likely want to avoid appearing on the list, as they actually represent negative contributions. Still, they are probably more indicative of a player consistently serving as a regular in the lineup rather than a sign of failure. Just one Canadian batter has ever led his league in strikeouts and that player is Pop Smith (leading with 68 whiffs in 1889 and with 80 K’s in 1890). 

Clearly his strikeout totals do not come close to the copious numbers of strikeouts many of today’s free-swinging sluggers have managed to accumulate. It should also be noted that no Canadian has ever led his league in the number of times he was caught stealing in a season or in grounding into a double play.

Season Leaders in Caught Stealing

Season Leaders in Hit into Double Play

Season Leaders in Strikeouts

The final four statistical categories can be best be labelled as arcane concoctions designed to uncover important offensive contributions to scoring runs for a ball club. Indeed most require a computer spreadsheet just for carrying out the necessary computations. Some of the baseball guides published nearly 100 years ago did try to track the number of times a batter reached base safely. Interesting enough, the earlier efforts for this category included the times a batter reached base via an error on the opposing side.

Now this statistic computes only the sum of the number of hits, walks aand hit by a pitch. Not surprisingly, Tip O’Neill was the first Canadian to lead his league in this category, and it was well over a hundred years before a fellow countryman was to accomplish this feat again. Votto has now led the National League three times in reaching base safely and will likely add to this number in the near future in that he draws an inordinately high number of walks.

I have outlined my own creation for the category of Total Bases Produced in other essays in the past. Simply put, TBP is the sum of total bases, walks, stolen bases, sacrifices and hit by pitch instances. For decades now, the league MVP (when it is a non-pitcher) almost always ranks at or near the top of the league in this category. Just one Canadian has actually led his league in TBP and that was Larry Walker in 1997.

His very impressive 538 total is actually the 19th best season record ever produced in a season. The second best TBP record achieved by a Canadian might come as a bit of a surprise here. Jason Bay’s 2005 total bases produced resulted from an all-around superior performance in virtually every aspect. He accumulated 335 total bases, 95 walks, 21 stolen bases (against being caught just once) and tossed in 7 SF and 6 HBP for good measure.

A few different versions of the WAR (wins above replacement) and runs created have been developed over the years. I have settled on the WAR used in the baseball-refernce.com website as it is the one most commonly referred to by baseball commentators and analysists. I have used an earlier version of Bill James’ runs created formula in the chart below. The final figures determined by competing versions of these formulas do not vary significantly in any case. Of particular note is that the WAR figures shown include defensive contributions by a player and are adjusted for ball park differences.

The 19th century players have their overall numbers diminished somewhat in comparison to the baseball stars of the last 90 years because the length of their playing schedule was somewhat or considerably shorter then. Taking all factors into account, you would probably have to conclude that the two best seasons ever produced by a Canadian batter must come down to Larry Walker’s 1997 campaign or Tip O’Neill’s 1887 effort. It might almost require a simple coin toss to make a definitive claim as to which of these was really the more superlative effort.

Season Leaders in Times Reaching Base

Season Leaders in Total Bases Produced

Season Leaders in Runs Created

Season Leaders in WAR (among position players)

We will now wait and see if any Canadian batter can post sufficient numbers in any of these statistical categories and move into the list of leaders here. I doubt that the top 15 in most categories will change very much after the 2016 season statistical records are in the books.