The 1990 Major League batting champion

[leatherman]

Maybe you remember this, maybe you don't. Or maybe you never knew this at all. But in 1990, the MLB batting champion wasn't honored at all, because he didn't lead his league in hitting.

Willie McGee was leading the NL with a .335 batting average on August 29th when the Oakland A's traded for him. He already had 542 plate appearances for the Cardinals at the time of the trade, so he had enough PA's to qualify him for the batting title. He went on to hit a respectable .274 for the A's for the remainder of the season, which dropped his season BA to .324.

Meanwhile, in the AL, George Brett would hit .329 to lead his league.

At the time of McGee's trade, Eddie Murray (then of the Dodgers) was batting .312. He would have a torrid September/October, batting .411 over 30 games and lifting his BA to .330. However, since McGee was qualified for the NL batting crown with a .335 BA, McGee would win the title over Murray (as his AL at bats didn't reduce his NL batting average).

So, for the 1990 season, no one batted higher than Murray's .330, but he would see Brett win the AL batting title and McGee win the NL batting title. Murray would never win a batting title in his career.

 

[Gwynn545]

Wow...!!!!!!! Thanks for the great read!

 

[gracecollector]

I will celebrate this outstanding piece of trivia by scaring the bejesus out of all of you in

3...

2...

1...

(look away if you have a pacemaker, are pregnant, or recently have eaten)

 

[JEBJJA]

We used to call him turtle face back in the day but I do remember that when he got traded and wondered what they would do. If he led the league and got traded, the stats should stick to each league. Kind of like Rick Sutcliffe when he got traded, he won the CY Young by going 16-1 in the NL and led the league with a .941 winning % in the NL....but was 4-5 when he was with Cleveland. And he won the award solely for what he did with one team.

 

[leatherman]

No card scared me more than George Foster's RC:

 

[TNP777]

No card scared me more than George Foster's RC:

ha!

I mean... aaaaauuuuugggghhhhh

 

[sigma_chi]

Personally, I could never own this card even though he's from Northeast Arkansas. I'm afraid that thing would come alive one of these days

 

[RL24]

So, for the 1990 season, no one batted higher than Murray's .330, but he would see Brett win the AL batting title and McGee win the NL batting title. Murray would never win a batting title in his career.

Brutal!

Wow...!!!!!!! Thanks for the great read!

+1... as always!

 

[rehmus]

Personally, I could never own this card even though he's from Northeast Arkansas. I'm afraid that thing would come alive one of these days

View attachment 4148

Anthony Davis loves this card.

 

[James52411]

Great article about Willie "E.T" McGee.

 

[leatherman]

Similarly, McGee led all of MLB in hits in 1990 with 199, but did not lead the league. Brett Butler and Lenny Dykstra led the NL with 192 hits, and Rafael Palmeiro led the AL with 191 hits.

 

[sportscardtheory]

Great info! This is probably one of the reasons MLB changed that "rule" recently.

 

[leatherman]

More recently, CC Sabathia led both the AL in shutouts, and the the NL in shutouts, in the SAME SEASON!!!

When Sabathia was traded to the Brewers in the 2008 season, he had already tossed two shutouts for Cleveland. No American League pitcher tossed more than two for the entire season. Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, CC would hurl seven complete games and three shutouts, which was more than any other NL pitcher.

So, the next time you hear people argue about unbreakable records, you can throw "Leading the most leagues in a statistical category in a single season" into the conversation.

 

[saucywombat]

Pascual - one ugly ****** - he looks like the boogeyman!

Great story out there about him disappearing into the jungles of Hispanola to do blow. I don't think anyone knows what happened to him. Might want to google that one.

 

[saucywombat]

Nice blurb on McGee and Eddie Murray -btw

Always liked McGee's '83 Topps RC and one of my cats is named Eddie Murray, so high 5's all around.

 

[Mighty Bombjack]

It was crazy when the A's got McGee and Baines for minor leaguers. I remember the "The Rich Get Richer" spread in SI. I thought, along with most others, that the A's had the Series locked up after those moves. But it was a good year to be a Dodger fan.

Murray would never win a batting title in his career.

True, McGee has that on Murray. But Murray can cry himself to sleep on his HOF plaque.

 

[rum151man]

I played JC ball in northern California and he was the head coach at Contra Costa college. He was throwing BP before the game and he was still one ugly mo fo.

Pascuel Perez = Dave Chappell

 

[leatherman]

It was crazy when the A's got McGee and Baines for minor leaguers. I remember the "The Rich Get Richer" spread in SI. I thought, along with most others, that the A's had the Series locked up after those moves. But it was a good year to be a Dodger fan.

Actually, the Dodgers beat the A's in 1988, two years before the McGee trade. The A's were swept by the Reds in 1990, with Jose Rijo dominating them for games 1 and 4, allowing just 1 run in 15.1 innings.

 

[RL24]

More recently, CC Sabathia led both the AL in shutouts, and the the NL in shutouts, in the SAME SEASON!!!

When Sabathia was traded to the Brewers in the 2008 season, he had already tossed two shutouts for Cleveland. No American League pitcher tossed more than two for the entire season. Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, CC would hurl seven complete games and three shutouts, which was more than any other NL pitcher.

So, the next time you hear people argue about unbreakable records, you can throw "Leading the most leagues in a statistical category in a single season" into the conversation.

Awesome, thanks for bringing this up! I was going to drag CC into the convo because I thought what he did was impressive (and similar) but I didn't want to seem like a homer.

 

[smapdi]

The flipside of the McGee story is Mark McGwire. Leading the AL in homers in 1997 with 34 in OAK, traded to STL where he hit 24 more. Most homers in the game, led neither league.

And, Don Mossi.

Even more parenthetically, Don Mossi is the subject of one of the best write-ups in the Great American Baseball Card book. Something about him forming a partnership with weaselish-looking Ray Narleski to run a mortuary service, Narleski handling public relations and Mossi doing the dirty work. Very funny.