1,000 Runs: A Rare Total Seldom Rewarded

By Paul Wysard

Prior to 1961, a club had to average 6 1/2 runs per game to reach 1,000; after the 162-game schedule was introduced, it had to be a little over 6. History buffs will probably know that the watershed for 1,000-run campaigns was the early 1930s, with four of the seven occurring from 1930-32. In the batting barrage that was 1930, the top three team totals in hits -- ever-- was attained, along with three of the highest four composite averages, and this resulted in the Yankees and the Cardinals surpassing 1,000 runs (and the Cubs just missing at 998). The Yankees followed that up with the record 1,067 in 1931, featuring six players tallying 100 or more, and 1,002 in 1932.

Since scoring runs is the raison d'etre of the game, one might assume that these massive aggregates would be parlayed into championships. Not so. The end results of 1,000-run seasons have often resembled the final stage of a bountiful harvest being chewed up by locusts or the jackpot at Las Vegas accompanied by a visit from the IRS agent. The classic example of such sad endings was the 1950 Boston Red Sox. The club hit .300, five position players scored 100 or more runs, and three others averaged 88. Ted Williams drove in 97 runs before the All-Star break, during which he played in that game and broke an arm in pursuit of a fly ball against a fence. 1,027 runs were produced by the end of the season, the fourth-highest ever, but not only did the Yankees win another pennant, the Detroit Tigers edged out the Sox for second place. Old-time Boston fans insist that the final four-game deficit would have been more than erased if Williams had not been lost for the rest of the year. They are probably right, but, in any case, it was the last gasp of a perennial machine fueled by Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Billy Goodman all hitting .300 and being driven in by Vern Stephens and Williams.

The most recent four-figure run producer, the 1999 Cleveland Indians, experienced similar frustration. Paced by Manny Ramirez, Robbie Alomar, and Jim Thome, the Tribe rang up 1,008, but were stopped in the first post-season action, the Division Series, by the Red Sox, as Pedro Martinez successfully relieved in the rain in the deciding game.

In the early 1930s, the Philadelphia Athletics held off the 1,000-run onslaughts of the Yankees. Al Simmons and Jimmy Foxx provided plenty of punch, but some of the best pitching in the history of the game prevailed. In 1930, New York scored 1,062 times, but finished third. In 1931, the run record year, Lefty Grove of the A's went 31-4, with a 2.02 ERA, George Earnshaw and Rube Wallberg each won 20 games, and the fourth and fifth starters combined for 25. In the 1930 World Series, Philadelphia also defeated the potent Cardinals.

Offense finally prevailed in 1932 when the Yankees became the first 1,000-run club to win both a pennant and the World Series. That team was the last of the Ruth-led champions, but, in 1936, a new Yankee "empire" emerged, with Gehrig still very much a factor but now joined by young superstar Joe DiMaggio. Those "Bronx Bombers" touched home 1,065 times and remain the only other 1,000-run team to win everything.

Is 1,000 runs somewhat of a jinx, akin to the proverbial Sports Illustrated cover picture? Not really. What manager wouldn't take 1,000 runs if he could have them? But that same skipper would also salivate at the thought of running a Lefty Grove out there every fourth or fifth day. It's simply what former Cardinal pitcher Joaquin Andujar used to claim as his favorite word: "You never know."