.406

By David Marasco

.406 -- It is a magical number. T-shirts are printed with those digits printed across the front with no explanation. Everyone familiar with baseball history knows about the double-header on the last day of the season. Ted Williams could have sat out and had his .39955 rounded up to a tainted .400. But by today's rules Ted would have entered the day at .405 and ended at .411. What?

Ed Linn's biography of Ted Williams makes the point that when Williams bat .400 he was facing a draconian sacrifice fly rule. Ted got nicked for an AB every time he brought home a man from third with a fly out. Linn traces the development of the Sac Fly rule in his text:

1908 Sac fly, no time at bat
1926 Sac fly if any runner advances
1931 No sac fly
1939 Sac fly if runner scores
1940 RBI if runner scores but is charged with time at bat
1954 Sac fly reinstated

In the past few decades several men have made runs at .400, falling short every time. But they are playing under a more generous scoring rule, one that does not hurt them for bringing in a runner at a cost of an out. How much harder was Ted's feat? Well, we can look at the people who have finished the season at .370 or above and see how they fare under the old rules:

.370+ Hitters 1942-1996

Year	Name	BA	Hits	AB	SF	BA*
1948	Stan Musial	.376	230	611	?	.376
1957	Ted Williams	.388	163	420	2	.386
1977	Rod Carew	.388	239	616	5	.385
1980	George Brett	.390	175	449	7	.384
1987	Tony Gwynn	.370	218	589	4	.368
1993	Andres Galarraga	.370	174	470	6	.366
1994	Tony Gwynn	.394	165	419	5	.389

Under the old rules two of these seasons drop off the chart and no season has seen a .390 hitter. Not only that, but outside of Tony Gwynn's strike-shortened 1994, the closest thing to .400 was Williams' .386 in 1957.