What is the best batting season of all time?

Before I get started with this, I would like to let everyone know that the all-stars are coming in slowly but surely, expect results in the next few days, or else I might do it myself.

What is the greatest single-season batting title? It honestly depends. Some people might be basics about baseball and look at average, while others might look deeper into the sabermetric world. But did you know that, in a league where people hit .400 every year, that nobody did it until around Season 15? Also, in a league that nowadays people get to 100 RBI’s once every few seasons, nobody did it until around Season 55, and nobody did it legit until Season 80? Before I get started, I just want to say that this took me some time to think about, and would appreciate it if you guys read all of it.

Let’s start from the beginning. In the first few seasons, the best hitters hit around .340 with at most 60 RBI’s. Wouldn’t consider it the dead-ball era for FB, which was much later. This game was corrupt then, with beta users and a lot of game development to come. Hell, it was a time where teams could play under half the season and still win it all, which must have pissed off users back then.

I know I am a stickler for batting average, and I will be talking about that for a while. Not that I am a basic person when it comes to baseball, but more because nobody hit a monstrous amount of RBI’s for a while.

The first person to hit over .400 in FB was in Season 10 when Tyrese Sumpter of the great Toronto Smoke Eaters did just that. However, he had under 175 AB, under 20 HRs, and below 40 RBI’s. I wouldn’t consider it an all-star season, but at least we are starting somewhere. (By the way, his career was pretty garbage after this, and had a career average under .300 with about 1000 AB).

The first person to hit over .400 and meet qualifications for a current All-Star ballot would be River Clancy on the Seattle Admins. He hit 28 HRS and 55 RBI’s with a .407 AVG, which would be a record for another few seasons.

The first respectable season in today’s game came in Season 19, with Pueblo Valdivia of the Knoxville Smokies hitting .411 with 75 RBIs. However, his profile got deleted, so not much info.

We are going to fast forward a few seasons. Around Season 30, batting and HRs picked up, and while people weren’t hitting for average, the RBI’s did come. 4 players hit over 70 RBI’s that season.

In Season 31, Ronaldo Fairbanks hit .397 with about 50 RBI’s. Not a standout player, but this was the first year a player on a dead team led the league in batting average.

Season 32 - first year when two players hit above .400 with a decent amount of RBI’s. Oswaldo Ballard of the kneecapp killers and Kenyon Ricks of the Smash both hit above 60 RBI’s and over .400.

This is when the RBI’s come in. We are not listing seasons anymore, we are going to be talking about more milestones and about, the still soon to come, dead-ball era. Anyway, there were many seasons where people hit about 90 RBIs and the average was going up. People were starting to hit around .390 and .400 more consistently. However, there were no 100 RBI seasons, just yet.

Finally, in Season 59, Jordon Strom of the Toronto Glazed Donuts hit 100 RBIs. Finally. Great. Nobody cares. Why? This dude wasn’t a good player. He was a fraud. He didn’t legally hit 100 RBIs. He was a little sneaky. Cheater. I'm just joking about that, it wasn’t anyone’s fault (unless it was intentional). Appearing as both a position player and a DH, he accomplished this feat with over 500 plate appearances that season. This, while technically being the first player to hit 100 RBIs, didn’t do it legit, so just slap an asterisk on it.*
This, by the way, was in the middle of the dead-ball era. From Season 51-68, RBI’s were at an all-time low. Despite some outlier seasons, most seasons had players who led the league with under 70 RBI’s. Some players hit between 80-85, but the people behind met the criteria, which is why there is one long dead-ball era instead of two shorter ones.

Let's fast forward a few seasons. Season 69 (nice) had players hit more for power, and the RBI’s and HRs were coming back. But the 100 RBI legit season wasn’t coming for a little bit.

Samir Hawes was a great player. He hovered around the .280 mark for his career but had some good seasons. He hit 39 homers in around 260 AB, despite having an AVG under 320. He hit 71 RBIs in Season 77. But in Season 80, at age 36, Samir Hawes hit .363 with 40 homers and 102 RBIs. Finally, someone legitimately accomplished the feat. It took 80 seasons, with many people having 95-98 in a season. It even had someone do it, but with an asterisk. But someone did it legit. The one and only San Diego Bomber, Samir Hawes.

After a few seasons, Claudio Ruvalcuba, one of the best players of all time, hit 102 RBI’s, tying the most of all time. He was super young then, only in his second season. This is the second season of such, and he would have a great career afterward, making this season a little portion of his great career.

Three seasons later, Josef Smalls of the Wolfpack 800 did it. 102 RBI’s again. But nobody cared, again, because he did it in 490 at-bats. So an asterisk on this one too.*

In Season 91, despite it being in 538 AB, Stephan Bucher became the first rookie to accomplish the mark, with 100 on the dot. Once again, an asterisk though.* (He still plays, he is having an average season, nothing special.)

Season 94 was crazy. For one team. The world runner-up Cincinnati Reds. The first season in history with two 100 RBI players. Fun fact - they both passed the record. Fun fact - they both did it legit. Fun fact - they both were on the same team. Hernando Coronado with 107, Dominique Worthy with 103. This team should have won it all with them, but a pesky Calgary Fire Birds stole it from them.

The latest player to do it was Florinio Cabrera in 95 with the Horned Frogs, with 101 in Season 95.

Sure, other great factors lead to a great season. I would’ve done more research, but season stats for each player are very vague. Victoro Apodaca had the greatest rookie campaign of all time, but other players with good seasonal stats either have vague info or had their pages deleted.

However, this article did enough. A timeline through history. The dead-ball era. The first player to hit .400. How the first player to get 100 RBIs didn't do it legit.

This won’t be the last of these seasons. Many more seasons of this game are to come. All we can do is sit down, watch the games, cheer the players, commemorate the teams, and hope that the seasons following are better. Maybe someone will get 110. Someone will hit .500 with above 240 plate appearances (Khalid Patel, Season 91, hitting 112-213 with a .512 AVG, we still love you.) 50 homers? We don’t know. Maybe another dead-ball era. But as I said, all we can do is wait.

Tacoma Tarpons :)


Thanks for reading! All-Stars will be out soon. The game may or may not happen, I am scheduling it for the Season 104 Offseason, maybe New Year's Eve, the same day I want Season 104 All-Stars to come out.
See ya guys!