Ted Williams
The last man to hit .400 remains baseball's most complete hitter, a perfectionist who turned batting into high science. Williams lost nearly five full seasons to military service during his prime, yet still posted a 1.116 OPS that screams dominance. That .482 career on-base percentage tells the real story — he reached base nearly half the time he stepped in the box.
His 2.85 walk-to-strikeout ratio reveals an almost supernatural plate discipline, taking 2,021 walks while fanning just 709 times across 22 seasons. The 190 OPS+ stands as the highest mark in history, meaning he was 90 percent better than league average for his entire career.
Williams bookended his career with signature moments — the .406 season in 1941 and that final at-bat home run at age 41. Between those peaks, he won six batting titles and two MVPs while redefining what offensive excellence looked like.
Career · Batting
19 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | BOS | 149 | 565 | 31 | 145 | .327 | — | — |
| 1940 | BOS | 144 | 561 | 23 | 113 | .344 | — | — |
| 1941 | BOS | 143 | 456 | 37 | 120 | .406 | — | — |
| 1942 | BOS | 150 | 522 | 36 | 137 | .356 | — | — |
| 1946 | BOS | 150 | 514 | 38 | 123 | .342 | — | — |
| 1947 | BOS | 156 | 528 | 32 | 114 | .343 | — | — |
| 1948 | BOS | 137 | 509 | 25 | 127 | .369 | — | — |
| 1949 | BOS | 155 | 566 | 43 | 159 | .343 | — | — |
| 1950 | BOS | 89 | 334 | 28 | 97 | .317 | — | — |
| 1951 | BOS | 148 | 531 | 30 | 126 | .318 | — | — |
| 1952 | BOS | 6 | 10 | 1 | 3 | .400 | — | — |
| 1953 | BOS | 37 | 91 | 13 | 34 | .407 | — | — |
| 1954 | BOS | 117 | 386 | 29 | 89 | .345 | 1.148 | — |
| 1955 | BOS | 98 | 320 | 28 | 83 | .356 | 1.200 | — |
| 1956 | BOS | 136 | 400 | 24 | 82 | .345 | 1.084 | — |
| 1957 | BOS | 132 | 420 | 38 | 87 | .388 | 1.257 | — |
| 1958 | BOS | 129 | 411 | 26 | 85 | .328 | 1.042 | — |
| 1959 | BOS | 103 | 272 | 10 | 43 | .254 | .791 | — |
| 1960 | BOS | 113 | 310 | 29 | 72 | .316 | 1.096 | — |
| Career | 2292 | 7706 | 521 | 1839 | .344 | — | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.