You wish you were as good as this Hack

Random perusing of baseballreference.com led me to Hack Wilson. His 1930 season with the Cubs was scary good: .356, 56 HR, 191 RBI...plus 105 BB and just 84 K.

Damn.

Granted, Hack's a Hall of Famer, but he doesn't come into discussion often among the greatest hitters. That season, though, is damn close to as good as it gets.

Other great seasons like this come to mind?

 

Psh. Zombrano's hitting .355.

 

His power numbers are dipping, though. Had 6 HRs in '06...

 

I, too, wish I was as good as that Hack.

 

Never happen.

 

Wilson had one legendary season (albeit in the friendliest year hitters ever had) and a couple of other great ones. The rest of the time, he was fat, drunk and stupid. Doesn't deserve to bementioned among the all-time best.

 

So his nickname was Flounder?

 

Lou Gehrig

1927: .373-47-175
1930: .379-41-174
1931: .341-46-184

Scary. I'm rather biased in favor of numbers post-WWII, but that's still insane.

 

Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through a season, son.

And as great as Hack's season was, you can pick from any one of six of Ruth's seasons that were as good or better:
1921: .378-59-171, 145 BB, 81 K, 17 SB
1923: .393-41-131, 170 BB, 93 K , 17 SB
1926: .372-47-150
1927: .356-60-164, 137 BB, 89 K
1928: .323-54-142
1931: .373-46-163

 

Like a lot of guys who played for the Giants and Cardinals in the 20s and 30s (Wilson started his career in NYC), Hack may have benefited from Frankie Frisch being chairman of the Veterans Committee for all those years. He basically got all his old buddies who were halfway worth a damn in the Hall of Fame (though Frisch died five years before Wilson was elected).

That and one MONSTER season which I'm not sure was regarded in its time as highly as we regard it now. Telling stat: Wilson finished EIGHTH in the NL MVP balloting that year.

Plus, Wilson died young, less than 15 years after his playing career ended. As others have said, a legendary drinker.

Which leads me to the best quote I ever read about Hack Wilson, maybe the best quote I ever read about anyone:

"He was built along the lines of a beer keg, and not wholly unfamiliar with its contents."

 

Any season when you played any percentage of your games in Philly's Baker Bowl would help most folks' batting averages immeasurably.

 

In 1962, Tommy Davis had 153 RBIs despite playing half his games in Dodger Stadium. Partly due to injury, he never approached that number again. One of the most amazing (and non-steroid aided, unlike Brady Anderson's) career blips in baseball history.