Welcome to another edition of What If? Fantasy Baseball. In case you're not familar with this concept, this is where I look back at a season long before fantasy baseball became a prominent or permanent fixture in American society. I'll calculate the numbers on what that player's season would have looked like if the game existed then or wasn't as known. Today, we look back at the 1941 season of Boston Red Sox great and Hall of Fame legend Ted Williams. But before we do that, let's look at the Sporting News fantasy scoring system in place for this.
Point system for Sporting News(batting):
Out: -2 points
Run Scored: 5 points
Single: 5 points
Double: 10 points
Triple: 15 points
Home Run: 20 points
Run Batted In: 5 points
Walk or Hit By Pitch: 3 points
Strikeout: -1 point
Stolen Base: 10 points
Caught Stealing: -5 points
Point system for Sporting News(pitching):
Win: 30 points
Save: 30 points
Hold: 5 points
Loss: -15 points
Inning Pitched: 15 points
Hit Allowed: -5 points
Earned Run Allowed: -10 points
Walk or Hit Batsman: -3 points
Strikeout: 3 points
Here are the stats and SN points for Ted Williams' 1941 season:
Outs: 271 = -541 points
Runs Scored: 135 = 675 points
Singles: 112 = 560 points
Doubles: 33 = 330 points
Triples: 3 = 45 points
Home Runs: 37 = 740 points
Runs Batted In: 120 = 600 points
Walks + Hit By Pitches: 150 = 450 points
Strikeouts: 27 = -27 points
Stolen Bases: 2 = 20 points
Caught Stealing: 4 = -20 points
Total SN Points: 2,832 points
Points Per Game: 19.80
Williams played in 143 games in 1941.
What a year 1941 was for Major League Baseball and the world. A hitting streak that is still unbroken took place, Williams hit over .400, and a rivalry between the two built by the press continued to unfold. And the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japan that later thrusted them into World War II.
If fantasy baseball existed in 1941, owners would have been drooling over the numbers Williams put up. He and DiMaggio would have no doubt been the top two players selected in DNT leagues, and you really wouldn't have gone wrong with either of them. This debate of who to take first would have dominated many fantasy sites, articles, and blogs around the internet leading up to the 1941 season.
Despite being overshadowed by Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941, Teddy Ballgame literally had a season for the ages. He famously chose to play in a double-header the last day of the season at risk of not finishing the season with a .400 batting average. He entered the last day of the season with a batting average of .39955 which rounded up would have given him .400 on the season. Williams went 6-for-8 to raise his average to .406, and is still the last player to top .400 for a season.
Williams' season also included having a .551 on base percentage which stood as a major league record until broken by Barry Bonds in 2002 with a .582 mark.
An accomplishment not known as much is when he reached base in 69 consecutive games which now ranks third all-time. Eight years later, Williams would set the major league record by reaching base in 84 consecutive games.
In the standings, the Red Sox finished with a 84-70 record which was a distant 17 games behind the New York Yankees on the season. Williams also finished second in MVP voting to Joe DiMaggio on the season.
He would go on to bat .356 during the 1942 season, and would serve time during World War II in which he wouldn't play again until 1946. It was in 1946 that the Red Sox won the American League pennant, but lost in the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals. He did win the American League MVP Award in 1946 and again in 1949.
All in all, "The Splendid Splinter" missed all of, or part of, six seasons during his career. He retired after the 1960 season and finished with a .344 batting average, 521 home runs, 1,839 runs batted in, and .482 on base percentage. His .344 average is the highest of anyone that has hit 500 home runs or more in a career. His Hall of Fame career earned him induction honors in 1962.
Previous What If? Fantasy Baseball posts:
Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig's 1927 season
Thanks for viewing!
2/12/2009 12:20:00 PM
David Funk
5 comments:
Just shy of 20 per game is getting it done, but I'm surprised that it wasn't higher ... nonetheless, I'd take him in a sec.
Well done
Frank- Yeah, it is. In hindsight, I would have taken Williams over DiMaggio, too. Thanks for the comment and for stopping by.
I think Williams got screwed out of an MVP that year. Sure the streak was UNBELIEVABLE, but a 2 for 5 game would have lowered Ted's batting average.
Lester- That maybe true. However, times haven't changed in terms of voting. Winning factored into the minds of voters back then much like it does now. I think Williams was definitely the POY, but MVP could have been his, too. It's hard to argue against a team that finished 17 games ahead of the second place team though.
hmmmm.....
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