Bert Blyleven

It seems like every year the question comes up. Will baseball have a .400 hitter?

A few years back everyone kept their eyes on guys like Rod Carew, Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn. Last year it was Chipper Jones. And this year the focus is on Ichiro Suzuki and Joe Mauer.

Ichiro and Mauer are both great players. And it would be great for baseball if one of them were able to accomplish the feat. But in today’s era, I just don’t see it happening.

Major League Baseball has not had a .400 hitter since Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox pulled it off in 1941. He hit .406 that year, famously going 6-for-8 in a doubleheader on the final day of the season, even though he could have sat out that day and seen his .39955 average officially be rounded up to. 400.

Before Williams, it was Bill Terry 11 in 1930 with the New York Giants. The .400 season has been accomplished 28 times, 19 of those times came before 1920.

And of the top 50 individual hitting seasons in baseball history, only two — George Brett in 1980 (.390), Gwynn in 1994 (.394) — have come in the last 30 years.

Clearly, the .400 season is a thing of the past. But why is that the case?

SPECIALIZED PITCHING
Back when Ted Williams was playing — and before Williams, for that matter — there weren’t as many relief pitchers, and there was a good chance Williams was going to get four or five at-bats against the same pitcher. In 1941, for example, Thornton Lee of the Chicago White Sox led the American League with 30 complete games. By comparison, Roy Halladay led all of baseball with just nine complete games in 2008.

Pitchers just don’t stay in the game as long anymore as coaches and general managers keep a close eye on pitch counts. Instead of riding their starters, teams stock their bullpens with fresh, live arms to come in late in games and shut down opposing offenses.

If Ted Williams were playing nowadays, he would see plenty of left-handed specialists and flame-throwing closers late in games, just like Ichiro and Mauer do.

MEDIA FRENZY
Another way the game has changed is the intensity and sheer volume of media coverage, from magazines and newspapers, television and radio, and of course, the Internet. Every game, and every play are scrutinized.

Last season, Chipper Jones was getting all sorts of attention when he was hitting .400 in mid-June. Jones ended up hitting .320 the rest of the season and finishing up at an NL-best .364.

Just last week, Mauer appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline “The Case for Joe Mauer And Baseball History.” Mauer was hitting over .400 at the time, which was enough to attract attention even though he had yet to compile enough plate appearances to be listed among the league leaders.

If Mauer, Ichiro or another hitter is threatening .400 come September, the media frenzy will be suffocating to these players. Every game will require a press conference. Every move will be watched.

I remember what Carew went through in 1977 (.388) and what Brett faced in 1980. For both guys, it became a media zoo and was a huge distraction. Everyone was looking for a different story angle. Brett said the media got into his personal life and he couldn’t go anywhere. He would go out to dinner and there would be someone who wanted to talk to him about it. There was never a relaxing moment for him.

Today, the attention would be even more intense.

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