By Tom Ruane
It is well-known that Roger Maris was not intentionally walked once during his record-setting 1961 season. What is less well-known is that none of his 61 home runs that season were hit with the bases loaded. This is not too surprising, considering that he got up only twice all season with the sacks jammed. Much of this had to do with the fact that he hit third most of the year, but it didn't help that manager Ralph Houk batted his two worst hitting regulars, Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek, at the top of the lineup.
The top three spots in the lineup are the worst when it comes to batting with the bases loaded. The data from Retrosheet's released PBP games (1921 to 2010):
Pos BL TOT BL% 1 19828 1111402 1.784 2 19784 1085451 1.823 3 18970 1059960 1.790 4 23597 1036153 2.277 5 28059 1012065 2.772 6 30038 986448 3.045 7 26398 959627 2.751 8 24819 931815 2.664 9 25853 903716 2.861
But even taking into account his place in the batting order and the poor on-base percentages of the hitters in front of him, Maris' number of plate appearances with the bases loaded was extremely low. Among those with 500 or more plate appearances, here are the lowest marks:
Player Year Team BL PA MIS BL% Billy Williams 1962 CHI N 2 699 0 0.286 Roger Maris 1961 NY A 2 698 0 0.287 Luis Castillo 2003 FLA N 2 676 0 0.296 Rusty Staub 1969 MON N 2 673 0 0.297 Omar Vizquel 2005 SF N 2 651 0 0.307 Rafael Palmeiro 1989 TEX A 2 632 0 0.316 Hubie Brooks 1983 NY N 2 624 0 0.321 Bobby Adams 1952 CIN N 2 544 150 0.368 Manny Sanguillen 1975 PIT N 2 537 0 0.372 Tony Oliva 1968 MIN A 2 528 0 0.379 Bob Watson 1971 HOU N 2 514 0 0.389 Billy Williams 1967 CHI N 3 712 0 0.421
"MIS" contains the number of plate appearance in the season for which we are currently missing play-by-play data.
Although they didn't make the cutoff, the most plate appearances in a season for a player without getting up even once with three runners on was 373 by Tom Veryzer for the 1977 Tigers (Marv Staehle was one behind with 372 for the Expos in 1970). And Paul Molitor got up only once with a chance at a grandslam in 458 chances with the Brewers in 1990.
By comparison, Manny Mota of the Dodgers got up with the bases loaded in 20% of his 60 plate appearances in 1976. Among players with 500 plate appearances, here are those with the highest percentage with the bases loaded:
Player Year Team BL PA MIS BL% Vern Stephens 1950 BOS A 45 588 105 7.653 Vern Stephens 1949 BOS A 41 647 65 6.337 Jason Varitek 2007 BOS A 32 518 0 6.178 David Segui 2000 TEX-CLE 39 634 0 6.151 Sam Chapman 1949 PHI A 31 513 161 6.043 Pedro Feliz 2004 SF N 32 531 0 6.026 Jorge Posada 2006 NY A 32 545 0 5.872 Scott Brosius 2000 NY A 30 519 0 5.780 Jason Varitek 2003 BOS A 30 521 0 5.758 Manny Trillo 1975 CHI N 34 613 0 5.546 Paul Sorrento 1996 SEA A 30 542 0 5.535 Brian McCann 2007 ATL N 30 552 0 5.435 Walt Dropo 1950 BOS A 28 519 90 5.395
The top percentages among players with 400-499, 300-399, 200-299 and 100-199 plate appearances:
Player Year Team BL PA MIS BL% Benito Santiago 2003 SF N 33 434 0 7.604 Pete Incaviglia 1993 PHI N 26 402 0 6.468 Mike Greenwell 1987 BOS A 29 456 0 6.360 Julio Becquer 1960 WAS A 24 312 0 7.692 Greg Dobbs 2007 PHI N 27 358 0 7.542 David Bell 2003 PHI N 24 348 0 6.897 Daryle Ward 2001 HOU N 17 235 0 7.234 Lee May 1980 BAL A 17 239 0 7.113 Wil Cordero 1996 BOS A 15 213 0 7.042 Hal McRae 1972 CIN N 12 105 0 11.429 Ramon Martinez 2007 LA N 15 147 0 10.204 Julio Zuleta 2001 CHI N 12 118 0 10.169
Here are the career leaders (3000 plate appearances minimum):
Player BL PA MIS BL% Vern Stephens 157 3302 3939 4.755 Jason Varitek 245 5589 0 4.384 Carl Furillo 244 6167 855 3.957 Jorge Posada 265 6763 0 3.918 Rey Ordonez 133 3407 0 3.904 Jeff Francoeur 128 3444 0 3.717 Robinson Cano 137 3732 0 3.671 Todd Benzinger 114 3106 0 3.670 Adam Everett 110 3003 0 3.663 Sam Mele 116 3168 629 3.662
The leaders with a 100 and 1000 plate appearance minimum:
Player BL PA MIS BL% Roy Halladay 15 136 0 11.029 Julio Becquer 49 1027 0 4.771
And the career trailers:
Player BL PA MIS BL% Bobby Adams 33 3237 1294 1.019 Chuck Hinton 58 4455 0 1.302 Vince Coleman 80 5970 0 1.340 Ron LeFlore 68 4872 0 1.396 Wally Backman 52 3708 0 1.402 Willie Stargell 127 9027 0 1.407 Tom Veryzer 44 3098 0 1.420 Billy Williams 152 10519 0 1.445 Ellis Valentine 49 3392 0 1.445 Shannon Stewart 90 6205 0 1.450
The most career at-bats without a bases-loaded plate appearance was 399 by Bob Martyn.
It should be obvious that players on good hitting teams get up in these situations a lot more than those on poor hitting teams. Here is a list of the teams with the highest percentage of plate appearances with the bases loaded along with their runs scored per game.
Year Team BL PA MIS BL% G R R/G 1950 BOS A 227 5416 906 4.191 132 890 6.74 1948 BOS A 199 4791 1493 4.154 118 677 5.74 1948 PHI A 153 3873 2176 3.950 101 439 4.35 1949 BOS A 221 5670 583 3.898 141 795 5.64 1993 DET A 249 6505 0 3.828 162 899 5.55 1949 PHI A 176 4616 1433 3.813 118 575 4.87 2006 NY A 245 6455 0 3.796 162 930 5.74 2000 SF N 241 6418 0 3.755 162 925 5.71 2005 BOS A 239 6403 0 3.733 162 910 5.62 2004 SF N 241 6466 0 3.727 162 850 5.25 2007 BOS A 239 6426 0 3.719 162 867 5.35 1951 BOS A 229 6213 0 3.686 154 804 5.22
Note: the games (G) and runs scored (R) columns only count those games with play-by-play data.
And here is the flip-side:
1972 CAL A 68 5640 0 1.206 155 454 2.93 1957 KC A 69 5655 0 1.220 154 563 3.66 1981 TOR A 49 3887 0 1.261 106 329 3.10 1983 SEA A 76 5907 0 1.287 162 558 3.44 1966 STL N 79 5964 0 1.325 162 571 3.52 1976 MON N 82 5996 0 1.368 162 531 3.28 2002 DET A 81 5920 0 1.368 161 575 3.57 1973 CLE A 86 6179 0 1.392 162 680 4.20 1967 CIN N 87 6015 0 1.446 162 604 3.73 1966 CHI A 88 6021 0 1.462 163 574 3.52 1921 PIT N 87 5947 0 1.463 154 692 4.49 1999 ANA A 91 6132 0 1.484 162 711 4.39
The teams on these two lists don't have a lot of overlap, with only the two highest scoring teams on the second list (the 1921 Pirates and 1999 Angels) scoring more runs than the lowest scoring team (the 1948 Athletics) on the first.