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By The Numbers: Listing The All-Time MLB Leaders

By Father Gabe Costa
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For this installment of By The Numbers, I thought I would take a look at the all-time hitting and pitching leaders, just to get a feel for some of the numbers.

HITTING

Games (G): Pete Rose -- 3,562

At-Bats (AB): Pete Rose -- 14,053

Plate Appearances: Pete Rose -- 15,890

Hits (H): Pete Rose -- 4,256

Singles (1B): Pete Rose -- 3,215

Doubles (2B): Tris Speaker -- 792

Triples (3B): Sam Crawford -- 309

Home Runs (HR): Barry Bonds -- 762

Total Bases (TB): Hank Aaron -- 6,856

Runs (R): Rickey Henderson -- 2,295

Runs Batted In (RBI): Hank Aaron -- 2,297

Bases On Balls (BB): Barry Bonds -- 2,558

Batting Average (BA = H/AB): Ty Cobb -- .366

Slugging Average (SLG = TB/AB): Babe Ruth -- .690

Isolated Power (ISO = SLG – BA): Babe Ruth -- .348

Total Power Quotient (TPQ = (HR + RBI + TB)/AB): Babe Ruth -- 1.039

On Base Average (OBA): Ted Williams -- .482

On-Base-Plus-Slugging (OPS = OBA + SLG): Babe Ruth -- 1.164

Adjusted OPS (OPS+): Babe Ruth -- 206

Wins Above Replacement (WAR): Babe Ruth -- 183.8

PITCHING

Games (G): Jesse Orosco --1,252

Wins (W): Cy Young -- 511

Losses (L): Cy Young -- 316

Winning Percentage (PCT = W/(W + L)): Whitey Ford -- .690 (with at least 200 W)

Earned Run Average (ERA): Ed Walsh -- 1.84

Innings Pitched (IP): Cy Young -- 7,356

Walks-Plus-Hits-Per Innings Pitched (WHIP): Addie Joss -- .9678

Strikeouts (K): Nolan Ryan -- 5,714

Shutouts (SO): Walter Johnson -- 110

Saves (S): Mariano Rivera -- 634 (and counting)

Wins Above Replacement: Cy Young -- 170.3

As we reflect on the history of the grand old game, we acknowledge that baseball has "changed" over the years. It has been forced to face such monumental issues as the Black Sox Scandal, the breaking of the color barrier and the steroid era (and is still dealing with the latter).

In a sense, all we really have left from year to year are the numbers.

And, to the extent that these numbers are tainted, baseball is the lesser for it.

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