Sam Crawford Real Baseball Stats

Presented in this article are Sam Crawford’s real baseball stats per official at bat. How many runs, RBI’s and home runs (HR’s) did Wahoo Sam get per official at bat? Presenting the stats in this manner is meant to give you a clearer picture of what on average Sam Crawford accomplished for each official at bat he had in the major leagues.

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How are the stats calculated out? Simply by dividing each stat listed by official at bats. Just like you do with hits for batting average. Here we are dividing total runs scored by total official at bats to get a player’s run average, total RBI’s by total official at bats for a player’s RBI average and total HR’s by total official at bats for a player’s HR average. For example: if a player has scored 1,000 runs in 5,000 official at bats his run average would be .200. If the player had 900 RBI’s his RBI average would be .180. And if he had 200 HR’s his HR average would be .040. So on average this player would have scored a run 20% of the time, driven in a run 18% of the time and hit a HR 4% of the time he recorded an official at bat in the major leagues.

Obviously the higher the averages the better the player was. Here is a rough guide to determine how a players averages stack up.

Run Average and RBI Average – anything over .150 is good. Anything above .200 is excellent, and the very best players in history have occasionally gone over .300 in some seasons.

HR Average – anything over .055 is good. Anything above .065 is really good and anything above .075 means one of the best HR hitters of all time.

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Here are Sam Crawford’s raw numbers (AB’s/runs/RBI’s/HR’s) 9570/1391/97/1525.

Sam Crawford’s Career Numbers

Run Average – .145

RBI Average – .159

HR Average – .010

So on average Sam Crawford scored a run 14.5% of the time, drove in a run 15.9% of the time and hit a HR 1.0% of the time he stepped up to the plate and had an official at bat in the major leagues.

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Sam Crawford was primarily a right fielder in the major leagues for 19 years.

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He played for two teams, the Cincinnati Reds (1899-2002) and the Detroit Tigers (1903-1917). Nicknamed “Wahoo Sam”, Crawford was one the best hitters of the deadball era. He led the league in home runs twice (1901 and 1908), RBI’s three times (1910, 1914-1915) and triples six times (1902-1903, 1910, 1913-1915). Sam Crawford is baseball’s all time career triples leader with 309.

Crawford played alongside Ty Cobb for many years and together they led the Detroit Tigers to 3 consecutive World Series (1907-1909).

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The Tigers lost all 3 World Series, two of them (1907-1908) to the great Chicago Cubs teams of that era. The 1908 win was the last time the Chicago Cubs won a World Series, a drought of 100 years.

When Ty Cobb joined the Detroit Tigers, Sam Crawford was the star of the team and Crawford mentored Cobb.

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As time went by the relationship soured as almost all of Cobb’s teammates did not like him due to his surly ways and the preferential treatment Cobb received from Tigers management (Cobb always had his own room on the road and never had to share not that anyone wanted to be his roommate). Though Crawford and Cobb were teammates for many years they barely spoke after the first couple of years and never spoke after retirement except to bash each other in the press. But when Ty Cobb died a reporter found hundreds of letters in Cobb’s home answering letters Cobb had written to influential people lobbying for Crawford’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Cobb was what people used to call “an odd duck” for sure and today he would be diagnosed with a “personality disorder“.  

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Sam Crawford was selected by the Veterans Committee and inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957.