Baseball Library Vault of Lists: November 12, 2008

Ted Williams's Top 20 Hitters of All Time

Baseball Library Vault of Lists

When Ted Williams opened his Hitters Hall of Fame in 1994, he inducted the first 20 hitters and ranked them based on his own "secret formula," which he claimed combined on-base percentage and slugging average. Since OPS, a stat that also combines the two, had been around long before Williams opened his Hall, we imagine the Splendid Splinter added a dose of objectivity to his calculation. How else could Willie Mays, Joe Jackson. Stan Musial and Henry Aaron rate above Mickey Mantle, whose posted a higher OPS than any of those hitters? And he certainly didn\'t factor in eras or ballparks, or Mantle would have rated above DiMaggio and Honus Wagner probably would have climbed into the Top 20. Williams also left off himself and players who were active at the time of the induction. Here\'s his original list; you can compare it to the Top 20 Career OPS leaders (minimum 4,000 plate appearances) at the time of the induction. We followed Ted\'s criteria and excluded him (he would have ranked second with 1.116) and any hitters who were still playing in 1994: