Now Here’s a Lineup

The first induction ceremony for the Baseball Hall of Fame took place 74 years ago on June 12, 1939, and the talent on hand was fairly staggering:

Front row, left to right: Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, Cy Young.
Back row: Honus Wagner, Pete Alexander, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Walter Johnson.
(National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

Ty Cobb was there for the day, but arrived too late to raise the photo’s collective lifetime batting average. Which is what, I wonder? There must be some baseball stat junkie out there who knows.

One Response to “Now Here’s a Lineup”

1. Tom Bedell June 12th, 2013

   Sure enough, a chap on Reddit known as pauldrye came up with this: “Altogether they hit .321 (21,384 for 66,630). Mack and the pitchers drag it down a fair bit: without them they hit .337. Adding Cobb brings the group up to .328 (.342 without Mack and the pitchers).”

   He used Excel to figure it out and it sounds reasonable to me. But another fellow, Jay Catalano on Twitter, suggested it was .324 (.329 w/ Cobb). I’m not sure of his methodology, however. Yet.