The top 100 Major League Baseball players who have been hit by a pitch the most times during their careers are listed below. Hughie Jennings owns the big league record for most pitches hit by him, with 287 hits in his career. Other notable names on this list include Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, and Bob Feller.
Baseball is a game that requires skill, strength, and courage. As such, it's no surprise that many of the biggest hitters on the baseball field get hit by pitches regularly. The following is a list of the top 10 highest-hitting players over time based on their batting average when facing a pitcher.
Hitting behind the plate is one of the most dangerous jobs in baseball because of how close you are to the pitcher. In fact, it's the second most dangerous position after first base (where the batter stands when he bats). Hitting behind the plate also has a reputation for being difficult to do well at; according to some sources, there have been only 26 men who have had more than 100 games caught professionally.
The majority of those hit by pitches are pitchers themselves; however, several former major league batters have been hit by pitches as well.
The majority of the Decade's Hitters It's been said that Richie Ashburn had the most hits in the 1950s and Mike Schmidt had the most home runs in the 1980s. However, both men played during two different periods when there were more hits per game than there is now. If we look only at the decade from 1950 to 1959, then it's not hard to see who would win based on their career averages: Ashburn has a high average year-in, year-out, while Schmidt has a lot of big years that raise his average considerably.
However, if we look at the whole period from 1945 to 1964, then it's clear that Schmidt was a much better hitter over all: His average is higher, he has more hits, and he spent more time in good health too. Even though Ashburn had more hits than Schmidt during part of the 1950s, it's not hard to see why many people think that Schmidt is the greatest hitter of all time.
It's also worth mentioning Joe DiMaggio. Although he only played in the 1930s, he remains one of the best hitters in history because of his amazing batting eye and consistent production. He's still ranked number three all time by baseball-reference.com.
Ichiro Suzuki (Japan) with the Seattle Mariners from 2001 to 2010 and Pete Rose (USA) with the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies from 1965-66, 1968-70, 1973, 1975-77, and 1979 have the most seasons with 200 hits in a big league baseball career. They both played during an era when there were more games per season (exactly two months vs. today's three), so they had more chances to get 200 hits.
Suzuki got 200 hits in 781 at-bats while playing for the Mariners. He is the all-time leader in hits among Japanese players and his record will not be broken because Japan's biggest league, the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) League, has no draft so all its players are paid extremely well ($20 million plus per team).
Rose got 200 hits in 801 at-bats while playing with the Reds and Phillies. He was never able to play another season due to his own admission of gambling on baseball games (he bet $100 on each game he played and usually lost). In 2007, he was given a lifetime ban from Major League Baseball for betting on games (this penalty would have ended if he had admitted guilt). However, since it was determined that he did not know about the fixed games, his suspension was reduced to 14 days (he said he would have stopped if he knew what was going on).
Barry Bonds has 10 hitting records, the most notable of which are the career and single-season home run marks. If he were still playing, his record would be in serious jeopardy from a new generation of hitters who have more powerful bats than him - especially since he stopped using performance-enhancing drugs.
The current leader in hits is Babe Ruth, who died in 1948 at the age of 53. In total, Ruth hit 714 times, scoring 652 times and drawing 100 walks. He remains the benchmark for all hitter.
Their names also stand for "Greatest Of All Time". Barry Bonds et al.
Of the other nine players who have reached 500 hits, only Joe DiMaggio (57) and Lou Gehrig (41) spent entire careers with one team. The others either played for several teams or spent time in retirement.
In addition to being one of the best hitters of all time, Ruth also holds numerous other records including: most home runs (654), runs batted in (1062), and offensive appearances (2094).
He is the greatest hitter that ever lived, there's no doubt about it.
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