List of Major League Baseball players with a .400 batting average in a season

In baseball, batting average (AVG) is a measure of a batter's success rate in achieving a hit during an at bat, and is calculated by dividing a player's hits by his at bats (AB). The Society for American Baseball Research's Baseball Research Journal has dubbed the achievement of a .400 batting average in a season as "the standard of hitting excellence". Twenty players have recorded a batting average of at least .400 in a single Major League Baseball (MLB) season to date, the last being Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox in 1941. Three players – Ed Delahanty, Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby – have accomplished the feat in three different seasons, and no player has ever hit over .440, a single-season record established by Hugh Duffy in 1894.Ross Barnes was the first player to bat .400 in a season, posting a .429 batting average in the National League's inaugural 1876 season.

In total, 20 players have reached the .400 mark in MLB history and five have done so more than once. Of these, ten were right-handed batters, nine were left-handed, and one was a switch hitter, meaning he could bat from either side of the plate. One of these players (Williams) played for only one major league team. The Philadelphia Phillies are the only franchise to have four different players reach the milestone while on their roster: Delahanty, Billy Hamilton, Sam Thompson, and Tuck Turner; all of whom attained a batting average over .400 during the 1894 season. Three players won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their .400 season.Tip O'Neill, Nap Lajoie, and Hornsby are the only players to have earned the Triple Crown alongside achieving a .400 batting average, leading their respective leagues in batting average, home runs and runs batted in (RBI).Fred Dunlap has the lowest career batting average among players who have have batted .400 in a season with .292, while Cobb – with .366 – recorded the highest career average in major league history.

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