• Bobby Thompson wins the pennant for the Giants with a three-run shot heard ‘round the world.
• Joe Carter does one better and hits a three-run home to win the 1993 World Series.

National League – Highest Team Batting Averages

Possibly the most memorable hit for NL fans is the “shot heard ‘round the world” that captured the 1951 pennant. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Brooklyn Dodgers appeared to have a lock on the game and the series up 4-1. OF Bobby Thompson steps to the plate for the Giants to face the Dodger’s pitcher Ralph Branca. Branca throws a fastball up and inside which Thompson sends down the left field line for a pennant-winning homerun.

The highest team batting average for a season goes to the National League’s Philadelphia Phillies who hit .328 as a group in 1894. Having the highest average for a batting team didn’t win them the pennant that year though as the title went to Baltimore who had team batting averages of .328. In contrast, the lowest average for a NL batting team in a season is the woeful Washington Nationals who managed just a .207 average. The lowest team batting averages for a National League pennant winner is the .242 the New York Mets managed on the way to the title.

The most seasons with the highest team batting averages in the NL is the St. Louis Cardinals with 23 batting titles. The Colorado Rockies lead the National League with 8 seasons with the highest team batting average from 1995 – 2002. The St. Louis Cardinals led the 2008 team batting averages race for the NL at a .283 rate. The Philadelphia Phillies made the playoffs with a 2008 team batting average of .255 and they won the World Series hitting only .260 as a team!

American League – Highest Team Batting Averages

One of the more memorable hits in recent American League history is the Joe Carter “bash” that won the World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993. Its game 6 and the Blue Jays lead the series 3 – 2 over the Philadelphia Phillies. Carter comes up to bat in the bottom of the ninth with Rickey Henderson and Paul Molitor on base. The Phillies are winning the game 6 – 5 and Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams is on the mound. Williams throws a 2 -2 pitch that Carter sends out of the park for a homerun and a World Series championship.

The highest batting average in the American League for a season came from the 1921 Detroit Tigers. This isn’t much of a surprise as the late, great Ty Cobb was the manager of this team. The highest batting average by a pennant winner came from the best team ever in baseball history; the 1927 New York Yankees. Not a big surprise with the one-two punch of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as well as the lineup known as “Murderer’s Row.”

The 1910 Chicago White Sox takes the dubious honor of having the lowest team batting average of .212. They also have the lowest average for a batting team, at .228, that went on to capture the pennant. The Texas Rangers led the 2008 team batting averages race for the NL with a .283 rate. The Boston Red Sox leads all AL teams with the most batting titles in league history with 23. The 1910 Philadelphia Athletics captured the most consecutive titles at 5.

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