Williams’ .406 more unreachable than ever

Sunday marked the 75th anniversary of the culmination of Joe DiMaggio’s record 56-game hitting streak, as the Yankees star went 0-for-3 against Cleveland pitchers Al Smith and Jim Bagby on July 17, 1941.

But while Joltin’ Joe’s record run captured the imagination of the American public, his friendly rival, Ted Williams, may have set an even more untouchable mark when he finished that 1941 season with a .406 average.

Consider this: While DiMaggio batted .409 during his streak, Williams actually bested him with a .412 average during that same span. In the last three-quarters of a century, no player has had the same kind of consistency needed reach just the .400 plateau, let alone tie Williams’ .406.

To put it in contemporary terms, think of it this way: If Daniel Murphy, the Majors’ current batting average leader at .348, were to finish with 584 at-bats this season (his average over the last three years), he would have to hit roughly .472 (117-for-248) the rest of the way to join Williams in the .400 club. The best Murphy has ever hit over a full second half of a season was .307 in 2013.

To picture just how tough a time hitters have had trying to match Teddy Ballgame’s .406, here’s a look at the 10 players who have come the closest to reaching .400, in order of their season-ending average, over the last 75 years:

1. Tony Gwynn, 1994: .394

Many who watched Mr. Padre during the 1994 season will still argue that he could have topped .400 if his season hadn’t been cut short by the players’ strike in mid-August. Indeed, Gwynn was heating up, hitting .420 (50-for-119) in his last 30 games before the strike. Though Gwynn would not see his average rise above .400 after May 15, he would also not see it dip below .376 after April, suggesting that he was consistent enough to stay in the chase until the very end.

Last date at .400: May 15

How short was he? We’ll never know how many total at-bats Gwynn would have ended up with if his 1994 season had gone to completion, but he would have needed just three more hits to finish at .400 during his strike-shortened campaign.

2. George Brett, 1980: .390

The greatest hitter in Royals history actually began the 1980 campaign 1-for-7, and did not see his average rise above .300 until his last game of May. But after a red-hot summer, Brett woke up on the morning of Sept. 20 with an even .400 average — the latest date that anyone on this list was at or …

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