santa claus and hitting .400

I don't remember believing in Santa Claus. I do, however, remember pretending to believe in Santa for the benefit of my younger sister. Either way, I just can't remember what happened when I came to the realization that Santa Claus isn't real.

As I have previously mentioned, I became a fan of big league baseball in the early to mid 80s. I faithfully collected a small empire of cards and even got some of them signed. Every summer, someone in my family would buy me a copy of the latest edition of Zander Hollander's The Complete Handbook of Baseball. Those books were superb. They came with mini player profiles, statistics, and predictions. At the back of each book was a series of historical data, including lists of league leaders and award winners.

Wade Boggs was one of my heroes in the 80s. Not only did he dutifully always get on base for the BoSox (my favourite club after Toronto), but, more importantly, he signed an autograph for me when I met him.

Flipping through the back of my Handbook, I could see Wade Boggs appear a number of times on the list of yearly leaders in batting average for American League hitters. However, as a kid, I noted that Boggs never hit .400. Nope. As we all know, the last guy to hit .400 was Ted Williams back in 1941.

Scanning through the American and National League lists, I quickly learned that the exclusive .400 club included magical names like George Sisler, Nap Lajoie, and Rogers Hornsby. For me, believing in that statistic was like believing in Santa Claus. It was like believing in King Arthur, and a time when unreal things were possible. A .400 batting average was fantastical, impossible ... like something out of Lord of the Rings!

After reading "Why No One Hits .400 Anymore" (in Stephen Jay Gould's superb collection, Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville) I can honestly say that I now have a pretty good idea as to how I must have felt when I learned that there is no Santa Claus. In the article, Gould outlines exactly why .400 hitters went the way of the dodo bird. The sad thing is that in doing this, he shows us that .400 was/is not a mystical entity. Goodbye Santa!