Hammerin’ Hank had the best season a Tiger has ever had by anyone not name Ty Cobb. In 1938, he hit a team record 58 homeruns, which up until the late 1990’s, was good for fourth best all time. He drove in 146 runs, and led the league in walks with 119.

Greenberg’s 1935 numbers were also phenomonal. He won the MVP, hit 36 homeruns, and he had 170 RBIs and 389 total bases. All of these marks led the league.

His career numbers are equally impressive. He walked more times then he struck out (852 vs. 844), and has a career .412 OBP. His career 1.017 career OPS is the seventh best all time. Probably the only thing keeping him from being among the best ever was his missing all but 12 games in 1936 because of injury, and missing almost four years because of World War II. In all, he only played nine seasons where he played more then 100 games, but still managed to rack up 331 homeruns and 1,276 RBIs.

Once again, I’m going to defer to SABR’s Biography Project. Ralph Berger has prepared an excellent biography there on Hank Greenberg, and I highly recommend you check it out.

Also, for more on Mickey Cochrane, I recently read his book, “Baseball, The Fan’s Game.” SABR reprinted it, and it’s worthwhile read for any baseball fan.

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