STL All Sports

The 1968 baseball season produced only one .300 hitter in the American League. He was Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox who retained his batting title with a mark of only .301 -the lowest batting average ever achieved by a major-league champion. When the old-time American League batting champion George Sisler was asked what he thought his batting average would be among the current crop of American League hitters, the Hall of Famer who twice had hit over .400 and wound up with a sixteen-year lifetime batting average of .340 said modestly:

"Oh, I guess I would do as well as Yastrzemski did, and hit about .300! "

"What, only .300?" asked one of his audience.

"Don't forget, young man," said the old-timer, "come March, I'll be seventy-five years old."