This document provides 9 key baseball stats and facts to know when talking sports at a bar or social gathering. It lists the players with the best career batting average (Ty Cobb at .366), single-season batting average (Nap Lajoie at .426 in 1901), most career hits (Pete Rose with 4,256), most hits in a single season (Ichiro Suzuki with 262 in 2004), most career home runs (Barry Bonds with 762), most home runs in a single season (Barry Bonds with 73 in 2001), longest consecutive game hit streak (Joe DiMaggio's 56 games in 1941), most consecutive games played (Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,632), and the only player to

1. Best career batting
average:
Sports Bar
dnkb.com
Talking Points
Nine stats you should know as cold as your brew.

2. You never know when your
knowledge will be tested.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chefranden/5515683056/

3. What starts as small talk can turn
into an unspoken sports trivia test
of your very manhood.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronslog/5479883155/

4. Don’t be the guy who can’t hold his
own in a summertime conversation.

5. Best career batting
average:
Just learn these basic stats
then recall them to wow your friends and
neighbors with your astounding sports
knowledge and previously unappreciated
handsome features.
Let’s do this. . .

6. Best career batting
average:

7. Ty Cobb
Detroit Tigers
.3664
He may have been
a violent, bigoted
hell-bound SOB, but
he knew how
to get on base.
http://www.detroit.lib.mi.us/harwell/collection/Collection.htm

8. Best
single-season
batting average:

9. Nap Lajoie
Philadelphia Athletics
.4265
A couple players had
higher averages, but
they were pre-1900,
before baseball’s modern
era. Lajoie set this
record in 1901. baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?40306-Historical-Archival-
Photographs/page2

10. Most career hits:

11. Pete Rose
Cincinnati Reds
4,256
Rose was banned from
the league in 1989 for
betting on games,
including his own.
http://washedupcelebrities.blogspot.com/2010/07/pete-rose.html

12. Most hits in a
single-season:

13. Ichiro
Suzuki
Seattle Mariners
262
Ichiro set this mark
in 2004, breaking a
record that had
stood for 84 years.
http://janeheller.mlblogs.com/archives/2010/04/

14. Most career
home runs:

15. Barry Bonds
San Francisco Giants
762
Bonds has become an icon
of the steroid era. His neck
seemed to grow as quickly
as his stats. http://diamondhoggers.com/2011/01/11/a-great-read-on-barry-bonds-juicing-it-up/

16. Most home runs in
a single season:

17. Barry Bonds
San Francisco Giants
73
In 2001, Bonds broke Mark
McGwire’s 1998 record
of 70 home runs. You get extra cred
if you declare that Roger Maris’ 61
in ’61 is the last legit record.
http://diamondhoggers.com/2011/01/11/a-great-read-on-barry-bonds-juicing-it-up/

18. Most
consecutive games
with a hit:

19. Joe DiMaggio
New York Yankees
56
Joltin’ Joe’s run of
56 games in 1941 became
known simply as The Streak.
No one has come close to his
mark since.
http://boston.com

20. Most
consecutive games
played:

21. Cal Ripken
Baltimore Orioles
2,632
The Iron Man is one of only
eight players in league history
to exceed 3,000 hits and 400
home runs in a career.
http://flickr.com/photos/dnkb/tags/orioles

22. The only player to
have his number
retired league-
wide:

23. Jackie
Robinson
Brooklyn Dodgers
#42
Robinson broke the major
league color barrier when
he played in the 1947
season. Now each year the
entire league wears his
number on the anniversary.
http://www.californiahistorian.com/articles/hall-of-fame.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/malingering/461150425/

24. The End Let’s Go O’s