Mel Ott’s great years were before World War II; he died as a relatively young man almost sixty years ago; his franchise left New York, where he played his whole career, before most current fans were born; and his career total of 511 homers no longer seems as stupendous as it once did. All these factors mean he may not be remembered by casual fans (other than crossword puzzle aficionados) as much as other ballplayers of comparable stature. But that didn’t stop the Circle’s voters from embracing Ott overwhelmingly. By a wide margin, Mel becomes the 78th inductee into the High Heat Stats Circle of Greats. More on Master Melvin, and the voting, after the jump.
Ott is one of only eight everyday players who have accumulated over 100 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in the National League. The others besides Mel are Mays and Aaron, Bonds and Schmidt, Musial and Hornsby and Honus Wagner. It’s the same eight guys in both the Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs versions of WAR.
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“Rbat“, also know as WAR Runs Batting, is a Baseball-Reference stat estimating the number of runs a player created as a hitter above the number that an average player of his time and home park would have hit with a comparable number of plate appearances.
Most Career Rbat through Age 32, NL History
1. Rogers Hornsby 743.5
2. Mel Ott 646.7
3. Stan Musial 639.9
4. Albert Pujols 625.2
5. Hank Aaron 561.6
6. Willie Mays 521.5
On a full career basis, Ott is still 6th all-time in Rbat in the NL
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When the 19th century ended, Big Sam Thompson held the National League career home run record, with 126 homers. The progression of the NL career HR record-holder since then:
Cy Williams broke Thompson’s record in 1923.
Rogers Hornsby broke Williams’ record in 1929.
Mel Ott broke Hornsby’s record in 1937 and held the record for 29 years, until Willie Mays took the record in 1966.
Hank Aaron took over the record from Mays in 1972.
Barry Bonds passed Aaron in 2006.
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Most RBI on the Road, Single Season, NL
87, by Mel Ott (1929)
86, by Mel Ott (1934)
84, by High Pockets Kelly (1924) and Ryan Howard (2009)
83, by Hank Aaron (1957)
Most Runs Scored On the Road, Single Season, NL
79, by Mel Ott (1929) and Jeff Bagwell (1999)
78, by Stan Musial (1948)
77, by Craig Biggio (1995)
76, by Barry Bonds (1993)
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Most Career Regular Season Home Runs in One Ballpark
Mel Ott, Polo Grounds 323
Sammy Sosa, Wrigley Field 293
Ernie Banks, Wrigley Field 290
Mickey Mantle, Yankee Stadium 266
Mike Schmidt, Veterans Stadium 265
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Latest Home Run To Take The Lead in a World Series-Ending Game
Mel Ott (1933), top of the 10th inning
Joe Carter (1993), one out in the bottom of the 9th inning
Bill Mazeroski (1960), none out in the bottom of the 9th inning
Harry Hooper (1915) and Whitey Kurowski (1942), each with one out in the top of the 9th inning
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Most WAR (Baseball-Reference version) in a Season, Everyday Player in the NL, Age 20 Season or Younger
1. Mel Ott (age 20) 7.4
T2. Vada Pinson (age 20) and Frank Robinson (age 20) 6.5
4. Jason Heyward (age 20) 6.4
5. Bryce Harper (age 19) 5.1
T6. Johnny Bench (age 20) and Sherry Magee (age 20) 5.0
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Notes on this round’s voting:
–Ott received the most votes of any candidate since Joe DiMaggio, seven rounds ago.
–The list of holdovers next round will be completely unchanged, as no holdover this round appeared on 25% or more of the ballots and no holdover fell below 10%. The only newcomer to the ballot to hit at least 10% support was Ott, who goes directly into the Circle without a stop on the holdover list.
–Ducky Medwick barely avoided falling off the ballot. The last vote he needed was cast for him in the final hours of the voting. On the other side of the ledger, Kevin Brown fell one vote short of reaching the 25% support level, which would have given him another protected round of eligibility.
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The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1909 Vote Tally.
The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 . An archive with details of the 1968 through 1939 rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary . In both cases, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.
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A spreadsheet listing the full membership to date of the Circle of Greats, along with some of their stats, is here: Circle of Greats Membership . You can also find that same link any time by clicking on “Circle of Greats” at the top of the High Heats Stats home page.
Another COG data spreadsheet showing each season a COG member played in the majors, along with the team he played for that season and his baseball-reference WAR (overall WAR for everyday players, pitching WAR for pitchers) for the season, is here:
Circle of Greats Seasons
