On ESPN’s Sunday night game this week, I learned that Robinson Cano is the leader in games played over the past ten seasons (2007-16). Indeed, he was the leader as of that date (July 31), but just two games ahead of Adrian Gonzalez, the 10 year leader ending in 2015.

That, of course, made me wonder about other decades and other statistical leaders. If you were wondering too, wonder no more, as those leaders are after the jump.

I’ve presented a variety of offensive statistics and shown the major league leader in each for every ten year period starting in 1910 (thus, the first decade leaders would be for the 1901 to 1910 seasons inclusive). For all statistics, I’ve used Baseball-Reference.com as my source so their versions of OPS+ and WAR are represented here.

For rate stats, I’ve set a relatively low qualifying mark of 4000 PA to give a break to players losing time to injuries or military service, since those circumstances would generally exclude players from leading in counting stats (only a few players have led in counting stats in decades with significant lost playing time, or that began before or ended after their careers). The low qualifying mark for rate stats does see some players leading in decades that began before or ended after their careers (in a couple of instances, a player led in a decade that ended after his death).

So, here we go, decade by decade. To find a specific player, enter his name in the Search box.

Decades ending from 1910 to 1919

This decade starts with Honus Wagner as the dominant player but that quickly changes to Ty Cobb as the period progresses. The surprise is Sam Crawford, known primarily as the all-time triples leader, but also a frequent leader in several other categories.

[table id=297 /]

Decades ending from 1920 to 1929

Cobb is joined by Tris Speaker as players dominating in the first half of this period, but they give way to Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby in the second half. Max Carey takes over from Cobb as the leading base stealer.

[table id=298 /]

Decades ending from 1930 to 1939

Ruth and Hornsby continue to dominate in the first half of this period, but give way to Lou Gehrig and Paul Waner over the second half. Jimmie Foxx‘s tenure as a decade leader starts at the end of this period and continues into the beginning of the next.

[table id=299/]

Decades ending from 1940 to 1949

Foxx, Mel Ott and two Joes (Medwick and DiMaggio) dominate this period with Ted Williams starting his appearances at the end of these decades. Surprise is Doc Cramer, a frequent leader in games, hits and singles.

[table id=300 /]

Decades ending from 1950 to 1959

Stan is the Man of this period, leading frequently in almost every category, including taking the doubles and XBH crowns in all 10 decades. The Splinter became eligible to lead in rate stats at the end of the previous period but falls below the 4000 PA qualifier when he serves in Korea, allowing Musial to claim the rate stat crowns for a couple of years before Williams again becomes eligible.

[table id=301 /]

Decades ending from 1960 to 1969

Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron are all over this period with Roberto Clemente and Harmon Killebrew making appearances at the end of the period.

[table id=302 /]

Decades ending from 1970 to 1979

Killebrew and Aaron continue to lead at the beginning of this period before giving way to Rod Carew, two Willies (McCovey and Stargell) and the Big Red Machine (Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez). Yaz and Reggie also show up while Lou Brock dominates in base stealing and triples.

[table id=303 /]

Decades ending from 1980 to 1989

Rose, Morgan, Carew and Stargell continue as leaders starting this period, before giving way to Mike Schmidt, Jim Rice, Rickey Henderson and a pair of Royals (George Brett and Willie Wilson).

[table id=304 /]

Decades ending from 1990 to 1999

Henderson continues his dominance throughout this period and is joined by Wade Boggs, Eddie Murray, Tony Gwynn and Kirby Puckett. Frank Thomas and Barry Bonds start to appear at the end of the period while the sabermetrically-challenged Joe Carter turns in a very creditable showing leading frequently in the marquis categories of Home Runs and RBI (and extra-base hits).

[table id=305 /]

Decades ending from 2000 to 2009

Bonds continues to dominate throughout this period and is joined by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Albert Pujols starts to appear at the end of the period, even before his career reaches 10 seasons.

[table id=306 /]

Decades ending from 2010 to 2016

Pujols continues to dominate in this period and is joined by Ichiro and Miggy. For the decade that will end with the current season, I’ve shown the current leader (as of July 31) and any others who might conceivably catch that leader.

[table id=307 /]

Superlatives

Here are the high and low results for each of the metrics.

[table id=308 /]

Decade Leadership by Player

Here are the totals by player, for times as decade leader in each statistic. You can scroll through the list, search for players or click on a column to sort by that metric. Owing to limitations of the Table tool, I’ve had to separate these totals into multiple tables.

[table id=314 /]

[table id=313 /]

[table id=309 /]

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Combining the tables, here are the top 25 in overall decade leaders. Interesting that the all-time home run leader was a decade leader in that category just once.

[table id=315 /]