20 Responses to “Most Doubles @ Fenway Park Since 1920”

1. Lasseter Says:
   January 14th, 2011 at 11:28 pm

   So those are their stats for games in which they hit doubles, yes?

2. Dr. Doom Says:
   January 14th, 2011 at 11:43 pm

   I'd be curious to see the record for a single season. It would not shock me in the least for Gonzalez to have 25-30 two-baggers at Fenway alone this year - although some of what I'm thinking are going to be doubles may end up as homers.

3. Dr. Doom Says:
   January 14th, 2011 at 11:45 pm

   Also, the most surprising stat up there for me is that Varitek only grounded into 7 DPs in the 157 games mentioned above. I guess I never thought of him as being super fast, and thus would have expected more like 25 GDPs.

4. John Autin Says:
   January 14th, 2011 at 11:48 pm

   Looking at Yaz's extreme home/road splits (.306/.264 BA, .904/.799 OPS) got me wondering which was greater: the boost his numbers got from Fenway, or the hit they took from the low-scoring years circa 1963-76?

   So I turned to B-R's Neutralized Batting tool. And the answer is:

   Despite getting a 16% kick in BA & OPS from Fenway, Yaz's neutralized career numbers are noticeably better than his real numbers.

   BA: .285 real / .296 neutralized
   OPS: .841 / .872
   RBI: 1,844 / 2,020

   In his '67 Triple Crown year, Yaz batted .326 with 44 HRs, 121 RBI, and also led the league with 112 Runs, a .418 OBP, .622 SLG and 1.040 OPS. Neutralizing those numbers yields a .351 BA, 49 HRs, 138 RBI, 128 Runs, .444 OBP, .666 SLG and 1.110 OPS.

   P.S. Just for laughs, here are a couple of Yaz numbers adjusted to the context of the 2000 Rockies: 2,682 Runs; 2,727 RBI.

5. John Autin Says:
   January 15th, 2011 at 12:00 am

   @2, Dr. Doom -- I don't know the official answer, but Earl Webb hit 39 of his record 67 doubles in Fenway, which I'll guess is the Fenway season record.

   I'll check the other seasons of 50+ doubles by Red Sox players:

   -- Wade Boggs hit 37 of 51 at home in 1989.
   -- Pedroia hit 35 of 54 at home in 2008.
   -- Ortiz hit 32 of 52 in Fenway in 2007.
   -- Nomar had 2 years over 50 doubles, but did not hit an especially high percentage of his doubles at home; he never hit more than 29 there in a season.
   -- Joe Cronin hit 51 doubles in 1938, but quite surprisingly, hit 32 of them away from home, just 19 in Fenway.
   -- Adrian Beltre had a similar reverse split this year, hitting 30 of his 49 doubles on the road; in fact, he did better on the road in almost everything.

   Note: B-R does not have home/road splits for Tris Speaker's 53-double season in 1912.

6. dukeofflatbush Says:
   January 15th, 2011 at 12:28 am

   Who is first on the list that had no playing time as a redsock?

7. John Autin Says:
   January 15th, 2011 at 12:53 am

   @6, Dukeofflatbush -- The first name that popped into my head was Al Kaline, and that appears to be correct, according to the Play Index; Kaline had 49 Fenway doubles.

   There's a bit of a mystery involving Lou Gehrig: the Play Index says Lou had 50 doubles as a visitor against the Red Sox, and Fenway Park was their home for all of Gehrig's career -- yet searching the P-I specifically for Fenway gives Gehrig only 45 doubles there. I can only conclude that either some Yankees @ BoSox games were played in another park, or else there's a gap in the ballpark split data that fails to credit 4 of Gehrig's road games against the BoSox as occurring in Fenway.

   Steve, do you have any insight into this discrepancy?

   P.S. Gehrig hit "only" 27 HRs in Fenway in 686 PAs -- roughly half the rate he logged in the HR haven of Sportsman's Park, St. Louis (52 HRs in 727 PAs). But he hit so many singles, doubles and triples in Fenway that he still came away with a 1.093 OPS, a bit above his career average.

8. Dave Says:
   January 15th, 2011 at 1:52 am

   Ted Williams hit a double then talked about it in his radio voice while at 2nd base before entering rehab.

9. Jimbo Says:
   January 15th, 2011 at 3:07 am

   A good stat to have in this chart would be their career games played at fenway. I think Boggs would be the leader in doubles per game for sure.

10. John Autin Says:
    January 15th, 2011 at 3:31 am

    Jimbo, that depends on where you set the minimum number of games. For 300+ Fenway games, I have Boggs as #1, averaging 0.342 doubles per Fenway game over his career (including as a Red Sox and as a visitor) -- just ahead of Fred Lynn (0.338) and Nomar at 0.333.

    However, Dustin Pedroia has so far averaged 0.383 doubles per game over 282 games in Fenway game.

11. Andy Says:
    January 15th, 2011 at 7:57 am

    To answer for Steve---yes, these stats are totals for only the games in which they hit doubles. So, things like Varitek having a surprisingly low GIDP total are skewed by the fact that at least one of his plate appearances in the game resulted in a double (meaning that some of his possible GIDP opportunities instead resulted in doubles, and as such his GIDP rate is almost certainly lower in the games shown above than over his entire career.)

12. Jason Varitek’s doubles and GIDPs » Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive Says:
    January 15th, 2011 at 8:18 am

    [...] Jason Varitek’s doubles and GIDPs Posted by Andy on January 15, 2011 « Most Doubles @ Fenway Park Since 1920 [...]

13. DavidRF Says:
    January 15th, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    @5
    There is an "AIR" number on the advanced tables that tells you how a players adjusted context compares to historical norms. So, even though Fenway was a hitters park, the league context was so low that the "AIR" number was still quite low for some years. In 1967 it was 91. In 1968 it was 86 and in 1972 (the year before the DH) it was 88.

    Yaz's career "AIR" number is 99.

14. Richard Chester Says:
    January 16th, 2011 at 12:09 am

    Concerning John Autin's statement about the discrepancy for the number of doubles for Lou Gehrig at Fenway Park: I do believe that in the early part of the 20th century the Red Sox played their Sunday home games at Braves Field.

15. John Autin Says:
    January 16th, 2011 at 12:28 am

    @13, DavidRF -- Thanks for the tip on "AIR." I had never noticed that before. Yet another hidden goodie on B-R!

16. John Autin Says:
    January 16th, 2011 at 12:42 am

    @14, Richard Chester -- Thanks for the info re: BoSox playing at Braves Field. I should have noticed the "BSN" ballpark stats Gehrig's career splits page, as he obviously never played against the Braves. Sure enough, there are the 5 missing doubles.

    Oddly, ballparks.com notes that the Red Sox played their World Series games at Braves Field, but doesn't mention the Sunday games from 1929-32.

    There were no Sunday games in Boston before 1929, as the city was one of the last to give up that restriction that was in force at one time or another in virtually all the original MLB cities.

17. steven Says:
    January 16th, 2011 at 6:05 am

    Dalton Jones...I haven't heard that name in ages. He was a good-hit/no-field third baseman in the late sixties.

18. Richard Chester Says:
    January 16th, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    @16, John Autin:

    Although Sunday baseball in Boston became legal in 1929 a church located very near Fenway Park nevertheless complained vehemently about Sunday games there. The Red Sox deferred to the church and played their Sunday games at Braves Field. After the 1932 season the church members, for whatever reason, removed the complaint and the Red Sox began playing at Fenway on Sundays.

19. Lawrence Azrin Says:
    January 17th, 2011 at 11:05 am

    #18/ Richard Chester Says: "Although Sunday baseball in Boston became legal in 1929 a church located very near Fenway Park nevertheless complained vehemently about Sunday games there. The Red Sox deferred to the church and played their Sunday games at Braves Field. After the 1932 season the church members, for whatever reason, removed the complaint and the Red Sox began playing at Fenway on Sundays."

    Richard, thanks; I've been a RS fan since '67, but had never heard about them playing @Braves Field during the regular season.

20. Daily Links – The Trivia Day Edition Says:
    January 18th, 2011 at 8:58 am

    [...] for you.  Who has hit the most doubles at Fenway park since 1920?  Take a guess, then check the this link to the Baseball Reference blog to see how you [...]