3) 2.21: Lew Fonseca (1929 AL, .369) Who? In the Premium in my Chiefs era shirt in contrast I will get this Ruth/Gehrig era? Fonseca played 12 years at first, second, and LF for 4 teams. Like Walker and Goodman, his title in 1929 sticks out like a sore thumb. That’s the only time he led the league in any offensive category. He finished 4 points ahead of Al Simmons, 14 ahead of Heinie Manush, and 15 ahead of Jimmie Foxx and Tony Lazzeri. Ruth was 7th at .345. 2) 1.68: Debs Garms (1940 NL, .355) Okay, now we’re into “how did these guys keep their jobs?” territory. Garms was an OF/3B who stuck around for 12 years across 4 teams with two gaps — he didn’t play the year he was 29, nor the year he was 35, but played from 36–38 with the Cardinals. How’d he do it? The main explanation seems to be in the “AB” column: 358. The requirement to qualify for the title in the NL between 1938 and 1944 was appearing in 100 games and Garms appeared in 103. After 1944, they would change this to 2.6 AB/game their team played. Oddly, the AL requirement from 1938–44 was 400 AB. Garms only had four years where he played in >100 games, but this one did it. Serious fluke. Ernie Lombardi was second at .319, then Johnny Cooney and Stan Hack at .317.
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