Bobby LaMotte, a reserve infielder who played sparingly for the Washington Senators in 1921, holds an obscure American League record: He batted the most times in a season in the live ball era (1920 to date) without striking out.
LaMotte made just 49 plate appearances (41 official at-bats) in 16 games for the fourth-place 1921 team, officially the Nationals, which is what Baseball Reference calls them.
A top-10 list of players with the most plate appearances in a season without striking was posted on the SABR-L email group in December 2024 by veteran SABR researcher and author Herm Krabbenhoft, based on his Stathead search.
All 10 played for National League teams during their strikeout-free seasons and had 50 or more plate appearances. LaMotte came in at no. 11.
LaMotte spent all of the 1921 season with Washington but started just 12 games, all at shortstop. He played more for the Nats in 1922 and for the Browns in 1925 during parts of five seasons in the majors and 13 in the minors. For his career, he struck out about once every 16 times up, decent by today’s standards but not noteworthy then.
By far the man with the greatest strike-out free season is Hall of Fame centerfielder Lloyd “Little Poison” Waner, who batted an amazing 234 times in 1941 without swinging at or taking a third strike. That’s more than twice as many times up as any other player who never struck out in a season.
Waner ranks second on the list of men who played in at least 1,000 games since 1920 and were the hardest to strike out. He did it just once every 44.9 at bats, according to Baseball Reference. Based on plate appearances, Waner struck out once every 48.2 times up.
Another Hall of Famer, longtime Cleveland shortstop Joe Sewell, struck out just once every 62.8 ABs (or every 73 plate appearances). In 1925, Sewell got up 699 times and struck just four times – once every 175 plate appearances — and went 115 consecutive games without striking out. Rest assured that no 21st Century player has topped those Sewell or Waner marks.
The only post-World War II player even close is Hall of Fame second baseman Nellie Fox, who retired in 1965. He ranks fourth in fewest strikeouts per AB, but nearly equal to Waner per times up (once every 47.9).
Just as amazing as Waner’s ability to put the ball in play is pitcher Johnny Sain’s record as a batter in 1946. Sain, one of better hitting pitchers ever, came up 104 times and never struck out. He outdid the achievement of another pitcher on the top 10 list: Bill Sherdel, who in 1925 batted 79 times without striking out.
Tied for 10th on Krabbenhoft’s list was the only player in the past half-century to come up 50 times in a season and never strike out: Manny Mota in 1977 with the Dodgers. Mota was the quintessential pinch-hitter. He got up exactly 50 times, had 15 hits, 10 walks and two sacrifice bunts in 49 games. His batting average was .395 with an on-base percentage of .521.
You have to go back three decades to find another player with at least 50 plate appearances and no strikeouts.*
During the 2024 season, the player up the most times without striking out, Jason Delay of the Pirates, had just 19 plate appearances. The player on a short list with the next most time up without striking out had just six trips to the plate: the Nationals’ Stone Garrett, who drew cheers from fans when he appeared in late September after a season-long recovery from a gruesome leg and ankle injury in August 2023.
*Negro league records in qualified seasons are not included for lack of complete statistics. So are A.L. and N.L. stats for some players in seasons before 1920.
A version of this appeared in the Jan. 4, 2025, edition of Here’s the Pitch, the daily online post of the Internet Baseball Writer Association.
Washington baseball history 