List of Major League Baseball batting champions

Since 1957,[3] a player must have 3.1 plate appearances (PA) per scheduled game in that league (for a total of 502 over the current 162-game season) to qualify for the batting title.

[8] From 2020-2024, MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau, completed a comprehensive review of the Seamheads database in coordination with Retrosheet.

[9] The AL was established in 1901, and Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie led that league with a .426 average for the Philadelphia Athletics.

Gwynn won all eight titles in the NL with the San Diego Padres, while Carew was a seven-time AL batting champion.

O'Neill's batting average had to be calculated without counting walks as hits, because of the walk-as-base-hit rule being in effect that year only.

[19] Josh Gibson currently holds the highest mark in Major League history by posting a .4658 (.466) batting average in 1943 with the Homestead Grays.

[21] With the modern scarcity of .400 hitters, recent players who have been above .400 early in the season, such as Chipper Jones in 2008, have drawn significant attention in the media.

Willie Keeler's 1897, Zack Wheat's 1918, and Rod Carew's 1972 are the only three title seasons in which the winner hit no home runs.

[29] The closest race in the National League came in 2003 when Albert Pujols held off Todd Helton on the last day of the season by .00022.

[29] Lajoie's .426 average in 1901 was 86 points higher than runner-up Mike Donlin's .340, the largest margin of victory for a batting champion.

[33] In 1990, Willie McGee posted a .335 average over 542 at-bats in the NL for the Saint Louis Cardinals before being traded to Oakland of the American League on August 29.

[34][35] In the 28-year major league history, nine players won a league batting title multiple times: Oscar Charleston (3), Josh Gibson (3), Monte Irvin (2), Oscar Johnson (2), Buck Leonard (2), Jud Wilson (2), Artie Wilson (2), Mule Suttles (2), and Turkey Stearnes (2).

Portrait of a man wearing a high collar, held closed with a safety pin.
Ty Cobb won more batting titles than any other player, though the precise number is unclear because of the race in the 1910 American League.
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Ross Barnes' .429 in 1876 set a single-season record that stood for a decade.
Paul Hines won two consecutive NL batting titles in 1878 and 1879.
Hugh Duffy set the current single-season record when he batted .440 in 1894.
Hugh Duffy set the current single-season record when he batted .440 in 1894.
Willie Keeler won two consecutive NL batting titles in 1897 and 1898.
A man in a dark baseball cap and white shirt with a dark collar holds a baseball bat in both hands.
Honus Wagner was the first batter to win eight NL batting titles and won four consecutive titles during that run.
Rogers Hornsby won seven NL batting titles, including six consecutively from 1920 to 1925.
Stan Musial won seven NL batting titles from 1943 to 1957.
Tony Gwynn won a record-tying eight NL batting titles from 1984 to 1997.
Albert Pujols won the closest NL batting race in 2003.
A man with dark hair in a dark baseball cap and a white baseball jersey with "CLEVELAND" on the chest.
Nap Lajoie led the American League in its inaugural season with a .426 batting average, one of just 13 seasons of a .400+ average in the 20th century. He also won the 1903 and 1904 AL batting titles. In addition, Lajoie was a part of contested batting average races in 1902 and 1910.
Ed Delahanty won the 1899 NL batting title and the 1902 AL batting title, though his 1902 title is disputed.
Ted Williams won six AL batting titles. He hit .406 in 1941, and that is the last time a player has hit over .400.
Rod Carew won seven AL batting titles between 1969 and 1978.
George Brett's .390 batting average in 1980 is the second-highest since 1941.
Ichiro Suzuki won AL batting titles in 2001 and 2004.
A man in a left-handed batting stance wearing pinstriped gray pants, a black shinguard on his right leg, a dark blue baseball jersey, and a dark-colored batting helmet.
Joe Mauer won the 2006, 2008, and 2009 batting titles, becoming the first catcher to win three batting titles and the only catcher ever to win in the AL.
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Benny Kauff won the only two Federal League batting titles in 1914 and 1915.
Josh Gibson
Josh Gibson won three batting titles, and tied with Oscar Charleston for the most among the Negro Leagues in history. Gibson and Willard Brown are the only players to have finished in the top two in batting average in five different seasons.
Oscar Charleston
Oscar Charleston won batting championships in the Negro National League and Eastern Colored League , and holds the third all-time highest career batting average of .363 during a span of 21 years (1920-1941).