Best player you’ve never heard of

JULY 10, 1936 • PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – Ever heard of Chuck Klein? If you’re not a rabid baseball fan, chances are, no. He hit 4 home runs on this date in 1936 and it was no fluke. His home runs in the first, fifth, seventh and tenth innings helped his Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-6. Klein became the fourth player in major league history to hit four home runs in a game (as of this writing 15 players have hit four homers in a game, three did it in extra innings). No one has ever hit five home runs in a game. Klein almost had a fifth home run in the second inning of July 10, 1936 when he sent Pirates outfielder Paul Waner to the wall in right to haul in a long fly ball.

It's odd that Chuck Klein is not among the legendary names that roll off the tongue when talking great hitter, but he had one of the best offensive years in baseball history in 1930:

Batting average .370
Home runs 40
Runs batted in 170
Runs scored 158

Look at the runs scored and RBI. Klein accounted for a phenomenal 288 runs for the Phillies that year (RBI + runs scored - HRs). It’s difficult to rate the most productive offensive players in a team sport like baseball because someone has to be on base for you to drive them in, and you obviously can’t drive yourself in if you’re on base. However, baseball statistician Bill James came up with a Runs Created (RC) formula. According to James’ RC formula, Klein's 1930 numbers make it the 11th best Runs Created season ever. The other ten were accomplished by names fans are more familiar with; Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Barry Bonds, Jimmy Foxx and Rogers Hornsby, some more than once. Think of all the other great hitters in baseball history; Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, etc.; none of whom had Runs Created years better than Chuck Klein.

Some of the information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at www.retrosheet.org

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Home run records
Individual player records
The Uniontown Morning Herald, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, July 11, 1936
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (1st ed.), Bill James, 1985

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