Boston Red Sox batting champions All-Star team montage

Batting champions are no rarity for the Red Sox and an All-Star team can be created for each position from the winner’s pool.

Batting champions are certainly not a rarity for the Boston Red Sox nor are multiple winners.  The quaint dimensions of Fenway Park certainly offer advantages to hitters, especially the lack of foul territory. Despite playing in Fenway since 1912, it took until 1938 for a Red Sox player to win a batting championship. Then they made up for the lost time.

Since that 1938 season, the team has had twelve batting champions that have accumulated 25 titles. Developing an All-Star team of the champions requires some hard decisions such as leaving a talented Billy Goodman and Bill Mueller off the team. There were better options.

The most difficult is pitching since very few pitchers win batting titles. One pitcher was Babe Ruth but he won his batting title with another team – the name escapes me. Another was Lefty O’Doul who did nothing as a lefty hurler but won two batting titles when he concentrated on hitting and not pitching. Alas, those titles were won in the National League.

The last position to find a title is catcher since catchers are quite absent from batting championships with recently retired Joe Mauer the only victor in the AL. Mauer won three as a Twin. Lumbering Ernie Lombardi won a pair in the NL and some credit Bubbles Hargrave as the first grabbing a crown in 1926. But Boston did have a champion who played catcher briefly and was one of the greatest home run hitters of all time. On with the list.