Happy Birthday to the late and great Hall of Fame Outfielder Al Simmons.

Al Simmons Career (1924-1944):

.334 BA, 2,927 HITS, 307 HR, 1,828 RBI, .380 OBP, 1,507 RUNS

  • Two-time Batting Champion
  • Two-time World Series Champion

Growing up as an Athletics fan, Simmons dreamed of playing professional baseball, and at the age of 22, it would come true playing for his childhood team. In his first eleven seasons, eight with the Athltics and three with the White Sox, he recorded an average of over .300 while driving in 100 or more RBIs. In back-to-back years he won the Batting title with a .381 AVG in 1930 and a .390 in 1931. When you factor in that Simmons hit over .340 eight different times, it’s not much of a surprise that he hit .334 lifetime. It only took him 1,040 games to reach 1,500 career hits and 1,393 games to reach 2,000. Three times in his career, Simmons drove in over 150 RBIs in a season; 157 in 1929, 165 in 1930, and 151 in 1932. Along with other future Hall of Fame players Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, and Eddie Collins, under the leadership of Hall of Fame skipper Connie Mack, he was a part of the back-to-back World Series champion Athletics in 1929 & 1930. 

  Overall, Simmons was everything you wanted out of a hitter. He was a great contact hitter with power and great base running. Whether it’s power or baserunning, the goal is to score, and not only did Simmons drive in 100 or more runs eleven times, he scored 100 or more runs six times. As an Outfielder, his overall career Fielding Percentage is .982%. Al Simmons is one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time. In 1999, he was ranked #43 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

References:

  1. Al Simmons Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/simmoal01.shtml
  2. Al Simmons via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Simmons#