Trivia: Fewest strikeouts in a season?

[True Dough]

I'm asking because I saw that Luis Arraez of the Padres is on pace to strike out 14 times this season, which is quite remarkable. But it's far from the record.

Do you know who set that record and how few times he struck out?

[rurallib]

1. for some reason Napoleon LaJoie sticks in my mind BTW

I assume this is post 1900 record?

Seems to me the record was 11. Now I shall look it up and see how far off I was.

Well, I missed that one by a mile!

[True Dough]

4. You got the post-1900 part right!

[TheRickles]

2. Roberto Clemente?

Nope.

[True Dough]

5. Heckuva player!

Not the most disciplined at the dish though.

[TheRickles]

13. I just looked up his career stats - you're right! Over 1200 Ks in his career, in 9500 ABs. Thanks.

Last edited Tue May 27, 2025, 12:44 PM - Edit history (1)

[HighFired49]

3. Jocelyn Alo of Univ. of Oklahoma had only 5 strikeouts in the 2020 softball season

in 60 games!

[True Dough]

6. That is impressive!

But the Major League record is actually better!

[rsdsharp]

7. I looked it up, but I'll keep it to myself.

He actually did it twice, and three times had only one more strikeout than the current record. That’s impressive.

[True Dough]

8. Truly impressive

And it would also be truly impressive for anyone to know the answer to this question without consulting Google. I sure wouldn't have known!

[rsdsharp]

9. And he only used one bat in his entire career. I guess it's hard to break a 40 ouncer.

[True Dough]

10. I wonder what he would have thought

of today's torpedo bats?

[AZLD4Candidate]

11. Tony Gwynn was prolific in lack of being struck out, once going 170 plate appearances between strikeouts.

Joe Sewell, in 1932, struck out three times all season

[rsdsharp]

12. Sewell also did it in 1930, although he only had 414 plate appearances in 109 games.

He also struck out only 4 times in 1925, 1929 and 1933, as well as the partial season of 1920.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Nellie Fox, I'm Pretty Sure

My friend was a White Sox fan [we were friends anyway ] and he had a Nellie Fox bat.
It's a ridiculously low number, like 4 or 5.