| Borderline shenanigans for including National Association numbers: the league only lasted for 5 years, and only 2 or 3 (the Boston (previously Cincinnati) Red Stockings (later the Braves), the Chicago White Stockings (later the Cubs), and possibly, but probably not, the Philadelphia Athletics (though there was a longish gap with no continuity, and the later Philadelphia A's played in a different league)) of the 25 teams went on to join either the NL or the AL. It's a little shady to describe NA players as having had MLB at-bats. I think this only disqualifies Cap Anson (including NA play, he had 10,281 ABs; only using numbers from post-NL teams, he had 9,101 or so ABs).
Honestly, anyone who played before at least 1888, but preferably before the 1903 National Agreement that established the two-league system, should be disqualified, if only because of the vast number of rule changes from year to year (look up the number of balls required for a walk during the 1880s-- it's bizarre).
I realise the problem is with B-R, not the quizmaster, but calling NA numbers part of an MLB career is sort of like including Japanese league numbers in MLB figures (which would put Ichiro's career ABs well above 10,000 and his average would be above .300, too). The NA rules were different, and the stats were kept differently (more so than the differences between NPB and MLB). But for some reason, even though the NA and the NPB each count as professional leagues, NPB numbers don't count; I'd say that MLB players who played on a Japanese pro team should get as much credit as MLB players who played on any pre-NL American professional team. |
MLB Multiple No-Hitters
MLB Win Leaders A-Z
MLB Triple Crown Winners
