August 17, 2021

By Neil Munro

Canadian Baseball Network

On August 16 of this season, Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) collected his 2000th base hit and joined Hall of Famer, Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, B.C.) as the only other Canadian to reach that hit level.

Votto’s second base hit of the night enabled him to reach this milestone as he finished 3-for-4 with a walk in the Reds’ 14-5 romp over the Cubs.

Hit No. 2000 was surrendered by Chicago’s Michael Rucker in the seventh inning. Votto would go on to collect a second single in that same inning, driving in teammate Jonathan India. The Reds sent 13 batters to the plate in that frame to bust the game wide open with eight runs scored. The first sacker has been on a real tear lately, connecting for 15 home runs in his last 25 games.

Votto has been the hottest batter in all of baseball since the All-Star break. Since the mid-summer classic, he leads all major league batters with 15 home runs and 36 RBI in just 29 games. His .798 slugging percentage, 1.233 OPS and 87 total bases during that span are all the best in MLB. His second-half outburst has rekindled some talk of him winning a second MVP award. With his Cincinnati ball club in the hunt for a wild card spot and Fernando Tatis Jr. (the most obvious contender for 2021 MVP honours) on the IL for a significant portion of the season, the award may well be up for grabs. If Votto had not missed 28 games himself this year, his batting credentials could have been even more impressive.

Votto also becomes just the sixth batter in the Cincinnati Reds’ long 150-year history to have reached the 2,000 hit level. The others being Pete Rose, Barry Larkin, Dave Concepcion, Bid McPhee and Johnny Bench. Votto has already surpassed 1,000 runs scored, 1,000 RBI and 300 home runs in his career (just the second Canadian behind Walker in all of those categories). Votto leads all Canadian batters in career bases on balls with 1,264 (about 350 more than runner-up Walker).

Following below is a list of the significant milestones and accomplishments by Canadian batters in accumulating base hits.

The record for the most base hits by a Canadian in his rookie season is the 177 registered by Pete Ward (Montreal, Que.) playing with the Chicago White Sox in 1963. Ward batted .295 that season, to go with his 22 home runs and 84 RBI. He was second in the American League in both base hits and doubles (with 34), and placed fifth in the batting race. Surprisingly, he placed “just” second in the vote for the A.L. Rookie of the Year behind teammate Gary Peters. Ward also finished ninth in the vote for the American League Most Valuable Player in 1963.

The Canadian record for career base hits amassed by a Montreal Expo is Larry Walker’s 666. The Canadian record for career hits collected by a Toronto Blue Jay is the 345 that Brett Lawrie (Langley, B.C.) accumulated. Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.) is just behind him, collecting 335 base hits in his stint with the Blue Jays. Of course, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Montreal, Que.) is closing in on that standard pretty quickly, and now has 318 base hits as a Blue Jay. Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.) and Rob Ducey (Cambridge, Ont.) are the only Canadian batters getting base hits with both Canadian franchises.

Surprisingly perhaps, just two Canadian batters have ever led their leagues in base hits during a season. In fact, to identify the last Canadian to have led his league in this category, we must go back 110 years to the 1911 season. Playing for the Boston Rustlers of the National League (as the franchise was called at that time) that year, Roy Oscar “Doc” Miller (Chatham, Ont.) led the N.L. with 192 base hits. In case you’re wondering what happened to that franchise, the Boston Braves relocated to Milwaukee in 1953 and then moved again to Atlanta to begin the 1966 season. Miller batted .333 that year, but lost out on the batting championship by a mere one point to the legendary Honus Wagner, who won his eighth and final batting title.

The only other Canadian batter to lead his league in base hits was Tip O’Neill (Woodstock, Ont.), who actually did it twice in back-to-back seasons with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. In his terrific 1887 season (when he won the triple crown) O’Neill pounded out the Canadian single-season high with 225 hits. The next year he collected a more pedestrian 177 base hits, still good enough to top the A.A. in that batting category. O’Neill did manage to win the batting title in both of those campaigns (hitting .435 and .335). It isn’t often that a player’s batting average can show a 100-point decline and still win the batting crown. When Larry Walker banged out 208 base hits in his MVP season of 1997, he finished second to the 220 hits collected by Tony Gwynn. Jeff Heath (Fort William, Ont.) and Goody Rosen (Toronto, Ont.) each placed second in base hits as well in their top seasons (see below).

Canadian Single Season Base Hit Leaders

* Freeman was born in the U.S.A. but holds dual USA-Canadian citizenship

The Canadian career base hits leaders (through August 16, 2021) are shown in the next table.

The leading Canadians in career base hits collected at each position appear next. These hit totals represent only those accumulated while they played at the position indicated.

Catcher – Russell Martin 1,365 First base – Joey Votto 1,976

Second base – Dave McKay 280* Third base – Corey Koskie 889

Shortstop – Frank O’Rourke 113* Right field – Larry Walker 1,920

Center field – Goody Rosen 395 Left field – Jason Bay 1144

Pitcher – Ferguson Jenkins 148 DH – Matt Stairs 381

However, the batting splits by position for most hitting categories, including for base hits, are not available for players’ careers from the 19th century. Pop Smith (Digby, N.S.) played 713 games at second base in his career and is clearly the all-time Canadian leader in base hits at that position. John O’Brien (Saint John, N.B.) played 498 games at second base and would be the runner-up for that position. Similarly, Arthur Irwin (Toronto, Ont.) played in 947 at shortstop between 1880 and 1894, far and away, the most by any Canadian. He, too, is undoubtedly the top base hit man among all Canadian shortstops.

Stairs managed to accumulate 105 base hits as a pinch hitter. He is one of only 19 players to get more than 100 pinch hits in his career. Of course, Stairs still ranks as the all-time major league leader in career home runs hit as a pinch hitter (with 23).