By Tom Singer / MLB.com
Just as Dan Haren was positioned to chase one of the rarest accomplishments in baseball history, he has had the bat taken right out of his hands.Batting prowess and pitchers are seldom paired in conversation, unless it is for amusement. Somewhat like policemen and donuts. Indeed, a bat in a pitcher’s hands is more likely to produce punch lines than line drives.But Haren had joined the short list of pitchers who occasionally rise above the chorus with his quest to become the second in 37 years — and only the 17th all-time — to bat .400 in a season.Before being dealt by the Arizona Diamondbacks into the Angels’ rotation and into the DH league, Haren had gone 20-for-55 (.364). And since Interleague Play is over, Haren isn’t likely to get any more at-bats.All is not lost, however.Remarkably, the pursuit of .400 remains alive with Cincinnati’s precocious rookie, Mike Leake, whose Major League pitching success without any Minor League time apparently is only part of his story.When he makes his next start Tuesday in Pittsburgh, Leake will take a 7-2 record to the mound — and a .366 average into the batter’s box.So the 22-year-old right-hander is a 3-for-4 night from hitting the .400 mark. Don’t snicker: Leake has already posted one 3-for-4 in Pennsylvania, doing it earlier this month in Philadelphia.When people talk about chasing .400 — and such talk usually expires by mid-May, at the latest — they mean Ted Williams and 1941, when the Splendid Splinter’s .406 marked the last time the magic number entered the final books.But what about Allen Watson and 1995? The Cardinals’ southpaw went 15-for-36 to post the 16th and most recent pitchers’ .400.The feat would be even rarer if not for our liberal qualifications, a minimum of 20 at-bats. Officially, for instance, Walter Johnson is credited with the record average for pitchers, his .433 (42-for-97) in 1925.But that mark is topped by five others on our list: Ed Crane’s .452 (14-for-31) in 1893; Billy Rhines’ .435 (10-for-23) in 1899; Jim Tobin’s .441 (15-for-34) in 1937; Max Surkont’s .435 (10-for-23) in 1950 and Dick Hall’s .464 (13-for-28) in 1963. Sixteen pitchers who had at least 20 at-bats have hit .400 or better in a season. SEASON PITCHER AVG. 1893 Ed Crane, Brooklyn .452 1899 Billy Rhines, Pirates .435 1921 Suds Sutherland, Tigers .407 1921 John Russell, White Sox .400 1923 Jack Bentley, Giants .427 1925 Walter Johnson, Senators .433 1927 Carl Mays, Reds .406 1930 Hal McKain, White Sox .419 1933 George Uhle, Yankees .400 1937 Jim Tobin, Pirates .441 1941 Johnny Babich, A’s .400 1950 Max Surkont, Braves .435 1963 Dick Hall, Orioles .464 1970 Luis Tiant, Twins .406 1973 Steve Blass, Pirates .417 1995 Allen Watson, Cardinals .417
Clearly, Leake is swinging for very select company. By comparison, the pitchers’ Perfect Game Club (20) is crowded.Leake is competitive enough to chase this carrot, and proficient enough to snare it: He hit .325 (26-for-80) in his final two years at Arizona State University, which he departed as the Reds’ No. 1 Draft choice only 13 months ago.”Sometimes,” Leake said, “it’s more fun to get a hit than it is to pitch. I just go out there and make it a tough at-bat or at least a quick, good at-bat.”Leake and, until he was disarmed, Haren honor the tradition of pitchers as hitting phenomena. It is a bit like lightning. Or, like Halley’s Comet. It doesn’t come around often, but it does occasionally strike.Sometimes, without reason: Tony Cloninger, a Braves righty who was a career .192 hitter in 12 seasons, smacked two grand slams on July 3, 1966, in San Francisco.Cloninger, who totaled five homers that season and 11 in his career, thus was both a contemporary and a peer of Don Drysdale, another pitcher celebrated for hitting who actually seldom hit (.186 lifetime average) but did so with power (29 home runs).Drysdale perpetuated a Dodgers tradition of offensive pitchers. Before him, Hall of Fame right-hander Don Newcombe batted .359 with seven homers and 23 RBIs in 1955 in Brooklyn. After him, Rick Rhoden batted .375 in 1980.Left-hander Mike Hampton has taken his 16 homers and 79 RBIs into retirement — even last season, he hit .324 for the Astros — but the stage is not bereft of pitchers who rake.Foremost is Carlos Zambrano, who, no surprise to fans on Chicago’s North Side, is prone to going off at any time.Zambrano has 20 career home runs, came within a triple of posting the first-ever cycle by a pitcher last year in Arizona, and has 22 career multi-hit games.Zambrano, in fact, was the last pitcher with a four-hit game — on May 23, 2008 — until Haren went 4-for-4 on April 20 against the Cardinals.Haren had less trouble hitting pitches than making them on that night, and after picking up a bittersweet 9-7 victory, he said in pitcher mode, “It’s kind of weird, but I would have taken six scoreless and 0-for-4, that’s for sure.”So he should be happy being back in the American League (as long as he avoids line drives like the one by Kevin Youkilis that struck him on the forearm in his Angels debut on Monday).Notwithstanding Zambrano, the Nationals’ Livan Hernandez qualifies as the dean of swinging pitchers, with his 201 hits, among them nine home runs.Hernandez himself defers to Micah Owings, now a teammate of Leake. Hernandez and Owings were Arizona teammates in 2007, when the rookie Owings earned the NL Silver Slugger Award for pitchers by hitting .333 with four homers and 15 RBIs.”I never saw anyone like him,” Hernandez recalled. “He had so much power. He could hit it out to left or right or center. He could be the first pitcher in the big leagues to hit 20 home runs, really. He could hit four in one game. He’s so good. I’m telling you, you’ve got to see him in batting practice.”So Leake is following a lot of big names who could deliver a big blow. But none hit .400, so perhaps the ensuing class will be following the kid.
Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.