Baseball's Best Decade (16 page)

Who almost made the list?
St. Louis Cardinals at 7,906, Chicago Cubs at 7,747, New York Giants at 7,530.

1940s –
Run production throughout the major leagues dropped significantly (by 12%) during the 1940s. The Boston Red Sox replaced the New York Yankees as the major leagues’ most prolific scoring team, averaging 5.0 runs per game while leading the American League in runs scored 5 times. (The Yankees led the league in runs scored 4 times.) In the National League, the Brooklyn Dodgers led the league in scoring 4 times during the decade.

Who almost made the list?
Pittsburgh Pirates at 6,933, New York Giants at 6,871, St. Louis Browns at 6,692.

The Top
Scoring Teams for Each Decade (1950s-1970s)

Speed was an often overlooked part of Babe Ruth’s offensive arsenal. Ruth led the American League in runs scored 8 times. His 177 runs in 1921 is still the highest single-season total since 1900.

Prior to Babe Ruth, no American League batter had ever posted a slugging average higher than Nap Lajoie’s .643 in 1901. Ruth smashed that mark with an average of .847 in 1921, a major league slugging record that would stand for the rest of the century.

During the 1950s, the Dodgers led the National League in scoring 5 times, and led all teams in runs scored for the decade. Pictured left to right: Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider.

The Minnesota Twins scored more runs than any other team in the 1960s, leading the American League 4 times in scoring. The Twins offensive juggernaut was anchored by Harmon Killebrew, who led the American League in runs batted in twice during the 1960s.

1950s –
The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, the 2 most frequent visitors to the World Series during the 1950s, were also the dominant offensive teams of the decade. The Dodgers led the National League in scoring 5 times during the decade, averaging 5.0 runs per game. The Yankees also led their league in scoring 5 times. Overall, scoring among all major league teams increased by 2.5% over the previous decade, but was still 10% below the major leagues’ offensive performance of the 1930s.

Who almost made the list?
New York/San Francisco Giants at 7,055, Cincinnati Reds at 7,013, St. Louis Cardinals at 6,949.

1960s –
Despite the dominance of pitching during the 1960s (with the major leagues’ lowest combined batting average – .249 – for any decade in the Twentieth Century), scoring among all major league teams increased by 18.8% over the 1950s. This was no doubt partly due to the fact that there were more teams and more games played, as average runs per game dropped by 9%. The Minnesota Twins’ power-laden offense made it the highest scoring team in the majors for the decade, leading the American League in scoring 4 different seasons. The Cincinnati Reds led the National League in scoring 3 seasons, with the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves each topping the senior circuit in runs scored twice.

Who almost made the list?
Boston Red Sox at 6,851, Pittsburgh Pirates at 6,785, Baltimore Orioles at 6,756.

1970s –
Scoring in the 1970s increased by 27.4% over the previous decade, mostly because the majors now had 24 teams playing the full 10 seasons. However, total runs scored per game dropped 3.6% from the 1960s. The two teams that led the majors in home runs during the 1970s also set the pace in runs scored. The Boston Red Sox led the American League in scoring 3 times during the decade, as did the Baltimore Orioles. In the National League, the Cincinnati Reds led all other teams in scoring only during their world championship seasons of 1975 and 1976.

Who almost made the list?
Los Angeles Dodgers at 6,960, New York Yankees at 6,908, Baltimore Orioles at 6,902.

The Top Scoring Teams for Each Decade (1980s-2000s)