Batting Averages

In baseball, a batting average tells you how good a player is at hitting. It is a decimal number found by dividing the number of hits by the number of times at bat. A higher average means a better hitter.

How to Calculate It

To find a batting average, divide hits by at-bats. If a player gets 30 hits in 100 at-bats, their average is 30 divided by 100, which is .300. This is read as three hundred.

Batting averages are always written as a three-digit decimal. An average of .250 means the player gets a hit about 1 out of every 4 times.

What Is a Good Average?

A batting average of .300 or higher is considered very good. That means the player gets a hit about 3 out of every 10 times. Getting a hit 3 out of 10 times might not sound great, but in baseball, that is excellent.

No player in modern baseball has finished a season with a .400 average since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. It is one of the hardest records to break.

Fun Facts

• Ty Cobb holds the career batting average record at .366.
• A perfect batting average of 1.000 would mean getting a hit every single time, which has never happened over a full season.
• The league average batting average in baseball is usually around .250.

Did You Know?

A player who bats .300 fails to get a hit 70% of the time. Baseball is one of the few sports where failing more than you succeed still makes you a star!