Bill "Three Bagger" Kuehne

Bill "Three Bagger" Kuehne holds the record, by a wide margin, for the lowest batting average (.232) and on-base percentage (.257) by a player with 100 or more career triples. Owner of many records, firsts, and some of the most bizarre stat lines of all-time, "Little Willie" Kuehne's statistical propensity for both grandeur and futility makes him something of a 19th-century Dave Kingman (minus the strikeouts). A .223 hitter over his first four seasons (1883-86), Kuehne—though not markedly fast afoot—managed to average 17 triples per year. (He's the only man to slug more triples than doubles in four straight seasons.) Kuehne amassed 993 hits over a 10-year career, 115 of which were triples; this means that one of every 8.6 hits (12%) went for three bases. Sam Crawford, the all-time triples leader, hit a three-bagger about 10% of the time.

Cited by SABR's David Nemec as holding the record for most triples by a player with fewer than 4,500 plate appearances, the 5-foot-8-inch, 185-pound third sacker—obviously his favorite base—once hit 19 three baggers without notching a single homer, a feat later replicated by Willie Keeler. Of those active between the years of 1871 and 1892, only ten batsmen, seven of which are Hall of Famers, hit more triples than Kuehne. Though praised by the local press for his ability to "knock the ball out of sight," Kuehne hit only 25 home runs as a big leaguer; even with all of those triples, his career slugging percentage (.337) is laughable. In the Western League, however, "Billy the Bat" hit 22 big flies in 1895; four of those came on May 12, making him the seventh professional to compile a four-homer game.

The third German-born player to appear in the majors, Kuehne spent most of his career in Pittsburgh (AA and NL), where he gained a reputation as a gifted third baseman. In April 1890, The Pittsburgh Dispatch gushed: "LIttle Willie [Kuehne], he of the light blue stockings from the land of the Kaiser and lager beer, was surrounded with a halo of glory. . . . Nothing that went Willie's way could escape his clutch, and he picked up hot grounders with the alacrity of a tramp when picking up a beef sandwich that is not his own." Kuehne, who once handled a record 13 errorless chances during a nine-inning contest, is credited with a career 3.28 range factor-per-game as a third sacker, the 33rd highest total in MLB history—and better than Pie Traynor, Brooks Robinson or Mike Schmidt. ~ BK2