The Official Site of Hanley Ramirez

Fri, Sep 25th 2009, 09:58

Hanley Ramirez on verge of making NL shortstop history

When Dick Groat hit .325 for the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, he became the first National League shortstop to win the batting title in 25 years.

Almost five decades later, no one has matched Groat’s accomplishment. But Florida’s Hanley Ramirez is close to changing that.

Ramirez will take a .350 average into tonight’s home game against the New York Mets. That gives him a 20-point lead over St. Louis’ Albert Pujols, his closest challenger, with nine games left in the Marlins’ season.

If Ramirez hangs on, he’ll join an elite group. Since 1900, only eight shortstops – three in the National League and five in the American League – have won at least one batting crown.

“Winning a batting title (as a shortstop) is pretty special. It wouldn’t have gone on this long if it hadn’t been pretty special,” said Groat, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player award in 1960 for the Pirates.

Among position players, only second basemen (three different ones) and catchers (two) have won fewer NL hitting titles than the shortstop, a position that historically has emphasized defense.

“It’s the one position that is so key to a winning ball club that you have to have great defense out there,” said Groat, 78, who lives in Pittsburgh. “There’s not one play in a baseball game where the shortstop is not involved, responding, reacting somehow, some way.”

Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones, who won the batting title last year with a .364 average, said you don’t see many shortstops who can hit at the most elite level. Ramirez’s career average after almost four full seasons in the majors is .318. This season he has 23 home runs and a career-high 102 RBI.

“There haven’t been any Hanley Ramirezes until now, plain and simple” Jones said. “As far as shortstops go, I don’t know that I’ve seen anybody as athletic. He’s a five-tool guy who can hit to all fields, foul pole to foul pole, with power.”

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