How to Score Runs, Part II

I cut off my examination of runs scored per times on base at 1920 because of the many ways in which the early game was different. But let’s complete the picture with guys who reached base 3500 or more times and were active before 1920 (I went through the end of their careers this time, so the numbers for Babe Ruth are a little different here; Frankie Frisch’s totals are different but the percentages are the same). The #1 man here, of the 24 guys who qualified, sure does stick out. I ran the numbers both with and without including homers, and ranked by the latter:

Player R TOBwe HR R/TOB R/TOB(-HR)
Willie Keeler 1719 3585 33 47.9% 47.5%
Roger Connor 1620 3508 138 46.2% 44.0%
Cap Anson 1999 4451 97 44.9% 43.7%
Fred Clarke 1622 3707 67 43.8% 42.7%
Jesse Burkett 1720 3954 75 43.5% 42.4%
Bill Dahlen 1590 3665 84 43.4% 42.1%
George Davis 1545 3614 73 42.8% 41.6%
Jake Beckley 1602 3733 87 42.9% 41.6%
Frankie Frisch 1532 3639 105 42.1% 40.4%
Sam Rice 1514 3751 34 40.4% 39.8%
Max Carey 1545 3782 70 40.9% 39.7%
Ty Cobb 2246 5532 117 40.6% 39.3%
Harry Hooper 1429 3678 75 38.9% 37.6%
Nap Lajoie 1504 3892 82 38.6% 37.3%
Honus Wagner 1739 4508 101 38.6% 37.2%
Lou Gehrig 1771 3983 464 44.5% 37.1%
Eddie Collins 1821 4891 47 37.2% 36.6%
Tris Speaker 1882 4998 117 37.7% 36.2%
Sam Crawford 1391 3744 97 37.2% 35.5%
Goose Goslin 1477 3722 246 39.7% 35.4%
Rogers Hornsby 1579 4019 301 39.3% 34.4%
Babe Ruth 2174 4978 714 43.7% 34.2%
Zack Wheat 1289 3611 132 35.7% 33.3%
Harry Heilmann 1291 3556 183 36.3% 32.8%

Just out of curiosity, I ran the same numbers over the whole 1871-2011 period for three groups of players with over 2000 plate appearances who seemed likely to score a lot: players who scored at least 60% of their times on base overall, players who scored at least 0.85 runs per game, and players who stole at least 30% as many bases as times on base. It will not surprise you that this list is dominated by guys from the game’s very earliest days; Keeler sticks out a lot less on this list, when compared to contemporaries and teammates like Hamilton, Delahanty, McGraw, Thompson, Duffy and Brouthers. It’s sort of disappointing that the all-time leader here is the obscure Ned Cuthbert, who retired in 1884 with a career .276 OBP, but the #2 man is the game’s very first dominant superstar, and the #3 man one of the founding fathers of organized professional baseball:

Player R TOBwe HR R/TOB R/TOB(-HR)
Ned Cuthbert 453 602 8 75.2% 74.9%
Ross Barnes 698 976 6 71.5% 71.3%
George Wright 665 934 11 71.2% 70.9%
Mike McGeary 484 710 0 68.2% 68.2%
Dave Eggler 491 746 0 65.8% 65.8%
Andy Leonard 481 744 4 64.7% 64.5%
Tom Poorman 396 616 12 64.3% 63.6%
Lip Pike 434 689 21 63.0% 61.8%
Cal McVey 555 899 11 61.7% 61.3%
Tom Carey 405 662 5 61.2% 60.9%
Arlie Latham 1481 2510 27 59.0% 58.6%
Harry Stovey 1492 2465 122 60.5% 58.5%
Hub Collins 653 1141 11 57.2% 56.8%
Abner Dalrymple 813 1414 43 57.5% 56.2%
King Kelly 1357 2374 69 57.2% 55.9%
George Gore 1327 2359 46 56.3% 55.4%
Tom Brown 1523 2748 64 55.4% 54.4%
Buck Ewing 1129 2026 71 55.7% 54.1%
Hugh Nicol 631 1173 5 53.8% 53.6%
Jim O’Rourke 1729 3188 62 54.2% 53.3%
Eddie Burke 747 1378 30 54.2% 53.2%
Mike Griffin 1406 2642 42 53.2% 52.5%
Ed Daily 396 746 19 53.1% 51.9%
Billy Sunday 339 646 12 52.5% 51.6%
Hugh Duffy 1554 2986 106 52.0% 50.3%
Jim McTamany 693 1374 19 50.4% 49.7%
Billy Hamilton 1697 3442 40 49.3% 48.7%
Mike Tiernan 1316 2627 106 50.1% 48.0%
Sam Thompson 1262 2502 126 50.4% 47.8%
Jake Stenzel 664 1382 32 48.0% 46.8%
Dan Brouthers 1523 3241 106 47.0% 45.2%
Ed Delahanty 1600 3432 101 46.6% 45.0%
John McGraw 1024 2279 13 44.9% 44.6%
Miguel Dilone 314 712 6 44.1% 43.6%
Bill Joyce 822 1800 70 45.7% 43.5%
Vince Coleman 849 1988 28 42.7% 41.9%

So yes, while the modern leader over a career with 3500 or more times on base is Kenny Lofton, both Vince Coleman and Miguel Dilone scored more frequently once on base.
PS – Take another look at that list and consider how many guys above 50% batted in front of Cap Anson – I don’t know where Anson hit in the batting order in the 1870s (by the 1880s, before you had to announce lineups before the game, he was inserting himself whenever there were men on base) – Barnes, McVey, Dalrymple, Kelly, Gore and Sunday all come to mind.