1878 Season Leaders

Top performers from the 1878 baseball season. Click column headers to sort.

These are the 1878 Major League Baseball season leaders in batting and pitching. Paul Hines led with 4 home runs, Paul Hines led with 50 RBI, and Joe Start led with 100 hits. Batting average, OBP, SLG and OPS list qualified hitters only — 3.1 plate appearances per team game, which is 189 plate appearances at 61 team games; ERA and WHIP require one inning per team game (61 innings). Lines below those thresholds are shown and marked unqualified.

AVG (Batting Average):
Hits divided by at bats. .300 is the traditional mark of an excellent hitter.
HR (Home Runs):
Hits on which the batter circled the bases and scored, almost always by clearing the outfield fence.
RBI (Runs Batted In):
Runs that scored as a direct result of a batter's plate appearance.
ERA (Earned Run Average):
Earned runs allowed per nine innings pitched: (ER × 9) ÷ IP. The primary measure of pitching effectiveness.

Data updated

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Batting Leaders

Qualified: 3.1 plate appearances per team game — 189 plate appearances at 61 team games. 45 of the 45 hitters listed qualify; the rest cleared 200+ plate appearances and are marked UNQ. Rate columns (AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS) rank qualified hitters first.

1878 OPS Distribution

Every qualified batter that season, plotted as a histogram. The highlighted bin contains the league leader.

Complete Statistics

1878 Season Leaders — Complete Statistics
Player Team G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS
Paul Hines PRO 62 259 257 42 92 13 4 4 50 0 2 10 .358 .363 .486 .849
Abner Dalrymple ML2 61 277 271 52 96 10 4 0 15 0 6 29 .354 .368 .421 .789
Bob Ferguson CHN 61 269 259 44 91 10 2 0 39 0 10 12 .351 .375 .405 .781
Joe Start CHN 61 287 285 58 100 12 5 1 27 0 2 3 .351 .355 .439 .794
Cap Anson CHN 60 274 261 55 89 12 2 0 40 0 13 1 .341 .372 .402 .775
Orator Shafer IN1 63 279 266 48 90 19 6 0 30 0 13 20 .338 .369 .455 .824
Dick Higham PRO 62 286 281 60 90 22 1 1 29 0 5 16 .320 .332 .416 .749
Deacon White CN1 61 268 258 41 81 4 1 0 29 0 10 5 .314 .340 .337 .677
Charley Jones CN1 61 265 261 50 81 11 7 3 39 0 4 17 .310 .321 .441 .761
John Peters ML2 55 251 246 33 76 6 1 0 22 0 5 8 .309 .323 .341 .664
Tom York PRO 62 277 269 56 83 19 10 1 26 0 8 19 .309 .329 .465 .793
Cal McVey CN1 61 276 271 43 83 10 4 2 28 0 5 10 .306 .319 .395 .714
Lew Brown PRO 58 250 243 44 74 21 6 1 43 0 7 37 .305 .324 .453 .777
John Clapp IN1 63 276 263 42 80 10 2 0 29 0 13 8 .304 .337 .357 .694
Joe Gerhardt CN1 60 266 259 46 77 7 2 0 28 0 7 14 .297 .316 .340 .656
Bill Harbridge CHN 54 246 240 32 71 12 0 0 37 0 6 13 .296 .313 .346 .659
Terry Larkin CHN 58 243 226 33 65 9 4 0 32 0 17 17 .288 .337 .363 .700
King Kelly CN1 60 244 237 29 67 7 1 0 27 0 7 7 .283 .303 .321 .624
Jim O'Rourke BSN 60 260 255 44 71 17 7 1 29 0 5 21 .278 .292 .412 .704
Will Foley ML2 56 236 229 33 62 8 5 0 22 0 7 14 .271 .292 .349 .642
Frank Hankinson CHN 58 245 240 38 64 8 3 1 27 0 5 36 .267 .282 .338 .619
John Cassidy CHN 60 265 256 33 68 7 1 0 29 0 9 11 .266 .291 .301 .591
Jack Burdock BSN 60 249 246 37 64 12 6 0 25 0 3 17 .260 .269 .358 .627
Andy Leonard BSN 60 265 262 41 68 8 5 0 16 0 3 19 .260 .268 .328 .596
Chub Sullivan CN1 61 246 244 29 63 4 2 0 20 0 2 9 .258 .264 .291 .555
Jack Manning BSN 60 258 248 41 63 10 1 0 23 0 10 16 .254 .283 .302 .585
Jake Goodman ML2 60 259 252 28 62 4 3 1 27 0 7 33 .246 .266 .298 .564
John Morrill BSN 60 238 233 26 56 5 1 0 23 0 5 16 .240 .256 .270 .527
Tom Carey PRO 61 253 253 33 60 10 3 0 24 0 0 14 .237 .237 .300 .538
Jack Remsen CHN 56 241 224 32 52 11 1 1 19 0 17 33 .232 .286 .304 .590
Ed Williamson IN1 63 255 250 31 58 10 2 1 19 0 5 15 .232 .247 .300 .547
Ezra Sutton BSN 60 241 239 31 54 9 3 1 29 0 2 14 .226 .232 .301 .534
Russ McKelvy IN1 63 258 253 33 57 4 3 2 36 0 5 38 .225 .240 .289 .529
George Wright BSN 59 273 267 35 60 5 1 0 12 0 6 22 .225 .242 .251 .493
Silver Flint IN1 63 256 254 23 57 7 0 0 18 0 2 15 .224 .230 .252 .482
Bill McClellan CHN 48 207 205 26 46 6 1 0 29 0 2 13 .224 .232 .263 .495
Billy Geer CN1 61 247 237 31 52 13 2 0 20 0 10 18 .219 .251 .291 .542
Pop Snyder BSN 60 227 226 21 48 5 0 0 14 0 1 19 .212 .216 .235 .450
Tommy Bond BSN 59 236 236 22 50 4 1 0 23 0 0 9 .212 .212 .237 .449
Mike Golden ML2 55 217 214 16 44 6 3 0 20 0 3 35 .206 .217 .262 .478
Joe Quest IN1 62 290 278 45 57 3 2 0 13 0 12 24 .205 .238 .230 .468
Bill Hague PRO 62 255 250 21 51 3 0 0 25 0 5 34 .204 .220 .216 .436
Charlie Sweasy PRO 55 219 212 23 37 3 0 0 8 0 7 23 .175 .201 .189 .390
Art Croft IN1 60 227 222 22 35 6 0 0 16 0 5 23 .158 .176 .185 .361
Will White CN1 52 205 197 15 28 1 1 0 9 0 8 41 .142 .176 .157 .333
Showing 1-50 of 45 batters listed (45 qualified)

Pitching Leaders

Qualified: 1 inning pitched per team game — 61 innings at 61 team games. 12 of the 12 pitchers listed qualify; the rest cleared 50+ innings and are marked UNQ. ERA and WHIP rank qualified pitchers first.

Complete Statistics

1878 Season Leaders — Complete Statistics
Player Team W L G GS CG SHO SV IP H ER BB SO ERA WHIP
John Ward PRO 22 13 37 37 37 6 0 334.0 308 56 34 116 1.51 1.02
Jim McCormick IN1 5 8 14 14 12 1 0 117.0 128 22 15 36 1.69 1.22
Will White CN1 30 21 52 52 52 5 0 468.0 477 93 45 169 1.79 1.12
Sam Weaver ML2 12 31 45 43 39 1 0 383.0 371 83 21 95 1.95 1.02
Tommy Bond BSN 40 19 59 59 57 9 0 532.2 571 122 33 182 2.06 1.13
Bobby Mitchell CN1 7 2 9 9 9 1 0 80.0 69 19 18 51 2.14 1.09
Terry Larkin CHN 29 26 56 56 56 1 0 506.0 511 126 31 163 2.24 1.07
Tom Healey 2 teams 6 7 14 13 12 0 1 113.0 125 30 20 20 2.39 1.28
The Only Nolan IN1 13 22 38 38 37 1 0 347.0 357 99 56 125 2.57 1.19
Harry Wheeler PRO 6 1 7 6 6 0 0 62.0 70 24 25 25 3.48 1.53
Mike Golden ML2 3 13 22 18 15 0 0 161.0 217 74 33 52 4.14 1.55
Tricky Nichols PRO 4 7 11 10 10 0 0 98.0 157 46 8 21 4.22 1.68
Showing 1-50 of 12 pitchers listed (12 qualified)

Reading the 1878 leader tables

45 of the 45 hitters in the 1878 table reach the qualification line. Sorted by average, the qualified race is headed by Paul Hines at .358, with Abner Dalrymple next at .354. Paul Hines has the most home runs in the table, 4. The 1878 pitching table lists 12 pitchers, 12 of them qualified. John Ward has the lowest qualified ERA, 1.51, and Sam Weaver has the best WHIP, 1.02. The counting columns are topped by Tommy Bond in wins (40).

1878 Season Leaders: Frequently Asked Questions

Who led MLB in home runs in 1878?
Paul Hines led with 4 home runs in 1878.
Who led MLB in RBI in 1878?
Paul Hines led with 50 RBI in 1878.
Who led MLB in hits in 1878?
Joe Start led with 100 hits in 1878.
Who led MLB in batting average in 1878?
Paul Hines led at .358 in 1878, among qualified hitters (3.1 plate appearances per team game).
Who led MLB in wins in 1878?
Tommy Bond led with 40 wins in 1878.
Who led MLB in strikeouts in 1878?
Tommy Bond led with 182 strikeouts in 1878.