Top 25 MLB batting seasons of all time

9. Hack Wilson, 1930

• The Numbers: .356/.454/.723, 56 home runs, MLB record 191 RBI

Hack Wilson is one of the greatest MLB run producers in history, but he is far from a household name. He also lived a very tortured life off the field, and died at a young age, succumbing to his own vices. Wilson was one of the kings of baseball for a few very short years from 1926 to 1930.

The best year of Wilson’s career came in 1930 when he drove in an MLB record 191 runs. That has not been approached for the past 80 years. The only player to drive in more than a run a game since 1937 was Manny Ramirez, who drove in 165 in 1999 during the height of the steroid era.

Wilson was not an unknown baseball player in the 1920s and 1930s, but he was a touch behind the true elites of his generation. Still, his record-setting year in 1930 would not have come as a complete surprise. He had driven in 159 the year before and had led the National League in home runs three times.

Major League Baseball fooled around with its balls on and off in the Twenties and Thirties, and one of the liveliest years on record came in 1930, which cannot be overlooked when evaluating Wilson’s record, and many of the other massive RBI seasons of the time. Wilson, however, topped them all — Ruth, Gehrig, Greenberg.

Unfortunately, the success of his 1930 season only served to fuel more drinking and carousing for Wilson. He showed up to spring training 20 pounds overweight. The National League also introduced a new baseball after seeing its collective batting average rise above .300 in 1930. Wilson lasted only four more seasons after driving in 191 and died penniless after a series of failed business attempts at the age of 48.