What If? WWII Edition

If WWII had never happened, how might the careers of 5 of baseball’s greatest players been different?

1. Ted Williams — OF

Teddy Ballgame is widely considered one of, if not the, greatest hitters to ever play the game, and with good reason. He’s the last player to hit .400+ in a season, and his impressive HOF career included 2 MVP’s, 2 Triple Crowns, and 19 All-Star appearances.

However, Williams missed some of his prime baseball-playing years to serve in both WWII and the Korean War. He missed all or parts of the 1943–45 and ’52–53 seasons. However, to simplify things, I merely included all of ’43–45 and ’52, since he did play in 37 games in ’53.

I took the average of his ’42 and ’46 seasons to simulate his ’43-’45 totals, and the average of his ’51 and ’54 seasons to simulate his ’52 season, since he missed so many games in ’53.

The results are fairly incredible. Obviously this assumes a lot, including his health and steady production, but if Ted Williams had played ’42-’45 and ’52 then his career stats might have looked something like this:

• 3,349 Hits (10th all time)
• 662 HR (6th)
• 2,324 Runs (3rd)
• 2,543 RBI (1st)
• 159.5 WAR (3rd for position players)

Ted Williams would have more HR than any non-steroid user not named Aaron, Ruth, or Pujols, and he’d have more RBI than anyone, with a significant lead (246 RBI) over second-place Hank Aaron. He would have the 3rd highest WAR for a position player, 2nd to Ruth if you don’t count Bonds. Only Ted Williams and Hank Aaron would be top 10 in hits, HR, runs, RBI, and WAR.

It’s easy to see why so many consider him the greatest hitter ever.

2. Joe DiMaggio — OF

Next up is Williams’ rival, the Yankee Clipper. DiMaggio also missed 1943–’45, so I averaged his ’42 and ’46 seasons to simulate what his career stats might have been.

• 2,712 Hits (t-67th)
• 430 HR (51st)
• 1,851 RBI (t-20th)
• 1,696 Runs (29th)
• 96.6 WAR (22nd)

DiMaggio’s career stats don’t turn out as great as Ted’s, partially because he didn’t have a particularly great ’46 season, but he still jumps into the top 20 in career RBI and slides in between Albert Pujols and Carl Yastrzemski in career WAR for position players.

3. Jackie Robinson — INF

Jackie Robinson’s stats were a little harder to calculate, because he didn’t break the color barrier in baseball until 1947, and WWII was probably a big factor in that happening, so one could make the argument that if WWII didn’t happen then Jackie wouldn’t be playing Major League Baseball in ’47, much less ’42-’45, but I decided to try it anyway.

In 1942 Jackie Robinson was 23 years old fresh out of UCLA where he became the school’s first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports (baseball, basketball, football, and track). In order to simulate his stats for ’42–’46 I took the average of his ’47 and ’48 seasons.

• 2,438 Hits (121st)
• 201 HR (t-357th)
• 1,001 RBI (t-299th)
• 1,597 Runs (50th)
• 345 SB (116th)
• 84.3 WAR (t-35th)

Although Jackie’s stats (other than WAR) don’t look dominating, his entire body of work is more impressive. In fact, these stats would make him the first player in MLB history to finish with a career WAR above 80 with 1500+ runs, 2400+ hits, 200+ HR, 1000+ RBI, and 340+ SB (a feat since accomplished by only Joe Morgan, Rickey Henderson, and Barry Bonds).

4. Warren Spahn — SP

It’s hard to believe that a player who played for 21 seasons and was pitching in 1965 had his career shortened by WWII, but Warren Spahn missed his age 22–24 seasons in the big leagues serving in the Army where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded a Purple Heart.

He only briefly played in 1942 so I used his abbreviated ’46 and ’47 seasons to simulate his career stats.

• 407 Wins (3rd)
• 2,868 SO (23rd)
• 112 WAR for Pitchers (7th)

Spahn already had legendary numbers, but he might have become one of only three pitchers in MLB history with over 400 wins if not for WWII. He also jumps into the top 10 in WAR for pitchers, directly ahead of Greg Maddux and right behind Tom Seaver.

5. Bob Feller — SP

The Heater from Van Meter also missed 3 full seasons of prime baseball because of WWII, his age 23 through 25 seasons, as well as part of the season in ’45. To figure out what his career stats might be, I averaged his ’41 and ’46 seasons and applied them to those 3 missing years.

• 341 Wins (11th)
• 3,493 SO (10th)
• 92.5 WAR (t-14th)

Feller was more than just a great fastball, as he makes the top 14 in wins, K’s and WAR for pitchers. With a full ’45 season he’d probably be north of 350 wins, 3,500 K’s, and close to 100 WAR, marks eclipsed by only Roger Clemens, and Walter Johnson.