In a city where craft beer is everywhere, a golden brew holds a special place in the hearts of San Diegans. Within the name of the beer is a tribute to a beloved local hero.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s called .394 Pale Ale<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1994, Tony Gwynn<\/a> batted .394, a career high good for one of his eight National League batting titles. It\u2019s the highest batting average in the NL during the past 95 years. If you know, you know.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cIn San Diego, people know what .394 is,\u201d said Kristen Ballinger, marketing director for AleSmith, the brewer. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t a strike-shortened season, it would have been .400.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: Shaikin: Will Smith could win a batting title. Could the Dodgers stop him?<\/a><\/p>\n Three decades later, the magic of a batting title or a .400 season has virtually disappeared from the major leagues.<\/p>\n And a traditional standard of excellence now is an endangered species: the .300 batting average, a popular and easily understood statistic that has been devalued and rendered borderline worthless by baseball\u2019s analytical revolution.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In a previous generation, this development would be almost scandalous: With one month left in the regular season, the NL has one .300 hitter.<\/p>\n One.<\/p>\n He is the Dodgers<\/a>\u2019 Freddie Freeman<\/a>, who has nine .300 seasons to his credit. He batted .200 in June and .253 in July, and here he is leading the league at .302.<\/p>\n \u201cYou hit .330, you hit .325 and you never win,\u201d Freeman said. \u201cTo be grinding this year and leading is kind of a weird thing.<\/p>\n \u201cFor you to be talking to me about a batting title at the end of August, it means I\u2019ve had a pretty good year. I think I\u2019m OK with that.\u201d<\/p>\n Freeman thought back to Monday night<\/a>, when the visiting Cincinnati Reds went to the bullpen in the seventh inning of a game they trailed by six runs. The new pitcher: not a mopup man with a mid-80s fastball, but a second-year reliever with a 100 mph fastball.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think you can really talk about the art of hitting .300. The pitching is just too good. It\u2019s hard to combat,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy whole goal every year is to hit .300. It\u2019s getting harder and harder. I\u2019m just trying to adjust with the league.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: With a little help from a Coldplay meme, Freddie Freeman stays hot in Dodgers\u2019 win<\/a><\/p>\n Only one player has won a batting championship with a lower average than Freeman\u2019s .302: Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox, who won the American League by hitting .301 in 1968.<\/p>\n That was the Year of the Pitcher<\/a>. Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals put up a 1.12 earned-run average, one of seven pitchers to finish with an ERA under 2.00. Offense was in such short supply that, after the season, baseball lowered the pitcher\u2019s mound from 15 inches to 10.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The major league batting average was .237 that season, with teams scoring 3.4 runs per game. This season: .246, with 4.4 runs per game.<\/p>\n But batting average is nonetheless depressed by the emphasis on home runs and on getting on base, and by the deluge of strikeouts triggered by pitchers throwing harder than ever.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd how many times do you see balls hit up the middle and they\u2019re outs, even [with baseball] regulating the shift?\u201d Reds manager Terry Francona said. \u201cGuys hit a nice one-hopper up the middle, and they\u2019re out.<\/p>\n \u201cHitters don\u2019t know \u2014 a lot of them \u2014 how to go the other way to combat that. So that takes away a lot of hits.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> conceded that so many pitchers throwing so hard challenges batters, especially as they hear that on-base percentage is widely considered more important than batting average.<\/p>\n Read more: Clayton Kershaw is masterful again in Dodgers’ win over Reds<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI honestly think hitting is as hard as it\u2019s ever been,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cYou don\u2019t see the same guys as much.<\/p>\n \u201cBut also, yeah, batting average isn\u2019t valued as much \u2014 until you get to the postseason. Then you want guys that can get hits and drive in runs, right?\u201d<\/p>\n So much of baseball\u2019s charm is statistics that can be passed down among generations, in the only major sport popular in the United States for more than a century. Babe Ruth, meet Shohei Ohtani<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n No one writes an ode to a high OPS. The .300 hitter is going the way of the complete game. The Dodgers have no complete games this season.<\/p>\n Roberts lives in the San Diego area. He has not tried a .394 Pale Ale.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m more of a lager guy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But baseball should listen up to what he says about .394.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now,\u201d he said, \u201cI would say less than 5% of active players know what that means.\u201d<\/p>\n