Alright, let’s talk about something I spent a bit of time figuring out properly: total bases in baseball. It sounds straightforward, but like many things in sports stats, there are nuances you only really get by paying attention or, like me, deciding to track it myself during a few games.
So, I was watching a game, and the commentators kept mentioning a player’s total bases, comparing it to someone else’s slugging percentage, and I realized I wasn’t 100% solid on what exactly bumped that number up. I knew it had to do with hits, obviously, but how it was calculated wasn’t immediately clear just from casual watching.
I decided to just track it myself for a bit. Pen and paper, old school style, during a couple of evenings watching baseball. Here’s what I pieced together through observation and a little confirmation afterwards.
Figuring Out the Count
The core idea, I found, is pretty simple once you lock it down. It’s all about how many bases a batter earns with their own hit. Not bases gained through errors, fielder’s choices, walks, hit-by-pitches, or stolen bases. Nope, none of that counts towards this specific stat. It’s purely about the lumber doing the work.
Here’s the breakdown I ended up with:
- A single (hitting the ball and safely reaching first base): That counts as 1 total base. Makes sense.
- A double (hitting and reaching second base safely): That’s 2 total bases. Straightforward.
- A triple (hitting and making it all the way to third base): Adds 3 total bases. Getting rarer, but counts big.
- A home run (you know, hitting it out or running all the bases): That’s the big one, 4 total bases.
So, if a player has a game where they hit a single, a double, and a home run, their total bases for that game would be 1 + 2 + 4 = 7. It wasn’t about how many runners they moved, just the bases they themselves reached solely because of their hit.
What really clicked for me was realizing why things like walks or stolen bases aren’t included. Total bases is a measure of hitting for power, essentially. Did you just get on base, or did you drive the ball and earn multiple bases with that one swing? A walk gets you on base, sure, but it doesn’t reflect that power aspect. A stolen base shows speed and smarts, but again, not hitting power.
It seems simple now, but tracking it manually for a bit really cemented it for me. It’s a neat stat because it values doubles, triples, and homers more than just a simple batting average would. You get a better sense of who is really making solid contact and driving the ball deep. It’s one of those stats I pay more attention to now when looking at box scores.
