History of the Three Hundred Club
Members' Current Standings
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Members' Current Standings
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THE
THREE
HUNDRED
CLUB
One early spring day in 1949, Germain G. Glidden sent a sealed envelope to his brother, Nathaniel F. Glidden jr., with the following note: "Enclosed in the sealed envelope is a list of ten major league batters whose sum total average will bat higher than any ten you can name by the deadline of May 9. Also enclosed is a ten spot. If you like the idea, pick your ten tigers and then at the end of the season we'll see who won." Nat liked the idea so much that he told Dick Mullowney about it, and by the May 9th deadline four others joined the fray, and the Three Hundred Club was born! The following year, an eleven-inch sterling Tiffany bowl was presented to the contest winner. Renamed the Germain G. Glidden Bowl in honor of our Founder at his passing in 1999, the Bowl has been engraved with the name, the year, and the winning average of each Batting Prize Winner since 1951. Every fall, at the annual banquet, the season’s winner is presented with the Bowl for the following year, along with a similarly engraved pewter replica he gets to keep (plus first-prize winnings, of course!). As of the end of the 2018 season, the Germain G. Glidden Bowl was completely full and out of room for new engravings. In 2019, a new sterling Tiffany bowl became the new Three Hundred Club Bowl. It also was engraved with the 300 Club Symbol – a sketch by Germain at age 14 in 1927 of Lou Gehrig following through on a hit. The Bowl was engraved at the end of the 2019 season with the name and winning average of Harvey Rohde, Jr. (.3118), whose father, H.L. Rohde, was an original 300 Club Member. Now, every fall, the new Three Hundred Club Bowl will be engraved with the name, the year, and the winning average of each Batting Prize Winner. This elegant new Bowl will bear the names of annual Winners for years to come. In the Club's history, there has been one three-time winner: Duncan Bruce won in 1997, 2008, and 2009. There have been 8 two-time winners: Tad Jones, Jr., won back to back in 1953 and 1954, Jim Rohde won in 1969 and 2000, Travis B. Nutting won in 1993 and again in 2001, Jim Klein won in 1985 and 2003, Richard Sanderson won in 2002 and in 2010, Joel Crowell won in 1994 and 2012, Rick Kirkpatrick won in 2009 and in 2015, and Jim Wiltman won in 2016 and 2018. Jim Klein and his dad Phil, an original Member, are the only father-son combo ever to win the prize. You can find more details by visiting our Rules page, and How to Play page, which includes a printable ballot (scroll down to the right) for those who need paper. In 1955, we realized that with so many Members, we had to figure 4 decimal places for the overall batting average. In our history, the highest winning average was Joel Crowell of East Dennis, MA, whose team batted .3441 in 1994; the lowest average was Jack Paster and Kyle Forsgard at .2998 in 2022 – the first-ever winning Ballot below .300! For a list of past winners and averages, please visit our Hall of Fame page. In 2000, we began to rank all ballots each week and to publish them on the website. In 2001, to conform to the change in Major League Baseball rules, we changed batters’ eligibility from 400 At-Bats to 502 Plate Appearances. In 2004, we instituted a weekly batters prize for the Member whose picks performed best over the course of the prior week. We also began to calculate the "Perfect Ballot," consisting of those major league players who lead, season to date, in each Club Contest. Additionally, we instituted electronic payment along with a simplified electronic ballot. In 2023, we instituted one of the biggest changes ever in Club rules: We moved to 5 Alternate Batters from the traditional 3 Alternates. The reason for this change is that fewer and fewer players qualify for the Batting title each year, because players are paid so much money that management won't let them play through injuries. Players are spending more and more time on the Injured List. Nearly 2/3 of our Ballots were disqualified last year because they didn't have 10 qualifying Batters. We thought long and hard but we feel the game has changed and that the Club must change too. The Three Hundred Club today offers five additional contests: the four pitchers with the most victories for the season (1957), the four sluggers with the most home runs (1967), the hitter with the most RBI's and the number of RBIs (1982); the baserunner with the most stolen bases and the number of SBs (1994); and the Dimaggio Prize -- the longest consecutive-game hitting streak of the season (1999). We welcome all good baseball fans who'd like to try the challenge of picking "ten major league batters whose sum total average will bat higher than any ten [anybody else] can name by the deadline." To this day, The Three Hundred Club remains, in the words of Germain Glidden, "a non-profit, fun-making organization.
Board of Directors:
Germain G. Glidden 1913-1999 |