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
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 Francis "Bunny"
Sears of Hamilton, MA, whose team batted .3001 in 1968. (We note
that the following season was the year that Major League Baseball
lowered the mound). For information on past winners of the Germain
G. Glidden Bowl and past years' results, please visit our Hall of
Fame page. In 2001, to conform to the change in Major League
Baseball rules, we changed batters’ eligibility from 400 At-Bats to
502 Plate Appearances.
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).
In 2000, we began to rank all ballots each week and to publish them
on the website. 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.
Board of Directors:
Germain G. Glidden 1913-1999 |