Strikeouts : 1938 American League Top 25

Finding the American or National League leader in virtually every hitting & pitching statistic is easy-to-do. Finding the top 25 players during any given season is far more challenging. Baseball Almanac has taken away that difficult problem and is pleased to present the data you requested:

"I don't think I stayed for a complete game that first year (in Arizona). But something happened. During the second year, I started watching more intently, listening to the broadcasters talk about strategy. I started getting it. Suddenly, a 162-game season didn't seem ridiculously long anymore." - Richard Ruelas in The Arizona Republic (11-07-2001)
 

1938 Strikeouts Leaders

Top 25 in the American League

Bob Feller 240 Cleveland Indians 1
Bobo Newsom 226 St. Louis Browns 2
Lefty Mills 134 St. Louis Browns 3
Lefty Gomez 129 New York Yankees 4
Red Ruffing 127 New York Yankees 5
Johnny Allen 112 Cleveland Indians 6
George Caster 112 Philadelphia Athletics  
Joe Krakauskas 104 Washington Senators 8
Mel Harder 102 Cleveland Indians 9
Tommy Bridges 101 Detroit Tigers 10
Lefty Grove 99 Boston Red Sox 11
Monte Pearson 98 New York Yankees 12
Jack Wilson 96 Boston Red Sox 13
Johnny Rigney 84 Chicago White Sox 14
Monty Stratton 82 Chicago White Sox 15
Eddie Smith 78 Philadelphia Athletics 16
Thornton Lee 77 Chicago White Sox 17
Lynn Nelson 75 Philadelphia Athletics 18
Jim Bagby 73 Boston Red Sox 19
Dutch Leonard 68 Washington Senators 20
Denny Galehouse 66 Cleveland Indians 21
Oral Hildebrand 66 St. Louis Browns  
Ken Chase 64 Washington Senators 23
Pete Appleton 62 Washington Senators 24
Bump Hadley 61 New York Yankees 25



Future Hall of Famer Sammy Sosa is best known for wearing number twenty-one; however, when the young slugger played for the Chicago White Sox (1989-1991) he only wore number twenty-five.

Jose Cruz of the Houston Astros had his number twenty-five retired on October 3, 1992, and became the first Major League player with that particular retired number.

Did you know that more than forty players have worn the number twenty-five for the Boston Red Sox — including Jack Clark, Denny Galehouse, Dizzy Trout and Tony Conigliaro.