Ben Taylor

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at5 ft 11 in · 175 lb

BornJuly 1, 1888 · Anderson, SC, USA

MLB debutAugust 24, 1912

Final gameAugust 23, 1936

Seasons20 (1910–1929)

West Baden Sprudels 1910; St. Louis Giants 1911; New York Lincoln Giants 1912; West Baden Sprudels 1912; Chicago American Giants 1913; West Baden Sprudels 1913; Indianapolis ABCs 1914–1918; Atlantic City Bacharach Giants 1919; Indianapolis ABCs 1920–1922; Baltimore Black Sox 1923; Washington Potomacs 1924; Harrisburg Giants 1925; Baltimore Black Sox 1926–1928; Atlantic City Bacharach Giants 1929

Percentile snapshot

1928 season — qualified batters

36.7

239

35.7

220

39.2

29.6

40.2

47.7

38.2

39.2

RBI

44.7

27.6

57.3

27.6

32.2

.318

67.3

OBP

.356

46.7

SLG

.436

64.3

OPS

.793

59.3

wRC+

101.8

48.7

OPS+

103.5

53.3

wOBA

.361

53.8

sWAR

0.4

28.6

of 200 qualified 1928 batters (min 21 PA)

1911 season — qualified pitchers

13.2

12.1

27.5

96.7

15.4

SHO

82.4

80.2

81.3

61.5

51.3

12.1

ERA

4.03

15.4

WHIP

1.578

2.2

K/9

3.68

36.3

FIP

4.00

8.8

FIP-

122.4

4.4

ERA+

81.0

12.1

sWAR

0.3

12.1

of 92 qualified 1911 pitchers (min 43 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

wRC+

130.8

91.2

OPS+

137.1

94.6

sWAR

25.0

95.3

wRC+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; OPS+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1910	6	23	23	0	6	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.261	.261	.391	.652	91.4	95.7	.296	0.2
1911	14	39	34	5	12	3	0	0	5	2	0	0	.353	.389	.441	.830	139.1	150.2	.395	0.3
1912	8	19	19	0	9	3	0	0	4	0	0	0	.474	.474	.632	1.105	201.6	213.5	.507	0.3
1913	25	113	103	18	34	4	2	1	16	8	0	1	.330	.378	.437	.815	124.4	127.3	.384	0.6
1914	60	253	216	50	79	23	8	4	53	33	0	27	.366	.452	.602	1.054	172.2	191.6	.482	5.5
1915	60	248	215	35	63	18	5	1	47	28	0	14	.293	.385	.437	.822	145.6	156.6	.400	1.8
1916	41	164	150	23	47	3	1	0	28	10	0	6	.313	.360	.347	.707	110.8	113.1	.350	0.4
1917	57	242	218	27	64	9	4	0	39	18	0	5	.294	.350	.372	.722	132.8	136.4	.357	1.4
1918	41	174	157	30	48	5	6	2	37	12	0	5	.306	.363	.452	.815	127.2	139.0	.391	0.7
1919	21	89	77	11	23	2	4	0	13	9	0	5	.299	.372	.429	.801	138.6	144.4	.391	0.7
1920	75	313	275	41	83	13	4	3	46	28	1	13	.302	.370	.411	.781	129.5	134.2	.380	2.0
1921	88	376	334	72	131	20	7	2	73	32	1	9	.392	.448	.512	.960	160.3	170.7	.447	3.7
1922	81	359	321	65	123	29	6	2	59	28	0	3	.383	.434	.530	.964	149.2	158.0	.440	3.0
1923	2	7	6	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.167	.167	.167	.333	6.4	-6.3	.156	-0.1
1924	60	272	237	38	72	11	2	4	50	29	0	6	.304	.380	.418	.797	115.5	116.3	.375	1.0
1925	70	307	268	40	87	14	4	5	65	26	0	0	.325	.384	.463	.847	116.1	118.3	.387	1.1
1926	53	201	167	16	50	7	3	1	23	28	4	4	.299	.403	.395	.798	119.9	118.6	.387	0.8
1927	65	265	236	35	79	9	5	2	43	26	0	1	.335	.401	.441	.841	119.2	120.5	.394	1.1
1928	57	239	220	26	70	14	3	2	38	12	1	2	.318	.356	.436	.793	101.8	103.5	.361	0.4
1929	39	132	115	12	31	6	0	4	17	14	0	1	.270	.354	.426	.780	90.4	89.7	.361	0.1

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1910	3	2	0	2	0	2	0	24	8	8	9	0	22.0	3.27	1.455	3.68	3.37	114.5	90.1	0.2
1911	8	5	7	0	0	5	0	61	23	20	21	2	51.3	4.03	1.578	3.68	4.00	122.4	81.0	0.3
1912	3	3	1	1	0	2	0	28	11	5	10	0	23.3	4.24	1.414	3.86	3.19	96.5	77.9	0.3
1914	7	4	4	0	0	4	1	45	10	11	38	0	59.0	1.53	.949	5.80	2.03	63.8	208.3	5.5
1915	7	1	1	2	0	0	0	33	13	8	11	4	28.0	4.18	1.464	3.54	4.45	154.1	69.2	1.8
1916	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	8	4	2	3	0	7.0	5.14	1.429	3.86	3.05	103.2	57.5	0.4
1917	2	1	0	1	0	1	0	13	5	6	6	0	15.7	2.87	1.213	3.45	2.42	109.3	76.9	1.4
1918	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	16	9	2	2	0	11.7	6.94	1.543	1.54	3.05	83.9	52.4	0.7
1919	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	2	0	2.7	0.00	.750	6.75	2.65	78.2	—	0.7
1920	8	1	1	1	1	1	1	18	7	3	7	1	22.3	2.82	.940	2.82	3.47	96.7	127.2	2.0
1921	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	5	1	2	1	0	3.7	2.45	1.909	2.45	4.46	112.6	161.3	3.7
1922	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2.0	0.00	.500	0.00	3.94	84.2	—	3.0
1926	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0.3	0.00	6.000	0.00	12.34	275.8	—	0.8

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

923

3,835

3,391

544

1,112

194

466th-most career 3B

RBI

657

343

102

.3279

42nd-highest career batting average

OBP

.3924

104th-highest career on-base percentage

SLG

.4527

454th-highest career slugging percentage

OPS

.8451

224th-highest career OPS

Pitching

G (P)

SHO

249

SO (P)

110

BB allowed

ERA

3.289

WHIP

1.2972

K/9

3.98

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	TB
1922-06-08	ABC @ PTK Gameday	4	3	4	1	0	1	3	1	8
1921-07-17	KCM @ ABC Gameday	3	1	3	0	1	1	1	1	8
1920-05-29	ABC @ KCM Gameday	7	2	4	3	0	0	4	0	7
1922-09-18	DTS @ ABC Gameday	4	2	4	1	1	0	2	0	7
1922-06-11	ABC @ CTS Gameday	6	0	4	1	0	0	3	0	5

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1920-09-11	SLS @ ABC Gameday	4.0	6	3	3	0	4	0
1920-05-28	ABC @ SLS Gameday	11.0	6	0	0	1	3	0
1921-07-11	CHG @ ABC Gameday	1.2	1	0	0	1	1	0
1920-09-28	ABC @ KCM Gameday	2.2	1	0	0	0	0	0
1920-06-22	DTS @ ABC Gameday	2.1	3	2	2	1	0	1

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 2006 (Negro League)

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.