Willie Jefferson

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 9 in · 163 lb

BornJanuary 27, 1904 · Clearview, OK, USA

Seasons8 (1937–1946)

Cincinnati Tigers 1937; Memphis Red Sox 1938–1939; Cincinnati-Cleveland Buckeyes 1942; Philadelphia Stars 1942; Cleveland Buckeyes 1943–1946

Percentile snapshot

1942 season — qualified pitchers

27.8

41.7

72.2

45.4

SHO

39.8

104

65.7

84.3

31.5

50.9

99.3

35.2

ERA

3.53

43.5

WHIP

1.248

68.5

K/9

4.44

63.9

FIP

3.86

27.8

FIP-

95.7

51.9

ERA+

113.8

61.1

sWAR

1.6

47.2

of 109 qualified 1942 pitchers (min 65 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

sWAR

4.2

77.4

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	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1937	11	25	24	2	5	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	.208	.208	.208	.417	26.1	15.5	.193	-0.2
1938	17	42	41	7	12	2	1	2	7	0	0	0	.293	.293	.537	.829	122.6	135.8	.373	1.5
1939	6	12	12	0	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	91.5	94.1	.315	0.9
1942	15	42	38	4	10	2	0	0	7	2	0	0	.263	.317	.316	.633	89.3	83.3	.305	1.6
1943	10	30	26	0	5	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	.192	.222	.231	.453	41.7	39.1	.220	0.1
1944	11	27	26	3	4	1	0	0	1	0	2	1	.154	.154	.192	.346	4.4	7.1	.164	-0.1
1945	6	13	12	1	2	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	.167	.231	.167	.397	31.3	17.4	.203	0.8
1946	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.4

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1937	8	5	1	2	0	3	0	49	25	8	33	2	39.3	5.72	1.449	7.55	3.83	85.6	78.3	-0.2
1938	13	6	3	5	0	5	1	77	30	13	42	5	73.7	3.67	1.222	5.13	4.26	99.9	116.3	1.5
1939	5	4	1	2	0	3	1	36	10	5	14	3	35.0	2.57	1.171	3.60	4.25	107.4	154.0	0.9
1942	15	14	8	4	0	9	1	104	39	20	49	5	99.3	3.53	1.248	4.44	3.86	95.7	113.8	1.6
1943	9	8	3	6	0	7	0	80	32	18	35	2	65.3	4.41	1.500	4.82	3.64	96.8	85.4	0.1
1944	10	8	4	5	0	6	0	74	30	17	30	1	65.3	4.13	1.393	4.13	3.26	96.9	81.5	-0.1
1945	5	1	2	0	1	1	0	15	4	5	12	0	21.3	1.69	.938	5.06	3.44	81.2	251.3	0.8
1946	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	5	0	0	0	0.3	135.00	12.000	0.00	3.72	90.8	3.0	-0.4

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

191

179

RBI

.2346

OBP

.2554

SLG

.3128

OPS

.5682

Pitching

G (P)

SHO

400

SO (P)

215

BB allowed

ERA

3.941

WHIP

1.3136

K/9

4.84

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	TB
1938-07-03	MEM @ KCM Gameday	2	2	2	0	0	1	3	5
1942-09-03	NBY @ PHS Gameday	4	0	3	1	0	0	2	4
1938-07-17	JRC @ MEM Gameday	2	1	1	0	0	1	1	4
1942-06-21	BBB @ CLB Gameday	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	3
1938-05-15	HSL @ MEM Gameday	3	2	1	0	1	0	0	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1943-07-19	CLB @ HOM Gameday	9.0	9	3	3	5	11	0
1944-05-14	IC @ CLB Gameday	9.0	7	1	1	6	8	0
1937-05-15	CIN @ DTS Gameday	9.0	9	3	2	1	7	1
1942-08-15	CAG @ PHS Gameday	9.0	3	0	0	2	7	0
1942-05-24	CLB @ JRC Gameday	7.0	6	0	0	0	7	0

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.