Willie Wells

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 9 in · 170 lb

BornAugust 10, 1904 · Shawnee, OK, USA

Final gameJune 23, 1949

Seasons21 (1924–1948)

St. Louis Stars 1924–1928; Chicago American Giants 1929; St. Louis Stars 1929–1931; Detroit Wolves 1932; Homestead Grays 1932; Kansas City Monarchs 1932; Chicago American Giants 1933–1935; Newark Eagles 1936; Homestead Grays 1937; Newark Eagles 1937–1939; Newark Eagles 1942; New York Black Yankees 1945; Newark Eagles 1945; Baltimore Elite Giants 1946; New York Black Yankees 1946; Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns 1947; Memphis Red Sox 1948

Percentile snapshot

1946 season — qualified batters

25.8

254

21.6

229

21.6

6.2

20.6

27.8

23.7

13.4

RBI

18.6

83.5

22.7

.293

64.9

OBP

.355

48.5

SLG

.389

48.5

OPS

.743

44.3

wRC+

105.9

43.3

OPS+

107.2

44.3

wOBA

.357

47.4

sWAR

1.2

of 98 qualified 1946 batters (min 179 PA)

Career, era-adjusted

wRC+

143.7

97.4

OPS+

151.2

98.1

sWAR

47.9

98.7

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	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1924	45	189	170	29	51	12	4	1	37	12	0	2	0	.300	.353	.435	.789	111.3	115.4	.368	1.1
1925	87	405	338	83	98	19	7	8	53	53	0	18	0	.290	.386	.459	.845	123.4	126.0	.386	3.0
1926	84	344	279	66	104	12	4	13	64	50	1	16	0	.373	.470	.584	1.054	162.6	170.1	.476	4.3
1927	96	429	359	90	131	21	5	29	105	55	0	13	0	.365	.456	.694	1.149	194.9	205.7	.505	7.2
1928	78	352	315	82	113	28	5	22	81	25	1	13	0	.359	.414	.689	1.103	182.7	196.3	.484	5.4
1929	99	444	379	109	137	24	6	27	121	49	0	32	0	.361	.441	.670	1.111	172.0	185.6	.486	6.5
1930	91	409	341	113	136	36	4	18	112	56	0	27	0	.399	.493	.686	1.179	193.4	210.6	.518	6.9
1931	34	153	122	35	39	12	3	3	27	24	0	9	0	.320	.439	.541	.980	161.6	172.4	.459	1.8
1932	55	236	208	40	57	16	6	2	42	19	1	4	0	.274	.346	.438	.784	108.4	111.8	.368	1.3
1933	36	170	156	30	41	7	3	0	23	7	0	8	0	.263	.307	.346	.653	80.8	78.4	.300	0.3
1934	38	164	144	23	30	7	4	0	13	17	1	4	0	.208	.292	.313	.604	74.1	69.4	.293	0.2
1935	47	213	184	53	65	14	5	5	36	25	0	14	0	.353	.433	.565	.999	142.5	149.9	.446	2.1
1936	29	127	111	24	35	6	1	2	12	12	1	0	0	.315	.387	.441	.829	110.4	111.1	.383	0.7
1937	32	136	120	32	39	9	5	3	27	12	1	2	0	.325	.386	.558	.945	132.4	139.8	.416	1.2
1938	27	109	90	22	29	7	2	2	15	13	0	3	0	.322	.419	.511	.930	137.4	144.4	.424	1.1
1939	38	171	150	31	40	4	0	3	21	19	3	4	1	.267	.347	.353	.700	90.1	86.1	.333	0.6
1942	51	218	199	50	68	12	1	6	32	16	0	3	0	.342	.399	.503	.902	145.0	156.3	.420	2.4
1945	27	114	100	13	25	6	0	0	10	9	0	1	0	.250	.330	.310	.640	84.8	79.1	.315	0.3
1946	62	254	229	23	67	13	3	1	38	21	0	2	0	.293	.355	.389	.743	105.9	107.2	.357	1.2
1947	6	21	19	2	6	0	1	0	3	1	0	0	0	.316	.350	.421	.771	102.7	107.0	.363	0.1
1948	6	19	17	6	8	2	1	0	3	2	1	1	0	.471	.526	.706	1.232	207.8	227.8	.556	0.3

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1945	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.7	0.00	.000	0.00	3.72	90.3	—	0.3

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

1,068

4,677

4,030

956

410th-most career R

1,319

267

398th-most career 3B

145

RBI

875

431st-most career RBI

497

176

451st-most career SB

.3273

46th-highest career batting average

OBP

.4070

50th-highest career on-base percentage

SLG

.5362

44th-highest career slugging percentage

OPS

.9432

34th-highest career OPS

Pitching

G (P)

SHO

SO (P)

BB allowed

ERA

.000

WHIP

.0000

K/9

0.00

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
1934-06-03	CAG @ PHS Gameday	5	3	5	3	1	0	3	0	10
1930-07-27	MEM @ SLS Gameday	3	2	3	1	0	2	5	2	10
1930-06-07	BEG @ SLS Gameday	5	3	4	2	0	1	5	0	9
1930-05-30	BBB @ SLS Gameday	4	2	2	0	0	2	3	1	8
1935-06-10	PHS @ CAG Gameday	6	4	5	0	1	0	4	0	7

Pitching

Date	Game	IP
1945-06-14	BEG @ NE Gameday	0.2
1930-04-26	SLS @ BEG Gameday	0.0
1930-04-27	SLS @ BEG Gameday	0.0
1930-04-27	SLS @ BEG Gameday	0.0
1930-04-28	SLS @ BEG Gameday	0.0

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.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1997 (Veterans)

8× All-Star

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