Total Bases

Total Bases = 1B + 2(2B) + 3(3B) + 4(HR)

Where:
1B = amount of singles
2B = amount of doubles
3B = amount of triples
HR = amount of home-runs

Total bases (TB) in baseball is the amount of bases a batter has gotten to as a result of each of his own hits in any given period. This is based only on each time the batter has hit a ball (during his time at bat) which brought him safely to a base.

To calculate a batter's total bases, add the amount of singles he earned by the amount of doubles he earned times two, the amount of triples he earned times three, and the amount of home-runs he eared times four.

What Doesn't Count When Calculating a Batter's Total Bases
Being sent to first base as a result of a walk or being hit by the pitcher does not count as a single. Reaching a base as a result of stealing, force, or another player hitting the ball does not count either.

For example, if a runner is on first base and he later reaches second base because his teammate hits a single, this does not count as a single or a double towards his score. This does, however, count as a single towards his teammate's score.

Imagine this scenario: A runner hits a single. Then, before the pitcher of the opposing team pitches his next ball, the runner leads off of first base. The pitcher quickly turns around and throws the ball to the first baseman in hopes to catch the runner off base and gain an out.

However, the pitcher throws the ball over the first baseman's head and the first baseman must chase after the ball. The runner then takes off for second base and reaches it safely before he is tagged with the ball.

In this case, the runner gained two bases from one of his own hits. This would still only count as a single toward the runner's TB because the second base was gained by stealing; it wasn't a direct result from the runner having hit the ball.

How the Equation Works
You might not be sure as to why the amount of a batter's doubles is multiplied by 2, triples are multiplied by 3, and home-runs are multiplied by 4 when calculating his TB. This is done because the number of each double, triple, and home-run must be multiplied by the amount of bases that were gained by receiving them.

For example, you most likely already realize that when a batter hits a single he gains one base from his hit; when he hits a double, he gains two bases; when he hits a triple, he gains three bases; and when he hits a home-run he gains four bases. Since a batter's TB is simply the amount of bases he's gained directly from his own hits, each base from each hit (whether it be a single, a home-run, or anything in-between) must be accounted for.

If someone forgot to multiply the amount of triples by 3 when calculating his total bases, his answer would be shorter than it should be by two bases for every triple.

So, if Henry hit eight triples in the last baseball season but he forgot to multiply that 8 by 3 when calculating his TB, his answer would be lower than it should be by 16 (8 triples multiplied by 2 bases that he forgot to include for each.)

After the total amount of bases gained from each hit have been calculated (in other words, all of the multiplication in the equation has been completed,) all of these are added together to find the total amount of bases (directly) gained from all hits.

Alternate Strategy
Another way to calculate a batter's TB is by the equation:

Total Bases = H + 2B + 2(3B) + 3(HR)

Where:
H = total hits that resulted in the batter reaching any base safely
2B = amount of doubles
3B = amount of triples
HR = home-runs

In this second strategy, you don't need to know amount of singles that were hit.

This equation may seem to be quite different from the one our calculator uses, but in actuality, they are basically the same. This second strategy takes advantage of the fact that with every hit that gains the batter a base (whether it's a single, double, triple, or home-run) the batter always at least gains a single (one base.)

So, for example, Steven had seventy-two (72) hits that put him on base this season. With every single one of these hits, he gained at least one base. Therefore, if you start with the total number of hits that brought him to a base, by default, you start with the amount of singles he gained (because he gained at least a single with every hit.)

With that, because you will add this total amount of hits to the rest of the individual hits, you can take away the value of one base from each hit. This will make it so that each single is worth 0 bases, each double is worth 1 base, each triple is worth 2 bases, and each home-run is worth 3 bases. Then, to find his TB, multiply the amount of each kind of hit Steven got by the amount of bases it's now worth and add all of the values to 72.

TB Records
Current
So far in this very Major League Baseball season (today is July 6th, 2006), Alfonso Soriano from the Washington Nationals leads with the highest TB score. He's had 192 total bases since the beginning of the season (a little over 2 months ago.)

In second comes Matt Holiday from the Colorado Rockies with a TB of 191. The third highest TB score of this season so far is 186 for Grady Sizemore; a Cleveland Indians player.

For more current MLB stats of all kinds for both American and National Leagues, check out:
http://snap.stats.com/premium/sfa/stats/leaders.asp

Last Season (2005)
Derek Lee from the Chicago Cubs ended the previous MLB season (2005) with the leading TB score of 393. Not awfully far behind came Mark Teixeira from the Texas Rangers with a TB of 370. In third place came Alex Rodriguez from the Seattle Mariners with 369 total bases.

For more MLB stats of all kinds (for both leagues) from any season you wish, check out:
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/single_season_leaders.jsp

History: Full Careers
The leader with the highest TB score of all-time is Hank Aaron. The TB score for his whole baseball career is 6,856. Out of all the twenty-two seasons he played, in fifteen of them he had a TB of over 300. This is the highest amount of seasons any MLB player has had such a consistently high TB score for.

For the majority of his career (1954-1974), Hank played for the Atlanta Braves. The last two years of his career (1965 and 1966) he played for the Milwaukee Brewers.

In second place for highest TB of all-time is Stan Musial, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals his whole twenty-two-year career. His total TB score is 6,134.

In third place we have Willie Mays with a total of 6,066 bases in his twenty-two-year career (1951-1973). He played for the New York Giants (1951-1957), the San Francisco Giants (1958-1972), and the New York Mets (1972-1973.)

The famous Babe Ruth comes in fifth place with a TB score of 5,793 in his twenty-two years of playing (1914-1935.)

For the rest of the top 100 TB scores of all-time, check out the site:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hitotb1.shtml

Example
Johnny hit 22 singles, 18 doubles, 8 triples, and 5 home-runs for his team this past baseball season. What is his Total Bases score for the season?

First, recall the equation:
Total Bases = 1B + 2(2B) + 3(3B) + 4(HR)

1B = 22
2B = 18
3B = 8
HR = 5

Then, plug in the values you are given:
Total Bases = 22 + 2(18) + 3(8) + 4(5)

Do each set of multiplication separately:
2(18) = 36
3(8) = 24
4(5) = 20

Plug these values into the equation:
Total Bases = 22 + (36) + (24) + (20)

Add all values together:
22 + 36 = 58

(58) + 24 = 82

(82) + 20 = 102

Johnny's TB for the season is 102. Therefore, Johnny made it to 102 bases total this season as a direct result of all of his times up to bat.

Works Cited

"AL Leaders in Total Bases." STATS. 2006. STATS LLC. 6 July 2006.
<http://snap.stats.com/premium/sfa/stats/getleaders.asp?rank=012&Submit=Go>.

"Career Leaders for Total Bases." Baseball Almanac. 2000. Baseball Almanac. 6 July
2006. <http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hitotb1.shtml>.

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