Clutch Hitters: From the Deadball Era to Modern Day

Few clutch players were as intimidating as the great Ted Williams. Image credits: Pinterest

What is a clutch hitter? It's the man his teammates and the fans most want to see at the plate with a bat in his hands and the game on the line. It's the last man opposing pitchers want to see in that spot.

It's not necessarily the man who hits the most home runs. A batter who hits 10 late-inning game-winners a year can be more of a clutch hitter than one who hits 50 in one-sided wins or losses.

The concept of the clutch hitter goes way back, as far back as the Deadball Era of the 1900s. There are some “experts” who deny its validity, but ask a ballplayer what makes a clutch hitter and he'll probably talk about what's inside a player – his gut, his heart, his head – more than his batting average or home run numbers.

Jack Barry

Jack Barry was considered by teammates and Philadelphia Athletics fans of the championship teams of 1910-11-13 as the most dangerous clutch hitter in the lineup with the game on the line. Didn't matter if he was batting .199 or .299 (which he never did). Didn't matter if the lineup included sluggers like his infield teammates Home Run Baker, Eddie Collins and Stuffy McInnis. 

Barry's admirers in the bleachers were not alone. Philadelphia sportswriters like Edgar Wolfe called him “the weakest hitter of the quartet, but his hits are always timely.” Detroit manager Hugh Jennings said, “I'd rather have Barry than any .400 hitter in the business  In a pinch he hits better than anybody in our league outside of Cobb.” Cobb agreed with him.

A shortstop with numerous leg injuries, Barry batted seventh in the lineup. A career .243 hitter, he reached his peak in 1913 for the world champions, batting .275 with 90 RBI in 134 games. He had little batting power but a lot of brain power.

Player-manager Jack Barry batted .275 with 90 RBI in 134 games. Image credits: Digital Commonwealth

Barry was a master of the squeeze play, which has enjoyed a modest comeback in today's homer-happy game. A superb bunter, he was so astute at reading infield defenses with runners at second and third that Connie Mack gave him the authority to call for the squeeze – even the double squeeze meant to score two runs on a bunt – on his own when he was at bat in those situations. 

His career clutch hitting credentials: he batted .326 with men on base, .320 with runners in scoring position, and a whopping .600 (9x15) with the bases loaded.

In the 1910-11-13 World Series, his 17 hits included 9 doubles and 6 RBI. (In 1914 they were swept; nobody hit.)

Ted Williams

What made Ted Williams a clutch hitter was partly the fact that he was perhaps the greatest hitter of all time to begin with. But it was his ability to get into a pitcher's mind, to know how the pitcher was thinking, that paid off with the game on the line.

Sidearmer Elden Auker was a teammate on the Red Sox in Ted's rookie year 1939. The next year he was with the St. Louis Browns.

“One day I’m pitching against the Red Sox. Bob Swift is the catcher. I have a one-run lead in the ninth inning. The leadoff man beats out a bunt. Ted Williams is up next. Swift came out to me and said, “What do you think he’ll be doing?” I said, “I don’t know. You think they’ll be bunting to move the runner over, playing for a tie? Or let Williams hit? Let’s just waste a ball on him, keep it away from him and see what he does.”

I was going to throw one outside and see if Williams turns to bunt or what. So I threw the ball low, about six inches off the ground, and outside. And Ted reached out and hit that ball into the center field bleachers like a two-iron shot, and it wasn’t over the plate at all.

Game’s over and I’m burned up and I walk down the runway toward the clubhouse – both teams used the same runway -- and he’s down there in the runway waiting for me, laughing like hell. He put out his hand. I said, “Get away from me, you bastard. You just killed me.”

He said, “I saw you and Swift talking. I knew what you were talking about. You were saying, ‘We’ll just waste one outside and see what he’s going to do with it.’ I knew right where you were gonna pitch it. I could see it all the way.” He knew how I pitched and he was thinking right with me, and that’s what made Ted Williams a great hitter.”

What Makes a Clutch Hitter?

Managers describe the signs of the man who wants the bat when the game is on the line: “You can see it in his eyes. There's a look of determination on his face. The way he strides up to the plate, checks the defensive alignment for the best place to aim a hit.”

Ted Williams summed it up:

“When you are evaluating players, there are the guys who could beat you. You can't tell that from the numbers. I knew those ballplayers. I knew the guys that you could beat on any given day.

I knew the guys you couldn't beat. I knew those guys up at the bat who were going to kill us and I knew the guys on our side who in rough situations were going to deliver.

They weren't going to strike out. They weren't going to chase bad balls. They might not get that hit, but they'd hit the ball somewhere.”

The 2025 Milwaukee Brewers

As this was written in mid-August 2025, the Brewers had the best record in MLB. They had compiled two 12-game winning streaks. And they had done it with no 40- or 50- home run hitters, despite the loss of one of their leading home run hitters and their only .300 batter to injuries for more than two months.

They did it with a solid defense, aggressive base running and superlative pitching from other teams' castoffs, a veteran coming off a two-year injury status and a spectacular rookie pitcher's debut. And they did it not by depending on a 50-homer hitter getting a chance to bat in the ninth inning of a close game; they had no 50-homer hitters.

Even Joey Ortiz could deliver game-winning doubles and home runs under pressure. Image credits: Milwaukee Brewers

Instead, every man in the lineup thought of himself and everybody else as a clutch hitter who could – and did – deliver late-inning game-winning hits. Even shortstop Joey Ortiz, the number nine batter who struggled for the first few months to stay above .200, began delivering game-winning doubles and home runs.

To replace their injured first baseman in July, the Brewers' scouts and front office management knew who they wanted: a first baseman the White Sox had demoted to AAA named Andrew Vaughn, who fit their clutch-hitting model in spectacular style.

From July 7 to mid-August he was hitting around .340 with 8 home runs, over 30 RBI – and a successful squeeze bunt to boot, as the Brewers went 24-4.

As this was written, the final standings were not yet known, but the presence and impact of the clutch hitter was once again confirmed.