Uptown. Downtown. No one's fussy I'm a target. Black, white. Day, night. No one's fussy I'm a target
—Joe Jackson (not the one without shoes)

The New York Times has a piece on Craig Biggio's assault on the "modern" hit by pitch crown. Biggio stands at 262, five behind "modern" leader Don Baylor (but a 1000 behind the farcical record of Ernie 'Coach' Pantusso).

However, in third place sits Ron Hunt with 243, who collected his plunkings in almost fivr thousand fewer plate appearances (10914 to 6158). So who was a bigger target for opposing pitchers? Let's take a look, shall we?

I ran the career numbers for every major-leaguer with the actual HBP totals againts an expected HBP total. The expected total was derived by looking at the number of plate appearances the player had multiplied by the ratio of total league HBP to total league plate appearances for each year in the player's career. It represents the number of HBP one would expect a typical batter in the player's league would have accumulated given the number of plate appearances the player had.

I then looked at the players who exceeded expectations by the most:

No surprise here: the all-time HBP leader (Jennings) exceeded plunking expectations more than anyone else. Baylor is second, Hunt is third, and Biggio fifth.

OK, so who has been hit by a pitch at a higher frequency than anyone else? (min. 1000 PA):

Though it should be mentioned that there were four "Black and Blue Moon" Grahams whose batting career consistent in one plate appearance, which was being hit by a pitch:

Charlie "Victory" Faust, by the way, was John McGraw's good luck charm in 1911.

Finally, given that HBP rates have varied over the history of the game, who had the highest actual to expected HBP ratio in baseball history:

There are a good number of current players on that list. Is that because there is great variance in HBP numbers? Or is Tim McCarver correct and are today's players are being coddled? Are purpose pitches so rare that it's easy to far exceed the low HBP expectations? Let's look at each decades numbers (ignoring years and leagues in which HBP totals were not kept):

Huh? So players today can expect to by hit by a pitch more frequently than any other decade in the eleven. So—shocking!—Tim McCarver seems to be talking out of some other orifice than his mouth. Hmmm….interesting.

Very quickly, here are the players who were the most difficult to hit based on the three criteria above:

Name	First	Last	Act HBP	TPA	Exp HBP	Diff	Career Ratio	Act-to-Exp
Sam Crawford	1899	1917	23	10594	92.15	-69.15	0.22%	24.96%
Lave Cross	1887	1907	31	9710	96.78	-65.78	0.32%	32.03%
Tommy Corcoran	1890	1907	35	9368	95.61	-60.61	0.37%	36.61%
Harold Baines	1980	2001	14	11092	68.98	-54.98	0.13%	20.30%
George Van Haltren	1887	1903	38	8979	92.98	-54.98	0.42%	40.87%
Ruben Sierra	1986	2004	7	8568	61.65	-54.65	0.08%	11.35%
Eddie Murray	1977	1997	18	12817	70.18	-52.18	0.14%	25.65%
Hugh Duffy	1888	1906	29	7827	80.82	-51.82	0.37%	35.88%
Garret Anderson	1994	2004	5	6246	55.69	-50.69	0.08%	8.98%
Germany Smith	1884	1898	16	6995	65.97	-49.97	0.23%	24.25%
Bones Ely	1884	1902	11	5563	60.41	-49.41	0.20%	18.21%
Joe Tinker	1902	1916	10	7145	57.74	-47.74	0.14%	17.32%
Bobby Wallace	1894	1918	47	9612	91.68	-44.68	0.49%	51.26%
Tommy Leach	1898	1918	32	9051	76.68	-44.68	0.35%	41.73%
Chili Davis	1981	1999	15	9996	59.49	-44.49	0.15%	25.22%
Wade Boggs	1982	1999	23	10740	67.39	-44.39	0.21%	34.13%
Kid Gleason	1888	1912	38	8198	82.14	-44.14	0.46%	46.26%
Chipper Jones	1993	2004	14	6634	57.96	-43.96	0.21%	24.16%
Lou Bierbauer	1886	1898	15	6007	58.38	-43.38	0.25%	25.69%
Mark McLemore	1986	2004	15	7239	58.01	-43.01	0.21%	25.86%

Name	First	Last	Act HBP	TPA	Exp HBP	Diff	Career Ratio	Act-to-Exp
John Peters	1874	1884	0	2719	0.04	-0.04	0%	0%
Lip Pike	1871	1887	0	2032	0.04	-0.04	0%	0%
Larry Corcoran	1880	1887	0	1341	0.10	-0.10	0%	0%
Jim Holdsworth	1872	1884	0	1489	0.19	-0.19	0%	0%
Harry Wheeler	1878	1884	0	1145	0.19	-0.19	0%	0%
Tommy Bond	1874	1884	0	1997	0.22	-0.22	0%	0%
Lee Richmond	1879	1886	0	1064	0.23	-0.23	0%	0%
George Bradley	1875	1888	0	2298	0.39	-0.39	0%	0%
Bob Ferguson	1871	1884	0	3596	0.39	-0.39	0%	0%
Barney Gilligan	1875	1888	0	2020	0.81	-0.81	0%	0%
Jim McCormick	1878	1887	0	2104	1.13	-1.13	0%	0%
Chick Fulmer	1871	1884	0	2482	1.15	-1.15	0%	0%
Stump Wiedman	1880	1888	0	1446	1.29	-1.29	0%	0%
Alex McKinnon	1884	1887	0	1617	1.70	-1.70	0%	0%
Joe Farrell	1882	1886	0	1524	2.28	-2.28	0%	0%
Jack Remsen	1872	1884	0	2423	3.12	-3.12	0%	0%
George Strief	1879	1885	0	1424	3.70	-3.70	0%	0%
Tommy Bridges	1930	1946	0	1142	3.89	-3.89	0%	0%
Hal Newhouser	1939	1955	0	1160	4.16	-4.16	0%	0%
Rube Walberg	1923	1937	0	1005	4.36	-4.36	0%	0%
Erv Dusak	1941	1952	0	1192	4.45	-4.45	0%	0%
Bobby Mathews	1871	1887	0	2560	4.65	-4.65	0%	0%
Bill Sweeney	1928	1931	0	1112	4.71	-4.71	0%	0%
Wes Ferrell	1927	1941	0	1345	4.84	-4.84	0%	0%
Fernando Valenzuela	1980	1997	0	1043	4.89	-4.89	0%	0%
Coaker Triplett	1938	1945	0	1434	5.31	-5.31	0%	0%
Fergie Jenkins	1965	1983	0	1010	5.33	-5.33	0%	0%
Bobby Brown	1979	1985	0	1393	5.90	-5.90	0%	0%
Hal Rice	1948	1954	0	1283	6.05	-6.05	0%	0%
Tommie Aaron	1962	1971	0	1045	6.15	-6.15	0%	0%
Bob Friend	1951	1966	0	1297	6.76	-6.76	0%	0%
Howard Ehmke	1915	1930	0	1088	6.78	-6.78	0%	0%
Rob Andrews	1975	1979	0	1641	7.33	-7.33	0%	0%
Jim Norris	1977	1980	0	1493	7.56	-7.56	0%	0%
John Gochnauer	1901	1903	0	1030	8.22	-8.22	0%	0%
Earl Moore	1901	1914	0	1049	8.40	-8.40	0%	0%
Red Ames	1903	1919	0	1122	8.49	-8.49	0%	0%
Mickey Witek	1940	1949	0	2325	8.58	-8.58	0%	0%
Joe Bush	1912	1928	0	1316	8.72	-8.72	0%	0%
Tom Hutton	1966	1981	0	1919	9.19	-9.19	0%	0%
Herm Winningham	1984	1992	0	2069	9.79	-9.79	0%	0%
Coco Crisp	2002	2004	0	1128	11.41	-11.41	0%	0%
Scott Livingstone	1991	1998	0	1646	12.07	-12.07	0%	0%
Juan Castro	1995	2004	0	1742	15.83	-15.83	0%	0%
Cesar Izturis	2001	2004	0	1929	18.29	-18.29	0%	0%
Mark Lemke	1988	1998	0	3664	24.99	-24.99	0%	0%
Bill Bergen	1901	1911	0	3228	27.57	-27.57	0%	0%