Sports
Could Royals star Bobby Witt Jr. be the first player in decades to hit .400 … at home?
By C. Trent Rosecrans, Stephen J. Nesbitt and Sam Blum
One night earlier this summer at Kauffman Stadium, Bobby Witt Jr. came to bat in the ninth inning with one on, one out and his Kansas City Royals down a run. Then he roped a game-tying triple for his third hit of the game, raced home on a walk-off grounder and only stopped running to conduct an on-field interview. Still catching his breath, Witt grinned at the home crowd chanting his name and said, “What do y’all think? Pretty fun?”
Witt, the 24-year-old All-Star shortstop, is having a sensational season. He leads the majors with a .352 batting average, rates as both the fastest man and best defender in the game, joins fellow American League MVP front-runner Aaron Judge as the only players above 8 WAR this season, and has started at shortstop and batted second in every Royals game this season.
On top of all that, Witt has been historically good in Kansas City: he’s on track to be the first major leaguer in 20 years to bat .400 at home. After going 3-for-5 Tuesday night, Witt is hitting .405 in 281 plate appearances at Kauffman Stadium this season.
Ted Williams batted above .400 at Fenway Park in 1941, 1951 and 1957. Since then, only nine hitters — four from the pre-humidor days in Colorado — have hit .400 in at least 275 plate appearances at home: Joe Cunningham, Rod Carew, Wade Boggs, Kirby Puckett, Andrés Galarraga, Eric Young Sr., Larry Walker, Jeff Cirillo and Barry Bonds.
.400 home hitters since Ted Williams
|
Year
|
Player
|
Team
|
Home
|
Road
|
Diff
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
2024 |
Bobby Witt Jr. |
Royals |
.405 |
.299 |
.106 |
|
2004 |
Barry Bonds |
Giants |
.412 |
.314 |
.098 |
|
2001 |
Larry Walker |
Rockies |
.406 |
.293 |
.113 |
|
2000 |
Jeff Cirillo |
Rockies |
.403 |
.239 |
.164 |
|
1996 |
Eric Young Sr. |
Rockies |
.412 |
.219 |
.193 |
|
1993 |
Andrés Galarraga |
Rockies |
.402 |
.328 |
.074 |
|
1988 |
Kirby Puckett |
Twins |
.406 |
.308 |
.098 |
|
1987 |
Wade Boggs |
Red Sox |
.411 |
.312 |
.099 |
|
1985 |
Wade Boggs |
Red Sox |
.418 |
.322 |
.096 |
|
1977 |
Rod Carew |
Twins |
.401 |
.374 |
.027 |
|
1959 |
Joe Cunningham |
Cardinals |
.404 |
.294 |
.110 |
Witt may soon join that short list.
“He is as complete a player as you could ever imagine,” Boggs, who twice batted better than .400 at Fenway Park, said by phone this week.
“Plus power and uber speed,” Cirillo said.
“He’s become a really great player,” Carew said, “in a really short time.”
Kansas City’s spacious Kauffman Stadium suppresses home runs but aids in base hits. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
The ballpark itself is a factor in Witt’s chase of .400, just as it was with Boggs and Fenway’s Green Monster, with Puckett and the Metrodome’s AstroTurf, and with the mile-high Rockies. Kauffman Stadium has the second-largest outfield in the majors, behind Coors Field, suppressing home runs but giving extra space for singles, doubles and triples. The ballpark helps to maximize the bat-to-ball skill and speed that contribute to Witt’s high average, but it also mutes his home-run output.
In Cincinnati on Friday, Royals infielder Michael Massey guessed that if Witt played every game at the Great American Ball Park launching pad, he’d have 15 more homers. Later that night, Witt smashed his 25th homer this season, a second-deck blast that would’ve been out of any major league park. Massey was incredibly close. Witt’s projected home run total in Cincinnati — 39 — would do wonders for his MVP case.
“I would take Bobby in any ballpark,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said.
But Kansas City is home. Witt will take the hits however they come. He said his sole focus is having the same routine and preparation, home or away. “If I have that, then I feel like I’m going to be the same guy each and every night.”
Witt’s batting average is 106 points better at home than on the road this season. That’s in line with the Puckett, Boggs and Bonds home/road splits, and far less of a differential than the .400-hitting Rockies had. Players are more comfortable at home. (There’s a reason only one player in the past 75 years has hit .400 on the road: Ichiro Suzuki had a .405 road split in 2004.)
“When you’re at home and hitting well, everything is more to perfection,” Eric Young Sr. said. “You’ve got your bed, home cooking. It’s tremendous.”
Boggs didn’t realize until this week he’d ever hit .400 at home. But he wasn’t surprised. “I sorta knew it was extremely hard to get me out at Fenway Park,” he said. Boggs has the highest career batting average at Fenway: .369. He got there by being “totally consumed” with the left-field wall.
“If the wind is blowing out, I always had the confidence that I was going to get two hits that day,” he said.
Cirillo didn’t know he’d hit .400 at home, either. But he does remember getting hot in the last series at Coors Field in 2000.
“Glad I got a couple hits so we could have a conversation,” he said.
Jeff Cirillo, shown here in 2001, loved hitting in Colorado, for obvious reasons. (Tom Hauck / Allsport)
Cirillo was the fourth Rockies hitter to bat .400 in Colorado during the franchise’s first decade, and he certainly acknowledged that it wasn’t all great reflexes and batted-ball luck.
“We did it in Coors Field,” he said. “There might be a little bit of an asterisk to that one. What (Witt) is doing is absolutely incredible.”
Larry Walker hit .418 in 1998, .461 in 1999 and .406 in 2001. A humidor was installed in 2002 to tamp down offense. No Rockies hitter has hit .400 at home since that change, though Todd Helton came close — .391 in 2003.
On his way to the clubhouse before games in Colorado, Cirillo would walk across the immense Coors outfield. It felt to him like a links-style golf course, where you hit onto sprawling fairways.
“If you used the middle of the field,” he said, “you were never really in a slump.”
Kauffman Stadium never felt like that. Cirillo batted .234 over 32 road games in Kansas City. “It was always really hot, so your legs felt mushy in the box,” he said. He finds Witt’s feat remarkable, especially with the velocity in today’s game and how technology can help expose hitters’ flaws.
Boggs loved hitting in Kansas City — not because of the dimensions, but because of the AstroTurf that was there until 1994. Not only did Boggs hit .336 at Kauffman Stadium, but that was where he legged out his only inside-the-park home run.
“It was like playing on a pool table,” Boggs said. “If you hit a ball two or three steps to an infielder’s left or right it was through. That’s how fast it was.” But it’s a grass field now, and even with the turf no one hit .400 at Kauffman. When Hall of Famer George Brett batted .390 in 1980, he “only” hit .392 at home.
In the summer of 1977, Rod Carew wanted to be left alone. He had a .411 overall batting average at the start of July, and reporters were flocking to Minneapolis and the Twins’ road cities to talk to him. Carew had so many writers call his hotel rooms that he started changing the name on his reservation. He asked writers to arrive extra early at the ballpark if they wanted an interview. When they balked, he had Twins manager Gene Mauch reiterate the request.
“I didn’t want to take that .400 thing out on the field,” Carew said.
At one point, Carew stopped talking to reporters altogether. But the attention was impossible to avoid. Carew’s batting average slid to .374 by Aug. 25, and even though he hit .441 the rest of the way he still fell 12 points short of a .400 season. He did, however, hit .401 at home.
Carew doesn’t mind reporters asking anymore. He likes Witt, who was born 15 years after Carew’s last major league game. The Hall of Famer has seen a few stars come along with hitting styles that remind Carew of himself, guys like Brett, Suzuki and now Witt. They have the speed to leg out infield singles. They sit on fastballs yet adjust to do damage on off-speed stuff.
Rod Carew tips his cap at fans after a double put his batting average at .400 in June of 1977. (AP Photo / JM)
There aren’t too many reporters asking Witt about hitting .400, but all the same he doesn’t have a lot to say. “You’ve got to just go out and put good at-bats,” he said, “and whatever else happens, happens.” The numbers speak for themselves, and they say Witt’s season-long home hot streak is anything but smoke and mirrors. He’s not hitting bloops and bleeders. He’s barreling balls and finding gaps.
Witt has had 17 three-hit games in Kansas City this season, including a stretch in July of six of seven home games. Today it’s as hard to hit for average as it has been since 1968. The league-wide batting average is .244; for home teams it’s .245; at Kauffman Stadium it’s .259. Witt is in another stratosphere.
Young, like a handful of other .400-at-home hitters, played against Witt’s dad, the pitcher Bobby Witt, during his career. He saw Bobby Jr. grow up around the game and mature into a superstar.
“He’s on a different level mentally than a lot of kids in his class,” Young said. “That’s special because he’s able to see and play and perform in a way a little faster than the other guys.”
In a three-hit road game on Friday, Witt became the third Royals player with 25 homers and 25 steals in consecutive seasons, joining Carlos Beltrán and Bo Jackson.
“It’s incredible,” recently acquired Royals starter Michael Lorenzen said. “You see it on MLB Network every night and you kind of get sick of it, to be honest, because he’s on it every night with his highlights. Then playing with him, it’s the real deal. There aren’t many people you can say that about. You can say that about Bobby. It’s the real deal.”
Witt is on pace for 11.6 fWAR, more than any shortstop in history other than 1908 Honus Wagner (11.8). As the Royals bounce back from a 106-loss season to contend for an AL Central crown, their face-of-the-franchise shortstop is putting on show after show for the home crowd.
What do y’all think? Pretty fun?
(Top photo of Witt: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
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One of the most memorable moments of the 2026 Winter Olympics came early, when skier Lindsey Vonn delivered a gutsy performance for the ages by competing at 41 just a week after injuring her knee in a crash.
Unfortunately, as admirable as her perseverance was, she injured herself badly in another crash just 13 seconds into her run in the women’s downhill final.
Five months later, Vonn is still very much dealing with her injuries.
MARCELLO HERNÁNDEZ ROASTS JAKE PAUL, TIGER WOODS AND BILL BELICHICK IN ESPYS MONOLOGUE
Lindsey Vonn speaks on stage during the 2026 ESPYs. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
“It’s been a very slow process,” Vonn told People while attending the ESPYs Wednesday in New York City. “It’s been five months since I’ve been able to actually go to the gym in a somewhat meaningful way. And walking is actually still really hard for me. My ankle is still broken.”
Regardless of the outcome, her decision to attempt that run remains one of the most courageous moments of the Games.
Lindsey Vonn was involved in a serious crash during the women’s downhill event at the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Screengrab by IOC via Getty Images)
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Remember when I mentioned that injury before the Olympics? That wasn’t just a minor bump in the road; it was a completely ruptured ACL.
There was no questioning her courage, but the aftermath has been difficult.
Lindsey Vonn walks through pit lane ahead of the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto)
“I was in a wheelchair for so long. I was on crutches for so long,” Vonn said. “It was honestly almost 3½ months that I was unable to walk unassisted. I got very emotional when I was able to walk on my own.”
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This week, Vonn posted an update on her recovery and said she has “a very long road ahead.”
The UCLA women’s basketball team won its first NCAA championship in April. Now, it’s vying to stay on top.
Based on Thursday’s practice, after which UCLA spoke with the media for the first time since its dominant title run, it’s clear that the Bruins intend to remain on top, even with a target on their back and a revamped roster.
Success leaves clues
One would think a defending champion pursuing a repeat would, well, just try to run it back.
But not Cori Close’s bunch.
Entering her 16th season as coach, Close is emphatic about the importance of process over outcome — or journey over destination — and leaning into the beauty of the grind.
“We get to walk out and live out what we learn from the championship run,” Close said. “But we’re also not trying to repeat a championship outcome. We’re trying to repeat a championship process. And success leaves clues. There are things that we want to make sure we carry over from what we learn.
“But this is a new art project. This is a new identity. This is a new chance. The standards don’t change, but the way we go about it is going to be unique to this team, and that’s really fun to explore.”
The 98%
UCLA coach Cori Close speaks during a news conference on April 4.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Part of the “championship process” Bruins fans can expect to hear about is the “98%.”
Close repeated it. Players repeated it. It’s a mentality Close wants the Bruins to keep in mind throughout the season.
“What I mean by that is 98% of the game is played without the ball,” Close explained. “Can you become a better screener? Can you learn someone else’s tendencies? Can you talk more on defense? Can you become a better rebounder? How many ways can we learn from each other and be better ‘98%’ players? And if we do that, we’ll be on our way.”
Possessing the ball — the 2% — does matter. But players who can thrive without the ball will establish a team that, in Close’s eyes, can be difficult to beat.
Sienna Betts’ role
UCLA forward Sienna Betts, left, speaks to her older sister, UCLA center Lauren Betts, before a game in December.
(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)
Sienna Betts, the younger sister of departed UCLA star Lauren Betts, is set to have a key role as a returning sophomore on a team with many new players.
“It’s going to be different,” Sienna said, referencing the Bruins losing six players to the WNBA. “But I mean, I’m excited. And it’s not the first time I’ve been in a position like this; I mean, not at this level, obviously. So, I’m just excited to be in this new role. And I have coaches who are here to help me.
“I’m just planning on doing whatever Coach Cori needs from me, whatever the team needs.”
The 6-foot-4 forward is primed to be the Bruins’ anchor in the paint. She demonstrated her leadership during Thursday’s practice as well as some bully ball inside.
Betts, who is left-handed, mentioned her focus on right-handed shooting this offseason in preparing for increased touches. She averaged six points and four rebounds over 28 games as a freshman. Close said she is improving quickly.
“The younger players have grown into new roles,” Close said. “I think you could see glimpses of that [with] how Sienna’s already started to do that, even maybe ahead of where I thought she’d be at this point.”
Elina Aarnisalo’s return
UCLA guard Elina Aarnisalo controls the ball in the Sweet 16 of the 2025 NCAA tournament.
(Young Kwak / Associated Press)
Elina Aarnisalo, who played for UCLA as a freshman in 2024-25, is back in Westwood after spending her sophomore season with North Carolina.
The 5-10 guard averaged 5.1 points, 3.4 assists and 2.2 rebounds as a freshman and saw her scoring double (10.2) in Chapel Hill. Aarnisalo, a native of Finland, said she is more confident, not only as a player but also as a communicator.
“There’s going to be a lot of spots on the team open now after a big draft class,” Aarnisalo said. “And a lot of seniors leaving, that obviously interested me too. Talking with Cori [about] what my role could be on this team and what we could accomplish this year … just knowing the standards at UCLA, how we practice, how they focus on individual work; I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen my old teammates [and] how they’ve succeeded in this environment, which is why I wanted to come back.”
Aarnisalo averaged 21 minutes per game as a freshman and 27 as a sophomore. She stands a good chance of receiving even more playing time.
New faces, same goal
Former Texas Christian guard Donovyn Hunter is among the new players on the UCLA roster.
(Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press)
The Bruins will look starkly different after essentially exchanging six WNBA-ready players for five enticing transfers.
Those newcomers are Texas Christian guard Donovyn Hunter, Iowa State forward Addy Brown, Arkansas guard Bonnie Deas, Notre Dame guard KK Bransford and Aarnisalo.
“These girls are obviously really talented, come from really different programs,” Betts said. “It takes a second to adjust to Coach Cori’s rhythm, and her offense, and just how she runs practice and games. But I think they’re doing a great job integrating in, and they’re all just great human beings off the court and on the court. So, I’m really excited for this group.”
Close acknowledged she has been very busy. She had to retool the roster while simultaneously celebrating the previous one.
“I’m not complaining, but it has been a great challenge and an incredible, intense thing,” Close said. “I mean, literally, the minute after the UCLA women embrace new players, tougher standards in bid to repeat as champs game, we are on the phone with recruits from the locker room, and the next day, the transfer portal opens. So, I mean, this has been nonstop.”
UCLA’s first test is north of the border
The Bruins will face Canada’s women’s national team in an exhibition next Wednesday in Victoria, British Columbia.
While UCLA is far from a polished product, facing Canada’s best is, if anything, a great opportunity to gain even more exposure and improve team chemistry.
“We’re trying to get better. We’re trying to get more physical,” Aarnisalo said. “So we’re going to be in better shape when the actual game starts and the season starts. So it’s an everyday process.”
Timea Gardiner trending upward
Bruins forward Timea Gardiner is expected to play in Canada after missing last season as a medical redshirt because of a knee injury.
Gardiner, who transferred to UCLA in 2024 after two years at Oregon State, averaged 7.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 18 minutes per game in her first season with the Bruins.
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A lot of history has a chance to be made when it comes to the MLB MVP awards this season.
Let’s check out the odds for the AL and NL MVP race at FanDuel Sportsbook as of July 16.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
American League MVP
Yordan Alvarez: -165 (bet $10 to win $16.06 total)
Junior Caminero: +450 (bet $10 to win $55 total)
Bobby Witt Jr.: +500 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Ben Rice: +1400 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Nick Kurtz: +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Julio Rodriguez: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Shea Langeliers: +5500 (bet $10 to win $560 total)
What to know: We’re going to have a new AL MVP. Two-time defending AL MVP Aaron Judge has not played since May due to injury. His three MVP awards are tied with a host of MLB legends for the third-most all-time, including Yankee icons Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. However, he’ll have to wait to get his fourth, according to the current odds. The name atop the board is Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who is leading the AL in home runs (31), hits (111), RBIs (70), on-base percentage (.426), slugging percentage (.633) and OPS (1.059). He is also second in the league in batting average (.318).
National League MVP
Shohei Ohtani: -1500 (bet $10 to win $10.67 total)
Pete Crow-Armstrong: +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Kyle Schwarber: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
James Wood: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Juan Soto: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Corbin Carroll: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
Otto Lopez: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
What to know: It appears Ohtani is gonna do this thing again, mostly because of his combination of pitching and hitting. At the plate, he’s third in the NL in OBP (.403), third in OPS (.952), fifth in home runs (22) and fifth in slugging (.549). And on the mound, he’s 8-2 in 14 starts with a 1.79 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 95 strikeouts. Yeesh. Last season, Ohtani won back-to-back NL MVP awards for the first time since Albert Pujols did it in 2008 and 2009. He also won the AL MVP in 2023, making him the first player in MLB history to win MVP back-to-back in each league. This year, if Ohtani is to win NL MVP, he will make a dent in Barry Bonds’ record of four straight MVP wins (2001-2004). All four of Ohtani’s MVP wins have been unanimous, with him receiving all 30 first-place votes. He has the second-most MVPs in history, trailing only Bonds’ seven.
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