Baseball's .300 hitter has nearly gone extinct

Before he stepped into the batter’s box in Detroit for his last at-bat on the final day of the 2000 Major League Baseball season, Minnesota Twins infielder Denny Hocking had done the math. All spring and summer, Hocking’s batting average had hovered above or just below the magical mark of .300, an average he had never reached in his seven previous big-league seasons. It wasn’t some obscure statistic. Baseball is defined by numbers, yet few have resonated quite like the challenge of getting three base hits out of every 10 at-bats.