Maybe you remember this, maybe you don't. Or maybe you never knew this at all. But in 1990, the MLB batting champion wasn't honored at all, because he didn't lead his league in hitting.
Willie McGee was leading the NL with a .335 batting average on August 29th when the Oakland A's traded for him. He already had 542 plate appearances for the Cardinals at the time of the trade, so he had enough PA's to qualify him for the batting title. He went on to hit a respectable .274 for the A's for the remainder of the season, which dropped his season BA to .324.
Meanwhile, in the AL, George Brett would hit .329 to lead his league.
At the time of McGee's trade, Eddie Murray (then of the Dodgers) was batting .312. He would have a torrid September/October, batting .411 over 30 games and lifting his BA to .330. However, since McGee was qualified for the NL batting crown with a .335 BA, McGee would win the title over Murray (as McGee's AL at bats didn't reduce his NL batting average).
So, for the 1990 season, no one batted higher than Murray's .330, but he would see Brett win the AL batting title and McGee win the NL batting title. Murray would never win a batting title in his career.
Similarly, McGee led all of MLB in hits in 1990 with 199, but did not lead the league. Brett Butler and Lenny Dykstra led the NL with 192 hits, and Rafael Palmeiro led the AL with 191 hits.
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