The Philadelphia Athletics of the late-10’s and early-20’s compiled such a ridiculous amount of hitting talent, there is no way it will ever be equalled. Ty Cobb - a career Senator - is the all-time leader in RL hits, but the #2, #3, and #4 players on that list all played for this Philadelphia squad. The #8 guy on that list was also an Athletic on that team, and might be the best player of all of them. There was also a fifth guy, ranking was down at #76 on the list, that nonetheless was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This makes 5 regulars on the squad that are clear HOFers! And these aren’t no-names that made the most of their talents either - their names are
Hornsby,
Speaker,
Heilmann,
Jackson, and
Groh.
The best player on the team - the guy that was #8 on the all-time hit list with a mere 3097 (yes the team had 4 3000-hit men!) was Tris Speaker. He is also the all-time RL leader in doubles (like in real life) with 718, and hit .337, good for 4th in league history. He played for Philly for his entire 20-year career. Probably about as good of a player as Speaker was Rogers Hornsby. He had 3430 hits, all with the A’s in his 19 year career. He had 604 doubles (10th all-time), 1654 RBIs (10th), 1647 runs (9th), and his .335 batting average put him one spot below Speaker.
Harry Heilmann had a 21-year career, again entirely spent with the A’s. He totaled 3436 hits (#2), 656 doubles (#3), 1635 RBIs (#11), 1671 runs (#8), he is #7 all-time in total bases with 4917, and is #3 in league history in total at-bats. With a mere 3275 hits, Joe Jackson is only third on his own team. He is in the top 10 all-time in doubles, triples, and runs scored. The fifth best HOFer on this team was Heinie Groh, the team’s SS. Though his stats are not quite at the level of his teammates, he usually led off for the team, and scored over 1600 runs, including a record 157 in 1922. He also played excellent SS defense. His OBP was .375, and he stole 728 bases, still good enough for 6th all-time.
So this quintet - the team’s outfield and middle infield - all made the Hall of Fame, and accounted for 10 MVP awards during that stretch of time. There were other quality players in the lineup as well. Ray Grimes was a 27-year-old rookie in 1921 and hit .322 for his career. In 1921 they also traded for catcher Ernie Krueger, who proceeded to hit .309 for the next 10 years in Philadelphia. Although the pitching was much weaker than the offense, Bob Shawkey did win 271 games and three Cy Young awards between 1916 and 1927, all for the A’s.
Needless to say, the team dominated the AL during that time, though exact records no longer exist. I can say that the A’s won 9 pennants and 4 World Series championships in the pre-1948 era, and I believe that most or all of that success came from this time period.