There goes the doubles record. Votto needs surgery, will miss a month.

Sleep soundly, Earl Webb, your doubles record is safe. Votto will miss a month.

Votto was on pace to break the all-time record for doubles in a season. He had 35 at the mid-point of the season. The highest total ever recorded, in 136 previous seasons of major league baseball, is 67 (It's held by Earl Webb, a nondescript rightfielder for the Red Sox in the early 30s). The NL record is Ducky Medwick's 64. The post-WW2 record is 59, held by Todd Helton.

Medwick and Helton were great and famous players, so it's no surprise to see them on top of those lists, but Earl Webb is another matter. He was a pretty good ballplayer, but that year with 67 doubles was a fluke. His second-best total in MLB was a mediocre 30, and the Red Sox were so unimpressed by his big season that they traded him away the very next year. He was out of the majors one more year after that, already 35 years old, although he had played only three full seasons in the majors. Webb had lingered seven seasons in the minors before he became a major league regular. The Giants and Cubs brought him up at various times, but both sent him back down. The Reds finally picked him up from the Cubs after he tore the PCL a new asshole in 1929, hitting .357 with 99 extra base hits, including 56 doubles and 37 homers, but a career with Cincinnati wasn't in the cards. The Reds put him on waivers in spring training, whereupon the Senators picked him up and traded him almost immediately to the Red Sox, who finally gave the guy a chance to play. Unfortunately for Webb, he was already 31, which was almost elderly for ballplayers of that era. He had a couple of good years (he batted clean-up for the Red Sox on opening day in 1931 and 1932), but Father Time caught up with him. After his brief stint in the Big Show, Webb hung around for a few more years in the minors, where he was again a solid hitter, but would never again hit more than 33 doubles in a season, even when he was posting some big batting averages.

Still and all, ol' Earl Webb could swing the bat. His lifetime batting average in AA ball was .345 in more than 2500 at-bats. Even his lifetime major league average was a solid .306, and he hit .333 in the year when he cranked all those two-baggers.