Legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) CEO Warren Buffett has long relied on simple metaphors to explain complex financial principles, and one of his most enduring comparisons comes from America’s pastime. “In baseball lingo, our performance yardstick is slugging percentage, not batting average,” he wrote in 1992, using the sport’s statistics to illustrate how he evaluates Berkshire Hathaway’s results and, more broadly, how he believes investors should measure success.
The comment appears in one of Buffett’s annual shareholder letters, communications that have become widely studied for their clarity and investment insight. In this context, the baseball analogy serves to distinguish between activities that look productive on the surface and those that actually create long-term value. A high batting average suggests frequent but modest hits, while a strong slugging percentage reflects fewer but more consequential swings — an idea Buffett applies to capital allocation decisions.
