50 home run club
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In Major League Baseball, the 50 home run club is an informal term applied to the group of players who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season. The 50 Home Run Club was "founded" by Babe Ruth in 1920. At the time, he became the first player to hit not only 50 home runs in a season, but 40 and 30 as well, breaking his own single season record of 29 from the 1919 season.
Mentioned less frequently are the 60 Home Run Club and the 70 Home Run Club, which have five and two members respectively. These "clubs" have become more populated since the 1998 season, which saw membership in the 60 Home Run Club double. That year, Mark McGwire became the founding member of the 70 Home Run Club when he set a new single-season record. He has since been surpassed by Barry Bonds, the only other member of the 70 Home Run Club.
Contents |
[edit] The club
As of the 2007 season, 25 players have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season, a total of 41 times:
† indicates an active player.
‡ indicates a franchise record.
^ indicates previous single-season record.
Current single-season record in boldface.
Career home run totals are as of through 2007.
[edit] The 60 home run club
As of the 2007 season, 5 players have hit 60 or more home runs in a single season, a total of 8 times:[1]
| Player | HR | Team | Season | Pos | Career HR | HoF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babe Ruth | 60 | NYY | 1927^ | OF | 714 | 1936 |
| Roger Maris | 61‡ | NYY | 1961^ | OF | 275 | |
| Sammy Sosa† | 66‡ | CHC | 1998 | OF | 609 | |
| Mark McGwire | 70 | STL | 1998^ | 1B | 583 | |
| Sammy Sosa | 63 | CHC | 1999 | OF | ||
| Mark McGwire | 65 | STL | 1999 | 1B | ||
| Sammy Sosa | 64 | CHC | 2001 | RF | ||
| Barry Bonds | 73‡ | SFG | 2001 | LF | 762 |
[edit] The 70 home run club
As of the 2007 season, 2 players have hit 70 or more home runs in a single season, a total of 2 times:[1]
| Player | HR | Team | Season | Pos | Career HR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mark McGwire | 70‡ | STL | 1998^ | 1B | 583 |
| Barry Bonds† | 73‡ | SFG | 2001 | LF | 762 |
[edit] Notes on the Club
Since the start of the live-ball era in the 1920s, the only decade which did not see a 50-homer season was the 1980s. Only one player — George Foster in 1977 — had a 50-homer season in the quarter-century between 1965 and 1990. Before 1990, only eleven players had hit 50 or more homers in a season, a total of 18 times in 70 years; only two of them — Ruth and Maris — had hit 60 or more. Since 1994, a period that has been called "the steroids era" by Dan Patrick [1] and Neil Hayes, thirteen more players have joined the Club by hitting 50 or more homers 21 times; three players — Sosa, McGwire and Bonds — have hit 60 or more homers a total of six times, and two of them have broken the 70 home run plateau. The eight seasons from 1995 through 2002 mark the longest stretch of consecutive seasons with at least one batter hitting 50-or-more home runs; ten batters combined to hit a total of 1,051 home runs, reaching the 50 home run plateau 18 times. The second-longest stretch was the three seasons from 2005 through 2007 (Rodriguez twice, Jones, Howard and Ortiz, and Prince Fielder).
Three notable members who joined this list since 1990 — Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire — have been embroiled in the ongoing steroids controversy [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. This brings into question the legitimacy of their numbers [7]. Bonds is the only member of the club named in Senator Mitchell's report on steroids in Major League Baseball.
Fifteen of the 24 club members have hit 50+ homers only once in their careers. Of them, Brady Anderson's 1996 performance was the greatest statistical deviation from his career numbers; `96 season was the only time in his career that he hit even 25 homers, and was one of only three seasons in which he hit as many as 20. Anderson's career home run total of 210 is the lowest of all retired members of the 50-homer club. Bonds's record-breaking 2001 season was the only year in which Bonds hit 50 or more homers; similarly, Roger Maris's record-breaking 1961 season was the only year in which Maris hit 40 or more homers.
Ten members of the club are also members of the 500 home run club (Rodriguez, Bonds, Ruth, Mays, Sosa, Griffey, McGwire, Mantle, Foxx, and Thome), while Bonds, Ruth, Mays, Sosa and Griffey are five of the six members of the 600-homer club. Conversely, three retired members of the club have hit less than 300 career home runs: Anderson with 210, Wilson with 244, and Maris with 275.
Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Babe Ruth share the record for most 50+ homer seasons, with four each. Additionally, all three players recorded another season in which they hit 49 home runs (Ruth in 1930; McGwire in 1987; Sosa in 2002), each falling one home run short of becoming the first player with five 50+ home run seasons. McGwire's 49 home run season was also his rookie season, and remains the rookie record, causing him to come up one longball shy of becoming the first rookie to hit 50 or more home runs. Sosa's 49 home run season followed on the heels of his third 60 home run season, causing him to come up one longball shy of also becoming the first batter to hit 50-or-more home runs in five consecutive seasons. McGwire also holds the record for most homers in two consecutive seasons with 135 (70 in 1998, 65 in 1999), as well as the record for homers in three (193 from 1997-99) and four consecutive seasons (245 from 1996-99).
Babe Ruth was the first player to hit 50 or more homers in two consecutive seasons, 1920 and 1921; Ruth later hit 50 or more homers in consecutive seasons again, in 1927 and 1928, after which the feat wouldn't be repeated for nearly 70 years. McGwire was the first player to hit 50 or more homers in three consecutive seasons (1996, 1997 and 1998), as well as the first player to hit 50 or more homers in four consecutive seasons (1996-1999), while Sosa was the first player to hit 50 or more homers in four consecutive seasons in the National League (1998-2001). Sosa was also the first batter to hit 60-or-more home runs in two consecutive seasons (1998 and 1999); he beat McGwire to the accomplishment by eight days, having hit his 60th home run of the `99 season on September 18 before McGwire hit his 60th on the 26th.
Sosa became the first player to hit 60 or more home runs three times (1998, 1999 and 2001), and yet he ironically did not lead the National League in homers in any of the three seasons; he was second to McGwire in both `98 and `99, and was second to Bonds in his record-breaking `01 season. Sosa, born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, was the first batter from outside of the United States to hit 50-or-more home runs in a season. A total of three batters in the club have been born outside of the U.S.:
| Batters born outside the United States | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Batter | Born | HR | Year |
| Sammy Sosa | Dominican Republic | 66 63 50 64 |
1998 1999 2000 2001 |
| Andruw Jones | Netherlands Antilles | 51 | 2005 |
| David Ortiz | Dominican Republic | 54 | 2006 |
| 348 | |||
McGwire is the only player to hit 50 or more homers in a season during which he played for more than one team, having been traded from the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals on 31 July 1997; he is also the only player to accomplish the feat in a season during which he played in both leagues. He, Jimmie Foxx, and Alex Rodriguez are the only players to have hit 50 homers in a season for more than one team:
| Batters with a 50-home run season with more than one team | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batter | Team | HR | Year | Team | HR | Year |
| Jimmie Foxx | Philadelphia Athletics | 52 | 1932 | Boston Red Sox | 58 | 1938 |
| Mark McGwire | Oakland Athletics & St. Louis Cardinals | 58 | 1997 | |||
| Oakland Athletics | 52 | 1996 | St. Louis Cardinals | 70 65 |
1998 1999 |
|
| Alex Rodriguez | Texas Rangers | 52 57 |
2001 2002 |
New York Yankees | 54 | 2007 |
The New York Yankees hold the record with eight 50+ home run seasons (four by Ruth; two by Mantle; one each by Maris and Rodriguez), but did not have a player with 50-or-more home runs in 45 years until Alex Rodriguez in 2007. The Yankees also hold the record with four different players who have hit 50-or-more home runs in a season. Hank Aaron, with the second most career home runs (755), is not a member of the 50 home run club, never having hit more than 47 home runs in a single season. The 1938 season was the first in which two players — Foxx and Greenberg — each hit 50 or more homers. The 1998 season was the first in which two players — McGwire and Sosa — each hit 60 or more homers. The 1998 and 2001 seasons share the record for the most players in a year to hit 50 or more homers, with four batters each — Vaughn, Griffey, Sosa and McGwire in 1998; Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Sosa and Bonds in 2001.
Prince Fielder is the youngest player to reach the mark, hitting his 50th home run of the 2007 season at the age of 23; along with Cecil Fielder, the two are the only father-son duo to each hit 50 home runs in a season. Bonds is the oldest player to reach the mark, hitting his single-season record 73 home runs at the age of 37; along with Willie Mays, the two are the only godfather-godson duo to each hit 50 home runs in a season, while Bonds' father reached 39 home runs in 1973. Griffey's father never hit more than 21 home runs in a season (1986), though the Griffey's are the only father-son pair ever to hit back-to-back home runs, on 14 September 1990 — fifteen days before Cecil Fielder hit his 50th and 51st home runs of the `90 campaign.
The Arizona Diamondbacks were the youngest team to have a player hit 50-or-more home runs; they had been a National League franchise for only four years when Gonzalez hit 57 in 2001. Of the teams that have had a 50+ home run season, the Braves took the longest to have a player achieve the feat, at 130 years before Jones hit 51 in 2005; of American League teams with a 50+ home run season, the Baltimore Orioles took the longest at 96 years before Anderson hit 50 in 1996.
Twelve teams have never had a player hit 50-or-more home runs in a season:
| Major League teams without a 50-home run season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Age | Record | Batter | Year |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 117 yrs | 49 | Shawn Green | 2001 |
| Chicago White Sox | 107 yrs | 49 | Albert Belle | 1998 |
| Minnesota Twins | 107 yrs | 49 | Harmon Killebrew | 1964 1969 |
| Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim | 47 yrs | 47 | Troy Glaus | 2000 |
| Houston Astros | 46 yrs | 47 | Jeff Bagwell | 2000 |
| New York Mets | 46 yrs | 41 | Todd Hundley Carlos Beltran |
1996 2006 |
| Kansas City Royals | 39 yrs | 36 | Steve Balboni | 1985 |
| Washington Nationals | 39 yrs | 46 | Alfonso Soriano | 2006 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 31 yrs | 47 | George Bell | 1987 |
| Colorado Rockies | 15 yrs | 49 | Larry Walker Todd Helton |
1997 2001 |
| Florida Marlins | 15 yrs | 42 | Gary Sheffield | 1996 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 10 yrs | 46 | Carlos Peña | 2007 |
