HRs1

Part 2. Steroid Era Home Runs

How impressive are the HR accomplishments of the steroid era? Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds set single-season home run records, but admitted they used testosterone-enhancing substances that turned them into humanoids. As baseball is a human endeavor, any accomplishment that is at least partially attributable to technological changes to humanness that result in improved athleticism should not be accepted by MLB or its fans. Some of the stupendous offensive statistics established in recent years need to be marked with asterisks or considered with many grains of salt. The problem with doing that is that we don’t know which ones and probably never will. However, the recent high single-season home run totals are much less special than they seem anyway.

In its preview of the 2003 season (March 30), the New York Times noted, “Since the two-league system began in 1901, a player has 50 or more home runs in a season 36 times. Half of those 36 were in the past 8 seasons.” The Times charted the 50-HR seasons and Murray Chass wrote an accompanying article. Chass quoted baseball people to illustrate the variety of obvious reasons why home runs have increased. Those include smaller ballparks, steroids, cycles, and willingness to strike out and other hitting strategies.

Although home runs are far from the most interesting events in baseball, the Times feature inspired me to analyze the relative significance of the high home run totals. Obviously, Bonds didn’t hit more home runs than every other team in the league as Babe Ruth did, but we have no yardstick for measuring how special 73 home runs is. HR per AB neutralizes the differences in season-length, but doesn’t create a perspective.

I analyzed the top 113 single-season home run totals to learn how special each was. The top 100 stretches to 113 because 45 home runs were achieved 16 times.

Chart 8. Top Single-Season Home Run Totals

Rank	Player	HR	Rank	Player	HR
1	Barry Bonds	73	55	Jimmie Foxx	48
2	Mark McGwire	70		Harmon Killebrew	48
3	Sammy Sosa	66		Frank Howard	48
4	Mark McGwire	65		Willie Stargell	48
5	Sammy Sosa	64		Dave Kingman	48
6	Sammy Sosa	63		Mike Schmidt	48
7	Roger Maris	61		Albert Belle	48
8	Babe Ruth	60		Ken Griffey Jr.	48
9	Babe Ruth	59	63	Babe Ruth	47
10	Jimmie Foxx	58		Lou Gehrig	47
	Hank Greenberg	58		Ralph Kiner	47
	Mark McGwire*	58		Eddie Mathews	47
13	Luis Gonzalez	57		Ted Kluszewski	47
	Alex Rodriguez	57		Ernie Banks	47
15	Hack Wilson	56		Willie Mays	47
	Ken Griffey Jr.	56		Reggie Jackson	47
	Ken Griffey Jr.	56		Hank Aaron	47
18	Babe Ruth	54		George Bell	47
	Babe Ruth	54		Kevin Mitchell	47
	Ralph Kiner	54		Andres Galarraga	47
	Mickey Mantle	54		Juan Gonzalez	47
22	Mickey Mantle	52		Rafael Palmeiro	47
	Willie Mays	52		Jeff Bagwell	47
	George Foster	52		Troy Glaus	47
	Mark McGwire	52		Rafael Palmeiro	47
	Alex Rodriguez	52		Alex Rodriguez	47
	Jim Thome	52		Jim Thome	47
28	Ralph Kiner	51	82	Babe Ruth	46
	Johnny Mize	51		Babe Ruth	46
	Willie Mays	51		Lou Gehrig	46
	Cecil Fielder	51		Babe Ruth	46
32	Jimmie Foxx	50		Joe DiMaggio	46
	Albert Belle	50		Eddie Mathews	46
	Brady Anderson	50		Orlando Cepeda	46
	Greg Vaughn	50		Jim Gentile	46
	Sammy Sosa	50		Harmon Killebrew	46
37	Babe Ruth	49		Jim Rice	46
	Lou Gehrig	49		Barry Bonds	46
	Lou Gehrig	49		Juan Gonzalez	46
	Ted Kluszewski	49		Jose Canseco	46
	Willie Mays	49		Vinny Castilla	46
	Harmon Killebrew	49		Barry Bonds	46
	Frank Robinson	49	97	Ernie Banks	45
	Harmon Killebrew	49		Rocky Colavito	45
	Andre Dawson	49	113	Hank Aaron	45
	Mark McGwire	49		Harmon Killebrew	45
	Ken Griffey Jr.	49		Willie McCovey	45
	Larry Walker	49		Johnny Bench	45
	Albert Belle	49		Mike Schmidt	45
	Barry Bonds	49		Gorman Thomas	45
	Shawn Green	49		Ken Griffey Jr.	45
	Todd Helton	49		Juan Gonzalez	45
	Jim Thome	49		Manny Ramirez	45
	Sammy Sosa	49		Chipper Jones	45
				Greg Vaughn	45
	*excluded from study because he played in both leagues			Richie Sexson	45
				Barry Bonds	45
				Richie Sexson	45

continued