MLB Baseball Home Run Records
Facts and Figures About the Long Ball From 1869 Until Today
The Home Run is Baseball's Ultimate Moment. Here are the all of the numbers and records that you need to know about the long ball.
Face it: just like the popular Major League Baseball promotion announced a few years ago: "Chicks Dig the Long Ball." And why shouldn't they? The Home Run is the most majestic moment in all of sports. It's the only time, in any competitve game, when the ball is still considered live and the defense is wholly powerless to stop the other team's offense from scoring. It's the ultimate knockout punch. Well, except maybe for the knockout punch itself. But nobody really cares about boxing anymore, so we can tax that analogy from the sweet science and use it here.
Over the past fifteen years, there has been a proliferation in the number of Home Runs hit in the MLB. Some credit this rise to a dearth of pitching; others attribute the spike to shorter fences, more tightly wound baseballs, or lighter bats. Nearly everyone thinks that steroids have played a part. Regardless of the cause of the recent splurge, it has revived the sport's popularity.
Here for your pleasure is a collection of the truly important individual home run records: by career, by season, and by game.
Career Home Run Records
Most Career Home Runs
1. Henry Aaron (755). Hammerin' Hank will likely lose his all-time home run king crown sometime very soon. However, the time is coming when Barry Bonds will pass Hank Aaron.
2. Barry Bonds (745). Yes, Bonds is going to do it, and if you live oustide the San Francisco area, you are probably very upset about it.
3. Babe Ruth (714). Fat Guy, Big Swing. One can only imagine what Ruth could have done if he spent the first five years of his career as an every day player instead of as the best left-handed pitcher in the American League.
Most Career Home Runs By a Switch-Hiitter
Mickey Mantle (536)
Most Career Home Runs Hit Before 1900
Roger Connor (136). Connor played in the early days of organized major league ball, hitting the horsehide for six different teams, leading the league in homers twice, and finishing in the top 10 in dingers on twelve different occasions. In all, his 136 round-trippers in seventeen years made him the Babe Ruth of the early dead ball era.
Most Home Runs Per Decade (1880-2007)
1870-1879: Lipman Emanuel Pike - 20
1880-1889: Roger Connor - 67
1890-1899: Ed Delahanty (Phillies) - 79
1900-1909: Harry Davis (Philadelphia A's) - 67
1910-1919: Cavvy Cravath (Phillies) - 116
1920-1929: Babe Ruth (New York Yankees) - 467
1930-1939: Jimmie Foxx (Athletics/Red Sox) - 415
1940-1949: Ted Williams (Red Sox) - 234 (Despite missing 3 full seasons to WWII)
1950-1959: Duke Snyder (Brooklyn Dodgers) - 326
1960-1969: Harmon Killebrew (Senators/Twins) - 393
1970-1979: Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh Pirates) - 296
1980-1989: Mike Schmidt (Phillies) - 313
1990-1999: Mark McGwire (A's/Cardinals) - 405
2000-Present: Barry Bonds - (Giants) - 300
Single Season Home Run Records
National League: Barry Bond (73). In 2001, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke St. Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire's three-year old record of 70.
American League: Roger Maris (61). Although this number has been broken six times in the last decade (thrice by Sammy Sosa, twice by Mark McGwire and once by Bonds), Maris's mark, set in 1961, still stands as the single season American League record.
154 Game Season Record: Babe Ruth (60). When Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, he did it in the first 162-game season that baseball ever had. Due to the admission of two new teams through expansion, the ML and AL extended their regular seasons by eight games apiece. Although Maris broke the record, he did not hit his 60th and 61st homers before the end of the 154th games of the Yankees' season, and many who were loyal to Babe Ruth, including then-comissioner Ford Frick, refused to give the new record its due. Today, Maris's mark is seen as the better of the two, and the whole ordeal gave birth to one of baseball's ten best movies.
Home Runs in Most Consecutive Games (8). Three players have put together legendary streaks in this area: Dale Long first accomplished the feat for the Pirates in May, 1956. New York Yankee Don Mattingly matched it in June and July of 1987. Ken Griffey also tied it in 1997 for the Seattle Mariners. Mattingly hit a total of 10 home runs during his streak, while Long and Griffey each hit 8.
Single Game Home Run Record
Most Home Runs in a Single Game
Four (4), by the following players:
Bobby Lowe - (1894)
Ed Delahanty - (1896)
Lou Gehrig - (1932)
Chuck Klein - (1936)
Pat Seery - (1948)
Gil Hodges - (1950)
Joe Adcock - (1954)
Rocky Colavito - (1959)
Willie Mays - (1961)
Mike Schmidt - (1976)
Bob Horner - (1986)
Mark Whiten - (1993)
Mike Cameron - (2002)
Shawn Green - (2002)
Carlos Delgado - (2003)
Most Grand Slams, One Inning:
Fernando Tatis, St. Louis Cardinals - April 23, 1999
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Everything You Need to Know About the 400 Home Run Club.
