The 46 Homerun Club
by
Asher B. Chancey,
BaseballEvolution.com
September 13, 2006
Editor's Note: This article was written in 2006. For the complete up to date list of players who have hit 46 or more home runs, go to here.
Gatorade has a campaign currently airing during various sporting events in which different famous sports moments are shown, but the famous images have been altered to show an alternative outcome to these famous moments – Jordan misses his shot over Craig Ehlo, Posada misses the tag on Giambi on the Jeter back hand playoff play, Dwight Clark fails to reel in "the Catch."
I think a neat addition to that commercial would be Carlton Fisk's shot off the foul pole in the 1975 World Series – he hits it, he starts gesturing wildly, the crowd goes nuts, and then it just breezes past on the foul side of the pole.
A while back, I chronicled what I called, cleverly, the 49 homerun club. I found this to be a fascinating club, because when a player hits 49 homeruns, it is just another season, but when he hits 50, it is history. So, the 49 homerun club is full of guys who missed history by a proverbial hair – a ball going foul, or a well hit ball on a day the wind is blowing in, or a day off against a homerun pitcher.
In recent years, the significance of the 49 homerun club has waned as more players have hit 50 – remember when we went from 1977 to 1990 with no one hitting 50? Now we can't go two years.
Nevertheless, the 49 homerun club remains impressive, and somewhat mystical, simply because of the incredible significance of that lone homerun, the one that takes a player into the history books.
For what its worth, Ryan Howard has a shot, this season, of becoming only the second member of the 59 homerun club, joining Babe Ruth. Stay tuned.
I bring this up now because it has only recently become clear that, while 49 is mystical and special, we should not underrate the value of the 48, 47, and 46 homerun clubs, because they too are pretty impressive. Think no one really notices how impressive 49 dingers is? 48, 47, and 46 dingers are really underrated.
Consider:
- there have only been 103 instances of a player hitting 46 or more homeruns in major league history. In the 100 plus seasons of Major League Baseball, that is a tiny amount
- of those 103, nine belong to Babe Ruth. That means, other than one guy, there have been 94 instances.
- Also consider that Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, and Griffey account for 18 of those instances, while Gerhig accounts for four more. So, other than six guys, there have been a total of 72 instances of players hitting 46 or more homeruns in a season.
- okay, fine, let's just list them all, shall we?
Players who have had 46 or more homeruns in one season
Babe Ruth - 9
Mark McGwire - 5
Sammy Sosa - 5
Alex Rodriguez - 4
Barry Bonds - 4
Harmon Killebrew - 4
Ken Griffey - 4
Lou Gehrig - 4
Willie Mays - 4
Albert Belle - 3
Jim Thome - 3
Jimmie Foxx - 3
Ralph Kiner - 3
Eddie Mathews - 2
Juan Gonzalez - 2
Mickey Mantle - 2
Rafael Palmeiro - 2
Ted Kluszewski - 2
Adam Dunn - 1
Adrian Beltre - 1
Albert Pujols - 1
Andre Dawson - 1
Andres Galarraga - 1
Andruw Jones - 1
Brady Anderson - 1
Cecil Fielder - 1
Dave Kingman - 1
David Ortiz - 1
Derrek Lee - 1
Ernie Banks - 1
Frank Howard - 1
Frank Robinson - 1
George Bell - 1
George Foster - 1
Greg Vaughn - 1
Hack Wilson - 1
Hank Aaron - 1
Hank Greenberg - 1
Jeff Bagwell - 1
Jim Gentile - 1
Jim Rice - 1
Joe DiMaggio - 1
Johnny Mize - 1
Jose Canseco - 1
Kevin Mitchell - 1
Larry Walker - 1
Luis Gonzalez - 1
Mike Schmidt - 1
Orlando Cepeda - 1
Reggie Jackson - 1
Roger Maris - 1
Shawn Green - 1
Todd Helton - 1
Troy Glaus - 1
Vinny Castilla - 1
Willie Stargell - 1
When you look at how many players have accomplished the feat more than once, it really puts into perspective how impressive hitting 46 or more homeruns is. The overall point is – yes, hitting 70 is a twice in a lifetime thing; hitting 60 or more is something to tell the grandkids; hitting 50 or more is historic; and hitting 49 is mystical and makes you think. But in the end, if you have hit 46 or more homeruns, you have joined a pretty elite club yourself.
Though, I could imagine Groucho Marx in this situation – "I would never join a club that had Vinny Castilla as a member." Or something like that.
As you all know, I am sure, this illustrious club will probably have several new members this season. Ryan Howard has already boldly gone where only eleven men have gone a combined 17 times before.
David Ortiz is currently in an eleven way tie for 56th with his 48 dingers, and has a chance to finish the season as a member of the 49 homerun club.
Albert Pujols and Alfonso Soriano each need only one more dinger to join the 46+ club.
And Jermaine Dye, Adam Dunn, and Carlos Beltran all currently have 40 or more homeruns with roughly 15 games each to get to 46. Impressively, Beltran has hit 40 or more in only 128 games.
I just hate to see a guy end up with 46, 47, 48, or even 49 homeruns, and the casual baseball fans dismiss his season as not being special because the guy didn't hit 50.
He may not have hit 50, but it was still special.
Disagree with something? Got something to add? Wanna bring up something totally new? Asher resides in Philadelphia, PA and can be reached at asher@baseballevolution.com.
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