50 home run club

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 by|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.

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:

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 by|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 [http://espn.go.com/talent/danpatrick/s/2002/0531/1389144.html] and [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7783162/ 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 [http://redsox.bostonherald.com/otherMLB/view.bg?articleid=149480] [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/03/MNGGFA0UDU65.DTL] [http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/02/17/sports/professional/21_06_592_16_06.txt] [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/magazine/life_of_reilly/news/2002/07/02/life_of_reilly/] [http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/03/17/steroids.baseball/] . This brings into question the legitimacy of their numbers [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45394-2005Mar17.html] . 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. Luis Gonzalez with 57 homers in 2001 had never come as close to 50 as 31 previously and never came as close as 30 to 50 again. Similarly, Greg Vaughn and his 50 in 1998 had only come as close as 30 previously and only hit 45 once after (the next year [1999] ) and never came close to 40 again. Anderson, Vaughn and Gonzalez' single year accomplishments also fuel the steroid controversy. With his 51 homers in 1990, Cecil Fielder holds the single-season record for most home runs without stealing a single base. The Fielders, Cecil and Prince are the only father-son to accomplish 50 home runs in a season.

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:

The New York Yankees hold the record with eight 50+ home run seasons, as well as the record with four different players:

Notes