50 home run club

Mark McGwire (left) and Sammy Sosa (right) are the only players to join the 50 home run club in four consecutive seasons.

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 50 home run club is the group of batters who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season.^[1][2][3] Babe Ruth was the first to achieve this, doing so in 1920. By reaching the milestone, he also became the first player to hit 30 and then 40 home runs in a single-season, breaking his own record of 29 from the 1919 season.^[4] Ruth subsequently became the first player to reach the 50 home run club on four occasions, repeating the achievement in 1921, 1927 and 1928.^[5][6] He remained the only player to accomplish this until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa matched his feat in 1999 and 2001, respectively, thus becoming the only players to achieve four consecutive 50 home run seasons.^[6] Barry Bonds hit the most home runs to join the club, collecting 73 in 2001.^[6] The most recent player to reach the milestone is Chris Davis, achieving the feat during the 2013 season.^[7]

In total, 27 players have reached the 50 home run club in MLB history^[8] and nine have done so more than once.^[6] Of these, fifteen were right-handed batters, eleven were left-handed, and one was a switch hitter, meaning he could bat from either side of the plate. Two of these players (including one active member of the 50 home run club)^[9] have played for only one major league team. The New York Yankees are the only franchise to have four different players reach the milestone while on their roster: Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Alex Rodriguez. Ten players are also members of the 500 home run club^[10] and two of them (Willie Mays and Rodriguez) are also a members of the 3,000 hit club.^[11] Ten players won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their 50 home run season.^[12] Mantle is the only player to have earned the Major League Triple Crown alongside achieving 50 home runs, leading both leagues in batting average, home runs and runs batted in (RBI).^[13][14][15] Mantle and Maris—collectively known as the M&M Boys—are the only teammates to reach the 50 home run club in the same season, hitting a combined 115 home runs in 1961 and breaking the single-season record for home runs by a pair of teammates.^[16][17] Albert Belle is the only player to amass 50 or more doubles in addition to attaining 50 home runs.^[18][19] Prince Fielder, at 23 years and 139 days, was the youngest player to reach the milestone while Bonds, at age 37, was the oldest.^[20][21]

Due to the infrequent addition of members into the 50 home run club, Baseball Digest called it "a restrictive fraternity comprising slugging elite"^[22] in 1954, when there were only six members. Of the seventeen members eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame, eight have been elected and three were elected on the first ballot. Eligibility requires that a player has "been retired five seasons" or deceased for at least six months,^[23] disqualifying eight active players and two players who have been retired for less than five seasons. Some believe the milestone has become less important with the large number of new members;^[24][25] fifteen different players joined the club in a total of 24 occasions from 1995 to 2010.^[6] Additionally, several of these recent members have had ties to performance-enhancing drugs.^{[26][27][28][29]}

Members

Babe Ruth was the first member of the 50 home run club and joined it in four different seasons, a record he shares with Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

Jimmie Foxx achieved the 50 home run club and won the MVP Award in 1932 and 1938.

Mickey Mantle (right) earned the Triple Crown in addition to achieving the 50 home run club in 1956. Five years later, he and Roger Maris (left) became the only teammates to reach the 50 home run club in the same season.

Key

Year	The year the player's 50 home run season occurred
Player (X)	Name of the player and number of 50 home run seasons they had accomplished at that point
Team	The player's team for his 50 home run season
HR	Number of home runs in that season
Career HR	The number of home runs the player hit in his MLB career
^	Denotes single-season home run record progression
	Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
	Player is active

Members of the 50 home run club

Year	Player	Team	HR	Career HR	Ref
1920	Ruth, BabeBabe Ruth	New York Yankees	54^	714	[5]
1921	Ruth, BabeBabe Ruth (2)	New York Yankees	59^	714	[5]
1927	Ruth, BabeBabe Ruth (3)	New York Yankees	60^	714	[5]
1928	Ruth, BabeBabe Ruth (4)	New York Yankees	54	714	[5]
1930	Wilson, HackHack Wilson	Chicago Cubs	56	244	[30]
1932	Foxx, JimmieJimmie Foxx	Philadelphia Athletics	58	534	[31]
1938	Foxx, JimmieJimmie Foxx (2)	Boston Red Sox	50	534	[31]
1938	Greenberg, HankHank Greenberg	Detroit Tigers	58	331	[32]
1947	Mize, JohnnyJohnny Mize	New York Giants	51	359	[33]
1947	Kiner, RalphRalph Kiner	Pittsburgh Pirates	51	369	[34]
1949	Kiner, RalphRalph Kiner (2)	Pittsburgh Pirates	54	369	[34]
1955	Mays, WillieWillie Mays	New York Giants	51	660	[35]
1956	Mantle, MickeyMickey Mantle	New York Yankees	52	536	[36]
1961	Mantle, MickeyMickey Mantle (2)	New York Yankees	54	536	[36]
1961	Maris, RogerRoger Maris	New York Yankees	61^	275	[37]
1965	Mays, WillieWillie Mays (2)	San Francisco Giants	52	660	[35]
1977	Foster, GeorgeGeorge Foster	Cincinnati Reds	52	348	[38]
1990	Fielder, CecilCecil Fielder	Detroit Tigers	51	319	[39]
1995	Belle, AlbertAlbert Belle	Cleveland Indians	50	381	[40]
1996	Anderson, BradyBrady Anderson	Baltimore Orioles	50	210	[41]
1996	McGwire, MarkMark McGwire	Oakland Athletics	52	583	[42]
1997	Griffey, Jr., KenKen Griffey, Jr.	Seattle Mariners	56	630	[43]
1997	McGwire, MarkMark McGwire (2)	Oakland Athletics St. Louis Cardinals	58	583	[42]
1998	Vaughn, GregGreg Vaughn	San Diego Padres	50	355	[44]
1998	Griffey, Jr., KenKen Griffey, Jr. (2)	Seattle Mariners	56	630	[43]
1998	Sosa, SammySammy Sosa	Chicago Cubs	66	609	[45]
1998	McGwire, MarkMark McGwire (3)	St. Louis Cardinals	70^	583	[42]
1999	Sosa, SammySammy Sosa (2)	Chicago Cubs	63	609	[45]
1999	McGwire, MarkMark McGwire (4)	St. Louis Cardinals	65	583	[42]
2000	Sosa, SammySammy Sosa (3)	Chicago Cubs	50	609	[45]
2001	Rodriguez, AlexAlex Rodriguez	Texas Rangers	52	696	[46]
2001	Gonzalez, LuisLuis Gonzalez	Arizona Diamondbacks	57	354	[47]
2001	Sosa, SammySammy Sosa (4)	Chicago Cubs	64	609	[45]
2001	Bonds, BarryBarry Bonds	San Francisco Giants	73^	762	[48]
2002	Thome, JimJim Thome	Cleveland Indians	52	612	[49]
2002	Rodriguez, AlexAlex Rodriguez (2)	Texas Rangers	57	696	[46]
2005	Jones, AndruwAndruw Jones	Atlanta Braves	51	434	[50]
2006	Howard, RyanRyan Howard	Philadelphia Phillies	58	371	[9]
2006	Ortiz, DavidDavid Ortiz	Boston Red Sox	54	528	[51]
2007	Rodriguez, AlexAlex Rodriguez (3)	New York Yankees	54	696	[46]
2007	Fielder, PrincePrince Fielder	Milwaukee Brewers	50	319	[52]
2010	Bautista, JoséJosé Bautista	Toronto Blue Jays	54	301	[53]
2013	Davis, ChrisChris Davis	Baltimore Orioles	53	225	[54]

See also

• List of Major League Baseball home run champions
• Major League Baseball single-season home run record
• List of Major League Baseball home run records

References

General

Specific