Table of Content
The first home run champion in the National League was George Hall. In the league's inaugural 1876 season, Hall hit five home runs for the short-lived National League Philadelphia Athletics. In 1901, the American League was established and Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie led it with 14 home runs for the American League Philadelphia Athletics. Over the course of his 22-season career, Babe Ruth led the American League in home runs twelve times.
Mark McGwire, for example, hit 58 home runs in 1997, more than any other player that year. David Ortiz’s first career postseason home run came from Mike Mussina in Game 1 of the 2003 ALCS. “Big Papi” followed up with another homer from David Wells in Game 7 of that same series. Nevertheless, Ortiz became a legend in 2004, hitting two walk-off homers in that postseason. The first was off Jarrod Washburn in Game 3 of the 2004 ALDS, then off Paul Quantrill in the 14th inning of the ALCS, throttling a Boston Red Sox comeback in the series.
Major League Baseball Batting Leaders
Full-year historical Major League statistics provided by Pete Palmer and Gary Gillette of Hidden Game Sports.
Albert Pujols and George Springer have a combined three World Series. Pujols is the 2004 NLCS MVP who went deep four times as he is one of 10 players to hit t three times in a postseason game. His most memorable homer came in a series his team lost which was the 2005 NLCS, hitting a ball off of Brad Lidge for a three-run shot to give St. Louis the lead in the top of the ninth inning. If Pujols made more than one postseason appearance with the Los Angeles Angels, he could have climbed to the top of this list. All images are property the copyright holder and are displayed here for informational purposes only. Jose Altuve is second on the all-time postseason leaderboard, ranking behind only Manny Ramirez with 29.
Team Pitching
While eight players have won a league home run crown before turning 23, it’s never happened in both leagues during the same year. It's the first time that the first 5 players to reach 40 HR in a season were all born in different countries. Jim Thome finds his way on this list while also being heavily featured on the Guardians‘ single-season home run leaderboard.
His 47-homer campaign was his first with the Phillies after spending the duration of his career prior to that season in Cleveland. It was actually his third straight season of 40-plus homers, a streak that would reach four when he did it again in 2004. At this rate, Howard’s .881 OPS had decreased for the second consecutive year after his MVP season in 2006, but he found others ways to make an impact. He led the league in both homers and RBI for the second time in three years and finished second in MVP voting to Albert Pujols. He did also end up winning a World Series later, so that seems like a solid trade-off.
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
Ruth set the Major League Baseball single-season home run record four times, first at 29 , then 54 , 59 , and finally 60 . Ruth's 1920 and 1921 seasons are tied for the widest margin of victory for a home run champion as he topped the next highest total by 35 home runs in each season. The single season mark of 60 stood for 34 years until Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961 for which MLB assigned an asterisk until reversing themselves in 1991 citing Maris had accomplished his record in a longer season. Maris' mark was broken 37 years later by both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa during the 1998 home run record chase, with McGwire ultimately setting a new record of 70. Barry Bonds, who also has the most career home runs, then broke that mark, setting the current single season record of 73 in 2001.
An automatic home run is achieved by hitting the ball on the fly over the outfield fence in fair territory. More rarely, an inside-the-park home run occurs when the hitter reaches home plate while the baseball remains in play on the field. In Major League Baseball , a player in each league wins the home run title each season by hitting the most home runs that year. Only home runs hit in a particular league count towards that league's seasonal lead.
Ryan Howard: 58 Home Runs in 2006
Altuve’s first three postseason homers came in the same, putting up a three-homer showing in Game 1 of the 2017 ALDS against the Boston Red Sox. While he’s hit his fair share of first-inning home runs, Altuve’s most iconic blast came in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS. The 2017 AL MVP hit a walk-off shot against Aroldis Chapman to send Houston to the World Series.
This list also includes Hall of Famers Mel Ott, Joe DiMaggio, Eddie Mathews and Johnny Bench, two-time MVP Juan Gonzalez and three-time MVP Alex Rodriguez. Jose Cruz of the Houston Astros had his number twenty-five retired on October 3, 1992, and became the first Major League player with that particular retired number. He also added an incredible 488-foot home run in the postseason that we’re all still in awe of. Sammy Sosa led the National League in home runs twice, with 49 and 50, but finished second four times with home run counts of 36, 66, 63, and 64. Alex Rodriguez led the American League in home runs five times, three with the Texas Rangers and twice with the New York Yankees. Ken Griffey Jr. led the American League in home runs in four seasons during the 1990s, including three consecutively from 1997 to 1999.
This was the beginning of a pattern for the first baseman where he’d post a month with an OPS greater than .900, followed by another month with an OPS below .800. In the months he was good, Howard collected at least 10 homers and 25 RBI, which happened in May, July, and September. That final month was his best work, which included his highest monthly totals for homers and RBI , as well as his best OPS (1.274). Through the first four months of Schmidt’s season, he posted an OPS greater than 1.000 just once (it was in May — 1.189 with 12 homers and 29 RBI).
The last change in the cutoff for the top 300 occurred on September 11, 2022, when Eugenio Suarez hit his 223rd career home run, displacing Jason Bay and Don Mattingly. Perez would have had the best chance of getting there, as he blasted 11 dingers in 37 games. This is the first time in MLB history that 3 players who had never previously had a 30-HR season all hit 45+ HR in the same year. According to Stats Perform, this is the first time that three players who had never previously reached the 30-homer plateau all hit 45 or more in the same year. Through his first 118 plate appearances, he had just five homers and 12 RBI while posting a .640 OPS.
Mike Schmidt and Ralph Kiner have the second and third most home run titles respectively, Schmidt with eight and Kiner with seven, all won in the National League. Kiner's seven consecutive titles from 1946 to 1952 are also the most consecutive home run titles by any player. Of the homer campaigns in AL/NL history by a player in his age-22 season or younger, three have come in the past three years -- one by Ronald Acuña Jr. , one by Guerrero and one by Tatis.
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