50 Home Run Club
In total, 31 players have reached the 50 home run club in MLB history and ten have done so more than once. Of these, eighteen were right-handed batters, thirteen were left-handed, and one was a switch hitter, meaning he could bat from either side of the plate. Four of these players (including two active members of the 50 home run club) have played for only one major league team. The New York Yankees are the only franchise to have five players reach the milestone while on their roster: Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Alex Rodriguez, and Aaron Judge. Ten players are also members of the 500 home run club and two of them (Willie Mays and Rodriguez) are also members of the 3,000 hit club. Ten players won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their 50 home run season. 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). 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. Albert Belle is the only player to amass 50 or more doubles in addition to attaining 50 home runs. Prince Fielder, at 23 years and 139 days, was the youngest player to reach the milestone while Bonds, at age 37, was the oldest. Pete Alonso and Aaron Judge are the only players to hit 50 home runs in their rookie seasons.
Due to the infrequent addition of members into the 50 home run club, Baseball Digest called it "a restrictive fraternity comprising slugging elite" 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, disqualifying four 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; fifteen players joined the club on a total of 24 occasions from 1995 to 2010. Additionally, several of these recent members have had ties to performance-enhancing drugs.
Members
![A man in full baseball attire wears a pinstriped jersey and a baseball cap. Looking to the left of the camera, he is holding a baseball bat upward.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/13/Babe_Ruth2.jpg/220px-Babe_Ruth2.jpg)
![A man is pictured from his belt up looking to the left of the camera. His button-down baseball jersey says "RED SOX" across it and he is wearing a baseball cap.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Jimmie_Foxx_1937_cropped.jpg/220px-Jimmie_Foxx_1937_cropped.jpg)
![Two men in pinstripe baseball uniform with an interlocking "NY" partially showing at the bottom.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/M%26M_Boys_1961.png/220px-M%26M_Boys_1961.png)
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 | 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 |
See also
- List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
- Major League Baseball single-season home run record
- List of Major League Baseball home run records