500 home run club

A man in full baseball attire wears a pinstriped jersey and a hat with overlapping white "N" and "Y". Looking to the left of the camera, he is holding a baseball bat upward.
Babe Ruth was the first player to reach 500 home runs and set a career home run mark of 714 that stood until 1974.

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 500 home run club is a group of batters who have hit 500 or more regular-season home runs in their careers. There are twenty-eight players who are members of the 500 home run club. Seven 500 home run club members—Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera—are also members of the 3,000 hit club.

In the past, membership in the 500 home run club was a guarantee of eventual entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame, although some believe the milestone has become less meaningful in recent years and many members have not been enshrined in Cooperstown.[1][2][3][4]

All 15 players who became members of the 500 home run club between 1929 and 1996 are members of the Hall of Fame. Of the 11 players who made the 500 homer club between 1999 and 2015 who are Hall of Fame eligible, only four have been enshrined in Cooperstown. Seven eligible club members—Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa—have not been elected to the Hall. Bonds is one of only four members in the 700 home run club and Rodriguez and Sosa are members of the 600 homer club, all of whose other members are Hall of Famers except for the recently retired Albert Pujols, who hit 703 career home runs and is not eligible until 2027.

Bonds and Sosa made their first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot in 2013; Bonds received only 36.2% and Sosa 12.5% of the total votes, with 75% required for induction.[5] Eligibility requires that a player has "been retired five seasons" or be deceased for at least six months. Some believe the milestone has become less important with the large number of new members; 10 players joined the club from 1999 to 2009.[1] Additionally, several of these recent members - including all seven aforementioned eligible members - have had ties to performance-enhancing drugs.[1][4][6] Some believe that by not electing McGwire to the Hall the voters were establishing a "referendum" on how they would treat players from the "Steroid Era".[7][8] On January 8, 2014, Palmeiro became the first member of the club to be removed from the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot after failing to appear on at least 5.0% of ballots.[9]

On August 11, 1929, Babe Ruth became the first member of the club. Ruth surpassed Roger Connor's record of 138 career homers during the 1921 season, and was the first player to hit 200, 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700 career home runs. Ruth ended his career with 714 home runs, a record which stood from 1935 until Hank Aaron surpassed it in 1974.[10] Aaron's ultimate career total, 755, remained the record until Barry Bonds set the current mark of 762 during the 2007 season.[10] The most recent player to reach 500 home runs is Miguel Cabrera, who hit his 500th home run on August 22, 2021;[11][12] As of the end of the 2024 season, there are no active members of the club.

  1. ^ a b c Passan, Jeff (April 18, 2009). "500 home run club losing its cachet". Yahoo! Sports. Yahoo!. Archived from the original on April 12, 2016. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  2. ^ Curry, Jack (April 27, 2008). "500 Home Runs, Zero Certainty for Thome". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 23, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  3. ^ Romano, John (April 22, 2009). "Gary Sheffield's 500 home runs is merely a number, and not a very special one". St. Petersburg Times. www.tampabay.com. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Swartz, Cody (April 19, 2009). "Why 500 Home Runs No Longer Guarantees Admission to the Hall of Fame". Bleacher Report. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  5. ^ "2013 Hall of Fame Vote a Shutout" (Press release). National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. January 9, 2013. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
  6. ^ Kurkjian, Tim (January 9, 2012). "Whopper of a list of names await in 2013". ESPN.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
  7. ^ "Bonds says Rose, McGwire belong in Hall of Fame". ESPN.com. Associated Press. January 18, 2007. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  8. ^ "McGwire denied Hall; Gwynn, Ripken get in". NBC Sports. Associated Press. January 10, 2007. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved July 15, 2010.
  9. ^ "Rafael Palmeiro Becomes First Fatality of PED Era". Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  10. ^ a b "Progressive Leaders & Records for Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
  11. ^ "500 Home Run Club". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  12. ^ Kelly, Matt (September 7, 2021). "The 500 Home Run Club". MLB.com. Major League Baseball. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2022.