50 home run club

A man wearing a red shirt and St. Louis Cardinals cap holds a baseball in each hand.
A man wearing a blue hat and gray baseball uniform bearing the number 21 prepares to throw a baseball.
Mark McGwire (left) and Sammy Sosa (right) are the only players to have hit 50 home runs 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. In doing so, they became the only players to have achieved 50 home runs in four consecutive seasons.[6] Barry Bonds hit the most home runs to join the club, collecting 73 in 2001.[6] The most recent player to hit 50 home runs in three seasons is Aaron Judge, who did so in 2024.

In total, 32 players have reached the 50 home run club in MLB history and ten have done so more than once.[6] Of these, seventeen were right-handed batters, fourteen 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)[7] 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[8] and two of them (Willie Mays and Rodriguez) are also members of the 3,000 hit club.[9] Ten players won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their 50 home run season.[10] 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).[11][12][13] 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.[14][15] Albert Belle is the only player to amass 50 or more doubles in addition to attaining 50 home runs.[16][17] Prince Fielder, at 23 years and 139 days, was the youngest player to reach the milestone while Bonds, at age 37, was the oldest.[18][19] 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"[20] 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,[21] 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;[22][23] fifteen players joined the club on a total of 24 occasions from 1995 to 2010.[6] Additionally, several of these recent members have had ties to performance-enhancing drugs.[24][25][26][27]

  1. ^ Johnston, Joey (July 1987). "Will 50-Homer Seasons Become Extinct in the Majors?". Baseball Digest. 46 (7). Evanston, IL, USA: Century Publishing: 60–61. ISSN 0005-609X. [permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ Smith, Claire (September 29, 1997). "On Baseball; Numbers Tell It All: 1997 Was Impressive". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Larry Walker...missed joining McGwire and Griffey in the 50 home run club (49).
  3. ^ Bastian, Jordan (September 19, 2010). "Bautista belts 49th as Jays edge Red Sox". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Bautista['s]...next blast will put him in the 50 home run club.
  4. ^ "Progressive Leaders & Records for Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on March 15, 2015. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference ruthref was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b c d e "Single-Season Leaders & Records for Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on June 20, 2007. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference howardref was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Career Leaders & Records for Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  9. ^ "Career Leaders & Records for Hits". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  10. ^ "Most Valuable Player MVP Awards & Cy Young Awards Winners". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved May 24, 2012.
  11. ^ "Mantle Eligible for 'Hall' Today". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. January 16, 1974. p. 24. Archived from the original on October 29, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Mantle took the triple crown in 1956 when he batted .353 with 52 home runs and 130 runs batted in.
  12. ^ "Mickey Mantle Named Most Valuable Player". The Milwaukee Journal. November 15, 1956. p. 20. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Mantle, who won the triple batting crown..., became the eighth man in history to win the batting, home run and runs batted in titles in one season. [He] led the league, both leagues in fact, with a .353 batting average, 52 homers and 130 runs batted in. [permanent dead link‍]
  13. ^ "1956 Major League Baseball Batting Leaders". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on December 15, 2011. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
  14. ^ Singer, Tom (August 24, 2011). "Plenty of duos have look of M&M Boys". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2012. [T]heir combined total of 115 still stands as the benchmark for teammates.
  15. ^ "A Short History of the Single-Season Home Run Record". National Baseball Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2012. [Maris] and Mantle...broke the record for most single-season home runs by a pair of teammates.
  16. ^ Carter, Bob (September 5, 2006). "Belle battled fans, teammates, self". ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived from the original on September 20, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2012. In 1995,...he became the first player to amass 50 doubles and 50 homers in the same year.
  17. ^ "Belle is forgotten man". The Spokesman-Review. September 27, 1998. p. C5. Archived from the original on October 29, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2012. [H]e became the first player to hit 50 homers and 50 doubles in 1995.
  18. ^ "Prince hits 50, but it's 52 he wants to 'shut up' his dad". ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. September 26, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  19. ^ "Baseball; Giants' Bonds Is Fastest to 50 Homers". The New York Times. August 12, 2001. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  20. ^ Leonard, George K. (October 1954). "37 Stars Hit 50 Homers in Year!". Baseball Digest. 13 (9). Evanston, IL, USA: Century Publishing: 43. ISSN 0005-609X. Retrieved July 11, 2012. Not as exclusive as the "Four Homers in One Game Club" but, nevertheless, a restrictive sort of fraternity is that comprising batters who have blasted 50—or more—home runs in one season. This group of slugging elite... [permanent dead link‍]
  21. ^ "Rules for Election". National Baseball Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on May 30, 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
  22. ^ Chass, Murray (September 30, 2001). "Baseball: Notebook; Measure of Inflation For Home Run Race". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2012. I think it takes some of the luster off the numbers that some of the best players established...
  23. ^ Schwarz, Alan (June 9, 2002). "Ideas & Trends; Scoring Hits, Runs and Asterisks". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2012. Where 50 home runs in a season once meant something (just 18 players did it before 1995), 16 have since...
  24. ^ Krawczynski, Jon (October 2, 2010). "Bautista's homer binge brings questions". USA Today. Retrieved July 15, 2012. McGwire has admitted to using steroids during his career and Sosa and Bonds have been dogged by allegations.
  25. ^ Bloom, Barry M. (December 13, 2007). "Mitchell Report proposes solutions". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  26. ^ Kepner, Tyler (February 9, 2009). "Rodriguez Admits to Use of Performance Enhancers". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
  27. ^ Schmidt, Michael S. (July 30, 2009). "Ortiz and Ramirez Said to Be on 2003 Doping List". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2012.