Single Season Home Run Leaders

By Patrick Mondout

Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, George Hall...

The home run record is without a doubt the sexiest record in baseball. We all know that Babe Ruth held the mark - nearly doubling the previous total in the early 20s and eventually fixing it at 60. We also know about Roger Maris and how we beat the Babe by one in an expansion year that also had a 162 game schedule, leading commissioner of baseball Ford Frick to suggest (but not actually demand) that an asterisk should be put in the record book. Almost anyone reading this remembers Sosa and McGwire easily passing Maris during the peak of the Juiced Era and, of course, Barry Bonds putting the record out of reach for perhaps another generation or two in 2001 (if for no other reason than there is more stringent drug testing now).

But who held the record before Babe Ruth? And before that person? And before him? It all starts with George Hall, or so Major League Baseball (MLB) would have you believe. He is officially the first home run king, having led the inaugural 1876 National League in homers with 5. MLB decreed way back in 1969 that the National Association (NA) (1871-1875) was not a major league. Since we do not pay a large fee to MLB for the right to call ourselves "official" (which is all anyone who claims to be official but is not actually a part of MLB does in order to claim that honor), we are not required to ignore the NA. Therefore, we have listed all of the major league single season home run record holders below, starting with Long Levi, Fred, and Lip:

CHRONOLOGY OF SINGLE SEASON HOME RUN RECORD HOLDERS
#of HRs	Year/League	Player
4	1871/NA	Levi Meyerle, Lip Pike, Fred Treacey
6	1872/NA	Lip Pike
6	1875/NA	'Orator Jim' O'Rourke
5	1876/NL	George Hall (see paragraph above)
9	1879/NL	Charley Jones
14	1883/AA	Harry Stovey
27	1884/NL	Ned Williamson (see note below)
19	1887/NL	Billy O'Brien
20	1889/NL	Sam Thompson
25	1899/NL	Buck Freeman
29	1919/AL	Babe Ruth
54	1920/AL	Babe Ruth
59	1921/AL	Babe Ruth
60	1927/AL	Babe Ruth
61	1961/AL	Roger Maris
70	1998/NL	Mark McGwire
73	2002/NL	Barry Bonds

Fred Treacey hit more than half of his career total in 1871, finishing with 7 dingers. With a .492 batting average in 1871, he finished just 4 RBIs shy of winning the first Triple Crown (1871 league leaders).

Lip Pike not only was a home run king, he was faster than a horse too! He also he led his leagues in homers four times, ending his 10 year career with 15.

Ned Williamson benefited from a rule change in an unusually small ballpark. For this reason, we also list those who broke Harry Stovey's record on through to Babe Ruth, who finally broke the 1884 record.

Sammy Sosa briefly held the record near the end of the 1998 season before Mark McGwire pulled away. 

I'm not one to put asterisks on records, but Maris did have the advantage of playing in an expansion year with 8 additional dates and McGwire admitted to using a substance that would soon be banned and made it clear in Congressional testimony on steroid use that he wasn't "here to talk about the past." Sosa pretended he didn't know how to speak English at the same hearing to avoid tough questions and was caught using a corked bat. Bonds has also admitted to rubbing a mystery cream from the bad boys of BALCO on his leg. No asterisks here, but you decide who deserves the honor.

Here are the chronologies for the American and National Leagues individually:

CHRONOLOGY OF NL SINGLE SEASON HOME RUN RECORD HOLDERS
#of HRs	Year/League	Player
5	1876	George Hall
9	1879	Charley Jones
10	1883	Buck Ewing
27	1884	Ned Williamson (see note above)
19	1887	Billy O'Brien
20	1889	Sam Thompson
25	1899	Buck Freeman
42	1922	Rogers Hornsby
43	1929	Chuck Klein
56	1930	Hack Wilson
70	1998	Mark McGwire
73	2002	Barry Bonds

CHRONOLOGY OF AL SINGLE SEASON HOME RUN RECORD HOLDERS
#of HRs	Year/League	Player
14	1901	Nap Lajoie
16	1902	Socks Seybold
29	1919/AL	Babe Ruth
54	1920/AL	Babe Ruth
59	1921/AL	Babe Ruth
60	1927/AL	Babe Ruth
61	1961/AL	Roger Maris

As you can see, only four players have ever held the American League record in its over 100 years of play. Also worthy of note is that Hack Wilson's record of 56 NL homers held for 68 seasons - longer than any other home run king for either league. Roger Maris' record will have to stand until the year 2029 to match the feat!

We also have the all-time single season home run leaders for each league below. For fun, we have also listed the minor league, Japanese, Negro Leagues, NCAA, Mexican and South Korean records:

SINGLE SEASON HOME RUN RECORD HOLDERS BY LEAGUE
#of HRs	Year/League	Player
6	National Association	Lip Pike (1871), 'Orator Jim' O'Rourke (1875)
73	National League	Barry Bonds (2001)
19	American Association	Bug Holliday (1889), Harry Stovey (1889)
14	Union Association	Sure Shot Dunlap (1884)
14	Players League	Roger Connor (1890)
61	American League	Roger Maris (1961)
17	Federal League	Hal Chase (1915)
55	Japanese	Sadaharu Oh (1964), Tuffy Rhodes (2001), Alex Cabrera (2002, Seibu Lions)
56	South Korean	Lee Seung-yeop (2003)
72	Minor League	Joe Bauman (Roswell, New Mexico of the class C Longhorn League, 1954)
54	Mexican League	Jack Pierce (1986, for the Leon Braves)
84	Negro Leagues	Josh Gibson (1936, includes totals from well over 100 games against semipro teams)
48	NCAA	Pete Incaviglia (1985, in 75 games for Oklahoma State)