There are five players. Only five players in big league history have ever hit 60 or more home runs in a season. Babe Ruth was the first, hitting 60 home runs in 1927, a season in which he hit more home runs by himself than any other club in the AL combined. The last player to do so was Sammy Davis, Jr., in 1967.
Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mel Ott, and Frank Robinson are the only players to hit 60 or more home runs in a season. They are also the only players to hit more than 50 home runs in a season.
In fact, no one has even come close to doing so. The next highest total is 51 home runs, which is held by Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez with the 2007 and 1998 seasons, respectively. Both of these totals were reached in just 154 games played.
Home run records are broken all the time. In fact, it is estimated that about 1 out of every 10 home runs now hits long distance. That means there's a good chance someone will break this record soon.
The most famous home run hitter of all time is Babe Ruth. He is known for his great batting average as well as his power. In 1927, when he led the AL in home runs with 60, he also lead the league in RBI's with 146.
Fifty home runs in a season is an impressive feat. There have only been 46 50-homer seasons in MLB history. The history of 50-homer seasons started in 1920, during the Live Ball Era, when Babe Ruth hit 54. In fact, no one other than Ruth hit 50 or more home runs until Hack Wilson hit 56 in 1930. Only three players have hit more than 50 homers: Babe Ruth (1930), Jimmie Foxx (1931), and Roger Maris (1963).
The most recent player to reach this mark is Matt Holliday of the New York Yankees, who hit his own career high 51 homers last year. He's among five players who have hit 50 or more homers in each of the past five years: Mark Teixeira, Josh Hamilton, Holliday, Giancarlo Stanton.
It's not easy to reach 50 home runs. It requires an incredible amount of power for a pitcher's ballpark to be effective. Most of these balls fly out into the distant corners of the park, where they're difficult to track with cameras. And since few pitchers are willing to use the death valley that is Coors Field as their home stadium, it's rare for anyone to hit even 40 homers there.
Roger Maris of the New York Yankees became the first major-league baseball player to smash more than 60 home runs in a single season on October 1, 1961. Babe Ruth established the mark in 1927; Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle spent 1961 attempting to break it. The pair was denied by the Yankees' Billy Martin, who managed the team while serving as its manager and coach. Martin managed the Yankees to a winning record (90–72) and their third straight World Series title. He did so by using several power hitters in his lineup, including batting.500 with 10 homers from July 1 to September 30, 1961.
In the final game of the regular season, Maris hit seven balls for home runs, becoming the first player in history to do so. However, the Yankees lost to the Baltimore Orioles, so Martin didn't see his players break the record. Maris finished with 61 home runs, but the record stood for eight years until Jimmie Foxx broke it in 1969.
Here are the other major leaguers who have hit 70 or more home runs in a season: Bartolo Colón (2015), Sammy Sosa (1998), Mark McGwire (1987), Bill Mueller (1976), Ralph Houk (1954), Harry Walker (1947), and Babe Ruth (1927).
It's worth mentioning that this record was probably never really threatened by Mantle or Maris.
Babe Ruth was the first batter in baseball history to smash 54 home runs in 457 at-bats, at an average of 8.463.
It is calculated by dividing the total number of at bats by the total number of home runs hit. With a career ratio of 10.61 at bats per home run, Mark McGwire holds the MLB record, while Babe Ruth is second with 11.76 at bats per home run.
Only seven players in Major League Baseball history have homered in at least seven consecutive games, the most recent being Kendrys Morales. How difficult is it to go deep in seven consecutive games? Many more 30-game hitting streaks, four-strikeout innings, and six-hit games have occurred. There
Only Lee Lacy (May 2, 1978, May 6, 1978, and May 17, 1978) and Del Unser (June 30, 1979, July 5, 1979, and July 10, 1979) have had three pinch-hit home runs in successive at-bats in big league history.
There have been 400 in a single Major League Baseball (MLB) season as of 2018, the most recent being Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox in 1941. Three players—Ed Delahanty, Ty Cobb, and Rogers Hornsby—have done it in three different seasons, and no one has ever hit over.400 in more than one season.
In 2001, Edgar Martinez broke his own record by hitting.410 for the Seattle Mariners. That same year, Alex Rodriguez set a new major league record with an average of.440. In 2017, José Ramírez of the Cleveland Indians hit.443; this is currently the highest average ever recorded in a season.
A player needs to reach.400 to qualify for the batting title. Only five men have done so in the history of the game: Williams, Cobb, Jim Bottomley, Rod Carew, and Mike Schmidt. All but Schmidt had at least 1,000 plate appearances during their careers. Schmidt only had 902 PA due to injury and thus never reached the mark. However, all but Williams had at least 100 games played in 1941 when that season was lost due to World War II restrictions on baseball activities.
It is possible, though very rare, for a player to hit.400 throughout a whole season. The last person to do so was Ted Williams in 1941 while playing for the Boston Red Sox. He is considered by many to be the greatest hitter in MLB history.
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