List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders Barry Bonds holds the record for most career home runs, having hit 762 over his 22-year career. The second highest is Albert Pujols with 644 homers. Both players spent most of their careers with the San Francisco Giants/San Francisco Cardinals franchise.
Bonds and Sammy Sosa are the only two players to have more than 600 home runs each. They are also the only two players to have received the MVP award while holding this record. Sosa retired before he could break the record; however, he did so while still playing for the Chicago Cubs. He died in a car crash in 2003 at the age of 40.
When Bonds and Pujols left San Francisco, they were both voted into the Hall of Fame. It is likely that either one or both will be enshrined during their first year of eligibility.
When you look at the top 10 home run hitters of all time, there are three players who had an impact on multiple franchises. Babe Ruth played for 16 different teams in his career and was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame with every single one of those teams. The same can't be said about Mark McGwire or Roger Maris.
Barry Bonds' Career Home Run Leaders & Records
| Rank | Player (yrs, age) | Home Runs |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Barry Bonds (22) | 762 |
| 2. | Henry Aaron+ (23) | 755 |
| 3. | Babe Ruth+ (22) | 714 |
| 4. | Alex Rodriguez (22) | 696 |
Bonds, Barry With 762 home runs, Barry Bonds owns the major league baseball home run record. On August 7, 2007, he surpassed Hank Aaron, who had reached 755. Babe Ruth, with 714 home runs, is the only other player to have hit 700 or more.
Bonds will be able'the least likely person to ever get in because of his use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). But it's possible that he'll be voted in once they are removed from baseball's banned list. If that happens, he'll join a small group of players who have this distinction:
Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Pete Rose are the only other players in history to have been banned from baseball for life because of their records on PEDs.
There are several reasons why everyone thinks Barry Bonds will never make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. First of all, he used steroids during his time at the San Francisco Giants. The sport found out about his activities and decided to ban him.
Secondly, voters don't like cheaters. As far as they're concerned, Barry Bonds cheated his way onto the record book and should not be allowed into the Hall of Fame.
Finally, there are people who think that if you're going to break the rules, then you shouldn't be rewarded for your actions.
With 762 home runs, Barry Bonds owns the major league baseball home run record.
Bonds' record will be hard to beat because there are several young players who could break it if they continue to hit home runs at their current rate. The two biggest names are Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. They are a couple of years apart in age (McGwire is 40, Sosa is 34) but they were almost equal when they first came into the league. Both were very powerful hitters who loved to hit home runs.
In 1998, the season before Bonds came up, McGwire hit 73 homers while Sosa hit 63. Although this number isn't that high compared to today's standards, it was then considered extremely high. At the time, only three other players had hit 70 or more balls over the fence: Jim Rice (77), Ken Boyer (73), and George Foster (70).
In 1999, McGwire and Sosa changed all that. That year, McGwire hit 49 bombs while Sosa hit 58. This shows that even though McGwire was older, he wasn't able to keep up with Sosa's pace. In 2000, McGwire hit 45 homers while Sosa hit 54.
The history of the home run begins in 1884, when John McGraw's New York Giants played their first game at what was then known as National League Park (now called Sportsman's Park). In that first game, the Giants were defeated by the Chicago White Stockings 2-1. The home run was not used in that initial game, but it soon became popular among spectators and media members alike. Before 1885, there were no rules governing how far a ball could be hit; it was left up to each team's manager how he wanted his players to play. In an effort to make games more exciting, several American leagues began using balls that were struck harder and farther than those used by the National League. The first recorded home run in Major League Baseball came about two years after its inception, on April 15, 1886, when Ed Delahanty of the Philadelphia Athletics hit one against Danny Campbell of the Buffalo Bisons. The home run was given legal status by the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the predecessor to today's Major League Baseball, when it was created in 1871.
Barry Bonds has 10 hitting records, the most notable of which are the career and single-season home run marks. If he finishes his career with 75 homers, he would then join Willie Mays as the only two players who have hit more than 60 homers in a season.
Bonds also holds the record for most times being voted league MVP, having received this award on all but one of the seasons during which he played in the National League. He has been nominated each year since 1995 when his teammate Greg Maddux was awarded the prize.
George S. Washington is another player who has accumulated many records. He is the only person to have played every position in baseball. Washington also holds the record for most appearances by a catcher, playing 1,230 games over 17 seasons (1890-1906). He finished with 333 doubles, 39 triples and 11 no-outs per 9 innings caught.
In addition, Washington holds several other records including: most runs scored (1089), hits (4174), total bases (5677) and extra-base hits (1201).
He managed three different teams in three cities during his career, leading them all in victories while helping them all reach the playoffs.
Since 1895, only four players—Roger Connor, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds (left to right)—have held the lifetime home run record. Of these four players, only Ruth has more than 500 career home runs.
Ruth broke out in 1915, when he hit 54 homers, and it took him until 1919 to hit his next home run. From 1920 to 1945, Ruth never hit less than 130 balls in play, and during that period, no one else came close. In 1946, however, Harry "The Hit Man" Hatfield broke this record with 141 hits in a season.
From 1946 to 1955, no one else came close either, but in 1956, the Yankees' Roger Maris broke this mark with 61 homers. He was eventually forced into retirement due to the death of his wife, and in July 1961, Ruth came back from 3,000 miles away from baseball to break Maris's record with 60 homers.
From 1960 to 2005, only two other men have come close: Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Both men were within one homer of breaking Ruth's record, but neither reached it.
In 2006, however, Aaron broke this record with 755 games played, while Ruth finished with 714 games played.
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