The Baltimore Orioles‘ first baseman Chris Davis homered today, to finish with 37 home runs at the All Star break. He has hit a home run in each of the last 4 games. Last year Davis only had 33 home runs for the entire season.
No one in American League history has ever had more home runs at the All Star break. Reggie Jackson, also had 37 home runs at the break, in 1969. Jackson only hit 10 more home runs the rest of the year, to finish with 47. In major league history, the only other players to have as many as 37 home runs at the All Star break, were Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals, who had 37 in 1998, and Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, who had 39 at the break in 2001. McGwire set the single season record in 1998 with 70 home runs, and Bonds broke the record with 73 in 2001. However, the suspected use of steroids taints both of those records.
Davis has said that he considers Roger Maris‘ 61 home runs in 1961, as the single season record. Since steroids were not used in baseball back in 1961, this seems like a reasonable statement by Davis. But if you really want to decide who had the best non-steroid home run hitting season, you can’t forget about Babe Ruth. In 1927 when Ruth hit 60 home runs, 154 games were played in a baseball season, while Maris had 8 more games to break Ruth’s record. Maris had 58 home runs after 154 games in the 1961 season.
In the last 6 years, the only league leader in home runs that even had 50, was Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2010, who had 54. I can confidently predict that no one will ever hit more than 73 home runs in a 162 game season, without the use of steroids. I am a little biased, since Babe Ruth is my favorite baseball player of all time. But to me, he is still the season season leader, until someone hits more than 60 home runs in 154 games.
Davis is having a great season though. Not only has he hit 37 home runs already, but he has 93 runs batted in, and is batting .315 in 95 games. If he keeps up the same home run pace for the rest of the season, he will finish the year with 63 home runs, and 60 after 154 games. 63 would be the single season steroid-free home run record. However, as Jackson fizzled after the All Star break in 1961, only hitting 10 more home runs, it will be increasingly difficult to maintain Davis’ pace as the season continues.
Davis will be hitting in the Home Run Derby on Monday. History has shown that home run production by participants in the derby has decreased, sometimes very dramatically for the remainder of the season. I hope that doesn’t happen to Davis. I admit I never heard of him before about a month ago, but home runs bring more attention to baseball. Remember when McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa were battling for the home run title in 1998? I don’t ever remember baseball receiving more attention than that year, in my lifetime. With the miserable television ratings for the World Series last year, Davis chasing the home run record is just what baseball needs.
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