In 1938, while producing more multi-home run games in a season (11) than anyone before, Hank Greenberg walloped 58 home runs. In all the years since, no one has surpassed those 11; in all the seasons since, no Tiger has matched those 58. As the game has evolved and four-base […]
For all his gaudy career numbers, Eddie Murray doesn’t possess much in the way of single-year supremacy. There’s an AL-best number of walks in 1984 to go along with the circuit’s best on-base percentage (and the league’s best OPS+) that year, a few seasons with more intentional walks than any […]
A year ago, Shohei Ohtani flirted with the exceptional achievement of clocking triple digits in extra-base hits, a feat that’s been managed only 15 times in this National Pastime’s history. Ultimately falling one shy of the century mark, Ohtani had to settle instead for a belt that was stitched with […]
In 1925, Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett became the first player ever to position himself behind the dish for at least half his games and reach the 20-homer plateau, knocking the ball around for 24 four-baggers. Seemingly empowered by the feat, Hartnett then significantly raised the bar in 1930, producing […]
Major League Baseball’s story in the 21st century has been significantly devoted to single-season longball feats – a Major League record here, an AL record there, a shuffling of NL and AL rookie records, perhaps a new record for catchers this season. The narrative has been much less consumed by […]
When Dave Kingman joined the Mets for the 1975 season, Cleon Jones possessed more home runs than any other player in the franchise’s history, with 93. Over 664 games with New York, Kingman would clobber 154, ending his tenure with the Mets in 1983 as the club’s career home run […]
In the first game of a doubleheader on August 19, 1930, Cubs center fielder Hack Wilson delighted the home crowd with his 43rd home run of the year – an astounding total from a couple of perspectives. There was this: by day’s end, Wilson enjoyed a 14-homer leadership advantage over […]
Rickey Henderson’s 25-year journey across the big leagues saw him don uniforms for nine different franchises, a voyage that ultimately produced 297 longballs to pair with his 1,406 thefts. Many of the members of the 250-homer, 250-steal club experienced a fairly nomadic existence, with 10 of them playing for at […]
Little time is required to recite the lineage of shortstops who’ve produced at least 50 doubles in a season. Boston’s Joe Cronin was the first to do this, reaching 51 two-base hits in 1938. Cronin was left all by himself for a long time, until a burst starting in the […]
Justin Verlander made his Major League debut in the second game of a doubleheader on July 4, 2005 – the records claim more than 33,000 chose to spend their holiday evening at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, witnessing the very start of, whaddayaknow, a Hall of Fame career. Things didn’t begin […]