maris has the most home runs in a single season for the american league in major league baseball.
maris has the most home runs in a single season for the american league in major league baseball.
who has the most home runs in a single season for the american league in major league baseball?
maris
ruth set the major league baseball single-season home run record four times, first at 29 (1919), then 54 (1920), 59 (1921), and finally 60 (1927). ruth's 1920 and 1921 seasons are tied for the widest margin of victory for a home run champion as he topped the next highest total by 35 home runs in each season. the single season mark of 60 stood for 34 years until roger maris hit 61 home runs in 1961. maris' mark was broken 37 years later by both mark mcgwire and sammy sosa during the 1998 home run record chase, with mcgwire ultimately setting the mark at 70. barry bonds, who also has the most career home runs, set the current single season record of 73 in 2001. the 1998 and 2001 seasons each had 4 players hit 50 or more home runs – greg vaughn, ken griffey, jr., sosa, and mcgwire in 1998 and alex rodriguez, luis gonzalez, sosa, and bonds in 2001. a player has hit 50 or more home runs 42 times, 25 times since 1990. the lowest home run total to lead a major league was four, recorded in the nl by lip pike in 1877 and paul hines in 1878.
list of major league baseball annual home run leaders
in 1999, rodríguez was selected as the american league mvp. he set a new american league record for home runs in a single season among catchers with 35. rodríguez was also the first catcher to have more than 30 home runs, 100 runs batted in, and 100 runs scored in the history of major league baseball. in addition, he holds the distinction of being the first catcher in the history of the league to amass more than 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases. from may 8, 1999 to june 1, 1999, rodríguez had a career high 20 game hitting streak. he had 25 stolen bases, which was fifth most among catchers in the history of the league. he led the league in times grounded into a double play, with 31. rodríguez was only the ninth catcher in the history of major league baseball to win the most valuable player award, and he was the first to win it since thurman munson in 1976. he was named on all of the ballots, getting seven first place votes and six second place votes. rodríguez was the sixth puerto rican to win the award, and the fourth player from the texas rangers to win it. he also won the silver slugger award for the sixth time in a row and was selected most valuable player by "baseball digest". he was again named to all-star teams by the associated press, the sporting news, and baseball america. while he was hitting home runs, he wasn't taking many walks. he is one of only six players active in 2009 who have had at least 30 home runs in a season in which they had more homers than walks (34 hr, 24 bb in 1999). the others are alfonso soriano (39–23 in 2002, 36–33 in 2005, 33–31 in 2007), garret anderson (35–24 in 2000), ryan braun (34–29 in 2007), joe crede (30–28 in 2006), and josé guillén (31–24 in 2003).
iván rodríguez