barry bonds holds the record for most home runs in a single season.
barry bonds holds the record for most home runs in a single season.
who holds the record for most home runs in a single season?
barry bonds
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
after years as a respected power/speed threat with a rocket arm in right field, he emerged during the season as one of baseball's greatest. it was in this season that both sosa and mark mcgwire were involved in the "home run record chase", when both players' prowess for hitting home runs drew national attention as they attempted to pass roger maris' single season home run mark of 61 home runs that had stood since . for the early months of the year, sosa trailed mcgwire significantly, being as many as 16 homers behind at one point in may. but as the chase progressed, sosa would rally and eventually tie mcgwire with 46 home runs each on august 10, after a couple months of straggling within a few homers for the lead. however, the moment was short lived as mcgwire would pull away slightly and reach 62 home runs to break the record first on september 8, but once again sosa would excitingly heat up the race by tying mcgwire once again at 62 on september 13. eleven days later, with two games left to play in the season, the two were tied at 66 home runs each. sosa would end the season with 66 after playing both games without a home run(still a team record), just behind mcgwire's 70 after hitting two home runs in each of the last two games. however, sammy had become the first major league batter ever to hit 66 home runs in a season. it was during that season, that cubs announcer chip caray nicknamed him "slammin' sammy", a nickname that quickly spread. in addition, sammy produced then career highs in batting average and slugging percentage, at .308 and .647 respectively. sosa also led the league in rbis and runs scored. also in 1998, sosa's 416 total bases were the most in a single season since stan musial's 429 in . sosa's performance in the month of june, during which sosa belted 20 home runs, knocked in 47 runs, and posted an .842 slugging percentage, was one of the greatest offensive outbursts in major league history. sosa won the national league most valuable player award for leading the cubs into the playoffs in 1998, earning every first-place vote except for the two cast by st. louis writers, who voted for mcgwire. he and mcgwire shared "sports illustrated" magazine's 1998 "sportsman of the year" award. sosa was honored with a ticker-tape parade in his honor in new york city, and he was invited to be a guest at us president bill clinton's 1999 state of the union address. 1998 was also the first time the cubs made the post-season since 1989. the cubs qualified as the nl wild card team, but were swept by the atlanta braves in the nlds.
sammy sosa