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Most homers in final season

Posted by Andy on March 27, 2008

David's idea from yesterday got me to wondering who hit the most homers in their final major-league season. Do you know? Click through.

Here are the leaders in last season, ignoring 2007 since it counts 2007 as the "last" season for all active players.

  Cnt Player            **HR** Year Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+------+----+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Dave Kingman        35   1986  37 OAK AL 144 604 561  70 118 19  0  94  33   3 126   3   0   7  16   3  3  .210  .255  .431  .686 *D/3
    2 Mark McGwire        29   2001  37 STL NL  97 364 299  48  56  4  0  64  56   3 118   3   0   6   7   0  0  .187  .316  .492  .808 *3
    3 Ted Williams        29   1960  41 BOS AL 113 390 310  56  98 15  0  72  75   7  41   3   0   2   7   1  1  .316  .451  .645 1.096 *7
    4 Hank Greenberg      25   1947  36 PIT NL 125 510 402  71 100 13  2  74 104   0  73   4   0   0  16   0  0  .249  .408  .478  .886 *3
    5 Jack Graham         24   1949  32 SLB AL 137 573 500  71 119 22  1  79  61   0  62   4   8   0  12   0  1  .238  .326  .430  .756 *3
    6 Roy Cullenbine      24   1947  33 DET AL 142 607 464  82 104 18  1  78 137   0  51   0   6   0  10   3  2  .224  .401  .422  .823 *3
    7 Nick Johnson        23   2006  27 WSN NL 147 628 500 100 145 46  0  77 110  15  99  13   2   3  12  10  3  .290  .428  .520  .948 *3
    8 Albert Belle        23   2000  33 BAL AL 141 622 559  71 157 37  1 103  52  11  68   4   0   7  17   0  5  .281  .342  .474  .816 *9D
    9 Kirby Puckett       23   1995  35 MIN AL 137 602 538  83 169 39  0  99  56  18  89   3   0   5  15   3  2  .314  .379  .515  .894 *9D/8645
   10 Phil Nevin          22   2006  35 TOT ML 129 450 397  54  95 13  0  68  48   1 106   2   1   2  13   0  0  .239  .323  .438  .761 D3/792
   11 Paul O'Neill        21   2001  38 NYY AL 137 563 510  77 136 33  1  70  48   4  59   2   0   3  20  22  3  .267  .330  .459  .789 *9/D
   12 Will Clark          21   2000  36 TOT ML 130 507 427  78 136 30  2  70  69   3  69   7   0   4   7   5  2  .319  .418  .546  .964 *3/D
   13 Dave Nilsson        21   1999  29 MIL NL 115 404 343  56 106 19  1  62  53   6  64   2   2   4   7   1  2  .309  .400  .554  .954 *2/D

Barry Bonds has 28 homers last year, in what will likely be his final season.

I have a feeling this list rips off a few players. For example, there are probably a few players who had 20+ HR seasons followed by a season with just a few ABs, but they don't get considered here.

Again, hopefully Nick Johnson doesn't belong here and he'll be playing again.

2 Responses to “Most homers in final season”

  1. gerry Says:

    Mel Ott might be the kind of guy you have in mind, 21 HR in 1945, then just 72 at-bats over the next (and last) two years of his career. I know what happened to most of the guys in the list, but Jack Graham?

  2. zuty Says:

    Here's a little blurb I found about Jack Graham.

    http://www.thediamondangle.com/archive/oct01/graham.html