Most homers by a player in his first season
Posted by Andy on January 15, 2009
You think you know the answer, right? Mark McGwire in 1987, with 49 HR, right?
Not so fast. McGwire has the record for a rookie, but 1987 wasn't McGwire's first year. He had 53 at-bats in 1986.
That's why when you search for most HR in a player's first season, he doesn't appear on thist list:
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 Frank Robinson 38 1956 20 CIN NL 152 668 572 122 166 27 6 83 64 7 95 20 8 4 14 8 4 .290 .379 .558 .937 *78 2 Wally Berger 38 1930 24 BSN NL 151 625 555 98 172 27 14 119 54 0 69 4 12 0 0 3 0 .310 .375 .614 .989 *7 3 Albert Pujols 37 2001 21 STL NL 161 676 590 112 194 47 4 130 69 6 93 9 1 7 21 1 3 .329 .403 .610 1.013 5379/D 4 Ryan Braun 34 2007 23 MIL NL 113 492 451 91 146 26 6 97 29 1 112 7 0 5 13 15 5 .324 .370 .634 1.004 *5 5 Jimmie Hall 33 1963 25 MIN AL 156 571 497 88 129 21 5 80 63 4 101 0 9 2 8 3 3 .260 .342 .521 .863 *8*79 6 Ted Williams 31 1939 20 BOS AL 149 677 565 131 185 44 11 145 107 0 64 2 3 0 10 2 1 .327 .436 .609 1.045 *9 7 Pete Incaviglia 30 1986 22 TEX AL 153 606 540 82 135 21 2 88 55 2 185 4 0 7 9 3 2 .250 .320 .463 .783 *9D/7 8 Joe DiMaggio 29 1936 21 NYY AL 138 668 637 132 206 44 15 125 24 0 39 4 3 0 0 4 0 .323 .352 .576 .928 789 9 Evan Longoria 27 2008 22 TBR AL 122 508 448 67 122 31 2 85 46 4 122 6 0 8 8 7 0 .272 .343 .531 .874 *5/6D 10 Dan Uggla 27 2006 26 FLA NL 154 683 611 105 172 26 7 90 48 1 123 9 7 8 5 6 6 .282 .339 .480 .819 *4/D
That's sort of a good news / bad news thing about the way the PI is set up. Sometimes, you'd like to be able to ignore cups of coffee that don't constitute full rookie seasons, and sometimes you don't care.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:58 am
That same thing happened to me sometime ago.
There should be a feature when trying to search for players in their "official" (or whatever is called) rookie season.
Nevertheless, that's not a bad top 10 at all. You've got some pretty good names up there on that list. Nice 🙂
January 15th, 2009 at 9:16 am
4 players this decade. I wonder if that says more about the increased power today or the increased conditioning and timing of callups of players in today's game.
DiMaggio and Longoria are the only two to make the World Series in their first season, not bad company for today's newest 3B prospect.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Just curious are Frank Robinson and Ted Williams the youngest players to hit 30 home runs in a season?
January 15th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Wow, I was oblivious to Jimmie Hall, and he was on some good Twins teams before he faded away.
Jgeller, I think it's probably both reasons. Mostly because there's just more HR these days, but also with organized minor leagues and more players going to college, there's probably fewer players now who have their first appearance before they're really ready.
Mel Ott is actually the youngest to hit 30, by a few months. He hit 42 in '29, his 2nd full season and 4th(!) overall.