Hitting Homers at Home and on the Road

There still is one career home run record that Henry Aaron has not taken from Babe Ruth, but probably not for long! That is most home runs hit on the road. Ruth hit 367 and Aaron, going into the 1976 season, is right on his heels with 366. Aaron, of course, leads with most roundtrippers hit at home, 379, and this means Milwaukee On both leagues) and Atlanta.

Quite surprisingly, the Babe hit more fourbaggers on the road, 367, than he hit at home, 347. This is true even though he played most of his games in Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, two parks favorably inclined to lefthand pull hitters. Mel Ott, for example, hit 323 or 63% of his 511 homers in the Polo Grounds. Bill Dickey hit 135 or 67% of his 202 homers at Yankee Stadium.

With the primary exception of Ott, most of the career home run leaders divided their boundary belts pretty evenly at home and away. Mickey Mantle, for example, finished almost even with 266 at home and 270 away. Of course, he was switch hitter, which tended to moderate some of the obvious factors concerning park design. On the other hand, Lou Gehrig batted exclusively lefthanded and Harmon Killebrew righthanded, and their home and road homers were pretty evenly balanced. Here are the career leaders.

 

	Home	Road	H.Pct.
Henry Aaron	379	366	51%
Babe Ruth	347	367	48%
Willie Mays	335	325	51%
Frank Robinson	320	263	55%
Harm Killebrew	290	283	51%
Mickey Mantle	266	270	49%
Jimmie Foxx	298	236	56%
Ted Williams	248	273	47%
Eddie Mathews	238	274	46%
Ernie Banks	290	222	57%
Melvin Ott	323	188	63%
Lou Gehrig	254	239	51%
Stan Musial	252	223	53%
Willie McCovey	241	217	53%

 

Some of the players since 1900 who hit fewer homers had more extreme ratios of home and away fourbaggers. Cliff Cravath, for example, hit 78% of his 119 homers at home, mostly in Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl. On the other hand, Gil McDougald of the Yankees hit only 26% of his 112 roundtrippers at Yankee Stadium.

Considering only those players who hit more than 150 home runs -which is a little more substantial basis for judging the genuine power hitter-we find the player who liked his home park best was Ken Williams. Playing most of his games for the Browns at Sportsmans Park, he hit 72% of his 196 homers at home. During the 1922 season, 32 of his league-leading 39 blasts were hit there.

Next came Bill Dickey, whom we have already mentioned, at 67%, followed by Cy Williams and Bobby Doerr. Chuck Klein, kept out of the Hall of Fame primarily because he played most of his home games at Baker Bowl, was next with 64%. Ron Santo had the same home park percentage.

The player who had the most difficulty connecting in his home park was Elston Howard, who was limited to only 32%, primarily at Yankee Stadium. Joe DiMaggio, who also batted righthanded, hit 41% of his homers in that park. Mickey Vernon and Goose Goslin also had reduced numbers at home, but they played in spacious Griffith Stadium for much of their careers and that place was tough on southpaw swingers. In fact it was tough for any batter. In 1945 only one home run was hit by a Senator at home the entire season and it was an inside-

the-park job by Joe Kuhel. Kuhel, incidentally, was a prime example of a player who saw his home run totals reduced because he played all his home games either in Griffith Stadium or Comiskey Park. He hit 1/3 of his 131 homers at home and 2/3 on the road.

There were some players so unaffected by the parks they played in, that they hit exactly the same number of home runs at home and on the road. Chief among these was Wally Berger who evened out with 121 and 121.

Listed below are the players with more than 150 homers in their careers who did best at home, those who did best on the road, and those who came out about even.

 

HOME RUNS – Players with High Home Park Percentage 

Home Run Hitter	Home	Road	H.Pct.	Primary Home Park
Ken Williams, L	142	54	72%	Sportsmans Park
Bill Dickey, L	135	67	67%	Yankee Stadium
Cy Williams, L	167	84	66%	Baker Bowl
Bobby Doerr, R	145	78	65%	Fenway Park
Chuck Klein, L	191	109	64%	Baker Bowl
Ron Santo, R	217	125	64%	Wrigley Field
Melvin Ott, L	323	188	63%	Polo Grounds
R. Petrocelli, R	130	77	63%	Fenway Park
Ed Bailey, L	95	60	61%	Crosley Field
Hank Greenberg, R	204	127	61%	Briggs Stadium
Jim Lemon, R	100	64	61%	Griffith Stadium
Earl Averill, R	145	93	61%	League Park

 

Players with Low Home Park Percentage

Home Run Hitter	Home	Road	H.Pct.	Primary Home Park
Elston Howard, R	54	113	32%	Yankee Stadium
Mickey Vernon, L	57	115	33%	Griffith Stadium
Don Clendenon, R	58	101	36%	Forbes Field
Bob Elliott, R	63	107	37%	Braves Field
Goose Goslin, L	92	156	37%	Griffith Stadium
Willie Davis, L	69	108	39%	Dodger Stadium
Ken Keitner, R	63	100	39%	Clev. Mun. Std.
Joe Adcock, R	137	199	41%	Mil. County Std.
Joe DiMaggio, R	148	213	41%	Yankee Stadium
Bill Nicholson, L	99	136	42%	Wrigley Field

 

Players with Even Home-Road Percentages

Home Run Hitter	Home	Road	H.Pct.	Primary Home Park
Wally Berger, R	121	121	50%	Braves Field
Jeff Heath, L	97	97	50%	Several
Willie Jones, R	95	95	50%	Connie Mack Std.
Chas. Gehringer, L	92	92	50%	Briggs Stadium
VicWertz, L	134	132	51%	Several
Gabby Hartnett, R	119	117	51%	Wrigley Field
Dick Stuart, L	115	113	51%	Several
Mickey Mantle, S	266	270	49%	Yankee Stadium
Reggie Jackson, L	126	128	49%	Oakland Stadium
Harlond Clift, R	88	90	49%	Sportsmans Park