Home Runs by Decades

George Herman Ruth in his heyday was known as the Sultan of Swat. If the Babe were around today, he might be the Shah of Slam or possibly the Ayatollah of Assault. Anyway, when it comes to Home Runs by Decades, the Ruth is mighty and still prevails.

Ruth hit 467 of his 714 homers during the 1920s, easily the top mark for any decade. He outdistanced runner-up Rogers Hornsby in the 1920s by 217 homers. In contrast, Hank Aaron, the all-time home run leader with 755, was never the top man in any decade. He came close in the 1960s, finishing second to Harmon Killebrew, 393 to 375. Roger Mans, whose 61 homers in 1961 topped Ruth’s season total by an asterisk, could do no better than 14th place in the 1960s with his 217 total.

The all-time leaders by decades are Harry Stovey (1880s), Hugh Duffy (l890s), Harry Davis (1900s), Gavvy Cravath (1910s), Ruth (1920s), Jimmie Foxx (1930s), Ted Williams (1940s), Duke Snider (1950s), Killebrew (1960s), and Willie Stargell (1970s). The tightest race was in the recently concluded decade where Stargell had 296, Reggie Jackson 292, and Johnny Bench 290. Rounding out the top ten were Bobby Bonds 280, Lee May 270, Dave Kingman and Graig Nettles 252, Mike Schmidt (who has the best start for the 1980s) 235, Tony Perez 226, and Reggie Smith 225.

Harry Stovey hit 91 roundtrippers in the 1880s with a season high of 19 for Philadelphia of the American Association in 1889. But home runs weren’t his big schtick. He was the first player to wear sliding pads and is best known for his base stealing.

Hugh Duffy, with 85 fourbaggers in the 1890s, edged Ed Delahanty by six. His best season was in 1894 when he hit 18, to go with a record .438 batting average. Roger Connor, the 19th century’s top slugger with 138 home runs, could do no better than sixth in the 1880s and fifth in the 1890s.

The 1900s were the heyday of the dead-ball era, and Davis’ 67 homers were the best of a poor bunch. The A’s first baseman enjoyed his best season in 1906 when he hit a dozen fourbaggers.

The teens produced the first one-two homer punch, Cravath and Fred Luderus of the Philadelphia Phihies. Cravath hit 116 of his 119 career total, while Luderus hit 83 of his 84 lifetime homers. Luckily for Cravath and Luderus, Ruth was still a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. The Babe was switched to the outfield in 1919 and hit a record 29 homers. But his total for that decade was only 49, placing him 11th.

Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees the following season and averaged 46.7 homers during the Roaring Twenties. The only other slugger to average more than 40 homers was Foxx the following decade with a 41.5 mark. Ruth played only a half decade during the 1930s, but still managed to finish eighth with 198 homers to Foxx’ 415.

Home run production tumbled during the war-torn 1940s as Ted Williams led with 234 despite spending one/third of the decade in military service. In fact, seven of the top ten served in the armed forces.

Williams hit 227 homers the following decade, only seven fewer than in the 1940s, but couldn’t break into the top ten. The Brooklyn Dodgers’ duo of Snider (326) and Gil Hodges (310) finished one-two during the 1950s. Roy Campanella hit 211 to give the Dodgers three 200-plus homer hitters, but Campy could place only 14th in that competitive decade.

There were 18 players with 200 or more homers during the 1960s, with five — Killebrew, Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson and Willie McCovey — reaching 300. The Chicago Cubs had three stars with 200 homers in that decade, the well-bunched trio of Ernie Banks, 269, Ron Santo, 253, and Billy Williams, 249.

Seven players appeared in the top ten for successive decades. They were Connor and Sam Thompson in the 1880s and 1890s, Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the l920s and 1930s, and Mays, Banks and Mantle in the l950s and l960s.

Following is the list for the top ten in each decade. It includes homers for that decade, lifetime homers and percentage of career homers for that 10-year span:

 

HOME RUN LEADERS BY DECADES

		(1880-1889)				(1890-1899)
	HR	Career	Pct.		HR	Career	Pct.
Harry Stovey	91	124	73	Hugh Duffy	85	107	79
Dan Brouthers	77	108	71	Ed Delahanty	79	100	79
Fred Pfeffer	71	95	75	Mike Tiernan	76	106	72
Jerry Denny	70	74	95	Sam Thompson	75	126	60
Cap Anson	67	96	90	Roger Connor	72	138	52
Roger Connor	66	138	48	Herman Long	72	92	78
John Reilly	60	70	94	Bill Joyce	70	70	100
Ned Williamson	60	64	94	John Clements	66	77	86
George A. Wood	56	68	82	Bobby Lowe	64	71	90
Sam Thompson	51	126	40	Jake Beckley	63	87	72
		(1900-1909)				(1910-1919)
	HR	Career	Pct.		HR	Career	Pct.
Harry Davis	67	75	89	Gavvy Cravath	116	119	98
Charles Hickman	58	59	98	Fred Luderus	83	84	99
Sam Crawford	56	96	58	Frank Schulte	77	94	82
Buck Freeman	54	82	66	Frank Baker	76	96	79
Socks Seybold	51	51	100	Larry Doyle	64	74	87
Honus Wagner	51	101	51	Sherry Magee	61	83	74
Nap Lajoie	47	81	58	H.Zimmerman	58	58	100
Cy Seymour	43	52	83	Fred Merkle	56	60	93
Hobe Ferris	40	40	100	Vic Saier	55	55	100
Mike Donlin	39	51	77	Owen Wilson	53	60	88
		(1920-1929)				(1930-1939)
	HR	Career	Pct.		HR	Career	Pct.
Babe Ruth	467	714	65	Jimmie Foxx	415	534	78
Rogers Hornsby	250	301	83	Lou Gehrig	347	493	70
CyWilliams	202	251	81	Mel Ott	308	511	60
Ken Williams	190	196	97	Wally Berger	241	242	99
Jim Bottomley	146	219	67	Chuck Klein	238	300	79
Lou Gehrig	146	493	30	Earl Averill	218	238	92
Bob Meusel	146	156	94	Hank Greenberg	206	331	62
Harry Heilmann	142	183	78	Babe Ruth	198	714	28
Hack Wilson	137	244	56	Al Simmons	190	307	62
George Kelly	134	148	91	Bob Johnson	186	288	65
		(1940-1949)				(1950-1959)
	HR	Career	Pct.		HR	Career	Pct.
Ted Williams	234	521	45	Duke Snider	326	407	80
Johnny Mize	217	359	60	Gil Hodges	310	370	84
Bill Nicholson	211	235	90	Eddie Mathews	299	512	58
Rudy York	189	277	68	Mickey Mantle	280	536	52
Joe Gordon	181	153	72	Stan Musial	266	475	56
Joe DiMaggio	180	361	50	Yogi Berra	256	358	72
Vern Stephens	177	247	72	Willie Mays	250	660	38
Charlie Keller	173	189	92	Ted Kluszewski	239	279	86
Ralph Kiner	168	369	46	Gus Zernial	232	237	98
Bobby Doerr	164	223	74	Ernie Banks	228	512	45
		(1960-1969)				(1970-1979)
	HR	Career	Pct.		HR	Career	Pct.
Harm Killebrew	393	573	69	Willie Stargell	296	461	64
Hank Aaron	375	755	50	Reggie Jackson	292	369	79
Willie Mays	360	660	53	Johnny Bench	290	332	87
Funk Robinson	316	588	54	Bobby Bonds	280	321	87
Willie McCovey	300	520	58	Lee May	270	344	79
Frank Howard	290	382	76	Dave Kingman	252	252	100
Norm Cash	278	377	74	Graig Nettles	252	264	95
Ernie Banks	269	512	53	Mike Schmidt	235	235	100
Mickey Mantle	256	536	48	Tony Perez	226	323	70
Orlando Cepeda	254	379	67	Reggie Smith	225	280	80

*Assisted by John Tattersall