Retrosheet: The homering-est teammates (and multiple debuts)
From SABR member Tom Ruane at Retrosheet on December 13, 2011:
While working on my Retro-review of 1965 (coming soon to an article near you), I noticed that Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron became the homering-est teammates on August 20th of that year when Mathews went deep in the Braves 4-3 victory over Don Cardwell and the Pirates. The home run gave them a combined 794, one more than Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig had managed from 1923 to 1934 (only part of Ruth’s homers from 1923 and 1924 counted since Gehrig spent most of those two years playing for Hartford).[fn]”Mathews, Aaron Shatter Record for HR Combos,” Bob Wolf. The Sporting News. October 2, 1965. Page 16.[/fn] By the time Mathews was traded to Houston after the 1966 season, their total had reached 863. Here are the top combos in history:[fn]This doesn’t include the following: The seventeen homers Mays hit in 1959 before McCovey arrived on July 30th, the three that Mays hits in 1960 while McCovey was playing for Tacoma, or the thirteen McCovey hit in 1972 after Mays had been traded. The eight homers Hodges hit in 1948 while Snider was playing for Montreal. The seven homers Evans hit in 1974 while Rice was playing for Pawtucket. The twenty-five homers Chipper Jones hit in 1996 while Andruw Jones was playing in the minors. The nine homers Santo hit in 1960 while Williams was playing for Houston.[/fn]
HRS Teammates 863 Hank Aaron (442), Eddie Mathews (421) 793 Babe Ruth (445), Lou Gehrig (348) 781 Willie Mays (410), Willie McCovey (371) 739 Duke Snider (384), Gil Hodges (353) 732 Harmon Killebrew (476), Bob Allison (256) 730 Jim Rice (382), Dwight Evans (348) 706 Andruw Jones (368), Chipper Jones (338) 704 Billy Williams (376), Ron Santo (328)And here are what I think are the top combos in some other categories …
Read the full article here: http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/RuaneT/retro_fun2.htm#A111212
Originally published: December 13, 2011. Last Updated: December 13, 2011.