Group of batters who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season
Mark McGwire(left) and
Sammy Sosa(right) are the only players to have hit 50 home runs in four consecutive seasons.
In
Major League Baseball (MLB), the 50 home run club is the group of
batters who have hit 50 or more
home runs in a single season.[1][2][3]Babe Ruth was the first to achieve this, doing so in 1920. By reaching the milestone, he also became the first player to hit 30 and then 40 home runs in a single season, breaking his own record of 29 from the 1919 season.[4] Ruth subsequently became the first player to reach the 50 home run club on four occasions, repeating the achievement in 1921, 1927, and 1928.[5][6] He remained the only player to accomplish this until
Mark McGwire and
Sammy Sosa matched his feat in 1999 and 2001, respectively. In doing so, they became the only players to have achieved 50 home runs in four consecutive seasons.[6]Barry Bonds hit the most home runs to join the club, collecting 73 in 2001.[6] The most recent player to reach the milestone is
Matt Olson, achieving the feat during the 2023 season.
In total, 31 players have reached the 50 home run club in MLB history and ten have done so more than once.[6] Of these, eighteen were right-handed batters, thirteen were left-handed, and one was a
switch hitter, meaning he could bat from either side of the
plate. Four of these players (including two active members of the 50 home run club)[7] have played for only one major league team. The
New York Yankees are the only franchise to have five players reach the milestone while on their roster: Ruth,
Mickey Mantle,
Roger Maris,
Alex Rodriguez, and
Aaron Judge. Ten players are also members of the
500 home run club[8] and two of them (
Willie Mays and Rodriguez) are also members of the
3,000 hit club.[9] Ten players won the
Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their 50 home run season.[10] Mantle is the only player to have earned the
Major League Triple Crown alongside achieving 50 home runs, leading both leagues in
batting average, home runs and
runs batted in (RBI).[11][12][13] Mantle and Maris—collectively known as the
M&M Boys—are the only teammates to reach the 50 home run club in the same season, hitting a combined 115 home runs in 1961 and breaking the single-season record for home runs by a pair of teammates.[14][15]Albert Belle is the only player to amass 50 or more
doubles in addition to attaining 50 home runs.[16][17]Prince Fielder, at 23 years and 139 days, was the youngest player to reach the milestone while Bonds, at age 37, was the oldest.[18][19] Pete Alonso and Aaron Judge are the only players to hit 50 home runs in their rookie seasons.
Due to the infrequent addition of members into the 50 home run club, Baseball Digest called it "a restrictive fraternity comprising slugging elite"[20] in 1954, when there were only six members. Of the seventeen members eligible for the
Baseball Hall of Fame, eight
have been elected and three were elected on the first ballot. Eligibility requires that a player has "been retired five seasons" or deceased for at least six months,[21] disqualifying four active players and two players who have been retired for less than five seasons. Some believe the milestone has become less important with the large number of new members;[22][23] fifteen players joined the club on a total of 24 occasions from 1995 to 2010.[6] Additionally, several of these recent members have had ties to
performance-enhancing drugs.[24][25][26][27]
Members
Key
Year
The year the player's 50 home run season occurred
Player (X)
Name of the player and number of 50 home run seasons they had accomplished at that point
Team
The player's team for his 50 home run season
HR
Number of home runs in that season
Career
The number of home runs the player hit in his MLB career
^Bastian, Jordan (September 19, 2010).
"Bautista belts 49th as Jays edge Red Sox". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Archived from
the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Bautista['s]...next blast will put him in the 50 home run club.
^"Mantle Eligible for 'Hall' Today". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. January 16, 1974. p. 24. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Mantle took the triple crown in 1956 when he batted .353 with 52 home runs and 130 runs batted in.
^"Mickey Mantle Named Most Valuable Player". The Milwaukee Journal. November 15, 1956. p. 20. Retrieved July 4, 2012. Mantle, who won the triple batting crown..., became the eighth man in history to win the batting, home run and runs batted in titles in one season. [He] led the league, both leagues in fact, with a .353 batting average, 52 homers and 130 runs batted in.[permanent dead link]
^Singer, Tom (August 24, 2011).
"Plenty of duos have look of M&M Boys". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media. Retrieved July 27, 2012. [T]heir combined total of 115 still stands as the benchmark for teammates.
^Carter, Bob (September 5, 2006).
"Belle battled fans, teammates, self". ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures. Archived from
the original on September 20, 2011. Retrieved July 5, 2012. In 1995,...he became the first player to amass 50 doubles and 50 homers in the same year.
^"Belle is forgotten man". The Spokesman-Review. September 27, 1998. p. C5. Retrieved July 5, 2012. [H]e became the first player to hit 50 homers and 50 doubles in 1995.
^Leonard, George K. (October 1954).
"37 Stars Hit 50 Homers in Year!". Baseball Digest. 13 (9). Evanston, IL, USA: Century Publishing: 43.
ISSN0005-609X. Retrieved July 11, 2012. Not as exclusive as the "Four Homers in One Game Club" but, nevertheless, a restrictive sort of fraternity is that comprising batters who have blasted 50—or more—home runs in one season. This group of slugging elite...[permanent dead link]
^Schwarz, Alan (June 9, 2002).
"Ideas & Trends; Scoring Hits, Runs and Asterisks". The New York Times. Retrieved July 15, 2012. Where 50 home runs in a season once meant something (just 18 players did it before 1995), 16 have since...
^Krawczynski, Jon (October 2, 2010).
"Bautista's homer binge brings questions". USA Today. Retrieved July 15, 2012. McGwire has admitted to using steroids during his career and Sosa and Bonds have been dogged by allegations.