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Baseball’s Top-20 Home Run Hitters (1965) Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:
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- Willie Mays drives in winning run in the 1968 All-Star game played in the Astrodome
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- Duke Snider
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- A young Johnny Mize with the Cardinals
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- Hank Greenberg
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- Yogi Berra hits 3-run homer in the 6th inning of Game 7
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- The classic swing of Joe DiMaggio
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- Joe DiMaggio at the plate
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- Hank Aaron
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- Johnny Mize and Ralph Kiner
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- Jimmie Foxx nd Ted Williams
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- Giant’s manager Mell Ott
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- Lou Gehrig – 3
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- Stan Musial
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- Ted Williams at the plate
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- Mickey Mantle
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- Eddie Mathews
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- Ernie Banks, 2528 games without ejection
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- Gil Hodges
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- Babe Ruth hit the first one September 24, 1925
The Continued Evolution of Baseball
In today’s interesting essay, Paul Doyle gives us a summary of how the game has evolved with regard to home runs, contrasting the Dead Ball Era with the Live Ball Era and with our present post-1965 era. When you see his list of top-20 from 1965 and top-20 as of 2020, I think you’ll be quite surprised, as I was:
“People ask me what I do in winter when there is no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for Spring” -Rogers Hornsby
“Rajah” Hornsby
“The Rajah” would be developing saddle sores if he were alive today waiting for baseball to begin. Although he was four years into his playing career with the Cardinals in 1918 and played during the last pandemic, the days, weeks, and months would no doubt have been hell for him.
Similarly, we diehards have had more time to wax nostalgic and maybe look for more baseball trivia to occupy our time. Recently, I was rummaging through some miscellaneous baseball clippings in my many scattered files and came upon an interesting one that goes back to 1965. Baseball was in the early part of the decade of expansion and a few years beyond the asterisk of Ford Frick and 17 years into the integration of the game. It was also at least 25 years before the era of steroids left a stain that still has not been washed away.
The article in question was a list of the Top 20 career HR hitters entering the 1965 season. At that point in history, the eras of the Dead Ball (1876-1919) vs Live Ball (1920-64) were almost dead even with 43 years for Dead Ball vs. 44 years for Live Ball.
(In the featured photo we see babe Ruth in 1920, his first year with the Yankees, opening the door to the “Live Ball” era)
Roger Connor emerged as the Home Run King of the Dead Ball era with a grand total of 138 by the time he retired in 1897. Similarly, if we consider 1901 as the new modern era, “Home Run” Baker tops the list with 96 with 17 coming in his last two years, which were Live Ball years (1920-21 and a teammate then of the Sultan of Swat)!
The Great Willie Mays!
My point is that the HR became a staple of Baseball’s emergence from the stink of the Dead Ball scandal of the Black Sox of 1919. The so-called “scientific game” of moving runners around the bases began to wane when the Babe took a different philosophy of hitting. Helped by the livelier ball and in many ways by the increased size of ballplayers simply by economic evolution, health and training, the power game was now much more prevalent.
Sluggers like Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Hank Greenberg, Ted Williams, Stan Musial were stalwarts of the Roaring Twenties through the War Years and beyond. Integration in 1947 saw the emergence of black HR hitters like Mays, Banks, and Aaron. And yet, by the start of 1965, an important year in Civil Rights legislation that very slowly removed the prejudices, three black players were among the career HR leaders; in fact, in just that short period, those players were already amongst the Top 14 in history!
Hank Aaron had passed Joe DiMaggio in 1964, moving up to #14 with 366 home runs. No one was touting Henry as the heir apparent to displacing The Babe at that point. In fact, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were thought of more to dethrone Ruth and were just separated by one HR (454-453 advantage-Mantle and #’s 7 and 8 respectively on the list). The injury history of Mantle became more pronounced that year and the “Say Hey Kid” still had his foot on the accelerator, which made him more of a candidate.
To capsulize the noticeable impact of the home run at the start of 1965, the 20th player on the list (Al Simmons at 307) had more than twice as many as Dead Ball Connor achieved.
Fast forward to this year. Of the 20 players listed in 1965, only six are still on the Top-20 (Aaron, Mays, Mantle, Foxx, Williams). Williams has to share the 20th spot with Frank Thomas and Willie McCovey. Trivia note: Ruth had 521 entering the 1930 season.
The three players on the bottom of the list in 1965 (#18 Greenberg, #19 Roy Sievers, and #20 Simmons) have been pushed out beyond #100. Amazing! The eras go from Connor at 138 to Ruth at 714 to Bonds at 762 today.
So, as we wait patiently (with “The Rajah”) to stop staring out the window, in our hearts we know the game has evolved even as the one constant of HR remains. What used to be called the science of moving base runners is now the science of “bat speed”, “exit velocity,” and “launch angle” turning fans into aerodynamics experts. Wilbur and Orville Wright were born 100 years too soon and could have had a second career.
Top-20: Start of 1965 Top-20: Start of 2020
Babe Ruth 714 Barry Bonds 762
Jimmie Foxx 534 Hank Aaron 755
Ted Williams 521 Babe Ruth 714
Mel Ott 511 Alex Rodriguez 696
Lou Gehrig 493 Willie Mays 660
Stan Musial 475 Albert Pujols 656
Mickey Mantle 453 Ken Griffey, Jr. 630
Willie Mays 453 Jim Thome 612
Ed Matthews 445 Sammy Sosa 609
Duke Snider 407 Frank Robinson 586
Ernie Banks 376 Mark McGwire 573
Gil Hodges 370 Harmon Killebrew 573
Ralph Kiner 369 Rafael Palmiero 569
Hank Aaron 366 Reggie Jackson 563
Joe DiMaggio 361 Manny Ramirez 555
Johnny Mize 359 Mike Schmidt 548
Yogi Berra 358 David Ortiz 541
Hank Greenberg 331 Mickey Mantle 536
Roy Sievers 318 Jimmie Foxx 534
Al Simmons 307 Williams, Thomas, McCovey 521
Paul Doyle
Photo Credits: All from Google search
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Gary,
On the photo gallery above, you mention that Lou Gehrig hit four home runs in a game. Ironically, today is the anniversary of that feat. On June 3, 1932, Gehrig hit 4 HR’s in a game against the Philadelphia A’s. The Yankees beat the Philadelphia A’s 20-13 (no mention of who missed the Point After TD for the A’s. LOL!).
Tony Lazzeri also hit for a “natural” cycle in that game (single, double, triple, HR in that order).
That day is also significant in that John McGraw announced his retirement as Manager of the NY Giants on that same day in 1932.
Wow! A lot going on that day. And what a coincidence…I didn’t see that. The reason for that caption is that these pics have all been used in previous posts. That one was probably used in a post about 4 HRs in a game or something.
As Paul’s article reminds me, when he was forced by injury to retire as a player in his 30s Gil Hodges led the NL in career homers by a right-handed hitter. Now of course, and as Paul points out, he has disappeared from the decades-old “top twenty” list altogether — and unfortunately from the hearts and minds of most latter-day writers and fans as well.
It wasn’t on a “sleepy dusty delta day” (the third of June) that he hit four out, but on 8/31/50 against the Braves Gil homered off four different pitchers in a single ballgame. I believe he remains today the only player with that particular distinction, but I could be wrong.
Readers of Gary’s blog can probably tell that I’m a little intent on giving voice in his absence to this extraordinary man, player and manager, particularly in his absence. My wife and friends have lovingly encouraged me to “get over it” after all these years, but I continue to believe there is no other figure from the sports world more deserving of the time and attention.
Thanks for letting me weigh in on Gil’s behalf once more! (I’m trying to quit.)
The pictures are always worth the price of admission, Gary!
The redoubtable Michael Keedy makes an excellent point about Hodges.
Nice job, Paul, on the home run evolution (love the Hornsby quote). Here are a few thoughts.
But for almost two years in the army, Mays probably would have broken Ruth’s record before Aaron. Willie would have conservatively averaged 30 homers per year in ’52 and ’53, minus the four he hit before going in, giving him 716. That’s good for third place on the current list behind Bonds and Aaron.
Ted Williams served twice. Using the same math for those five years, Williams total would be around 692, placing him in the number six position, breathing down the neck of ARod’s 696.
Had he not been stricken with ALS, The “Iron Horse” would have most likely clocked in between 560 and 575.
Mickey Mantle, sans the crippling injuries and booze, well…way up there for sure.
Hate the launch angle, attack angle, and hit the bottom half of the baseball approach. Just a nice level swing and drive in runs, baby!
As Yogi said, “How can you hit and think at the same time?”
After reading Bill’s “What ifs”,
I also think one of Yogi’s aphorisms is appropriate:
“You know, ‘ya never know.”
After reading Bill’s “What If’s”, I think it’s appropriate to apply another of Yogi’s aphorisms :
“You know, ‘ya never know.”
Interesting tidbit that relates to this topic. I do collect various baseball ephemera, mostly via eBay.
Earlier today, I came across an October 1973 Magazine being sold on eBay. Henry Aaron was on the cover and, of course, it featured his approaching the Babe’s HR record. There was a limited ability to view some of the inside pages of Team! Magazine billed as “The Young Super Sports Monthly.”
Lo, and behold on Page 7 was a featured article by one Bill Gutman. It headlined, “Can Aaron Possibly Crack” The Sub heading asking
“insiders talk about the homer in pressure and what it’s doing to the super-slugger.”
Could only view the first page, but Bill brought up the media pressure and the hate mail Aaron was receiving.
Talk about coincidences! If Bill gets to peruse this article and comments, would be interested on his recollections.
Thanks Paul…I’ll alert Bill to this.
Hi Paul:
It amazes me that some of that early material is still floating around. I think I began freelancing sometime in late 1971 or so. Met a guy who worked with comics and he knew a friend starting a sports magazine for kids. At first it was called Superstar Sports, and later Team. I wrote all the stories, some under different names, and my friend did quizzes and puzzles, as well as some comic book-style sports fiction. Also went out and did stories on site that kids would like, such as a story on the Mets batboys that we did at Shea Stadium. Another on Mel Stottlemyre’s sons when Mel broght them to a sports camp in Pawling, New York, close to where I lived. The magazine was doing well and beginning to get some paid ads.But the publisher had split with his partner, taking the magazine with him. Finally he just couldn’t afford to keep it going and it folded. But one of my earlier endeavors and a good gig for me back then between writing kids books. Hard to believe it was so many years ago. Thanks for mentioning.
Yup, Bill. Click on the link to see your “past”. LOL!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HANK-AARON-1973-OCT-TEAM-1974-APRIL-BASEBALL-DIGEST-MICKEY-MANTLE-MLB-NFL-HOF/143621252243?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225086%26meid%3Dbc56d1f997aa4b9bbc391f87c68a6587%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D383536273177%26itm%3D143621252243%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Af2dccc6e-a8cd-11ea-8237-74dbd180514f%7Cparentrq%3A8f411b751720ac3db1708473ffec362a%7Ciid%3A1