TK note #3: 20 HR and 10 sac hits
Posted by Andy on March 13, 2008
Kurkjian noted how unusual it is for a player to have at least 20 homers and 10 sac hits in the same season.
Here are the 25 most-recent such seasons:
Cnt Player Year HR SH Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions +----+-----------------+----+--+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+ 1 Randy Winn 2005 20 10 31 TOT ML 160 683 617 85 189 47 6 63 48 4 91 5 3 11 19 11 .306 .360 .499 .859 *78/D 2 Juan Uribe 2004 23 11 24 CHW AL 134 553 502 82 142 31 6 74 32 1 96 3 5 10 9 11 .283 .327 .506 .833 *465/D 3 Derek Jeter 2004 23 16 30 NYY AL 154 721 643 111 188 44 1 78 46 1 99 14 2 19 23 4 .292 .352 .471 .823 *6 4 Marcus Giles 2003 21 10 25 ATL NL 145 635 551 101 174 49 2 69 59 2 80 11 4 7 14 4 .316 .390 .526 .916 *4 5 Jose Valentin 2000 25 13 30 CHW AL 144 648 568 107 155 37 6 92 59 1 106 4 4 11 19 2 .273 .343 .491 .834 *6/9 6 Roberto Alomar 1999 24 12 31 CLE AL 159 694 563 138 182 40 3 120 99 3 96 7 13 13 37 6 .323 .422 .533 .955 *4/D 7 Kevin Elster 1996 24 16 31 TEX AL 157 596 515 79 130 32 2 99 52 1 138 2 11 8 4 1 .252 .317 .462 .779 *6 8 Craig Biggio 1995 22 11 29 HOU NL 141 673 553 123 167 30 2 77 80 1 85 22 7 6 33 8 .302 .406 .483 .889 *4 9 Ron Karkovice 1993 20 11 29 CHW AL 128 453 403 60 92 17 1 54 29 1 126 6 4 12 2 2 .228 .287 .424 .711 *2 10 Brady Anderson 1992 21 10 28 BAL AL 159 749 623 100 169 28 10 80 98 14 98 9 9 2 53 16 .271 .373 .449 .822 *7/89 11 Steve Buechele 1991 22 11 29 TOT ML 152 600 530 74 139 22 3 85 49 4 97 7 3 14 0 5 .262 .331 .440 .771 *54/6 12 Devon White 1987 24 14 24 CAL AL 159 696 639 103 168 33 5 87 39 2 135 2 2 8 32 11 .263 .306 .443 .749 *98/7 13 Alan Trammell 1986 21 11 28 DET AL 151 653 574 107 159 33 7 75 59 4 57 5 4 7 25 12 .277 .347 .469 .816 *6/D 14 Wally Joyner 1986 22 10 24 CAL AL 154 674 593 82 172 27 3 100 57 8 58 2 12 11 5 2 .290 .348 .457 .805 *3 15 Dwayne Murphy 1982 27 12 27 OAK AL 151 660 543 84 129 15 1 94 94 2 122 3 8 8 26 8 .238 .349 .418 .767 *8/6D 16 Willie Upshaw 1982 21 10 25 TOR AL 160 646 580 77 155 25 7 75 52 8 91 1 3 11 8 8 .267 .327 .443 .770 *3/D 17 Roy Smalley 1979 24 15 26 MIN AL 162 729 621 94 168 28 3 95 80 8 80 4 9 9 2 3 .271 .353 .441 .794 *6/3 18 Bobby Grich 1979 30 12 30 CAL AL 153 609 534 78 157 30 5 101 59 10 84 2 2 14 1 0 .294 .365 .537 .902 *4 19 Butch Hobson 1977 30 10 25 BOS AL 159 637 593 77 157 33 5 112 27 4 162 4 3 17 5 4 .265 .300 .489 .789 *5 20 Rusty Staub 1970 30 11 26 MON NL 160 699 569 98 156 23 7 94 112 11 93 3 4 7 12 11 .274 .394 .497 .891 *9 21 Bobby Tolan 1969 21 10 23 CIN NL 152 691 637 104 194 25 10 93 27 2 92 15 2 9 26 12 .305 .347 .474 .821 *89 22 Paul Blair 1969 26 13 25 BAL AL 150 685 625 102 178 32 5 76 40 0 72 2 5 11 20 6 .285 .327 .477 .804 *8 23 Max Alvis 1967 21 16 29 CLE AL 161 697 637 66 163 23 4 70 38 1 107 4 2 13 3 10 .256 .301 .403 .704 *5 24 Jim Lefebvre 1966 24 10 24 LAD NL 152 610 544 69 149 23 3 74 48 6 72 3 5 10 1 1 .274 .333 .460 .793 *45 25 Johnny Callison 1963 26 13 24 PHI NL 157 692 626 96 178 36 11 78 50 4 111 2 1 8 8 3 .284 .339 .502 .841 *9/78
Since the steroids era started in 1992 or so, a bunch of speed guys have done it. Before that, it was really quite rare.
And here are all the guys to do it at least twice:
From To Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons +-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+ Rogers Hornsby 1921 1929 25-33 7 Ind. Seasons Lou Gehrig 1925 1930 22-27 5 Ind. Seasons Mel Ott 1929 1939 20-30 4 Ind. Seasons Hack Wilson 1927 1930 27-30 4 Ind. Seasons Babe Ruth 1926 1930 31-35 4 Ind. Seasons Ken Williams 1921 1925 31-35 4 Ind. Seasons Jim Bottomley 1925 1929 25-29 3 Ind. Seasons Jack Fournier 1923 1925 33-35 3 Ind. Seasons George Kelly 1921 1925 25-29 3 Ind. Seasons Joe Adcock 1954 1956 26-28 2 Ind. Seasons Alvin Dark 1953 1954 31-32 2 Ind. Seasons Gil Hodges 1949 1950 25-26 2 Ind. Seasons Whitey Kurowski 1944 1945 26-27 2 Ind. Seasons Al Simmons 1929 1930 27-28 2 Ind. Seasons Lefty O'Doul 1929 1930 32-33 2 Ind. Seasons Don Hurst 1929 1932 23-26 2 Ind. Seasons Babe Herman 1929 1930 26-27 2 Ind. Seasons Jimmie Foxx 1929 1930 21-22 2 Ind. Seasons Dale Alexander 1929 1930 26-27 2 Ind. Seasons Chick Hafey 1928 1930 25-27 2 Ind. Seasons Bill Terry 1927 1930 28-31 2 Ind. Seasons Bob Meusel 1921 1925 24-28 2 Ind. Seasons
So it's really an unusual thing. Nobody has done it twice since the 1950s.
March 13th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I just happened to post Roy Smalley's card over at 88 Topps Cards, which talks more about this. (He's on the list above.)
March 13th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
So we can work out a power-sac number (by analogy with the power-speed number), something like (homers times sacs) divided by (homers plus sacs). Eyeballing it, Elster's 24-16 season looks like the since-1963 leader, though I expect some of Ruth's seasons would blow that away.
March 16th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
I love it when power hitters perform sac. bunts.
Can you name the only two players to hit 500 career home runs and *NOT* get a sac hit?
March 16th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
The answer is:
Harmon Killebrew and Frank Thomas.
Here are how the other 500+ HR hitters rank:
*Ruth, 113 times (In 1930, Ruth 1st in homers and 5th in the AL in sac. hits!! How cool is that? My how the game was different then. He had 14 sac. hits in 1927, when he had 60 dingers)
*Ott, 109
*Foxx, 71
*Banks, 45 (including 3 in his back-to-back MVP seasons)
*Mathews, 36 (at least one in 13 of his 17 seasons played)
*Sosa, 17 (none after 1994)
*Frank Robinson, 17 (none between 1958 and 1970)
*Schmidt, 16 (none after 1979, some in seasons he hit mega-HRs)
*Alex Rodriguez, 16 (none since 1999)
*Palmeiro, 15 (none since 1993)
*Mantle, 14 (how many were failed attempts at drag-bunt singles?)
*Mays, 13 (like Mickey, how many were failed attempts at drag-bunt singles?)
*Reggie Jackson, 13 (none from 1973 to 1983)
*Griffey, 8 (including one in 1996)
*McCovey, 5
*Ted Williams, 5 (none after 1947)
*Bonds, 4 (he did it once, Sept. 23, 1998, and it led to a win)
*McGwire, 3 (must have been as fun to witness as one of his triples)
*Aaron, 21 (mostly very early and very late in his career, but he also had one July 27, 1961)
*Thome, 1 (in 1994)
*Eddie Murray, 2 (in 1978 and 1979)
March 16th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I think that for a large chunk of the 20th century (including, for example, all of Ruth's career) they didn't distinguish between sac hits & sac flies. So some - maybe most - of Ruth's 113 sac hits were really sac flies. Have I got that right?
March 17th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
It may be scorer's discretion, and it may have been judged differently throughout history, but usually an obvious attempt for a bunt single is NOT scored as a sacrifice, even if that is the end result. So any drag bunt attempts are probably not included.
Gerry, good point on the SH/SF. See here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Sacrifice_hit
Still, I think Ruth did lay down some bunts. The game definitely was played differently.