Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 06, 2007
A Different Home Run Record

TangoTiger points out that Bonds is just one home run shy of catching Aaron if you include the post season:

Babe Ruth has 729 HR, including his 15 post-season HR. They count, right? I mean, would you rather count them as ZERO?

Hank Aaron goes from 755 to the real 761.

Bonds? Goodbye to 751. He has 9 post-season HR. Say hello to Bonds at 760 MLB homeruns. Bonds needs ONE HR to tie the MLB record, and two to break it.

At the end of The Babe Ruth Story I remember a bit of dialog where they talk about Ruth's home run total including his post season home runs. It was only after Maris broke Ruth's single season record that people started revering 714.

When I worked at ESPN, at some point they asked STATS to start providing batter vs. pitcher statistics that included the post season. The reasoning was that those were very meaningful at bats. Tango makes a very good point in his post, and we should list both records.


Posted by David Pinto at 05:51 PM | Records | TrackBack (0)
Comments

A weird little part of me was hoping bonds would be at 755 going into the All-Star game, and that he would do the honors there (if only ceremonially). It would have been almost too poetic for real life.

I guess it's still a possibility...

Posted by: SleepyCA at July 6, 2007 07:06 PM

Selig would have to quickly call the game over before the ball landed.

Posted by: Capybara at July 6, 2007 08:12 PM

I don't agree, 'cause then you're "punishing" players who couldn't make the post-season simply because they were on bad teams or players who got there and didn't get many post-season games due to the team not being able to play well in the post-season. These guys would have a significant drop in PA's or IP's compared to guys who were on better teams. In addition, the post-season is a totally different atmosphere and affects players differently from the regular season. They're important At-Bat's, but they shouldn't be counted in the overall records.

Devon

Posted by: Devon Young at July 6, 2007 08:43 PM

great to think about...

anytime you exclude things, it creates a slippery slope. extra inning home runs, home runs hit in games after the 154th of the season... etc. how did we arbitrarily decide to not include post-season.

i agree that we should not include postseason but now that i think about it.... extra inning home runs seem like maybe they shouldnt be counted.

also do they count home runs (or any stats) hit in end of season tiebreaker playoff games as regular season?

Posted by: Trey Peiffer at July 6, 2007 10:06 PM

Devon - By a similar argument, players on bad teams are already punished by not getting as many at-bats as they would get if they played in a more potent offense. There are all sorts of influences on players' stats that are not accounted for in the records, and rightfully so (ballpark effects, military time, length of schedules, injuries, steroids) If the games count toward determining a champion - which is the purpose of playing out the season - then it seems that they should count towards the records as well.

Posted by: Scott Segrin at July 6, 2007 10:58 PM

Jack Webb certainly revered Ruth's career home run record. That's why Sgt. Joe Friday's badge number was 714.

Posted by: Syd at July 7, 2007 12:56 AM
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