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HR King

Discussion in the Records and Milestones forum
HR King
Who is the home run king in the world? In MLB is it Babe Ruth? Did any player hit more home runs than Sadaharu Oh's career?
Comments
Re: HR King
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Mar 26, 2004 10:31 AM | HAN Fan ]

These are the all-time home run leaders:
Saduharu Oh    868 NPB
Hank Aaron 755 MLB
Babe Ruth 714 MLB
Willie Mays 660 MLB
Barry Bonds 658 MLB
Katsuya Nomura 657 NPB
Re: HR King
[ Author: Jen Wei | Posted: Mar 26, 2004 12:20 PM | HNHF Fan ]

I would guess that Barry Bonds will place in fouth this year.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Mischa Gelman | Posted: Mar 26, 2004 9:21 PM ]

It all depends on what you count when tabulating official homers. Kiyoshi's list is accurate if you go by the standard regular-season definitions. If you also want to include winter leagues, Mexican League superstar Hector Espino adds another 300 or so to join the list at 794.

And of course some of Josh Gibson's fans like to cite over 800 homers, but that's counting games against amateur and semi-pro teams. Since we don't count exhibition or post-season games for Oh, Aaron, and company, I don't see why we should count them for Gibson.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Eric Brammer | Posted: Apr 1, 2004 4:15 AM ]

As a Josh Gibson fan, I think it right that we not count amateur or post-season games, however he (Gibson) still hit an estimated 550-600 home runs during his pro career. A guesstamation is in order for most Negro League records due to the poor quality of most record keeping for those leagues. However, the Negro Leagues were still pro leagues, and his homers should be accounted for.

That being said, Oh still should be counted as the home run champion of the world if we were to draw out this academic exercise. His proficiency and power during his career span simply cannot be denied. Even thought the talent around him was not MLB caliber, it still was a competitive league and his feats still astounding.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Mischa Gelman | Posted: Apr 1, 2004 9:12 PM ]

- As a Josh Gibson fan, I think it right that we not count amateur or post-season games, however he (Gibson) still hit an estimated 550-600 home runs during his pro career.

Do you have a citation for that? I usually use Holway's "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues" for stats, and he has Gibson with 224 HR against top-flight black pitching, second all-time behind Mule Suttles (237). Gibson has the best HR/550 AB ratio, with 51 HR/550, far better than any MLBer.

I have no problems with saying that Gibson is the best catcher in baseball history, FWIW.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Jun 13, 2004 10:12 AM | HAN Fan ]

Then we should tabulate Aaron, Mays, and Bonds for winter league homers, too. Aaron and Mays played for the Santurce Crabbers of the Puerto Rican Winter League. I'm not sure where Bonds played in the winter.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Jun 14, 2004 9:11 AM | HAN Fan ]

And if we count Josh Gibson's Negro League homers then we should count Mays' Negro League homers.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: just some guy | Posted: Jun 19, 2004 4:38 AM ]

... and of course, if you want to count winter league stats, then you will need to count minor league stats as well.
Re: HR King
[ Author: seiyu | Posted: Jul 1, 2004 5:06 AM ]

Then you must count Aaron's homers as an Indianapolis Clown.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Luis Raul Villamizar | Posted: Jul 1, 2004 1:37 PM ]

Barry Bonds played for the Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: BRENTON | Posted: Jun 30, 2004 1:06 AM ]

You are right about that order except for there is one more guy who has more than all of those guys, Josh Gibson. He had an estimated 962 homers over 17 seasons.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: BRENTON | Posted: Jun 30, 2004 1:07 AM ]

Yes one player did, Josh Gibson, estimated career home runs of 962 in 17 seasons.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Jun 30, 2004 9:38 AM | HAN Fan ]

The question is not the number of homers but the quality of competition the batter faced. Refer to Mischa Gelman's posting on April 1, 2004 above.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Luis Raul Villamizar | Posted: Jul 1, 2004 2:29 PM ]

The Caribbean baseball competition is excellent. In my country, Venezuela, a lot of North American stars have played here.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Ketizzle | Posted: Jan 3, 2005 9:32 AM ]

Josh Gibson should be known as the best home run hitter of all time. He is America's homerun king! Because he did it in the Negro Leagues where the seasons were shorter, the fields were bigger, and all pitches were legal (you could scuff the ball, cut it, use any kind of liquid, and anything), that's why Josh is the Home run King!
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Anthony Mohamed | Posted: Mar 25, 2005 1:41 AM ]

Actually, Josh Gibson is the ultimate home run king. Josh Gibson was known as the Black Babe Ruth, but Babe Ruth should be known as the White Josh Gibson, because Josh Gibson hit 950 home runs in his career and hit 75 in 1931 with a .350 career batting average.
Overrated
[ Author: Guest: ANTHONY MOHAMED | Posted: Mar 25, 2005 1:49 AM ]

Doesn't really matter any way because Japanese baseball is overrated. Any way, how many people besides Ichiro did anything in the majors?
Re: Overrated
[ Author: Christopher | Posted: Mar 25, 2005 7:54 AM | HAN Fan ]

Are you trying to be deliberately confrontational?
Re: Josh Gibson
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Mar 30, 2005 9:21 AM | HAN Fan ]

Let's all agree that Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Sadaharu Oh, K. Nomura, Hector Espino, and Josh Gibson were all probably the greatest home run hitters. Any attempt to say who is the best is fruitless because the leagues, the time period, the stadiums, and the competition were all variables.

Josh Gibson's "950" home runs were not all in the main official Negro Leagues. John Holway's "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues" indicates that Josh Gibson hit 224 "HR against top-flight black pitching, second all-time behind Mule Suttles (237)."

Aaron, Bonds, Ruth, Mays, Oh, Nomura, and Espino's home run totals are all in official league stats. Exhibition and barnstorming games are not included.
Re: Josh Gibson
[ Author: HaruSaru | Posted: Apr 1, 2005 6:14 AM | HC Fan ]

So in other words, Oh is the all-time HR king in the world with his 868!
Re: HR King
[ Author: Guest: Chris MacFadyen | Posted: Aug 16, 2005 2:34 AM ]

Yes somebody has, a man named Josh Gibson. He played in the Negor Leagues. In his career he hit 962 career home runs. On top of that he also hit 84 home runs in one season.
Re: HR King
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Aug 17, 2005 4:43 AM | HAN Fan ]

We have many opinions and speculation of who could, should, or would have been the all Home Run King, taking in Winter League, Negro League, and exhibition games.

All we know for sure are the MLB and NPB records:
Rank	Player	       Home Runs
1 Sadaharu Oh 868
2 Hank Aaron 755
3 Babe Ruth 714
4 Barry Bonds 703
5 Willie Mays 660
6 Katsuya Nomura 657
7 Sammy Sosa 588
8 Frank Robinson 586
9 Mark McGwire 583
10 Harmon Killebrew 573
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