Years of Change
In the modern era, baseball’s longest gap without a new franchise home run champion for even one team is five seasons, which happened from 1941 to 1945. But while the potential for five new leaders this year makes this a notable season, it would be well short of a record.
In 1921, the second year of baseball’s so-called live ball era, Ruth hit 59 home runs. (Three seasons earlier, the major league record was 27.) That season, eight of baseball’s 16 teams got a new home run leader: the Orioles, Indians, Giants, Dodgers, Cardinals, Yankees, Tigers and Athletics.
The high-water mark in recent decades came in 1996, during an era now viewed more skeptically because of revelations about widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs. That year, not only did Hundley break the Mets’ record, but six other players broke their team records as well (Gary Sheffield of the Marlins, Brady Anderson of the Orioles, Henry Rodriguez of the Expos, Ken Caminiti of the Padres, Ken Griffey Jr. of the Mariners and Andres Galarraga of the Rockies).
Franchise records are remarkably impermanent though: With Hundley now in second, all seven batters who set a franchise record in 1996 have had their marks surpassed.
In Pursuit of 50
Alonso still has a shot at hitting 50 or more home runs this season, which would put him in striking distance of not only Aaron Judge’s major league rookie record of 52, but would also remove the Mets from the list of franchises that have never had a 50-homer season. The others are Kansas City (a high of 38), Washington (46), Tampa Bay (46), Houston (47), the Angels (47), the White Sox (49), the Dodgers (49), Colorado (49) and Minnesota (49).