OK, so we misspoke...but when does habit become tradition? Or heartbreak become psoriasis?!
We need to up the ante on homers here, just one more time, before we move on to the "lesser" stuff.
It's all part of an increasingly unescapable fascination with this "in a month" measurement: when does a calendar become a curse? Or vice-versa?
WHAT it's about is the relative scarcity of certain events...we aren't quite as far gone as Jayson Stark, down in the reedy weeds of this has never happened before! (and Jayson, you really need to compile a book about all of those singularities before the men in the white coats tap you on the shoulder and crook their fingers at you)...but perhaps it's really worse, much worse. (Someone will write a PhD thesis about this, and will be "rewarded" by being named general manager of the Colorado Rockies.)
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| This could be a Sumimoto sister...but we're not telling! |
That's right: relative scarcity. Occurring naturally, without the idiotic imposition of tariffs, or the latest variation in planned obsolescence. We don't want to be able to count it on the fingers of one or two hands, but we don't want to have to bring a wheelbarrow with us, either. Just two or three figures worth (maybe
those saucy Sumimoto sisters and one of their disposable frisky friends, frolicking in ways that will get
us--not
them--arrested: after all, that's why pseudonyms were invented.)
OK, enough foreplay. We're on the other side of the orgasm, in the home run trot, and as our flushed face fades back to its customary semi-pasty shade, we remind you of those posts we reminded you of last time: the 10+ homers in a month material...it's all interesting and all that, but there are more than 999 instances of it, thanks to the offensive explosion and its decadent "launch angle" aftermath (hmm...seems like everything is becoming vaguely pornographic now...sign of the times, apparently).
So before we totally exhaust your attention span, here's the wrinkle (in case you didn't read the title before plunging in here). We know that there are over 1300 instances of hitters slugging 10 or more HRs in a month. For all of you inveterate carnivores out there, that's not even medium rare. But what about 15 or more HRs in a month? How often does that happen? Could it be in the sweet spot we're looking for--not gonzo Starkian in singularity, but not so proliferate that it won't burn the house down if you accidentally set it on fire?
DO you remember how many times hitters have hit 50 homers? It's right at the spot where it should stop for all time (though, sadly, it won't)--it's happened exactly 50 times. Thus it's a record that has reached its perfect symmetry. It happened last year (one of the few good things that happened last year), thanks to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. And one of those two will quite probably destroy that symmetry this year...
But there's another HR feat that's in the same neighborhood: four dozen instances of four-baggers...not quite as perfect a construct, but you've got to go with what they give you. Yes, yes, it's that 15 homers-in-a-month thing--we admit it, already! It has happened just 49 times, just the right amount to carry in a Sumimoto sister handbag. (And don't get too grabby with that one sister: she's got a black belt.)
15+ homer months have a convenient caesura that permits us to divide them, like all Gaul, into two parts. Here are the first 22 instances, from 1923 to 1968:
The relatively unknown Cy Williams was the first to do it, a surprising discovery when one considers the two 50+ HR seasons turned by Babe Ruth in 1920-21. Of course, later in the 20s Ruth would turn the 15+ a month thing into an annual occurrence (1927-30), including the 17 he hit in '27 to hit that magic round number (60) that is much lamented for having been surpassed by a pack of panting hyenas during the end times.
We single out Joltin' Joe for his proliferation of extra-base hits--the only such player to have more doubles and triples than homers in a 15+ HR month. (OK, Jayson, there's your singularity!) Some of you knew that Rudy York slipped past the Babe with 18 HRs in a month in 1937, but did you know that he hit 17 in August 1943, when the balata ball was something less than buoyant and bouncy?
It's true that these "big fly months" are light on other extra-base hits: our 22 instances here produced 342 homers, but only 120 doubles and just 22 triples. (This ratio will be even more pronounced in Part Two...)
Props to Hank Greenberg for his three entries on the list--including his "tandem" tateration with Harlond Clift, making those two the second to have 15+ HR months in the same year. (Joe and Rudy were the first to do so, the year before.) It happens again in 1956, with Mickey Mantle and Joe Adcock, and a fourth time with Roger Maris and Jim Gentile in 1961.
And it's a nice surprise to see Frank Howard (in his "Capital Punisher" incarnation...) produce a 15-HR month in 1968, proving that pitchers during the "year of the pitcher" did sometimes suffer the truth of consequences...
HERE's part two, picking up in the 1980s...
Of our 27 instances from 1985-2023, five of them belong to Mark McGwire, who becomes the first to have two 15+ homers months in the same season (in 1998, of course). It seems that in order to hit 70+ HRs in a season, such a double-up in monthly HR hitting is necessary--and, sure enough, Barry Bonds did the same when he hit his 73 HRs in 2001.
Most of the names here won't be surprising--though the "explosion" and its decadent sister tendency of "launch angle" do bring in several that might raise at least one eyebrow (Greg Vaughn, Troy Tulowitzki, Edwin Encarnacion, even Kyle Schwarber). Schwarber gets us to the pure extinction of other extra-base hits, with nothing but HRs--another moment of singular "Starkian ecstasy." (This gang of 27 combined for a total of 427 homers, but only 115 doubles and just 14 triples.)
Note that it's Sammy Sosa who winds up with the current record for most HRs in a month (20). He and Rafael Palmeiro are the first sluggers with 15+ HR months occurring in the same month (August 1999); this feat will be duplicated by J. D. Martinez and Aaron Judge in September-October 2017.
And here's our shout-out to Albert Belle for his two appearances on the list (1995 and 1999)--he is all-too-often overlooked due to his short career.
WE conclude this installment of "homer porn" with our trademarked TimeGrid™ (it's trademarked because we say so...) depicting all 49 instances of 15+ HR months.
When might number fifty occur? It could be as early as May 2025: Shohei Ohtani has 10 HRs in 17 games this month, which paces out to 15 or 16 (and it's a month with 31 days, too--something that those Sumimoto sisters are known to live for...too bad for them that Sho-time already has a wife and a dog).
Now we promise not to write about the long ball in our next post...
