Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig didn’t get etra tandem homer total credit for the homers they bashed in the post-season cornfields of Iowa.
When was the time the Astros had two formidable home run threats on the roster at the same time? By standards of national history, that would have been the downfall 2000 season, the club’s first year in the downtown ballpark we first called Enron Field. The tandem was only a one-year phenomenon, but it was good enough in the short term to place the work of Jeff Bagwell (47) and Richard Hidalgo (44) among the 26 greatest combo long-ballers that any MLB team has ever seen. It’s too bad that Hidalgo’s 2000 season could not have been captured like an electrical mist in a bottle and sprayed upon him every spring. He could have been one of the great ones of all time, but it just wasn’t meant to be.
The list here is interesting. It’s dominated by Hall of Famers and mixed with a number of contemporary steroid suspects, but not everyone here falls into either of those categories (maybe).
It’s also interesting to note that sometimes a crazy number team leader will combine with more than one other member of the club to make the list twice. (See Barry Bonds).
Have fun as all of us Astros fans contemplate the future possibilities of George Springer and Jon Singleton one day making this list.
26 Best Tandem Player HR Totals by Teammates in Major League Baseball
Tags: 2-player HR leaders by year
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The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 10, 2014 at 2:11 pm |
I can think of some other combos which may have been more “feared”, but they did not play in an era supportive of the numbers shown:
Stargell & Dave Parker (Pirates)
McCovey, Mays & Cepeda (Giants)
Dale Murphy & Bob Horner (Braves)
Foster, Perez & Bench (Reds)
McGwire & Canseco (A’s)
Is there a method to “weigh” the raw data such as the combo’s percentage of all homers hit in a season? I would want to believe that Ruth/Gehrig are tops if measured accordingly.
June 11, 2014 at 5:12 am |
Is this a Springer/Singleton daydream?
June 11, 2014 at 11:08 am |
Of course not, Michael. It’s a Springer/Singleton-germinated dream-inspirational goose bump of hope that tomorrow truly is a brighter over-the-rainbow glowing baseball new era of victory for our orange-adorned Houston Astros.
Pardon me for overstating my case, but words of bright hope to me are like those old-timey frosted root beers that we used to order at the A&W Root Beer Stand. When they were brand new, they sometimes overflowed the glass mug.
June 20, 2014 at 3:44 pm |
I am surprised that neither McGwire & Canseco nor Aaron & Mathews made the list since along with Ruth & Gehrig and Mays & McCovey, they were the most potent 1-2 punches of all time. If you put together a list of all-time best 1-2 punches, Aaron and Mathews lead the list with 863 home runs in 13 seasons together. Mays & McCovey are next with 857 home runs in 15 seasons together. Ruth and Gehrig are third with 771 home runs in 10 seasons together ( second at 859 home runs if you count Gehrig’s cups of coffee in ’23 &’24 when Ruth hit 87 homers and Gehrig 1).