50 home run club

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 50 home run club is the group of batters who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season. Babe Ruth was the first to achieve this, doing so in 1920. By reaching the milestone, he also became the first player to hit 30 and then 40 home runs in a single season, breaking his own record of 29 from the 1919 season. Ruth subsequently became the first player to reach the 50 home run club on four occasions, repeating the achievement in 1921, 1927, and 1928. He remained the only player to accomplish this until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa matched his feat in 1999 and 2001, respectively. In doing so, they became the only players to have achieved 50 home runs in four consecutive seasons. Only 7 players, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey Jr, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Judge, and Shohei Ohtani, have hit 50 home runs in consecutive seasons. Barry Bonds hit the most home runs to join the club, collecting 73 in 2001. Most recently, for the first time in over two decades, four players hit 50 home runs in the 2025 season: Shohei Ohtani, Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber, and Aaron Judge (his fourth season of the milestone).

In total, 34 players have reached the 50 home run club in MLB history and eleven have done so more than once. Of these, seventeen were right-handed batters, fifteen were left-handed, and two were switch hitters, meaning they could bat from either side of the plate. Four of these players (including two active members of the 50 home run club) have played for only one major league team. Of the thirty MLB teams, twenty-two have seen one of their players reach the milestone, with the Chicago White Sox, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, and Washington Nationals being the teams to never have a player reach the mark. The New York Yankees are the only franchise to have five players reach the milestone while on their roster: Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Alex Rodriguez, and Aaron Judge. Ten players are also members of the 500 home run club and two of them (Willie Mays and Rodriguez) are also members of the 3,000 hit club. Ten players won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their 50 home run season. Mantle is the only player to have earned the Major League Triple Crown alongside achieving 50 home runs, leading both leagues in batting average, home runs and runs batted in (RBI). Mantle and Maris—collectively known as the M&M Boys—are the only teammates to reach the 50 home run club in the same season, hitting a combined 115 home runs in 1961 and breaking the single-season record for home runs by a pair of teammates. Albert Belle is the only player to amass 50 or more doubles in addition to attaining 50 home runs. Prince Fielder, at 23 years and 139 days, was the youngest player to reach the milestone while Bonds, at age 37, was the oldest. Pete Alonso and Aaron Judge are the only players to hit 50 home runs in their rookie seasons.

Due to the infrequent addition of members into the 50 home run club, Baseball Digest called it "a restrictive fraternity comprising slugging elite" in 1954, when there were only six members. Of the 25 members eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame, eleven have been elected and six were elected on the first ballot. Eligibility requires that a player has "been retired five seasons" or deceased for at least six months, disqualifying seven active players and two players who have been retired for less than five seasons. Some believe the milestone has become less important with the large number of new members; fifteen players joined the club on a total of 24 occasions from 1995 to 2010. Additionally, several of the members who entered the club during that time have had ties to performance-enhancing drugs.

Members

+KeyYearThe year the player's 50 home run season occurredPlayer Name of the player and number of 50 home run seasons they had accomplished at that pointTeamThe player's team for his 50 home run seasonHRNumber of home runs in that seasonCareerThe number of home runs the player hit in his MLB career^Denotes single-season home run record progressionElected to the Baseball Hall of FamePlayer is activeOngoing season

+Members of the 50 home run clubYearPlayerTeamHRCareerRefNew York Yankees54714 New York Yankees59714 New York Yankees60714 New York Yankees54714Chicago Cubs56244Philadelphia Athletics58534 Boston Red Sox50534Detroit Tigers58331New York Giants51359Pittsburgh Pirates51369 Pittsburgh Pirates54369New York Giants51660New York Yankees52536 New York Yankees54536New York Yankees61275 San Francisco Giants52660Cincinnati Reds52348Detroit Tigers51319Cleveland Indians50381Baltimore Orioles50210Oakland Athletics52583Seattle Mariners56630 Oakland AthleticsSt. Louis Cardinals58583San Diego Padres50355 Seattle Mariners56630Chicago Cubs66609 St. Louis Cardinals70583 Chicago Cubs63609 St. Louis Cardinals65583 Chicago Cubs50609Texas Rangers52696Arizona Diamondbacks57354 Chicago Cubs64609San Francisco Giants73762Cleveland Indians52612 Texas Rangers57696Atlanta Braves51434Philadelphia Phillies58382Boston Red Sox54541 New York Yankees54696Milwaukee Brewers50319Toronto Blue Jays54344Baltimore Orioles53295,Miami Marlins59453 New York Yankees 52 368 New York Mets53264 New York Yankees62368Atlanta Braves54288 New York Yankees 58 368 Los Angeles Dodgers54280 Seattle Mariners60153Philadelphia Phillies56340 Los Angeles Dodgers55280 New York Yankees 53 368

50 home run club

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