This is a question that got brought up - The question asks who are the 5 players who have hit 20 homeruns in a single season for 5 different teams.
We could only come up with 4 players: Bobby Bonds - did it with the San Fransisco Giants, New York Yankees, California Angels, Texas Rangers, and Cleveland Indians.
Jose Canseco - did it with the Oakland A’s, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Jack Clark - did it with the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, and the Boston Red Sox.
Dave Winfield - did it with the San Diego Padres, New York Yankees, California Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, and Minnesota Twins.
So who’s the 5th guy?
Also, I found a couple names, like Todd Zeile, who hasn’t done it yet, but is on pace to do it this year (he already has 13 HRs this season with the Colorado Rockies). Who else is likely to be added to that list by the end of this year?
Toronto
Sand Diego
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
and then in a split season, Tampa and Chicago Cubs
Does Chili Davis count
SF
CAL
MIN
CAL (second tour)
KC
Are you sure it’s 5 players? I found a trivia question that only acknowledged four players, and I couldn’t find anyone among the top 200 all time homeruns hitters.
No, Fred McGriff (although this may be the year he joins the list) and Eddie Murray wouldn’t count because of the split seasons. While they hit 20 HR in those seasons, they didn’t hit 20 for one team.
Dave Kingman doesn’t count cuz the Mets are the same team, just played for them at different times.
I’ve already looked at the leaders, but those 4 were the only ones I could find too.
And no, I’m not sure it’s 5 players, but that’s how the question was posed to me. I’ll be a bit mad if this turns out to be a wild goose chase.
Well, whoever this majical fifth guy is, he apparently isn’t in the top 100 in career home runs. Cause I checked all of them, except the few that I was sure it wasn’t. (couldn’t sleep, this was something to occupy my time till I got tired) So, either he doesn’t exist, its some trick answer, or he had a short homer-hitting career.
Although, I think Chili Davis was closest. But it was two different stints with Cal., but he also would have had it if he had hit one more homer with the Yankees in '99. Yes sir, I have WAY TOO MUCH free time.
OK, now I’m startin to get tired. Notice the blatantly wrong spelling of magical in that last post. I knew something looked funny about it. Maybe I should get some sleep now.
That’s the exact same reference I found that made me doubt there was 5 people. Crunchy Frog, you are in big trouble if you’ve put obsessive baseball fans on a futile hunt for knowledge we MUST possess.
And, it turns out that it was a poorly stated question. I have a database of all MLB stats from the 1800’s through 2000. After combing through that monstrosity, it indeed showed that the only 4 are Bonds, Canseco, Clark, and Winfield. However, a couple more are closing in on trivia and one player narrowly missed.
Closing in:
Greg Vaughn. Has Cin, TB, SD, and Mil. Clearly, he is on the downside of his career, but he is likely to end up with one more team before it is done and he still has 20 home run power.
Fred McGriff. Has Atl, SD, TB, and Tor. With only 3 more homeruns this year, he joins the list.
Ron Gant - Has Atl, Cin, Stl, Phi. Needs 13 homers this year with San Diego. He is looking pretty darn washed up though.
And finally, in 1999 Chili Davis hit 19 homers for the Yankees, leaving him 1 short of joining the list.
The question was related to me from my dad who had heard it at work and he and his friends at work tried to think of it all day. Since I have Baseball Encyclopedias and a bunch of baseball reference sites on my favorites list, he thought I could come up with the guys (I only came up with Jack Clark and Dave Winfield, and confirmed their guesses of Bobby Bonds and Jose Canseco).
The question had me wasting a day looking for something that didn’t exist too, guys, so try not to be too angry with me. Thanks for the help anyway.
