Miggy Joins 500 HR Club

60 Replies

Tiger great Miguel Cabrera launched his 500th HR on Sunday, connecting off Blue Jay left-hander Steven Matz, the 346th pitcher to allow a Cabrera regular season blast. Miggy becomes just the 9th player in the 500 HR club to maintain a career .300 batting average. More after the jump.

That elite 500 HR /.300 BA club includes these players.

Rk Player 2B HR BA From To Age G PA AB R H 3B RBI BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS Pos Tm
1Henry Aaron624755.3051954197620-4232981394112364217437719822971402138324073.374.555.9289783DH/45MLN-ATL-MIL
2Miguel Cabrera591500.3112003202120-38255610873951514982955171785119219073921.388.534.92235D79/HFLA-DET
3Manny Ramirez547555.3121993201121-3923029774824415442574201831132918133833.411.585.99679D/HCLE-BOS-LAD-CHW-TBR
4Ted Williams525521.3441939196020-412292979277061798265471183920217092417.482.6341.116*79H/1BOS
5Willie Mays523660.3021951197320-422992124971088120623283140190314641526338103.384.558.941*8H/39675NYG-SFG-TOT-NYM
6Babe Ruth506714.3421914193519-40250310626839921742873136221420621330123117.474.6901.164971/H83BOS-NYY-BSN
7Frank Thomas495521.3011990200822-40232210075819914942468121704166713973223.419.555.974D3/HCHW-OAK-TOR-TOT
8Mel Ott488511.3041926194717-3827301134894561859287672186017088968990.414.533.947*95H8/74NYG
9Jimmie Foxx458534.3251925194517-37231796778134175126461251922145213118776.428.6091.038*3H52/7916PHA-BOS-CHC-PHI
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 8/22/2021.

Of this group of nine, Cabrera becomes the sixth to also surpass 500 doubles, a milestone he reached in 2016. Cabrera is the first player to join this club after playing in both leagues, and is the only player in the group with 250+ games in each league.

It has been widely noted that no player has reached 500 HR and 3000 hits in the same season. While Cabrera still has an outside chance to be the first, it’s more likely that his 3000th hit will come early next season. Cabrera has, however, already reached a double milestone this season – two games after HR no. 500, Miggy scored the 1500th run of his career against the Cardinals. Cabrera joins Babe Ruth (1929), Eddie Mathews (1967), Rafael Palmeiro (2003) and Albert Pujols (2014) as the only players reaching those plateaus in the same campaign.

Cabrera is the 28th player to reach 500 home runs, and the the first of those 28 to be born in South America. His milestone blast is the first to happen outside the US, and is the first by a Tiger. Cabrera is the 6th player to swat no. 500 as a DH, and the 17th to do so with the bases empty (no player has hit number 500 with the bases full). Cabrera’s blast is the 13th of 28 to come in the last two months of the season.

Cabrera’s 500th came almost six years after David Ortiz became the 27th player to join the club. Three players reached 500 home runs in the 2007 season, and two did so in 1968 and 1971. The Giants and Red Sox share the distinction of having four players hit no. 500 while wearing their uniform, while the Orioles and Indians have yielded the most 500th homers with three apiece. Mike Schmidt‘s 500th home run with two aboard yielded the most WPA at 0.749, coming with two out in the 9th and the Phillies down a run. Frank Robinson‘s 500th also came with two out in the 9th, but with the Orioles down 7 runs it failed to nudge the WPA meter even to 0.001.

Now, it’s your turn to try your luck at 500th home run trivia.

  1. Who is the youngest player to reach 500 home runs? (Alex Rodriguez, 2007-08-04, aged 32 years, 8 days) And, the oldest? (Ted Williams, 1960-06-17, aged 41 years, 292 days)
  2. Which player’s 500th homer came off a future HOFer? (Eddie Mathews, 1967-07-14, off Juan Marichal)
  3. Which player had a pinch-hit 500th homer? (Gary Sheffield, 2009-04-17)
  4. Which player hit a walk-off 500th homer? (Jim Thome, 2007-09-16)
  5. Which two players hit their 500th homer in their final season? (Ted Williams, 1960-06-17 and Gary Sheffield 2009-04-17)
  6. Which two players connected for the second time in the game to reach no. 500? (Albert Pujols, 2014-04-22 and David Ortiz, 2015-09-12)
  7. Which player homered in both ends of a double-header to reach no. 500? (Frank Robinson, 1971-09-13)
  8. What is the longest gap between 500th home runs? (Mel Ott, 1945-08-01 to Ted Williams, 1960-06-17, 14 years, 321 days) And, the shortest? (Harmon Killebrew, 1971-08-10 to Frank Robinson, 1971-09-13, 34 days)
  9. Which player reached no. 500 exactly one year after his predecessor (and did so against the same opponent)? (Hank Aaron, 1968-07-14, one year after Eddie Mathews)
  10. Which two players reached no. 500 with their first home run of the season? (Sammy Sosa, 2003-04-04 and Gary Sheffield 2009-04-17) And, who did so with his last tater of the year? (Jimmie Foxx, 1940-09-24)
  11. Which player had the most home runs in the season he reached 500? (Barry Bonds, 73 in 2001) And, who had the fewest? (Gary Sheffield, 10 in 2009)
  12. Which two three players were selected as league MVP the year they hit no. 500? (Willie Mays 1965, Barry Bonds 2001, Alex Rodriguez 2007)
  13. Which player reached 500 homers after being traded earlier in the same season? (Eddie Murray, 1996-09-06) And, which two hit no. 500 before being traded later the same season? (Eddie Mathews, 1967-07-14 and Manny Ramirez, 2008-05-31)
  14. Which player hit his 500th home run in an inter-league game? (Albert Pujols, 2014-04-22)

60 thoughts on “Miggy Joins 500 HR Club”

  5. Richard Chester

    For question 8 I am going to stick my neck out for the longest gap and say about 15 years for Mel Ott and Ted Williams.

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      1. Scary Tuna

        Good observation, Doug. In contrast, Willie Mays was the fifth player to hit a 500th HR and has now seen 23 others do so after him.

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  7. Doug Post author

    Another related milestone of sorts this season that failed to garner a lot of attention was Albert Pujols passing Babe Ruth in extra-base hits. Pujols (1365) now ranks 4th all time, just 12 behind Stan Musial, but well back of Hank Aaron (1477) and Barry Bonds (1440).

    In 2019, Pujols became the first player to amass 650 doubles and 650 HR.

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  8. Doug

    Detroit beat Toronto 2-1 on Friday night, with the winning run scoring on a Victor Reyes pinch-IPHR in the home 8th. Just the 31st pinch-IPHR since 1916, and only the 3rd (and first since 1936) providing the go-ahead run in a team’s potential last ABs (there are no walk-off pinch-IPHR, but there have been 5 game-tying pinch-IPHR in a team’s potential last ABs).

    Those 31 pinch IPHR have been hit by 30 batters. Dustan Mohr is the lone man with a pair, one for the Giants in 2004 and another for the Rockies the following season.

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  10. Scary Tuna

    For question #13, I believe the two players who hit HR #500 and were then traded later the same season were Eddie Mathews and Manny Ramirez.

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    1. Mike L

      Kind of fun reminder of pre-Marvin Miller days. For all but his last season, Matthews salary peaked at $67,500 for his year 29 season. His age 30-33 seasons he had an aggregate 23.7 BWAR, and took a cut in pay after an 8 BWAR year.

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      1. Scary Tuna

        Good point, Mike L. Things sure looked different then. Mathews’ salary varied over several years – in about $2,500 increments. I found an article reporting that he signed a contract for $60,000 ahead of the 1961 season. The additional $7,500 seems likely to be due to meeting incentives.

        The $67,500 he earned in 1961 is comparable to just over $616,000 today – or a little more than the MLB minimum of $570,500.

        If we could put Scott Boras in a time machine, is it fair to wonder what he might have finagled for clients like Mathews sixty years ago? Even with the reserve clause firmly entrenched at the time, I wouldn’t bet against him.

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        1. Mike L

          Marvin Miller was incredibly effective. Boras in 1961 without free agency…would have been interesting to see. Tuna, are you old enough to remember the joint Koufax/Drysdale holdout?

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          1. Scary Tuna

            No, my baseball memory starts about a decade later (which also spared me living through Koufax, Drysdale, and Claude Osteen shutting down the Twins in seven games to win the 1965 World Series). I have heard their holdout together was a turning point in baseball’s labor relations.

          2. Bob Eno (epm)

            My recollection is that the Koufax/Drysdale holdout was basically a management victory. The reason was Drysdale’s weak position. The two had alternated as team ace for a few years, mostly because injuries had held Koufax back in ’62 and ’64, but his ’65 season was amazing (26-8, 2.04 ERA, 382 K, a perfect game, two Series wins . . . I don’t think anyone yet understood context of the “era of the pitcher”); Drysdale was fine, but apart from W-L, he was no better than Osteen.

            Koufax knew his arm was hanging on by a thread, and he was endangering its health by continuing, so had he held out on his own, he’d have had both maximum leverage and minimal incentive to cave. But he consented to Drysdale’s request to join him and make headlines with an unprecedented joint holdout (the two had started over 50% of the team’s games in ’65).

            Drysdale’s feet got cold when O’Malley dug in. O’Malley threatened to trade the two pitchers and walk away with some solid value. The two wound up with face saving raises that didn’t break anyone’s scale. Koufax might well have called O’Malley’s bluff. Had he indicated his plan to retire, as his doctors were advising, O’Malley would have had to envision walking away with nothing.

          3. Mike L

            Bob, It’s just amazing how much pressure they put on starters even in our lifetimes. Koufax led the Majors in IP in his last two years, 1965 and 66, with a combined 658. Drysdale led in 1962 and 1964 and was over 300IP for four consecutive seasons. Teams paid very little, so weren’t looking at overuse as endangering big, long term investments, And there was this culture of toughness, even after teams went to 5 man rotations, …which Billy Martin brought back, most notoriously with the 1980 A’s, with 5 pitchers over 211 IP.

          4. Bob Eno (epm)

            Michael, according to Doug’s research, each start in ’65 averaged about 40% more IP than 2019, and judging by leader boards leading starters pitched over 20% more starts.

            On the other hand, I suppose velocity has climbed maybe 5%, and stress from spin would be up too. My thought is that a true measure of “comparative toughness” would figure average arm-stress by multiplying [starts*pitch-count*velocity*spin]. Just the availability of the data has surely had enormous influence on pitcher-handling strategy, independent of salary costs.

            But I’m sure your point about the impact of salaries is right too: the disappearance of the 300 IP season dates to 1981, the first big strike year–1980 was the last 300 IP season, and from Drysdale in ’62 till then no season lacked a 300 IP pitcher; some had 8 or 9. (Of course, there were a few knuckleballers to inflate the total.)

            The Dodgers treated Koufax, in particular, as expendable: he had a plainly vulnerable arm–we all saw photos of its post-game condition–yet Alston and O’Malley felt free to gamble with him. I’m not sure how much their thinking was a function of low salaries and how much was the make-or-break short-term thinking of pennant races. (After all, they got three pennants and two Series’ by over-working Koufax, which is a fair ROI even in today’s context.)

          5. Mike L

            Bob, I was not a Koufax fan while he was pitching (impossible for a Yankee fan, I think) but it’s amazing both that he carried that burden, and that he was willing to stop cold at 30. As for velocity, perhaps comparative velocity played a big role…it seems like almost every starter now throws in the 90’s and many the mid nineties…and that’s before they bring in the bullpen guys to throw 100. Hitters have adjusted somewhat–but it’s more of a TTO adjustment. Interesting take on possible reasons why Alston and O’Malley might have treated Koufax as expendable.

          6. Bob Eno (epm)

            Sure it’s possible for a young Yankee fan to have rooted for a Dodger star, Michael, just as I rooted for Yankee stars like . . .

            Never mind.

            I think that while absolute speed matters, clearly speed relative to league norms is the key for stars. But the thing that set Koufax apart wasn’t his speed so much as that he was able after 1961 to apply that speed to an accurate curve.

            As for stopping cold at 30, the doctors had told Koufax he could lose his arm (not “lose that great pitching arm,” but “lose your left arm”). When he retired, he pointed out that anyone who had actually lost an arm would give anything to get it back–he saw himself as at the last point where he could actually get it “back.”

          8. Paul E

            Bob Eno, Mike L,
            If management wants a better return on their starting pitching investment, they can build bigger ballparks and eliminate the starters fear of the fly ball and the absolute obsession with the strikeout. Maybe, then, these guys can pitch into the 7th inning. It is kind of disgusting to hear about aces who pitch 220 innings with 1 shutout and 2 CG’s. But, I’m just old, too….or too old
            How many starters are averaging 7 innings/start in 2021? It seems that the only time a CG gets thrown is when there is a no-hitter on the line.

          9. Mike L

            Paul E, I know it’s impractical, but i’d max out the pitching staff to a lower level than it is today. If you can mandate that each pitcher pitch to at least 3 batters, you can reduce the available number of arms per game. Have a “scratch” list for emergencies or extra Innings. If a pitcher is removed from a game for an injury, and they have to go to the scratch list to replace him, have the injured pitcher sit out for a week.

            Maybe just 4 pitchers to get 200IP this season….no way anyone gets to 7IP per start.

            But I feel like Statler and Waldorf on the Muppets.

          11. Bob Eno (epm)

            Paul and Mike, I don’t know. The workhorse model of the ace pitcher was really attractive, and I miss the narrative that came along with pitchers like Roberts, Gibson, Carlton, etc., but there are other narratives. After all, baseball was invented as a stage for the other eight players: the pitcher was just there to let the batter put the ball in play and to field. (If the tee had been invented in the early 19th century, we might now be watching MLT: Major League T-Ball. . . I forget: have we discussed Jim Creighton here?)

            While I regret the loss of the classic pitcher’s role, there are two upsides to current trends: (1) pitchers are able to throw faster, have better pitch/spin repertoires, and understand their opposition better; (2) pitching is now a team sport: the full staff is more involved, and players can star in a variety of complementary roles. In this way, the pitching staff is more like the rest of the team. There are great narratives for teams with a few batting stars, an acrobatic fielder or two, and bit players, but a lot to be said too for a team of balanced talents, with less emphasis on stars.

            What I’d like to see are changes that would alter the optimum strategy for play–moving back fences would be a part of that–to reduce Ks, increase fielding chances, incentivize base hits, and better reward speed on the bases. But I’m not sure restoring the starter’s role is part of the same set of issues–it’s different from matters affecting the nature of play on the field. I think shorter starting stints may not be reversible because a big part of that is the increased arm strain that goes with each marginal increase in pitching speed and technique. I think the “fragile” 220 IP pitcher may be doing as much damage to his arm today as the 300 IP workhorse did forty years ago, and I don’t think the goal should be to diminish the quality of performance.

          12. Mike L

            Bob, these are good arguments. I’m certainly not looking to increase injuries by increasing starter workloads at the same time as velocity and spin rates are essential criteria for whether many pitchers advance through minor leagues. But I do have a beef about the constant situational swapping of pitchers, and that’s possible because so many teams carry a very thin bench so they can maximize the number of arms. Part of the strategy that we both seem to like is benefitted by a versatile bench. A 26 man roster with a 14 person pitching staff doesn’t do that.

          13. Bob Eno (epm)

            Michael, I’d agree that some kinds of limited substitution rules make sense, such as the three-batter rule. It’s a play-on-the-field issue. I also agree that the idea of roster designations intended to limit the total pitching staff make sense. I think the growing proportion of MLB slots devoted to pitchers has a potential for unintended consequences to all levels of play. But I don’t think preserving the traditional starter role is in itself a good reason to do that.

            If a winning team had ten pitchers each able to pitch 140-150 IP in 1-2 inning chunks game after game, with no starter ever getting a win, that would be ok with me, although it’s not a profile I’d prefer. I don’t like the idea of a World Series winner having only two position players “qualifying” as true regulars, but it’s something I celebrated when the Mets won in ’69. If a large, starterless staff turns out to be the best strategy for winning, I think that’s the way baseball needs to go, so long as it doesn’t degrade the game on the field of play (through too many game delays, something other limited-substitution rules could address, if necessary).

          14. Mike L

            It seems like we’ve gone from one pole to another…crazy workloads for starters, which they manage through pacing themselves, being physical freaks, and pain “management” veering over to the point where a 4-2 nine inning game features a dozen pitchers. I suppose you are correct–it doesn’t matter much what mix of pitchers you use in-game so long as you get an optimal result, both from performance and health aspect. i’m sure somewhere there has to be data on whether pitchers are suffering more serious injuries through this type of usage (both IP and intensity).

          15. Bob Eno (epm)

            Perhaps the data does exist, Michael. I don’t have access to it if it does. My comments on increased arm stress meticulously rely on facts I made up.

          17. Doug

            1920-1960 – 42 of 656 (6.4%) teams used 20 pitchers in a season
            1961-1990 – 92 of 714 (12.9%) teams used 20 pitchers in a season
            1991-2021 – 744 of 912 (81.6%) teams used 20 pitchers in a season

          19. Bob Eno (epm)

            Quite an amazing set of stats, Doug. I tried to estimate changes in pitcher shares of 25-man rosters by looking at B-R the other day, and realized that there might be no tools there to reconstruct roster counts, because daily eligibility isn’t indicated. I wound up looking at long seasonal lists inflated by the 40-man September roster limit and personnel changes over a season–not recording players who may have been called up and never put in a game. The norms for pitchers on 25-man (hereafter 26-man) active rosters may not be recoverable from records available to us.

            Thinking about the approach you’ve taken, I think the more meaningful figure would be changes in the percent of players making game appearances who were pitchers. So–to select an arbitrary team to examine–the 1901 Pirates had 19 position players on the field at some point, and eight pitchers: 27 players total, 29.6% pitchers. The 1961 Pirates had 54 players total, 45.9% pitchers. The 2021 Pirates have had 62 players total, 54.8% pitchers. (Perhaps it would be more meaningful to confine the count to players with, say, 40 PA or 10 IP. In that case, the three Pirate teams would have pitcher-percents of rosters of 35.0, 46.9, 48.9)

            The rise in total player numbers is greater than the rise of pitcher share, so any absolute threshold, such as 20, is going to be mostly a reflection of changes in the way teams possess and deploy 40-man rosters and farm-system resources during the season, rather than changes in pitcher/position-player roster ratios. The 2021 Pirates grew 300% in pitchers compared to 1901 (going from 8 to 34), but they also grew about 50% in position-players. Moreover, most of that pitcher growth occurred before the trends we’re discussing kicked in. The difference between the ’61 Pirates and today’s version is a growth of 40% in position players and 100% in pitchers (perhaps very slightly skewed by this season’s 4% overall roster growth, but probably more skewed by the sharp reduction in the September roster size). If you exclude cups of coffee using my really arbitrary cut-off, there’s really no change.

  11. Scary Tuna

    Answers to #9 and #2: Hank Aaron hit #500 July 14, 1968 against Mike McCormick of the Giants, exactly one year after former teammate Eddie Mathews reached the milestone with a HR off the Giants’ (future Hall-of-Famer) Juan Marichal.

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      1. Scary Tuna

        I ran across mention of both players for #6 the other day when trying to find the answer to another question. One was David Ortiz, but I can’t recall the other.

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      2. Scary Tuna

        Got it. Albert Pujols was the first to hit both #499 and #500 in the same game. David Ortiz matched that feat the next season.

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  14. KDS

    For fewest I think Sheffield with 10.

    Oldest, Ted Williams.

    Most in year in which the 500th was hit? Well, Barry Bonds ended the 2000 season with 494….

    (Posted a comment to the later two questions, came back from researching the fewest, and didn’t see my earlier comment, so reposted here.)

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  16. Scary Tuna

    The shortest gap between 500th home runs is 34 days, between Harmon Killebrew (August 10, 1968) and Frank Robinson (September 13, 1968). It wasn’t the shortest by much, though. In 2003, Sammy Sosa hit #500 on April 4th, with Rafael Palmeiro following just 37 days later on May 11th. In 2007, Frank Thomas hit his 500th HR on June 28th, with Alex Rodriguez doing likewise on August 4th, also a gap of exactly 37 days. Jim Thome next joined the 500 HR club 43 days later, on September 16th.

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  17. KDS

    King Albert was the one to hit #500 in an interleague game. Against “my” Washington Nationals. This was his second HR of the game, both off Taylor Jordan, so he is the other answer to question 6.

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    1. Scary Tuna

      My guess would be the player hitting the fewest homers (10) of anyone in the season of their 500th HR. As it was also Gary Sheffield’s final season, he might have been playing more sparingly.

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      1. Doug

        You have guessed correctly. Sheffield appeared in 100 games in 2009, 32 of them as a pinch-hitter. His pinch-HR for no. 500 was the second and last of his career, the first coming 15 seasons earlier.

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  19. Paul E

    Powerball/September 8, 2021
    09 22 41 47 61 Powerball 21

    Last time this happened, the Dodgers won pennants in each of the five ‘seasons’ as well as the Powerball and defeated the Brewers in a Game 5 the following evening. The above would be Yankee pennant seasons with a WS winner thrown in for 2009, 1941, 1947, 1961.

    Reply ↓

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