Cub centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is the first player this season to reach 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases, a feat that was once rare for a full season, never mind half a campaign. More after the jump on players with seasons featuring explosive power/speed spans.

With his fast start to the season, Crow-Armstrong joins a short list of players to reach 20/20 in the first half of a season.

Among the above players, only Alex Rodriguez achieved the feat at a younger age than Crow-Armstrong’s 23 years. Crow-Armstrong, though, achieved the feat in only the 210th game of his career, 83 games faster than previous record-holder Eric Davis. Jose Canseco is the oldest player to accomplish the feat, at age 33 in 1998.

Of note in the above table is Andre Dawson’s 1981 season, when 81 games wasn’t half of that bifurcated campaign (but would have been a half of any other season of his career, save for 1994). Ken Williams is the only pre-expansion player on the list and, yes, he did accomplish 20/20 in the first half of the shorter 154 game schedule (it was Williams’ second 20/20 season, and baseball’s first 30/30 campaign). Kind of cool to see Barry and Bobby together on this list. And, I’m not sure which is the more impressive: that Jose Canseco is the only player to do it twice; or that he did so in seasons 10 years apart. If your run your eye down the Games column, the name that stands out is Eric Davis, achieving the feat despite playing in only 67 of his team’s first 81 games. How fast did Davis get to 20/20?

Here are the same players, but showing their stats only thru the game in which they reached 20/20. That team game number is shown in the first column. Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Davis reached 20/20 twenty team games faster than any other player, and 22 games faster counting only games actually played. But, what about other periods of the season? Could any player have posted a more explosive power/speed stretch at any point in a season? These are the players to reach 20/20 in any 60 game stretch within a season.

Turns out it would take Shohei’s other-worldly 2024 season to unseat Davis from the top of this list. Bonds and A-Rod join Davis in appearing on this list for the same first half exploits that landed them on our first list. Acuna and Soriano also repeat on both lists, but for different seasons. Beltran johns Ohtani in making this list, but not the first.

I’ll close with a couple of quiz questions.

1. Who is the only player with a 20/20 rookie season who did not garner a single RoY vote? (Note: there were no 20/20 rookie seasons before the RoY award was instituted)
2. Who is the only player to reach 20/20 for his career within his first 100 games?