MLB Top five home-run hitters of all-time – Part 1
Baseball is more renowned for its batters than its pitchers. The enormous hits flying out of the park have always attracted thousands of baseball followers to the fields. Although the game has changed with pitchers innovating new deliveries and halting big
hits, batters still manage to hit on the neat part of the bat and rocket the ball out-of-the-park.
There would not be much divergence of opinion when rating the top five home-run hitters of all-time. Following is a brief account of the all-time greats in ascending order.
At Number five on the highest all-time home-runs is George Kenneth Jr. with 630 homers to his name. Termed as the “best player in baseball” in his prime, Kenneth also shares the record for most consecutive games with a home-run.
Kenneth nicknamed as “The Kid” and “Junior”, started his professional baseball career with the Seattle Mariners in April 1989 and made his last appearance in baseball with the Mariners in May 2010. During his career however, he featured for the Cincinnati
Reds and the Chicago White Sox.
The left-handed sensational talent won 13 selections to the All-Star Team. Eleven of them were consecutive from 1990-2000 followed by one in 2004 and his last in 2007. He stamped his authority in baseball when he won the MLB All-Star Game Most Valuable Player
Award in 1992.
Junior’s hitting power was illuminated when he won the home-run derby for the first time in 1994 and then repeated the feat for two consecutive years from 1998-1999.
Kenneth is the proud winner of seven Silver Slugger Awards and dominated the Golden Glove Award for ten consecutive years from 1990-1999. Pitchers used to panic when Junior arrived at the plate and his unrelenting authority did not diminish until he called
it a day on May 31, 2010.
Making his way at the fourth spot is the greatest all-round player of all-time Willie Howard Mays Jr. He amassed 660 home-runs in his 22-years at professional baseball along with 1903 runs.
Mays made a record 24 appearances in the All-Star Game which led many of the greats to comment that the All-Star Game has been invented for Willie Mays.
Willie received recognition when he was selected to the Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. He further received gratitude for his services to the game of baseball when he was placed second in the ‘List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players’.
1999 turned out to be a rewarding year as Major League Baseball selected Willie to the MLB All-Century Team.
Mays played for the New York (San Francisco) Giants for the majority of his career and then ended his career with cross-town rival New York Mets. Throughout his career, he had been among the awards, winning the Golden Glove Award a record 12 times. He was
named the Most Valuable Player four times in his career, two times for the National League and two times as the MLB All-Star MVP.
Willie Mays exhibited his authority in a game on April 30, 1961 when he pounded four home-runs in a single game. He continues to be an influential figure in the game of baseball. It takes a lot of hard work, technique and command on the game to reach the
legendary status and more so to preserve it.
Continued in Part 2
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