The Greatest

Now that Barry Bonds has broken Hank Aaron's home run record the discourse among sportswriters has turned to the question of who is the greatest home run hitter of all time. Is it Bonds because he technically holds the record? Or is it Aaron, due to Bonds' performance coming in the steroid era while Aaron's occured in a pitcher's era? Or is it someone else?

The answer may suprise you...because there is no concrete answer. Determining who is "the greatest" home run hitter of all time depends upon what aspect of home run hitting you view as most important. Is it the raw numbers? Is it consistency? Is it efficiency? Is it regularity? Is it a comparison to the competition? The answer to each of those five questions is different, which is precisely why there is no singular home run king; there are five.

The All Time Champ: Barry Bonds
No matter how certain anyone is that Barry took steroids / the clear / the cream / HGH the fact remains that he has never tested positive for any performance enhancers, and he will never admit to it. Therefore there is never going to be an asterisk affixed to Bonds' record, just like there will be no asterisk affixed to any of the other records set during the steroid era. Though some people would like you to believe that Bonds is the only villain in all of this, there are more players than you can count that have been using HGH, steroids, and greenies over the past two decades. Likewise, throughout baseball history players have scuffed balls, spit on balls, stolen signs, corked bats, and used too much pine tar. Point being, if you took away every single stat ever accumulated by a baseball player accussed of cheating, you wouldn't be left with much of a record book. I'm not saying that it is right; I'm just saying that is the way it has always been, and until there is a complete and itemized overhaul of every single baseball record people need to lay off the asterisk talk. So if the raw numbers are what is most important to you, than Barry's body of work clearly makes him the greatest home run hitter of all time because like it or not his record will be staring back at you everytime you open the record book. Without an asterisk.

The King of Consistency: Hank Aaron
You think Bonds' raw numbers are inflated? OK. Lets say that the most important aspect of home run hitting to you is consistency. If so, Hank Aaron is your pick as the greatest home run hitter of all time. Aaron not only holds the record for most twenty-homer seasons (20), he also did them all in a row. During the peak years of Aaron's career he hit between 24-47 home runs every single year, and his career average per 162 games was 37 home runs. Aaron was a devastatingly efficient home run machine. He never had a 50 homer season, but he never had a single digit one either. If that sounds like the kind of thing you value as great, then feel free to declare Aaron the greatest. There are plenty of people that would agree with you.

The Juggernaut: Babe Ruth
Although Ruth stands at #3 on the all time home run list his home run feats are perhaps far more legendary than either of the two men in front of him on that list. The stats are well known; Ruth held the all-time home run record for an astounding 53 years. He held the single season mark for 34 years. He lead his league in homers 12 times. In both 1927 and 1920 Ruth hit more home runs than any other AL team. These are feats that likely will never be matched for the rest of history. There is no disputing the fact that Ruth is the most singular home run talent of any given era. Is that what makes a man the greatest home ru hitter of all time? That is for you to decide.

The Deadliest: Mark McGwire
The above metrics still aren't tickling your fancy? How anout this rubric for deciding the greatest; at bats per home run. By that measure Mark McGwire is the greatest home run hitter of all time, and it isn't even close. Just take a look at the top five AB/HR guys of all time:

1. Mark McGwire 10.61
2. Babe Ruth 11.76
3. Barry Bonds 12.93
4. Jim Thome 13.64
5. Ralph Kiner 14.11

McGwire's dominance in this category is tremendous. Big Mac also has three of the top four single seasons in thi category, trailing only Barry Bonds' record setting 2001 season. What this means is that if you had to pick one man to hit a home run in any given at bat, history would say that McGwire would be your man. And it isn't even close.

The Efficiency Expert: Ted Williams
This might be the category you wouldn't think of right off the bat, and it is the one of the most effecient home run hitter in regards to at bats per strikeout. Why this category? The evil twin to every home run is the strikeout, and shouldn't an argument about the greatest hitter of all time also factor in which power hitter was best able to be Dr. Jekyll without turning into Mr. Hyde? In looking at this stat for the hitters in the 500 home run club, one man stands out from the pack; Ted Williams. Williams only struck out once every 10.87 ABs during his career. While that number isn't great for a normal hitter, it is phenomenal for a power hitter. In a way you can view this statistic as showing who was the best natural home run hitter, the player that didn't need to take chances and swing from his heels in order to hit the round-tripper. If that sounds like greatness to you, Teddy Ballgame is your greatest home run hitter.

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