HR King

These are the all-time home run leaders:

Saduharu Oh    868 NPB
Hank Aaron     755 MLB
Babe Ruth      714 MLB 
Willie Mays    660 MLB
Barry Bonds    658 MLB 
Katsuya Nomura 657 NPB

I would guess that Barry Bonds will place in fouth this year.

It all depends on what you count when tabulating official homers. Kiyoshi's list is accurate if you go by the standard regular-season definitions. If you also want to include winter leagues, Mexican League superstar Hector Espino adds another 300 or so to join the list at 794.

And of course some of Josh Gibson's fans like to cite over 800 homers, but that's counting games against amateur and semi-pro teams. Since we don't count exhibition or post-season games for Oh, Aaron, and company, I don't see why we should count them for Gibson.

As a Josh Gibson fan, I think it right that we not count amateur or post-season games, however he (Gibson) still hit an estimated 550-600 home runs during his pro career. A guesstamation is in order for most Negro League records due to the poor quality of most record keeping for those leagues. However, the Negro Leagues were still pro leagues, and his homers should be accounted for.

That being said, Oh still should be counted as the home run champion of the world if we were to draw out this academic exercise. His proficiency and power during his career span simply cannot be denied. Even thought the talent around him was not MLB caliber, it still was a competitive league and his feats still astounding.

- As a Josh Gibson fan, I think it right that we not count amateur or post-season games, however he (Gibson) still hit an estimated 550-600 home runs during his pro career.

Do you have a citation for that? I usually use Holway's "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues" for stats, and he has Gibson with 224 HR against top-flight black pitching, second all-time behind Mule Suttles (237). Gibson has the best HR/550 AB ratio, with 51 HR/550, far better than any MLBer.

I have no problems with saying that Gibson is the best catcher in baseball history, FWIW.

Then we should tabulate Aaron, Mays, and Bonds for winter league homers, too. Aaron and Mays played for the Santurce Crabbers of the Puerto Rican Winter League. I'm not sure where Bonds played in the winter.

And if we count Josh Gibson's Negro League homers then we should count Mays' Negro League homers.

... and of course, if you want to count winter league stats, then you will need to count minor league stats as well.

Then you must count Aaron's homers as an Indianapolis Clown.

Barry Bonds played for the Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League.

You are right about that order except for there is one more guy who has more than all of those guys, Josh Gibson. He had an estimated 962 homers over 17 seasons.

Yes one player did, Josh Gibson, estimated career home runs of 962 in 17 seasons.

The question is not the number of homers but the quality of competition the batter faced. Refer to Mischa Gelman's posting on April 1, 2004 above.

The Caribbean baseball competition is excellent. In my country, Venezuela, a lot of North American stars have played here.

Josh Gibson should be known as the best home run hitter of all time. He is America's homerun king! Because he did it in the Negro Leagues where the seasons were shorter, the fields were bigger, and all pitches were legal (you could scuff the ball, cut it, use any kind of liquid, and anything), that's why Josh is the Home run King!

Actually, Josh Gibson is the ultimate home run king. Josh Gibson was known as the Black Babe Ruth, but Babe Ruth should be known as the White Josh Gibson, because Josh Gibson hit 950 home runs in his career and hit 75 in 1931 with a .350 career batting average.

Doesn't really matter any way because Japanese baseball is overrated. Any way, how many people besides Ichiro did anything in the majors?

Are you trying to be deliberately confrontational?

Let's all agree that Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, Sadaharu Oh, K. Nomura, Hector Espino, and Josh Gibson were all probably the greatest home run hitters. Any attempt to say who is the best is fruitless because the leagues, the time period, the stadiums, and the competition were all variables.

Josh Gibson's "950" home runs were not all in the main official Negro Leagues. John Holway's "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues" indicates that Josh Gibson hit 224 "HR against top-flight black pitching, second all-time behind Mule Suttles (237)."

Aaron, Bonds, Ruth, Mays, Oh, Nomura, and Espino's home run totals are all in official league stats. Exhibition and barnstorming games are not included.

So in other words, Oh is the all-time HR king in the world with his 868!

Yes somebody has, a man named Josh Gibson. He played in the Negor Leagues. In his career he hit 962 career home runs. On top of that he also hit 84 home runs in one season.

We have many opinions and speculation of who could, should, or would have been the all Home Run King, taking in Winter League, Negro League, and exhibition games.

All we know for sure are the MLB and NPB records:

Rank	Player	       Home Runs
1	Sadaharu Oh	  868
2	Hank Aaron	  755
3	Babe Ruth	  714
4	Barry Bonds	  703
5	Willie Mays	  660
6	Katsuya Nomura 	  657
7	Sammy Sosa	  588
8	Frank Robinson	  586
9	Mark McGwire	  583
10	Harmon Killebrew  573