Expert: Tom Schott - 6/13/2007

Question
Hello. I am a huge Ted Kluszewski fan. One of the first things that I had ever heard about him was that he was the first player to hit 40 Home Runs in a season, while striking out fewer than 40 times. I believe it was in 1954 when he hit 49 homers and struck out, like 35 times.

Anyway, for some reason, I had always thought that Barry Bonds had done this as well. However, yesterday, when looking at his stats, I noticed that he had not. He had come close a couple of times, but he never actually did it.

So I was wondering, has anyone besides Ted Kluszewski hit 40 homers in a season while striking out fewer than 40 times?

Thanks,
Josh

Answer
Josh,

 Good question. Answer is yes, several times, but Big Klu was the only player ever to do it more than once, and he did it three times. I would think that such a feat would be unheard of these days. Here are the numbers:

                             YEAR       HR       SO     
T1   Ted Kluszewski           1954       49       35   
T1   Lou Gehrig               1934       49       31   
3    Ted Kluszewski           1955       47       40   
4    Joe DiMaggio             1937       46       37   
5    Mel Ott                  1929       42       38   
T6   Johnny Mize              1948       40       37   
T6   Ted Kluszewski           1953       40       34