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40–40 club
Accomplishment in baseball From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 40–40 club is the group of batters, currently six, who have collected 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season. Few professional baseball players have possessed both the power and speed to reach this level, and no players have done so more than once. The six players with a 40–40 season are Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Shohei Ohtani. Acuña is the only player to achieve a 40-70 season, achieving this feat in 2023, and Ohtani is the only player to achieve a 50–50 season, having done so in 2024.
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Early history and pioneers
![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion with: Citations that directly state the average annual HR for players reaching ≥40 annual SB, and the average annual SB for players reaching ≥40 annual HR, that can demonstrate the significance of the 40–40 club. These sources should not be synthesized using outside databases. You can help by adding to it. (September 2024) |
The first player to approach the mark was Ken Williams in 1922, with 39 home runs and 37 stolen bases, thus making him the first player to reach the 30–30 club. It took another 30 years for another player to come close to 40–40, as Willie Mays did in 1956 with 36 home runs and 40 stolen bases. In 1973, Bobby Bonds achieved 39–43; he hit a home run in the 1973 MLB All Star Game, which did not count as an official home run.
When Jose Canseco predicted he would reach 40–40 in 1988,[1][2] he mistakenly assumed "five or six players must have done it."[3] After Canseco became the first player to reach 40–40, Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying, "Hell, If I'd known 40–40 was going to be a big deal, I'd have done it every year!"[4] Mantle's closest total was 31–21 in 1959.[5]
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Members
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Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alfonso Soriano, and Ronald Acuña Jr. were outfielders in their 40–40 seasons, while Alex Rodriguez played shortstop. Shohei Ohtani served as a designated hitter in his 40–40 season due to an arm injury he suffered in the previous year. Acuña Jr. (41–37 in 2019), Soriano (39–41 in 2002, when playing second base), and Bonds (40–37 in 1997) all came close to having multiple 40–40 seasons.
Canseco, Bonds, and Soriano joined the 40–40 club by stealing their 40th bases, while Rodriguez, Acuña Jr., and Ohtani joined by hitting their 40th home runs. Ohtani is the only player to achieve both in the same game, stealing his 40th base in the fourth inning and then hitting a game-winning, walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth for his 40th home run.[12]
Canseco, Acuña Jr., and Ohtani all won the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award in the year of their 40–40 seasons. All three's teams also reached the MLB playoffs in their 40–40 years, and Ohtani's Dodgers won the World Series in his 50–50 year.[13][14] Soriano is the only member of the club to have a batting average under .300 in his 40–40 season. Soriano also hit 41 doubles during his 40–40 season, making him the only player to achieve that feat.[15]
As of 2024, Acuña Jr. and Ohtani are the only active players who have achieved a 40–40 season. All four retired 40–40 club members had at least 400 career home runs and 200 stolen bases in their careers, and Bonds and Rodriguez are also members of the 600 home run club.[16]
No members of the 40–40 club have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Active players are ineligible for the Hall of Fame, and Soriano fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in his first year of eligibility in 2020. The other retired members of the 40–40 club have been linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs;[17] Bonds and Canseco were each implicated in the December 2007 Mitchell Report,[18][19] while Rodriguez admitted in 2009 to using steroids.[20][21]
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In non-MLB leagues
After stealing a base in an October 2, 2015 game for the NC Dinos, first baseman Eric Thames became the first player to reach 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season in a Korea Baseball Organization season.[22] The feat has never been achieved in Nippon Professional Baseball; the closest effort was Koji Akiyama's 1987 season, in which he hit 43 home runs and stole 38 bases.[23]
50–50 season
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Ohtani poised to steal a base and Ohtani at bat in his 50–50 season, 2024.
As of 2024, players have stolen 50 bases or more in an MLB season almost 500 times, while players have hit 50 home runs or more 50 times, but only Shohei Ohtani in 2024 has done both in the same season.[24] Two other players, Barry Bonds and Brady Anderson, achieved 50 home runs in one season and 50 stolen bases in another season during their careers.[25]
Before Ohtani's 50–50 season, the highest number of home runs in a 50-stolen base season was 41 by Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2023, and the highest number of stolen bases in a 50-home run season was 24, a mark shared by Willie Mays in 1955 and Alex Rodriguez in 2007.[24][26]
In the September 19, 2024, game in which Ohtani reached the 50–50 plateau, he also became the first Dodger to achieve 10 or more runs batted in (RBIs) in a single game, a mark only achieved by 16 other batters.[25] In the game, Ohtani went 6-for-6 with three home runs and two doubles, and also stole two bases.[25] He finished the 2024 season with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases.
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See also
- 20–20–20 club, similar multiple stat club for doubles, triples and home runs.
- 20–50 club
- Baseball statistics
- Triple Crown
References
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