Who is the greatest home run hitter of all time?

[diplomat019]

Babe Ruth and there isnt even a close second. He hit more home runs than entire teams did. If he played in the modern ballparks he might have hit 1000 home runs

[buckhunter]

Josh Gibson hit the most and they say the Negro League pitching was better than what Babe was seeing in the majors.

Ty Cobb was a great home run hitter but was a baseball purist and did not believe in hitting home runs. During a brief 3 game stretch Cobb swung for the fences and hit 6 or 7 home runs. They say if he wanted, Cobb would have owned the HR record.

The Babe, by far, did it like no other hitter ever did before or since.

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

I think we should give Mr. Oh his due. His career spanned 1959 to 1980 during the same era as the legendary Mickey Mantle, Stan the Man, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron etc. He wasn't hitting his homers when the game was techniquely speaking still in its infancy. And the Japanese leagues were no slouches, then or now. Pitching over there has always been excellent. Gibson "may have hit 800 homers" but Oh definitely went well over that mark. And many of Gibson's maybe homers were hit in exhibition games against questionable pitching.

Over the last nineteen years of his career Oh averaged 44 homers per season. That, my friends is consistent and long-lived power!

It is sad that Oh's achievements have been marred by efforts to cheat others of breaking his 55 season homers record in Japan. Two Americans and a Venezuelan playing in Japan achieved 55 homers but then faced teams managed by Oh at the end of the season. They were intentionally walked every time they came to the batters box (though Randy Bass managed to jump over the plate and safely hit one pitch into the outfield anyway). The head office of the club took the blame for directing the pitchers to preserve the record. And in the case of the Venezuelan, Oh specifically and clearly instructed his pitcher to throw strikes but the guy obviously was not following orders out of respect for his boss.

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

Sorry, Bass reached over the plate, he didn't jump over it.

[ALJoe]

Hard to say. The Babe was the best in his era. But the Babe didn't see todays pitchers. But the Bae didn't have steroids either. He just ate hotdogs and drank beer. Todays hitters are a complete different brand of hitters. Of Course when we think of todays hitters we think of the steroid era. So all that said I'll go with Maris and Mantle. I think the Babe is one of the greatest of all time. I just don' think his numbers would be near as high against guys like Verlander, Holiday, and company.

[Amflyer]

Do you know something I don't know?

You should say "Greatest home-run hitter, SO FAR."

You made me think the end of time was here. I would have been pretty worried, if it weren't for the thousands of rounds of 22 LR I have stockpiled.

I think I should have taken my meds this morning. I wouldn't want to be this way all the time. I don't know how Clay Cooper does it.

And by the way, I like "Mr. October" because he was a clutch-type hitter.

[Amflyer]

Oh, and best pitcher?

1. Steve Nebraska
2. Sidd Finch

[buckhunter]

ALJoe makes a very good point. Babe showed up to a lot of games hungover. It only adds to his legend.

[Pmacc60]

The Babe hands down, if war didn't take years off Ted Williams career He may have held the home run record. Josh Gibson was also great and we will never know because of segregation but I don't believe the pitching was better in the old Negro leagues. Sadahara Oh would not be nearly as great hitting in the US.The Babe never had his life on track he never took the game serious and he started the game as a pitcher and would have been a hall of famer as such. Babe also hit for average career 349,he also was a great field player. Henry Aaron hit no in the park homeruns in his career but Babe hit ten,we see the pictures of the fat man but he was a great athlete.

[Boiler02]

I like that someone mentioned Oh here, but I think the pitching issue has to come into play here. He played a long time, but never faced a guy like Bob Gibson or others of the dead ball era.

It may have been Ted Williams but for two wars. Hank Aaron was just a really consistent HR hitter, but never hit 50 in one season. Babe Ruth was a great athlete, prolific, and steady. I have to go with the Bambino.

[deerhunterrick]

Hank Arron,Babe Ruth and Willie Mays were all three great homerun hitters without the drugs. Barry Bonds,Sammy Sosa are tainted at best. What really makes a great a great? Their performance or their character? Some had both and others only had one or the other. Babe was a drunk,Bonds was a druggie. Both did a lot for the sport, one was shunned and the other a hero. Who is right? Hank Arron & Willie Mays would have to have been 2 of the greatest any way you look at it.