All About Baseball
700 Career Home Runs, Will That Ever Be Reached Again?
Only greatness allows such amazing feats to be reached. Is this the last of greatness for years to come?
On Monday night in Chicago, Albert Pujols hit his 14th home run on the season, but more importantly it was his 693rd home run in his career, as he trails 4th place Alex Rodriguez (696) by just three. Is 700 in his sights with just 38 games left to go in the regular season?
On September 17, 2004, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, hit the 700th home run in his major league career, and prior to that, only two other legends, Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755), reached such a feat in their careers. It took nearly 31 years for a ball player to hit number 700 and now almost 18 years later Pujols is on the verge of joining the exclusive club.
But what’s next?
Looking at the list of active home run leaders, there aren’t many candidates at this point that could reach the feat in the years to come. The viable candidates were Miguel Cabrera (506 ) and Nelson Cruz (459), and even though they have had tremendous MLB careers, possibly Hall of Fame careers, they are on the tail end of their playing days and don’t have the time needed to reach 700.
Giancarlo Stanton is next on the list of active players and currently has 371 home runs. He is just 32 years old, but has been hampered by injuries the last few years. He would need to average over 41 home runs in the next eight seasons to have that opportunity. If his body holds up and allows him to last that long.
Mike Trout (341) has always been a fan favorite to overtake the home run record, and at just 31 years old and with his talent, it could be a possibility. But just this season he was diagnosed with a rare back condition known as costovertebral dysfunction at T5, that is likely to affect the rest of his playing days and may limit his home run output. As a fan favorite, we hope that he can somehow overcome it and make it into the record books.
At this point, there doesn’t seem to be any other viable options to surpass the 700th mark, so we are probably witnessing the last to do so in a very long time.
So we root on Pujols to reach this amazing feat, as we watch baseball at its best, and celebrate his amazing career that is sure to lead him into Cooperstown.
Would be great to witness greatness again. Only Time will tell.
David Conde
David is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Legends On Deck®, as well as a Co-Host on Legends On Deck Podcast. David was a Senior Editor for MetsMerizedOnline.com, MetsMinors.net and Contributor for Hardballchat.com that spanned from 2010 to 2014. David made his MLB Debut as a writer in June 2014, while covering the NY Mets at Citi Field, for MetsmerizedOnline.com. David also coaches baseball for ages 13-15, a Babe Ruth League team in his local community. David's passion is coaching the game he loves to the future Legends of Tomorrow as well as making available a website that people can have fun sharing and reading. David is also passionate about his career as a Mortgage Loan Officer which allows him to help many families reach their dreams of owning a home. Connect with David via his Social Media pages as he loves to chat all about baseball.
You must be logged in to post a comment.