Chuck Klein of the Phillies continued to make a new for himself among the game's best sluggers after hitting 56 home runs this year. His 56 home runs were good for the second highest single season total, second only to Babe Ruth's 82 home runs in 1921. Lou Gehrig was second in the league with 51 home runs for the Yankees. It was the first time two players have hit 50 home runs in a season.
Babe Ruth hit 25 home runs in his quest for 500 career home runs, in another injury shortened season. He will enter 1930 just 4 home runs short of 500.
Dale Alexander of the Detroit Tigers led all rookies with 25 home runs, and tied a pair of Babe's, Ruth and Herman, for sixth place. The Yankees once again led the league in home runs after slugging 162 as a team.
There were three "notable" home run hitters who retired in 1929 -
Happy Felsch retired with 138 career home runs, currently tied for eleventh place on the all-time career list. His best season came in 1921 when he slugged 23 home runs, and topped 20 again in 1922. In his 16 year career he played all but 2 1/2 seasons with the Chicago White Sox before finishing his career with the New York Giants. In real life Happy Felsch's career ended in 1920 after 6 short seasons with the White Sox, and finished with 38 home runs, with his season high 14, which he hit in 1920. He owes the extra 100 career home runs to un-checking the box that says retire players according to history.
Joe Jackson retired with 136 career home runs, good for 16th place on the all-time home run list. In real-life Shoeless Joe Jackson was banned for life in 1920 by then Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis for his role in fixing the World Series. In both real-life and OOTP Jackson hit 12 home runs in 1920, but played another 9 virtual seasons in OOTP, adding another 82 home runs. Without those 82 home runs Jackson would not have come close to the home run leaderboards, and even with those years Jackson's stay on the leadboards will be brief, unless something totally unexpected happens. Another player benefitting from not retiring according to history, or in Shoeless Joe's case, "banned according to history".
Elmer Smith retired with 135 career home runs, in 17th place. It wouldn't be surprising to see both Jackson and Smith off the leaderboards after the 1930 season, or at the latest 1931. But as luck would have it for Smith, he was amongst the leaders when he retired, so we'll look into his career a little bit more. Smith hit 70 homers in real-life, and bounced around from Cleveland to Boston to the Yankees and then finally to Cincinnati after a year's absence. He managed to have some ok OOTP seasons and stick around with Cleveland until he retired, but 1921 was his best season in real life, 16, and the game, 23. His benefit of sticking around was being able to get about 10 home runs per year, good enough to give him a brief stay on the leaderboards. It does look like life was good to Elmer, as he lived to 101 in real life.
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Milestone Watch:
Babe Ruth needs 4 home runs to pass 500 for his career.
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The 400 Club:
Players who reached the 400 club in OOTP and in real life:
Babe Ruth - 496 (715)
Active players of the 400 club and where they stand:
Lou Gehrig - 164 (493)
Jimmy Foxx - 26 (534)
Mel Ott - 25 (511)
Players who have not debuted yet:
40
Members of my 400 club who didn't hit 400 in real life:
None yet
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1929 Home Run Leaders
1) Chuck Klein - PHI - 56
2) Lou Gehrig - NYY - 51
3) Del Bissonette - BSN - 29
4) Don Hurst - PHI - 29
5) Joe Hauser - PHA - 28
6) Dale Alexander - DET - 25
7) Babe Herman - BRO - 25
8) Babe Ruth - NYY - 25
9) Chick Hafey - STL - 24
10) Bill Dickey - NYY - 22
1929 Rookie Home Run Leader:
Dale Alexander - DET - 25
1929 Team Home Run Leader:
New York Yankees - 162
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Single Season Home Run Leaders
1) Babe Ruth - NYY - 82 (1921)
2) Chuck Klein - PHI - 56 (1929)
3) Babe Ruth - NYY - 55 (1922)
4) Babe Ruth - NYY - 53 (1925)
5) Babe Ruth - NYY - 51 (1923)
6) Lou Gehrig - NYY - 51 (1929)
7) Babe Ruth - NYY - 50 (1920)
8) Babe Ruth - NYY - 49 (1924)
9) Chuck Klein - PHI - 47 (1928)
10) Lou Gehrig - NYY - 43 (1928)
Rookie Home Run Record - Single Season
1) Chuck Klein - PHI - 47 (1928)
2) Joe Hauser - PHA - 34 (1922)
3) Don Hurst - PHI - 32 (1928)
4) Dale Alexander - DET - 25 (1929)
5) Jim Bottomley - STL - 24 (1922)
6) Mandy Brooks - CHN - 24 (1925)
7) Al Simmons - PHA - 21 (1924)
8) Glenn Wright - PIT - 21 (1924)
9) Frank Parkinson - PHI - 19 (1921)
10) Hack Wilson - NYG - 19 (1923)
Single Season Team Home Run Leaders
1) New York Yankees - 168 (1928)
2) New York Yankees - 162 (1929)
3) New York Yankees - 159 (1921)
4) Philadelphia Phillies - 152 (1928)
5) New York Yankees - 145 (1925)
6) Chicago White Stockings - 142 (1884)
7) Philadelphia Phillies - 136 (1929)
8) New York Yankees - 127 (1922)
9) New York Giants - 124 (1923)
10) New York Giants - 122 (1927)
11) New York Giants - 122 (1929)
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Career Home Run Leaders
1) Babe Ruth - 496 (1914-1929)
2) Rogers Hornsby - 240 (1915-1929)
3) Joe Hauser - 220 (1922-1929)
4) Bob Meusel - 188 (1920-1929)
5) Gabby Hartnett - 186 (1922-1929)
6) Jim Bottomley - 184 (1922-1929)
7) Lou Gehrig - 164 (1924-1929)
8) Hack Wilson - 164 (1923-1929)
9) Harry Heilmann - 147 (1914-1929)
10) Cy Williams - 144 (1912-1927)
11) Roger Connor - 138 (1880-1897)
12) Happy Felsch - 138 (1915-1929)
13) Goose Goslin - 138 (1921-1929)
14) George Sisler - 138 (1915-1929)
15) Al Simmons - 137 (1924-1929)
16) Joe Jackson - 136 (1908-1929)
17) Elmer Smith - 135 (1914-1929)
18) George Kelly - 132 (1915-1929)
19) Ben Paschal - 129 (1915-1929)
20) Sam Thompson - 127 (1885-1906)