1961: Jim Gentile > Roger Maris

[DrungoHazewood]

I never noticed this before, but at least in neutral parks he was.  I was looking up 30+ road homer seasons so this came up:

                                                                                                       
Rk   I         Player Split Year  G HR GS  PA  AB  R   H 2B 3B RBI SB CS BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG   OPS  TB
1         Barry Bonds  Away 2001 78 36 75 354 252 68  81 13  2  66  7  2 97 47 .321 .514 .817 1.332 206
2           Babe Ruth  Away 1927 78 32 78 374 287 76  98 19  4  95  3  2 76 48 .341 .479 .770 1.249 221
3        Mark McGwire  Away 1998 74 32 73 317 246 58  69 11  0  67  1  0 68 72 .280 .438 .715 1.154 176
4         David Ortiz  Away 2006 77 32 75 353 291 63  80 14  0  65  0  0 58 58 .275 .399 .653 1.052 190
5      Brady Anderson  Away 1996 70 31 67 326 279 58  88 14  2  64  9  5 36 48 .315 .409 .713 1.122 199
6         Roger Maris  Away 1961 82 31 82 373 310 73  79 10  4  68  0  0 55 36 .255 .373 .613  .986 190
7       Luis Gonzalez  Away 2001 81 31 80 373 308 68  95 20  4  76  0  0 58 40 .308 .424 .701 1.125 216
8       George Foster  Away 1977 78 31 78 343 319 63 109 17  1  78  4  2 19 54 .342 .376 .693 1.069 221
9          Sammy Sosa  Away 1998 81 31 81 375 333 70 105  9  0  81  9  4 39 92 .315 .387 .622 1.008 207
10        Jim Gentile  Away 1961 74 30 70 318 258 56  81 11  0  88  0  1 49 55 .314 .434 .705 1.139 182
11         Sammy Sosa  Away 1999 81 30 81 357 317 52  80  9  1  70  4  4 34 95 .252 .328 .571  .899 181
12       Andruw Jones  Away 2005 81 30 80 341 305 47  80 14  1  61  2  1 28 59 .262 .334 .610  .944 186
13       Jeff Bagwell  Away 1999 80 30 79 373 285 79  96 16  0  79 18  8 77 57 .337 .477 .709 1.186 202
14         Sammy Sosa  Away 2001 81 30 81 365 296 73  95 21  2  75  0  0 62 77 .321 .444 .709 1.153 210
15      Eddie Mathews  Away 1953 78 30 78 348 300 59 103 15  5  82  0  2 46 42 .343 .434 .727 1.161 218
16      Mickey Mantle  Away 1961 79 30 78 347 284 68  87  8  0  69  6  2 60 68 .306 .424 .651 1.075 185
17        Shawn Green  Away 2001 81 30 81 361 320 73  93 15  1  74 10  1 33 54 .291 .360 .625  .985 200

Maris had one more homer on the road, but Gentile out-OPS'd Maris by over 150 points.  Gentile's '61 season is one of the great forgotten seasons in baseball history.  He drove in as many runs as Maris in nearly 100 fewer PAs, and hit one fewer road homer in 55 fewer PAs.

Neither had much help from their teams.  The Yanks led off Bobby Richardson and his .296 OBP more than anyone else, while the O's set the table with Brooks Robinson (?!?).  Yep, Brooks had 442 PAs batting first in 1961, 465 out of the leadoff spot over his entire career.

[WillyM]

One can only wonder what Diamond Jim might have achieved in 1961 if the dimensions of right field at Memorial Stadium had been as hitter-friendly as those at Yankee Stadium.

[yark14]

Brady Anderson hit 31 of his homers on the road? WTF

[mikezpen]

He had a phenomenal ability to hit w/MOB his first two years

RISP 1960: BA . .377  SLUG: .660  OPS: 1.164

RISP 1961: BA, .370   SLUG: .874 (!)  OPS: 1.371 

And to think we got him from the Dodgers in a trade for Willie Miranda, perhaps the weakest-hitting starting infielder we've ever had.

But after that, they caught up w/him and he tailed off dramatically, never hitting more than .251. Never understood what happened there.

[DrungoHazewood]

On 8/22/2022 at 3:03 PM, mikezpen said:

He had a phenomenal ability to hit w/MOB his first two years

RISP 1960: BA . .377  SLUG: .660  OPS: 1.164

RISP 1961: BA, .370   SLUG: .874 (!)  OPS: 1.371 

And to think we got him from the Dodgers in a trade for Willie Miranda, perhaps the weakest-hitting starting infielder we've ever had.

But after that, they caught up w/him and he tailed off dramatically, never hitting more than .251. Never understood what happened there.

The Dodgers had a big, sprawling minor league system left over from the Branch Rickey empire.  In 1957 they had three teams at either the AAA or Open classification, and 14 total minor league teams.  Gentile was good, but in '57 (for example) they had Gil Hodges at first in the majors, 1B Steve Bilko had 56 homers for the LA Angels, Norm Larker was the 1B at St. Paul and hit .323/.399/.502.  So Gentile was kind of stuck.

When he finally got to Baltimore he was 26.  Played really well in 1960 and of course '61.  Had a bit of bad luck on balls in play in '62.  And then in '63 they changed the strike zone and ignored the big mounds, and runs fell off considerably.  He never had an OPS+ under 122 with the O's, so he was still hitting relative to the league.  But when they traded him to KC he was 30 and Boog needed to get out of the outfield.

Edited August 28, 2022 by DrungoHazewood

[mikezpen]

They also had Frank Howard then, didn't they?

[WillyM]

The Dodgers did have Frank Howard at the time of the trade during the 1959-60 offseason, but Howard was considered primarily an outfielder.  He didn't play a significant number of games at first base until 1968, and even in that year he played more games in the outfield.