[EDITOR'S NOTE: Because the topic of home runs serves as the centerpiece for this story, alert St. Louis Sports Online readers can no doubt guess where the article is headed in this, the year of the home run in St. Louis.]

Who was it that said singles hitters drive Chevys...but home run hitters drive Cadillacs?

And just who are those singles hitters?

You know the type...the punch-and-judy kind of batsman who puts the bat on the ball but seldom jacks it over the fence.

Among the top singles hitters of the past fifty years (arbitrarily broken down by decade) include Richie Ashburn (the 1950s), Matty Alou (the 1960s), Dave Cash (the 1970s), Willie Wilson (the 1980s), and Brett Butler (the 1990s).

For consecutive four-year periods, the per season totals, for home runs and singles, and the four-year sums, for those five players, are listed below.

Going back further, Wee Willie Keeler, Ty Cobb, Lloyd Waner, Doc Cramer, and Johnny Pesky were among the base-hit leaders during the first five decades of the twentieth century. Their homer and single totals, again for four seasons, are also listed below.

The totals for Doc Cramer, a second baseman for the Boston Braves, suggest that he is the patron saint of singles hitters everywhere.

Cramer, beginning with the '36 season, went homerless four seasons in succession...while banging out 589 singles.

And in 1927, Pirates 2B Lloyd Waner set the modern-day homer-single differential when he singled on 198 occasions, but homered only twice.

Also of interest is the fact that, in 1947, Red Sox SS Johnny Pesky set the major league record for most singles (172) in one season without homering...and over a four-year period that was interrupted by military service, managed but seven homers and 620 singles.

It is unfair to label the great Cobb solely as a singles hitter, since he led the AL in doubles three times, triples four times, and homers in 1909. On top of that, Cobb finished second in HRs in 1910 and 1911, and finished third in 1912.

Suffice it to say that Ty Cobb was simply a good hitter.

The constancy of the data, though, for all ten decades of the twentieth century, is remarkable: big-time singles hitters who seldom smack homers average a couple of homers per season...and a hundred and fifty or so singles.

Such a constancy suggests a certain regularity to the sport of baseball...for an entire century.

That enduring regularity endears the sport to its many fans.

And evidently, a high-quality Chevy can make it all the way to Cooperstown, since, along with Cobb, both Lloyd (Little Poison)Waner and Richie Ashburn are members of baseball's Hall of Fame.

And who are baseball's Cadillac drivers?

Who are the men best known for hitting home runs? The sluggers?

Broken down by decade, the heaviest of baseball's heavy hitters in the twentieth century are listed below.

These are the men who bash home runs but seldom stop at first base. In other words, their singles totals are quite low.

As was the case for the singles hitters, four year summaries that list total home runs and singles are listed for each player.

The homer-single numbers for the first two decades of the twentieth century indicate that those years were different from the rest, as far as power production was concerned.

Indeed, neither Davis, who hit more home runs than any other big league player in this century's first decade and led the AL in homers in the four seasons beginning with 1904, nor Cravath, who led the NL in homers in six of the seven seasons beginning with 1913, are in the Hall of Fame.

Of course, the game changed in the 1920's, and Babe Ruth led the assault. The numbers don't lie.

And starting with Ruth, the power surge has continued to this day.

Jimmie Foxx and Ralph Kiner were among the pre-eminent power hitters in the '30s and '40s, respectively, followed by Duke Snider (in the '50s) and Harmon Killebrew (in the '60s).

And Willie Stargell, Mike Schmidt, and Mark McGwire are among the best power hitters in their respective time periods--the '70s, '80s, and '90s.

It is worth noting that all of those players (except the still-active McGwire) are members of the Hall of Fame...

And as was the case with the singles hitters, the yearly totals for Ruth, Foxx, Kiner, Snider, Killebrew, Stargell, and Schmidt were comfortably constant--in the neighborhood of 45 HRs and 90 singles per season.

And those averages hold true for now-retired power hitters such as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Howard...and McGwire contemporaries such as Albert Belle, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds, Cecil Fielder and Andres Galarraga--their four year HR and 1B totals are listed below.

But Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire stands alone in the following singular way.

For the past four seasons (starting with his injury-marred 1995 campaign in Oakland), Mark McGwire has more home runs (219) than singles (218).

Think about that. Since 1995, when baseball fans watched Mac, they saw him hit more home runs than singles.

Indeed, McGwire's record-breaking 1998 season (70 HRs and only 61 singles) was not the first time that he had achieved such a feat.

In 1995, Mac had 39 homers and 35 singles.

Taken together, then, Mark McGwire, over four years (beginning with the '95 season), accomplished something that no other player has ever accomplished--not once, not in any year (with more than 100 games played).

Roger Maris, in his historic season in 1961, came closest, when his 61 homers were "blemished" by 79 singles.

So all those old-timers...the honored and wise old-timers...guys like Jack Buck and Red Schoendienst and George Kissell and Jim Toomey...when they said "I've never seen anything like McGwire"...they were right.

No Comparison...

Twenty power hitters are mentioned in this article.

With the exception of McGwire, in a given season those hitters, at the zenith of their power production, those hitters averaged 45 HRs and 90 singles per season.

Mark McGwire, at his best, over a four-year period, averaged 55 HRs and 55 singles, per season.

So, in the pantheon of power hitters...of sluggers...of Cadillac drivers...Mark McGwire stands alone.

But maybe it's unfair to imagine Mac driving a Cadillac.

That's too pedestrian for a guy who has shattered virtually every single season-related home run record.

How about a classic Cardinal red '62 Corvette?

1999 FINAL 153 games; 521 ABs  1Bs:58  HRs:65

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