500 Home Runs: A club forever changed

Once upon a time, the 500 Home Run Club truly was an elite group of baseball players, a small number of sluggers assured of immortality in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Today, its exploding ranks carry much more than an air of greatness — it also carries an air of suspicion.

Entering the 1993 season, there were a mere 14 members of the club in nearly 125 years of baseball — that’s what my once-trusty third edition of Total Baseball says. (Remember the heyday of that relic? Some of you do.) It’s a list topped by Hank Aaron followed by Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Foxx, Willie McCovey, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews and, ending the list, Mel Ott at 511.

Barry Bonds was nowhere to be found among the top 100 sluggers in MLB history with just 196 home runs for his career.

Oh, how times have changed.

Today, less than a generation later but somehow an eternity away on the stat sheet, there are 25 members of the club — and six of the top 15 players on the list have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs either by admission, a failed test or serious allegations that will be eventually discussed in a courtroom.

It’s a list that should carry plenty of weight with baseball card collectors — but one that just doesn’t have the same confidence with them that it had 20 years ago. One might argue that the revelations or suspicions have influenced the mainstream appeal of the hobby as a whole as well, but that’s probably fodder for another time.

It’s a club that’s certainly not done growing, though it is looking like it could become similar to the 300-Win Club in just a few more years. That club may not have any possible new members for a decade or so — if ever again.

There could be a 26th member of the 500-HR Club this season (health-pending) — Carlos Delgado (age 37) needs 27 home runs. After that, Chipper Jones (age 38 this season) would need roughly four more seasons, Vlad Guerrero would need roughly three (presuming he’s healthy) and an old-at-32 Andruw Jones would need another four or five. None of them are locks given age and injury.

After that, the only virtually guaranteed next member (and he’ll get there soon) among the top 100 sluggers on the career list would be Albert Pujols, who enters this season with 366 at age 30.

Outside of the top 100 (Tidbit: No. 100 on the career list now is Ron Gant at 321. In 1993, No. 100 was Tony Armas and Cy Williams at 251.), there are a few names who could make it to 500, but most of them are less than halfway there.

Where have all the sluggers gone in just the last few years?

Shhhhh. It’s a secret.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.