Who Hit That Home Run?

By Michael Capuzzo(with the help of The Sultan of Swat stats, David Vincent-aka "Dr. Longball)

Stats to Stump Your Friends

A selection of our favorite home run records:

Dear Mom.

Sincce Mother's Day was established in the early 1900s, Frank Robinson has hit the most home runs on that holiday, with nine. A Hall of Fame outfielder and now manager of the Washington Nationals, Robinson-the last of 10 children born to Ruth Shaw-has said, "My mother was the stregnth of my young life."

A League of his Own.

In 1920, Babe Ruth out-homered every American League team when he hit 54. The St. Louis Browns came closest-they hit 50. That year, Ruth also out-homered seven of the National League teams/ Only the Philadelphia Phillies hit more than Ruth, with 64 long balls.

Longest Names.

The teammates with the longest last names ever to hit back-to-back home runs? Answer: Juan Encarnacion and Frank Catalanotto, then of the Detroit Tigers, who homered consecutively against the Toronto Blue Jays on Sept. 25, 1998. Their 22-letter names beat out the Boston Red Sox 21-letter duo of Carl Yastrzemski and Tony Conigliaro, who accomplished the feat on May 16, 1965.

Rockin' Robin.

Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers hit a record 19 home runs off one picher-Robin Roberts, setting a number for the ages. With many more teams and players and diluted rivalries, Barry Bonds, for instance, has yet to hit 10 off any one pitcher.

The Good Die Young

The most home runs hit by a teen was 24, by Tony Conigliaro as a 19-year-old rookie with the Red Sox in 1964. He becamne, at age 20, the youngest home run champion in American Leage history. At 22, he became the youngest ever player in the league to reach 100 homers. But a beaning by a pitch in 1967 ruined his career. He later suffered a heart attack and died of kidney failure in 1990, at age 45.

Zero For Life.

Of the more than 16,200 major league baseball players in history, fewer than half have ever hit a home run-6616 as of the end of last season.

The Quantum Leap.

In 1919, Babe Ruth broke the single-season home run record, with 29. In 1920, he became the first major leaguer to hit 30 homers in a season, 40 homers in a season and then 50 homers in a season-all in the same year.

The Centrist Slugger.

Micke Mantle of the New York Yankees hit the most home runs in a lifetime by a switch hitter-536-pleasing those who bat left as well as right.

Lucky Shot

The most home runs hit on Friday the 13th is a three-way tie with Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, retired Cincinnati slugger George Foster and Washington Nationals third baseman Vinny Castilla, with six apiece.(Vinny's next shot will make him the Friday champ.)