In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 40âÂÂ40 club is the group of batters, currently six, who have collected 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season. Few professional baseball players have possessed both the power and speed to reach this level, and no players have done so more than once. The six players with a 40âÂÂ40 season are Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Alfonso Soriano, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Shohei Ohtani. Acuña is the only player to achieve a 40âÂÂ70 season, achieving this feat in 2023, and Ohtani is the only player to achieve a 50âÂÂ50 season, having done so in 2024.
The first player to approach the mark was Ken Williams in 1922, with 39 home runs and 37 stolen bases, thus making him the first player to reach the 30âÂÂ30 club. It took another 30 years for another player to come close to 40âÂÂ40, as Willie Mays did in 1956 with 36 home runs and 40 stolen bases. In 1973, Bobby Bonds achieved 39âÂÂ43; he hit a home run in the 1973 MLB All Star Game, which did not count as an official home run.
When Jose Canseco predicted he would reach 40âÂÂ40 in 1988, he mistakenly assumed "five or six players must have done it." After Canseco became the first player to reach 40âÂÂ40, Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying, "Hell, If I'd known 40âÂÂ40 was going to be a big deal, I'd have done it every year!" Mantle's closest total was 31âÂÂ21 in 1959.
Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alfonso Soriano, and Ronald Acuña Jr. were outfielders in their 40âÂÂ40 seasons, while Alex Rodriguez played shortstop. Shohei Ohtani served as a designated hitter in his 40âÂÂ40 season due to an arm injury he suffered in the previous year. Acuña Jr. (41âÂÂ37 in 2019), Soriano (39âÂÂ41 in 2002, when playing second base), and Bonds (40âÂÂ37 in 1997) all came close to having multiple 40âÂÂ40 seasons.
Canseco, Bonds, and Soriano joined the 40âÂÂ40 club by stealing their 40th bases, while Rodriguez, Acuña Jr., and Ohtani joined by hitting their 40th home runs. Ohtani is the only player to achieve both in the same game, stealing his 40th base in the fourth inning and then hitting a game-winning, walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth for his 40th home run.
Canseco, Acuña Jr., and Ohtani all won the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award in the year of their 40âÂÂ40 seasons. All three's teams also reached the MLB playoffs in their 40âÂÂ40 years, and Ohtani's Dodgers won the World Series in his 50âÂÂ50 year. Soriano is the only member of the club to have a batting average under .300 in his 40âÂÂ40 season. Soriano also hit 41 doubles during his 40âÂÂ40 season, making him the only player to achieve that feat. Meanwhile, Ohtani is the first pitcher to join the club.
As of 2024, Acuña Jr. and Ohtani are the only active players who have achieved a 40âÂÂ40 season. All four retired 40âÂÂ40 club members had at least 400 career home runs and 200 stolen bases in their careers, and Bonds and Rodriguez are also members of the 600 home run club.
No members of the 40âÂÂ40 club have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Active players are ineligible for the Hall of Fame, and Soriano fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in his first year of eligibility in 2020. The other retired members of the 40âÂÂ40 club have been linked to the use of performance-enhancing drugs; Bonds and Canseco were each implicated in the December 2007 Mitchell Report, while Rodriguez admitted in 2009 to using steroids.
After stealing a base in an October 2, 2015 game for the NC Dinos, first baseman Eric Thames became the first player to reach 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a season in a Korea Baseball Organization season. The feat has never been achieved in Nippon Professional Baseball; the closest effort was Koji Akiyama's 1987 season, in which he hit 43 home runs and stole 38 bases.
General
Specific