Letters to the editor: the fans speak out.(Letter to the Editor)

I agree with your reader who recently objected to "an ill-informed reporter" saying Joe DiMaggio was "a Punch and Judy hitter" in comparison to the sluggers whose career home run totals are so much greater than DiMaggio's 361.

That 361 figure was huge in its time, especially when you consider that because of war-time service and injuries, Joe played only 14 seasons. He was still only 36 when his career ended in 1951, and at that point in big league history, only four other players had ever hit more homers than Joe.

They were Babe Ruth, 714; Jimmie Foxx, 536; Mel Ott, 511, and Lou Gehrig, 493.

Can you print a list of the players with 300 or more homers as of the end of the 1951 season?

 
Robert W. Creamer 
Tuckahoe, N.Y. 

Players with 300 or more career homers at the end of the 1951 season included, as you mention, Ruth, Foxx, Ott and Gehrig.

Next on the list was DiMaggio, followed by Johnny Mize with 351 homers; Hank Greenberg, 331; Ted Williams, 323; Al Simmons, 30; Rogers Hornsby, 301, and Chuck Klein, 300.