ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9610010013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
HOME RUN RECORDS are set throughout the major leagues in 1996.
Baseball's Year of the Homer went out with a blast - several of them.
Brady Anderson, Andres Galarraga and Vinny Castilla hit historic homers Sunday, and major-league hitters finished with 4,962, the most in 128 years of professional baseball.
This season, the first since 1993 not cut short by a strike, set a record with three weeks to go, when Florida's Gary Sheffield hit No.4,459, one more than was hit in 1987, which averaged 2.12 per game. This year's record average was 2.19.
Seventeen players hit 40 or more homers, smashing the previous record of eight in 1961. Forty-three players hit 30 or more, 15 more than the old record set in 1987 and 83 hit 20, four more than the previous record, also set in '87.
Mark McGwire's major league-leading 52 homers in 130 games for Oakland were the most since George Foster hit 52 for Cincinnati in 1977. Anderson hit No.50 leading off Baltimore's game at Toronto on Sunday, marking the first time since 1961 and the fourth time ever that two players reached the mark in the same season.
Baltimore set a record for most homers by a team in one season with 257. Seattle (245) and Oakland (243) also topped the previous record of 240 by the 1961 Yankees.
Anderson, whose previous career high was 21, hit 12 leading off games, topping the previous major-league record of 11 set by Bobby Bonds in 1973.
Colorado became only the second team with three 40-homer players. Galarraga hit his NL-leading 47th Sunday and Castilla hit his 40th to tie teammate Ellis Burks. The Rockies matched the mark set by Davey Johnson (43), Darrell Evans (41) and Hank Aaron (40) for the 1973 Atlanta Braves.
The Rockies tied the NL record for homers in a season with 221, matching the 1947 New York Giants and 1956 Reds.
Colorado, the first team with 200 homers and 200 steals, had four 30-homer players for the second straight season, with Dante Bichette hitting 31. The only other team to do that was the 1977 Dodgers.
Burks became only the second player with 40 homers, 30 steals and 200 hits, joining Aaron, who accomplished the feat in 1963. Burks' 392 total bases were the most in the NL since Aaron's 400 in 1959.
Todd Hundley of the Mets hit 41 homers, breaking Roy Campanella's old record of 40 by a catcher.
Fifty players drove in 100 runs or more, topping the previous record of 32, set in 1930.
San Diego's Tony Gwynn won his third straight NL batting title and his seventh overall, matching Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial and leaving him one short of Honus Wagner's NL record. Gwynn, who hit .353, fell four plate appearances short of the 502 needed to qualify. But under a technicality in the rule book used for the first time, Gwynn still won the title when four hitless at-bats were added to give him the necessary appearances and his average still topped Burks, his closest pursuer at .344.
Seattle's Alex Rodriguez had 215 hits and a .358 average. At age 21, he became the third-youngest AL batting titlist behind Ty Cobb and Al Kaline, who were both 20 when they won their titles.
Cleveland's Kenny Lofton led the AL in steals for the fifth straight season, swiping 75. Colorado's Eric Young led the NL with 53.
John Smoltz led the NL with wins, going 24-8. Andy Pettitte of the Yankees led the AL in wins with a 21-8 record.
Juan Guzman of Toronto won his first AL ERA title at 2.93, and Florida's Kevin Brown won his first NL ERA title at 1.89, stopping a three-year run by Atlanta's Greg Maddux.
Smoltz won his second NL strikeout title with 276. Boston's Roger Clemens fanned 257 to win his second AL strikeout title.
Todd Worrell of the Dodgers led the majors in saves with 44. John Wetteland of the Yankees led the AL with 43.
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