Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50-50 season is being questioned

(Source)

The question is being raised as to whether Shohei Ohtani is the only MLB player to hit 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. The 30-year-old Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star reached the milestone in a game against the Miami Marlins on September 19, when he stole his 50th base in the first inning and hit his 50th home run in the seventh.

• Verification of data: Dodgers Nation, along with Adam Darowski, executive director of design and product management at Sports Reference, analyzed the available statistics of every player in the Negro League (NL) from 1920 to 1948 using the Baseball Reference database. For the analysis, Darowski first compiled all players who hit at least 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases. He then calculated their statistics over a 154-game season, which was the American League and National League standard at the time, before switching to 162 games in 1962. “It’s hard to know how many non-league games they’ve played, but at least this one.” “Gives an idea of ​​the pace,” Darowski said, pointing out the uneven distribution of records in the database, such as that Mule Suttles and Willie Wells, both on pace for 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases, have 46 and 99 games, respectively.

• What they found: Darowski noted that Oscar Charleston of the Harrisburg Giants, whom he coached to 43 home runs and 57 stolen bases in a 154-game season in 1924, “seems to be the best candidate.” However, the predictions are inconclusive because NL players only competed within their league and their seasons were much shorter, with 60 to 80 games compared to today’s 162. Based on these results, Dodgers Nation concluded in its report that while Ohtani is “as far as we know” the first player to achieve a 50-50 season in MLB history, the answer remains due to the Negro Leagues’ incomplete record “unsatisfactory.”

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