It’s crowded at the top. You may ask, "The top of what?" Well, the MLB home run leaderboard.
Junior Caminero and Matt Olson each hit their 35th home runs of the season on Tuesday night to tie for the MLB lead. Yordan Alvarez hit his 35th on July 28 and remains at that mark. Kyle Schwarber tied Alvarez on Sunday, crushing two homers to reach 35.
Now, entering Wednesday, we have a four-way tie at the top. After a handful of recent years have featured a singular player chasing one record or another while well out in front of his peers, we were wondering the last time the race was tied up like this.
So, when was the last time we had a tie between four or more players atop the MLB home run leaderboard this late in a season?
The answer? It’s been a while.
The last time this happened through games of Aug. 11 or later in a season, excluding 2020, was 1982, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
At the end of the day on both Sept. 8 and 9, the leading total was 34 home runs. During that time, it was Gorman Thomas, Dale Murphy, Reggie Jackson and Dave Kingman all tied up at the top.
Thomas was the first of the quartet to 34 homers, hitting two on Aug. 26. He ended that day with a three-homer lead over both Jackson and Murphy (Kingman had 30). Thomas then went into a bit of a homer drought, which allowed the others to gain on him. Jackson tied him on Sept. 5, then both Murphy and Kingman hit No. 34 on Sept. 8, giving us that four-way tie.
The four-way tie ended on Sept. 10, when Murphy and Kingman each hit No. 35.
How did it end? Jackson and Thomas each hit 39 home runs, sharing the Major League and American League lead. Kingman was next on the list, with 37 home runs to lead the National League. Kingman tied for third in the Majors with Dave Winfield, who also hit 37, while Murphy finished fifth in MLB with 36 home runs.
There’s still plenty of time left this season, but the last time the home run race was this crowded this late, it stayed close through the end. This should be fun. And with Alvarez in the hunt for a Triple Crown, and not just in the American League, which hasn’t happened since Mickey Mantle in 1956, the implications here go beyond simply the MLB lead in home runs.