MARCUS SEMIEN
It’s a shame that Marcus Semien and his Toronto Blue Jays got aced out of the American League Wildcard sweepstakes on the last day of the regular season, October 3rd.
Despite winning their season finale against the lowly Orioles by a 12–4 score, Toronto (91–71) finished one game behind the Red Sox and the Yankees (each 92–70).
Second baseman Semien cracked his 45th home run of the campaign in the contest.
A second baseman.
45 HRs.
Shortstops with pop, seem more common than power-hitting second basemen.
Ernie Banks’ accomplishments were prodigious.
“Mr. Cub” hit 40 or more home runs 5 times between 1955-’60, the five highest single-season totals in history for a shortstop, until the turn of the millennium and the height of the “Steroid Era.”
Thank you A-Rod.
The former Mr. JLo juiced up-and-out 52 in 2001; 57 in 2002; and 47 in 2003, bumping Banks’ personal best of 47 in 1958, into a tie for third all-time.
In fact, Banks and A-Rod own the top eleven slots on the list of HRs hit by a shortstop — 50% of games played at short — in a single season from 1871–2014.
Rico Petrocelli is the only other shortstop to hit 40 in a season (40 in 1969; 210 career).
Vern Stephens was the first player to hit 200 homers as a SS (213/214 of 247 from 1942-’53) and Banks was the second (277/298 of 512), a record which stood until Cal Ripken, Jr. shattered it in mid-1993.
Only Ripken, Jr. (345/353) and A-Rod (344/345) have surpassed Banks’ total while playing the middle infield.
Jeff Kent (377), Robinson Cano (334) and Rogers Hornsby (301) are the only second basemen in baseball history to hit more than 300 HRs, while playing at least two-thirds of their games at second base.
Hornsby with the St. Louis Browns in 1922 (42); Davey Johnson with the 1973 Atlanta Braves (42–43 if you count one which came as a pinch-hitter); and Ryne Sandberg with the Cubs in 1990 (40) were the only second basemen in baseball lore to swat 40 or more homers in a single season, until Brian Dozier came along.
In 2016, Dozier — then with the Twins — broke Alfonso Soriano’s AL record of 39 (2002) when he whacked 42, the first American League second baseman to ever achieve the feat.
He finished his career with 192 HRs.
At 30 years of age, Dozier had 119 of ‘em.
Jonathan Schoop is two weeks shy of 30, and already has hit 163 dingers in a major league career which began in 2013.
Which brings us to Semien.
He just turned 31.
He broke out in 2021, finishing the campaign slashing .265/.334/.538, with those record-setting 45 HRs, 102 RBI and a major-league best 86 extra-base hits.
He has 160 career home runs.
Davey Johnson finished with 136; Sandberg with 282.
Watch out for Schoop and Marcus Semien.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in October 2021.]
