The 40 (And 41) Club

Last night, A-Rod became the first hitter in baseball this year to hit 40 homeruns, but Prince Fielder isn't far behind him, after launching number 39 himself. Aside from those two guys, only Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard are even to 30 homeruns right now and they're the only two projected to make it to 40, so it's looking like a down-year for big flies to say the least.

It's actually been 12 years (1995) since baseball had just 4 players hit 40 or more homeruns (Albert Belle, Dante Bichette, Frank Thomas, Jay Buhner). In the 11 seasons since then, there have been at least 10 players in the 40-club 8 times with a high of 17 in 1996 (Mark McGwire, Brady Anderson, Ken Griffey, Albert Belle, Andreas Gallaraga, Juan Gonzalez, Jay Buhner, Mo Vaughn, Gary Sheffield, Greg Vaughn, Todd Hundley, Frank Thomas, Sammy Sosa, Ellis Burks, Vinny Castilla, and Ken Caminiti). In the three seasons that didn't have at least 10 players hit 40 (2005, 2004, 2002), they came awfully close (9, 9, 8).

And while we're talking about 40, let's talk about 41- the number of consecutive hitters Bobby Jenks had retired before giving up a lead-off single to Joey Gathright last night. Jenks tied the record, but didn't break it, and probably would have if he didn't have an 8 day lay-off between appearances (which happened to coincide with the Sox 8 game losing-streak).

"I messed that one up myself," Jenks said after the game. He apparently shook off his catcher on the pitch that ended up being a base-hit. That may be, Bobby, but your team sure didn't do you any favors either.