Although it is not nearly as elite an achievement as being inducted into The 500 Home Run Club, several of baseball’s greatest sluggers were chosen to grace the cover of America’s most prestigious newsmagazine - TIME.

Several outstanding players came close, hitting 450 or more, but failed to break through the 500 home run barrier due to injuries and other factors. The list of major league sluggers who had Hall of Fame careers, but simply never hit their 500th round-tripper includes:

Three 500 Home Run Club® dignitaries were among only 15 MLB players to hit four home runs in a single game:Lou Gehrig (06-03-32), Willie Mays (04-30-61) and Mike Schmidt (04-17-76)

Hitting a home run is arguably the greatest single achievement that a major league player can accomplish. And the greatest homer of them all is the Grand Slam. More than  5,375 Grand Slams have been hit by major league players, since the league began keeping records on this stat in 1901.

500 Home Run Club® Members had tons of power Alright – or was it Left?

When it came to choosing which side of the plate to bat from, you could say that the majority of the 500 Home Run Club® members LEFT nothing to chance - but only by the slimmest of margins. Of the 12,750+ long balls hit by 500 HRC sluggers, 6433 or 52% were hit by left-handed batters or switch hitters. Only 6317 or 48% were hit by righties.

This margin is much closer than it was one year ago, since three of the four All-Stars who joined The Club in 2007 (Alex Rodriguez, Frank Thomas and Manny Ramirez) are all right handed - adding 1566 right-handed long balls to the overall count.  Only Jim Thome is a lefty.

The “Babe Ruth Award” (a.k.a. the World Series “Most Valuable Player Award”) was developed by the New York chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America in honor of Babe Ruth and first awarded in 1955, one year after the Bambino's death.
 

In addition to being great long-ball hitters, 500 Home Run Club®members where also great all-around batters.  Here’s a list of the club members who also achieved one of the greatest feats in baseball – hitting for “The Cycle” (a single, a double, a triple and a home run in a single game):

Two 500 Home Run Club® members were among a select few MLB players to hit four home runs in a single game: Willie Mays (04-30-61) and Mike Schmidt (04-17-76) > only 15 players have ever achieved this feat. 

The Hank Aaron Award was introduced in 1999 to honor the 25th Anniversary of Hank Aaron surpassing Babe Ruth's all-time home run record. It was the first major award to be introduced in more than thirty years and it recognizes the best overall hitter in each league.

Continuing our mission of honoring baseball’s greatest sluggers, The 500 Home Run Club, LLC salutes Lou Gehrig (Henry Louis Gehrig), whose incredible batting accomplishments included hitting 493 home runs (just 7 shy of the mystical 500 mark), despite having his career tragically shortened, by the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – later named “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

Just like millions of children worldwide await the arrival of Santa Claus at Christmas-time, millions of fans worldwide celebrate baseball’s all-time greatest home run hitters – the members of the 500 Home Run Club® – during the holidays by hanging ornaments featuring their favorite players on their Christmas trees.

When members of the 500 Home Run Club® got on a home run tear, watch out opposing pitchers.  The home run heroics of 500 HRC members, including:

• Ken Griffey, Jr., who made home run hitting look like child's play when he hit longballs in eight consecutive games during the 1993 season as a member of the Seattle Mariners.

• Jim Thome, who muscled balls into the stands during seven consecutive games for Cleveland from June 25 to July 3, 2002.

• Frank Thomas, who hit titanic blasts in six consecutive games during September 2007.

• Manny Ramirez, who homered in four at-bats over the span of two games in 1998.

November is the time to look back at the achievements of baseball’s greatest players and select the one player in each league who meant the most to his team, and the sport, during the previous season.  The player whose superior play, remarkable achievements and inspirational leadership made him the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the American and the National leagues.

Ask any major league player and they’ll tell you the nickname(s) they were affectionately given by others over the years.  Some still carry a nickname attributed to them by sandlot players (like Eddie Murray’s nickname Steady Eddie), little league coaches or college fans; while others have assembled a laundry list of memorable nicknames that are often used interchangeable for fans, coaches, teammates and sports writers.

Known as “The Splendid Splinter,” Ted Williams dominated the 1940’s, belting 521 homers, batting .344 and driving in 1,839 RBIs. The Boston Red Sox leftfielder won two Triple Crowns and holds several all-time records, including:  best career on-base percentage (.483) and highest career slugging percentage (.634) second only to Babe Ruth’s (.690).   Despite winning the Triple Crown in 1942 and 1947, Williams was not voted MVP in either of those standout years.

It's been said that one of the most difficult things to do in sports is to use a round bat to hit a round ball that is twisting and turning toward you at up to 100 MPH. The members of the 500 Home Run Club®excelled at doing so on a regular basis. But even the games greatest hitters couldn't say precisely when or where they would "hit one over the fence".or could they?

Born on October 20, 1931, Mickey Mantle took command of October baseball like no other player, before or since. He played in twelve World Series and won three MVP awards. His most impressive season (statistically) was in 1956, when he won the triple crown (leading the league in home runs, batting average and runs batted in) and was voted the league's Most Valuable Player by the most one-sided landslide of votes in major league history.

Nicknamed "Mr. October" for his post-season heroics, Reginald Martinez "Reggie" Jackson always seemed to save his best play for autumn. Reggie had plenty of opportunity to shine in the postseason, as a member of 11 division champions, six pennant winners and five world champions (playing for the A's and Yankees). In 27 Fall Classic games, he hit .357 (95 points better than his regular season average) with 24 RBIs and managed to get a clutch hit virtually every time his team needed one.

George Herman “Babe” Ruth had so many World Series rings that he had to wear two on his other hand. He led seven teams to the promised land, winning three times with the Red Sox (1915-1916, 1918), and four as a Yankee (1923, 1927-1928, 1932).

Editor’s Note: A walk-off home run is called a "walk-off" when it ends the game by giving the home team the game winning run in the bottom of the final inning of the game — either the ninth inning or extra innings in case of a tie) because the teams WALK OFF the field immediately afterward.

On October 6, 2007, the newest member of the 500 Home Run Club - Bo Sox slugger Manny Ramirez - brought all of his teammates charging onto the field to celebrate his three-run Walk-Off Home Run over Fenway’s “Green Monster”.  Man Ram’s timely blast beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-3 and was only the fifth walk-off home run in Red Sox post-season history.  The homer gave Boston a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series and sent them on their way to an eventual World Series '07 title - the second in four years for the once beleagured Beantown team. 

Other recent 500 Home Run Club inductees Jim Thome and Alex Rodriguez, both performed this elite feat in 2007.

“Big Jim” Thome “joined the club” on September 16, 2007 with a two-run Walk-Off Blast in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Chicago White Sox a 9-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

On April 7, 2007, Alex Rodriguez launched Baltimore pitcher Chris Ray’s offering into the Yankee Stadium seats.  The Walk-Off blast - A-Rod's second in the game - ended the contest 10-7 in favor of the Yankees and tied Rodriguez with Cy Williams and Vern Stephens for the most Walk-Off grand slams (three each) in major league history. 

During extra innings of the 1941 All-Star game, “The Splendid Splinter” Ted Williams came to the plate with the AL team just one out from defeat and hit a 1-1 pitch off the right field press box for a three run homer that clinched a 7-5 victory.  He later said, "I just shut my eyes and swung." It is the first All-Star game to be decided in the final inning.

“Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron provided one of his numerous crowd pleasing moments, when, on September 23, 1957, he sent an 11th inning, two out fastball from St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Billy Muffett deep into the Milwaukee County Stadium seats.  Aaron’s WALK-OFF homer sealed the Braves’ 4-2 win and clinched the Braves' first pennant since moving to Milwaukee.

Willie McCovey hit more Grand Slams (17) than any other National Leaguer, and more pinch hit Grand Slams than any other major league player. His final pinch hitter grand slam came on 05-30-1975 after he was traded to the San Diego Padres, clinching a come-from-behind win over the New York Mets.

Chicago Cub great Sammy Sosa wowed the Wrigley Field faithful with twin grand slam game winners on July 27th and 28th of 1998.

Milwaukee Fans also got the thrill of seeing one of their heroes hit a WALK-OFF shot during the post-season that year, when, on October 6, 1957 during the 10th inning of game four of the World Series, Eddie Mathews hit a two-run WALK-OFF shot into the stands of County Stadium in Milwaukee against Yankee pitcher Bob Grim County Stadium to tie the series at two games.

During extra innings of the 1941 All-Star game, Ted Williams came to the plate with the AL team just one out from defeat and hit a 1-1 pitch off the right field press box for a three run homer that clinched a 7-5 victory. He later says, "I just shut my eyes and swung." It is the first All-Star game to be decided in the final inning.

On October 10, 1964 during the ninth inning of Game 3 of the World Series, Mickey Mantle slugged the first pitch served up by St. Louis Cardinals pitcher deep into the Yankee Stadium stands delivering a WALK-OFF ending that thrilled the New York fans.

On October 18, 1988 Mark McGwire gave Oakland its only win against the Dodgers when he hit a gargantuan WALK-OFF blast off of LA’s Jay Howell with one out in the 9th inning.  It was also the first time that two walk-off home runs were hit in the same postseason series; since Kirk Gibson of the Dodgers had done so three days earlier during the first game of the series.          

– In Japan, a walk-off home run is known as a sayonara home run.