When was the last time? Surely, it can't be back in Babe Ruth's day!
 

Aaron Judge leads the Majors in Homeruns by 19.

When was the last time anyone lead the Majors in Homers by that much?


I gotta believe there has been someone since Babe Ruth...perhaps Greenberg?


Who's the quickest to look it up?



This is kind of like the days when Ryan led in strikeouts by over 100.


...or...remind me of others who were so statistically dominant in one stat...



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I think you are right, and you have to go all the way back to Ruth's time!

You have to go back to 1928, when Ruth had 54 HRs and Hack Wilson had 31 to find a lead of 20 or more.
Jimmie Foxx got close in 1932 when he had 58 Home Runs and Babe Ruth had 41. The following year Foxx bested Ruth again 48 to 34.

But the biggest difference by far was in 1920 when Babe Ruth hit 54 (besting his previous record of 29) and George Sisler only hit 19.

Ruth led the League by double digits 7 times.

I think the last double digit lead was in 1977: George Foster with 52 and Jeff Burroughs with 41.

As far as other categories, Rickey Henderson and stolen bases is probably one that he led by a large margin, but I didn't look up any stats to see.

Now that some research has been done, I did some myself:


Well. Ruth actually led by 35 in 1921 too 59-24 over teammate Bob Meusel.


...and double digits have been reached four time since Foster in 1977:


Kevin Mitchell had 11 more than Howard Johnson in 1989
Cecil Fielder had 11 more than Ryne Sandberg in 1990
Albert Belle had 10 more than Frank Thomas, Dante Bichette and Jay Buhner in 1995
and
Jose Baustista had 12 more than Albert Pujols in 2010.



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Thanks for correcting my shoddy research. Pretty absurd that Babe Ruth led the league by 35 home runs in consecutive years!

Great info Raymond thanks

Shows how amazing Ruth is and also shows what Judge is on pace to do if he can get some more homers

One of my favorite comparisons of the world before and after Ruth was stated by George Will on the Ken Burns' Baseball documentary: '...like Everest in Kansas.'


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Pedro 2000
 

Pedro Martinez was the best pitcher I ever saw. Being a Red Sox fan was able to see almost every one of his starts, it was must see back then. Anyway, even in Fenway Park not exactly pitcher friendly and the A L East he led the majors in ERA 5 of 8 seasons. The real eye opener was 2000, Pedro`s ERA 1.74 was basically a full 2 runs better than Roger Clemens who posted a 3.70. Mussina was 3`rd that year at 3.80, unreal.

That's the most impressive part of Pedro's career I think. He posted those crazy numbers in the AL East. Mostly smaller, hitter friendly ballparks with a DH and bigger payrolls.

We saw when both Clemens and Pettitte left the Yankees and went to the Astros in the NL Central. Their ERA's went down a full 1 to 2 runs almost instantly.

Now, that could have also been a little chemical enhancement ;), but mostly I think, it was the change in scenery.

Higher education in the 21st century has deteriorated dramatically.

Research formerly was considered a legitimate endeavor.

Today

RESEARCH = GOOGLE AND A FINGER