Stats corner: Team records fall in the new long-ball era

We are living in the era of the long ball, which has led to a lot of team home run records. Which teams have the oldest individual and team home records? Let’s take a look, ranking them from the oldest to newest (we list the current team name at the time, though record could have been broken in a different location for the same franchise). Individuals threatening to set a record this season are in parentheses:

1932
Oakland Athletics, Jimmie Foxx, 58

1938
Detroit Tigers, Hank Greenberg, 58

1949
Pittsburgh Pirates, Ralph Kiner, 54

1961
New York Yankees, Roger Maris, 61

1964
Minnesota Twins, Harmon Killebrew, 49

1977
Cincinnati Reds, George Foster, 52
(Eugenio Suarez has 48 this season)

1997
Seattle Mariners, Ken Griffey Jr., 56
Colorado Rockies, Larry Walker, 47

1998
Chicago White Sox, Albert Belle, 49
Chicago Cubs, Sammy Sosa, 66
San Diego Padres, Greg Vaughn, 50
St. Louis Cardinals, Mark McGwire, 70

2000
ANGELS, Troy Glaus, 47
Houston Astros, Jeff Bagwell, 47

2001
DODGERS, Shawn Green, 49
(Cody Bellinger has 45 this season)
Arizona Diamondbacks, Luis Gonzalez, 57
San Francisco Giants, Barry Bonds, 73

2002
Cleveland Indians, Jim Thome, 52
Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez, 57

2005
Atlanta Braves, Andruw Jones, 51

2006
Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, 54
Philadelphia Phillies, Ryan Howard, 58
Washington Nationals, Alfonso Soriano, 46

2007
Milwaukee Brewers, Prince Fielder, 50
Tampa Bay Rays, Carlos Pena, 46

2010
Toronto Blue Jays, Jose Bautista, 54

2013
Baltimore Orioles, Chris Davis, 53

2017
Miami Marlins, Giancarlo Stanton, 59

2019
Kansas City Royals, Jorge Soler, 45
New York Mets, Pete Alonso, 50

There seems to be a large cluster of records from 1997-2001. Hmmm, was anything happening at that time? Despite a lot of home runs the last couple of seasons, not many individual team records have been set.

TEAM RECORDS

1987
Detroit Tigers, 225

1996
Baltimore Orioles, 256

1997
Colorado Rockies, 239
Seattle Mariners, 264

1999
Pittsburgh Pirates, 171

2000
ANGELS, 236
Cleveland Indians, 221
St. Louis Cardinals, 235

2001
San Francisco Giants, 235

2003
Boston Red Sox, 238

2004
Chicago White Sox, 242

2005
Texas Rangers, 260
Cincinnati Reds, 222

2008
Miami Marlins, 208

2009
Philadelphia Phillies, 224

2010
Toronto Blue Jays, 257

2017
Arizona Diamondbacks, 220
Kansas City Royals, 193
Tampa Bay Rays, 228

2019
DODGERS, 264
Atlanta Braves, 241
Chicago Cubs, 245
Houston Astros, 271
Milwaukee Brewers, 237
Minnesota Twins, 293
New York Mets, 228
New York Yankees, 294
Oakland A’s, 248
San Diego Padres, 212
Washington Nationals, 218

Eleven of 30 major league teams have set club home run record this year, and three did it last year, meaning almost half of all teams have set their home run record in the last two seasons.