Major League Baseball Records for Total Bases

The names on the list of the all-time leaders for total bases in a career read like a who's who of Hall of Famers. Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Willie Mays are just a few of the hitters that dominate this total bases directory, with current Major League Baseball players such as Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. inching their way up the roll call. The most total bases registered in a single season belong to Babe Ruth, a record that has stood the test of time, having existed since 1921, but the record for the most total bases in one game is not even five years old.

Total bases is just what it sounds like, the total number of bases a player gains with his hits in a season. If, for example, a batter hits two singles, a double, and a home run in one contest, he would be credited with nine total bases for that particular game. Obviously longevity in the sport plays a large part in making it to the upper echelons of the career total bases roster, as evidenced by such stalwarts as Hank Aaron and Stan Musial sitting one-two on the list. Aaron compiled an incredible 6,856 total bases over his 23 years in the game, while Musial had 6,134 in his 22 campaigns. Aaron's milestone is one of those unassailable records in baseball. To show how far out of reach he is, consider that the all-time home run king, Barry Bonds, has 5,976 total bases, still 220 home runs short of Aaron.

Bonds now holds down fourth place for career total bases, but he could conceivably pass his godfather, Willie Mays, who accumulated 6,066, in another season and maybe even catch Musial if he hangs around long enough. Behind Bonds we find Ty Cobb with 5,854 and then Ruth, with 5,793, which is incredible in itself considering he was a full-time batter for just seventeen of his twenty-two seasons. Had Ruth never pitched, he figured to have had well over 7,500 total bases, which would have put him in another galaxy for this statistic. Ruth is in front of Pete Rose, Carl Yastrzemski, Eddie Murray, and Rafael Palmeiro, who wound up in tenth all-time before his recent retirement under a cloud of steroid suspicion.

Ruth has held the single season standard for total bases now for almost 86 years, with the 457 he had in 1921. Rogers Hornsby made a run at the record the very next season, but fell seven short in 1922. Lou Gehrig's 447 have him all alone in third for one year, with Chuck Klein of the Phillies in fourth place and Jimmy Foxx in fifth. The only current players in the top ten in this endeavor are Sammy Sosa and Luis Gonzalez; Sosa had 425 total bases in 2001 while Gonzalez had 419 the same year. Bonds' best year for total bases was also in 2001, as he had 411, hurt by the fact that he was walked 177 times, 35 of those being intentional. It is also worth pointing out that Ruth and his contemporaries garnered those numbers during a 154 game schedule, as opposed to the 162 that teams play today.

The active leader for total bases is Bonds of course, with Ken Griffey Jr. in back of him followed by Craig Biggio, Sosa, and Gary Sheffield. Sosa and Biggio have been jockeying back and forth all year, and are currently separated by just one total base. The record for most total bases in a single American League tilt was shared by six players. Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Rocky Colavito, Carlos Delgado, Mike Cameron, and Fred Lynn all had sixteen in one game; all but Lynn and Cobb hit four home runs to turn the trick. On May 23rd, 2002, Shawn Green of the Dodgers hit four home runs, a double and a single to break Joe Adcock's Major League Baseball record for total bases. Green's nineteen was one more than Adcock's sum, which he had set on July 31st, 1954 with four home runs and a double.