Roger Connor
Connor held the home run record for 23 years before Babe Ruth came along, finishing with 138 dingers in an era when most hitters were slapping singles. His .316 career average over 18 seasons tells the story of baseball's first true power hitter — a man who could both turn on a fastball and spray line drives to all fields.
The numbers become even more impressive when you consider the dead-ball context. Connor's 138 homers represented genuine tape-measure shots in ballparks with cavernous dimensions, not cheapies down the foul lines. He drove in 1,323 runs while playing first base for teams that often struggled to score.
That 23-year reign atop the home run leaderboard wasn't broken until Ruth's explosion changed baseball forever. Connor bridged the gap between baseball's primitive beginnings and its modern era, showing that raw power could coexist with contact hitting long before anyone dreamed of launch angles.
Career · Batting
18 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | TRN | 83 | 340 | 3 | 47 | .332 | — | — |
| 1881 | TRN | 85 | 367 | 2 | 31 | .292 | — | — |
| 1882 | TRN | 81 | 349 | 4 | 42 | .330 | — | — |
| 1883 | NY1 | 98 | 409 | 1 | 50 | .357 | — | — |
| 1884 | NY1 | 116 | 477 | 4 | 82 | .317 | — | — |
| 1885 | NY1 | 110 | 455 | 1 | 65 | .371 | — | — |
| 1886 | NY1 | 118 | 485 | 7 | 71 | .355 | — | — |
| 1887 | NY1 | 127 | 471 | 17 | 104 | .285 | — | — |
| 1888 | NY1 | 134 | 481 | 14 | 71 | .291 | — | — |
| 1889 | NY1 | 131 | 496 | 13 | 130 | .317 | — | — |
| 1890 | NYP | 123 | 484 | 14 | 103 | .349 | — | — |
| 1891 | NY1 | 129 | 479 | 7 | 94 | .290 | — | — |
| 1892 | PHI | 155 | 564 | 12 | 73 | .294 | — | — |
| 1893 | NY1 | 135 | 511 | 11 | 105 | .305 | — | — |
| 1894 | STL | 121 | 462 | 8 | 93 | .316 | — | — |
| 1895 | STL | 104 | 401 | 8 | 78 | .327 | — | — |
| 1896 | STL | 126 | 483 | 11 | 72 | .284 | — | — |
| 1897 | STL | 22 | 83 | 1 | 12 | .229 | — | — |
| Career | 1998 | 7797 | 138 | 1323 | .316 | — | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.