Home Run Proficiency 1961: a bad year for the Babe.

Rk	Player	HR	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Roger Maris	61	1961	26	NYY	AL	161	698	590	132	159	16	4	141	94	0	67	7	0	7	16	0	0	.269	.372	.620	.993	*98
2	Mickey Mantle	54	1961	29	NYY	AL	153	646	514	131	163	16	6	128	126	9	112	0	1	5	2	12	1	.317	.448	.687	1.135	*8
3	Harmon Killebrew	46	1961	25	MIN	AL	150	656	541	94	156	20	7	122	107	6	109	3	0	5	11	1	2	.288	.405	.606	1.012	*35/7
4	Orlando Cepeda	46	1961	23	SFG	NL	152	637	585	105	182	28	4	142	39	11	91	9	0	3	21	12	8	.311	.362	.609	.970	*379
5	Jim Gentile	46	1961	27	BAL	AL	148	601	486	96	147	25	2	141	96	5	106	11	0	8	12	1	1	.302	.423	.646	1.069	*3
6	Rocky Colavito	45	1961	27	DET	AL	163	708	583	129	169	30	2	140	113	2	75	2	2	8	14	1	2	.290	.402	.580	.982	*79
7	Norm Cash	41	1961	26	DET	AL	159	673	535	119	193	22	8	132	124	19	85	9	2	2	16	11	5	.361	.487	.662	1.148	*3
8	Willie Mays	40	1961	30	SFG	NL	154	659	572	129	176	32	3	123	81	15	77	2	0	4	14	18	9	.308	.393	.584	.977	*8
9	Frank Robinson	37	1961	25	CIN	NL	153	635	545	117	176	32	7	124	71	23	64	10	0	10	15	22	3	.323	.404	.611	1.015	*97/85
10	Joe Adcock	35	1961	33	MLN	NL	152	629	562	77	160	20	0	108	59	4	94	2	4	2	22	2	1	.285	.354	.507	.861	*3
11	Dick Stuart	35	1961	28	PIT	NL	138	576	532	83	160	28	8	117	34	1	121	4	1	5	22	0	3	.301	.344	.581	.925	*3/7

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 1/1/2013.

Eleven batters hit at least 35 home runs (HR) in 1961, eight hit at least 40.  Of those eight, six played the new 162 game schedule in the American League (AL) and two, both Giants, played the final 154 game schedule in the National League (NL).  This post will concentrate on the AL HR hitters but the others are included for context.  See these posts for some background.

Monday, December 10, 2012
40 HR per year: batter count / team count.

It contains a count of the number of batters who hit at least 40 home runs (HR) in a season and the number of American and National teams in that season.  The number of players is divided by the number of teams and represented as a percentage: the count of 40 HR batters relative to the number of teams...

A record was set in 1961 (44%) that was not broken until the current record was set in 1996 (61%).  The 1961 number was also exceeded in these seasons: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000.  2001 was close: 40%.
_______________________________

Thursday, December 13, 2012
Home Run Proficiency relative to League.

Criteria: HR >= 35 and (AB/HR) < 12.  That produced 116 seasons...

(P-(L-P))/((L-P)
In this equation each letter represents (HR/AB) for either the player or the league minus the player.  The result is the number of times the player's HR rate is better than all the other batters in that league that season.
_______________________________

Click this link to see Home Run Proficiency data and graph.

Among the HR leaders only Mantle, Maris, Gentile and Killebrew, in that order, met the AB/HR < 12 criteria.  Here are all eleven with their 1961 HR proficiency rating.  Mantle and Maris were each about 2.8 times more proficient than all the other batters in 1961.

Name X
Mantle 2.8609
Maris 2.8123
Gentile 2.4615
Killebrew 2.1064
Cepeda 1.8405
Colavito 1.8159
Cash 1.7908
Mays 1.5139
Robinson 1.4358
Stuart 1.3571
Adcock 1.2297

Among those hitting 40 HR only Killebrew and Mays did not have career highs.  Mays exceeded 40 HR multiple times before and after 1961, including 51 in 1955 and 52 in 1965.  Killebrew exceeded 46 three times later in his career.

1961 was the only season in which these players reached 40 HR: Maris, Gentile, Cash and Cepeda.  Gentile, Cash and Cepeda reached their second highest in 1962: 33, 39 and 35 respectively.  Maris had hit 39 in 1960.

Gentile led the AL with 141 RBI.  Cash had 132 RBI.  1961 was the only 100 RBI season for each.

Cash led AL in batting average: .361.  Second highest: 1960 .286.

Colavito had tied Killebrew for most HR in 1959 with 42 and finished second to Mantle in 1958 with 41.  Six times he had at least 100 RBI but his 140 in 1961 was his best by 27.

However, only three of the eight, including Maris, had their best HR proficiency in 1961.  Here are their best such seasons and where 1961 ranks in their careers.

1961 rank
Mantle 1956 2.9553 2
Cash 1971 2.1297 3
Cepeda 1961 1.8405 1
Colavito 1958 2.3996 3
Gentile 1961 2.4615 1
Killebrew 1967 2.7416 6
Maris 1961 2.8123 1
Mays 1965 3.0352 9

1961 was a good year for home run hitting, especially for Roger Maris who broke the single season home run record of 60 set by Babe Ruth in 1927.  In the World Series that year Yankee southpaw Whitey Ford also broke Ruth's record for consecutive shutout innings pitched in the World Series.  Ford's response when this was mentioned to him: "It was a bad year for the Babe".