List of Barry Bonds' 73 home runs during the 2001 season

Three years after Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire broke the home run record set by Roger Maris in 1961, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the new home run king in 2001. Bonds also set new records for slugging percentage (.863), walks (171). Bonds averaged his record breaking home runs in 6.52 at bats per home run.

Barry Bonds was the fastest to 70 Home Runs in one season. Bonds achieved the feat in 159 games, whereas Mark McGwire achieved the feat in 162 games in 1998. The record breaking 71st Home Run came off of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park on October 5. The 73rd and final home run of Bonds’ 2001 season was on October 7 versus the Dodgers. The pitcher was Dennis Springer and the home run was hit at Pacific Bell Park. The home run went to left centerfield and the situation was a 1-1 count with no one on base.

Bonds broke his own personal record with one-hundred thirty-one runs batted in and finished the season with a .328 batting average. His on base percentage (.515), the best in the National League since John McGraw in 1900. Bonds not only became the oldest player to lead a league in home runs but he managed to become the oldest player to reach the fifty, sixty, and seventy home run plateaus.

The 73rd Home Run Ball created its own set of controversies. Alex Popov, the owner of a Berkeley, California, health food restaurant, claims he was the first to get a glove on the ball. Popov claimed in an Oct. 24, 2001, lawsuit that the historic horsehide was torn from his mitt by Patrick Hayashi, who emerged from a scrum of fans with the ball in hand. Hayashi, a software engineer from Sacramento, said he found No. 73 rolling free in the minute-long melee. In December 2002, a San Francisco judge ordered the two men to sell the ball and split the proceeds. The result was comic book creator and film producer Todd McFarlane purchasing the ball for $450,000 in an auction for the home run ball on Wednesday, June 25. McFarlane's purchase was televised live on ESPN from the network's ESPNZone bar and restaurant in Times Square. Sal Durante who caught Roger Maris’ 61st Home Run ball was a guest at the auction.

References

• 2001 San Francisco Giants team page at Baseball Reference
• 2001 San Francisco Giants team page at Baseball Almanac
• Barry Bonds 73 Home Runs on Baseball Almanac

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