Some years ago I got interested in the question(s) of who holds the records for most home runs in an n-year period (for positive integers n). As a result, it's something that I track every year, updating the tables as necessary after the regular season is over. As it turns out, the list didn't change this year -- it hasn't changed since 2007, which was Barry Bonds' last season. I attribute that fact to the end of the steroid era.
Anyway, the list (as shown in the accompanying chart) contains four players. What's interesting is that three of those players are from the steroid era. The other is Babe Ruth. When Ruth retired, he held the record for every span. In fact, as of 1921 he held the record for every span. That lasted until 1961, when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs to take the 1-year span. Maris, by the way, would stay on the list until 1998, when Mark McGwire eclipsed him with 70. Anyway, after 1961, the list stayed the same until 1973, when Hank Aaron set the record for home runs in a 20-year span (713). The next year, Aaron would grab the records for all spans longer than 20 years. And things were atble after that until 1998 when McGwire entered the list. THere ensued a ten-year span in which Sammy Sosa and Bonds would enter the list. But since 2007, things have stayed the same, which is what we have now.
One other note: I realize (since it was pointed out to me) that proper form would have me link to the file in which I did this analysis. Auditability and all that folderol. Maybe when I get better at using services like DropBox I'll start doing that.
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