The Tall and the Beautiful

I love baseball. I love everything about it. Just mention the word "baseball" around me, and I smile like a five-year-old getting money from a grandparent. I especially love baseball trivia, though. But as I have mentioned before, there is a lot about baseball I don't know. So when my good friend sent me an email with a baseball question, I was giddy. Then I read it and realized I was going to get it wrong.
The question was: Who are the only four switch-hitters in major league history with as many as eight seasons with 25 or more home runs? This is a pretty extraordinary feat. Switch-hitting, meaning you can hit from both sides of the plate, is not that common. Maybe every team has one or two swith-hitters throughout a season of play, but rarely do these players hit for much power from either one or both sides.
However, I do know something about the game of baseball, so I knew one of them had to be Yankee legend Mickey Mantle. The man could mash obviously, but he did it from both sides of the plate. Mantle actually hit over 25 homeruns for nine years in a row, from 1954 until 1962, and had a totally of ten years of at least 25 dingers. He hit 373 HRs right-handed and 163 HRs left-handed. But sadly, that is where my correctness ended.
My second guess was current Yankee first-baseman Mark Teixiera. I knew Mark was a switch-hitter, and that he has a great power bat, so I took a chance and guessed he's had eight seasons of 25 or more HRs. But I was off by one. He has had only seven so far, but could eventually join this prestigious club, and soon. Tex is off to an obismal beginning to this season, but he is notorious like B.I.G. for having slow starts. I have no doubt that Tex will join this club sooner rather than later.
So I was one for two so far, but I had no idea who else could've been in this group. I'll admit that I didn't think too long or hard about it, but I knew I didn't know the answer. I figured the players I missed were from a much earlier time, and probably people I hadn't learned about yet. But, again, I was wrong. Two other members of this illustrious quartet are still playing today, which made me feel even more dumb. Yes, more dumb.
Larry "Chipper" Jones, third-baseman for the Atlanta Braves has 428 career homeruns thus far, and he is a swith-hitter. Now, Chipper has never had 25 or more homeruns in eight straight seasons, but that's not what the questions asked. Like Mantle, Jones has had ten seasons of 25 or more. I should've known this one because Jones is often the scourge of the New York Mets, and I've been privvy to Larry smacking my team around for almost two decades now. But alas, this vital information escaped me when I needed it.
Lance Berkman, is also a switch-hitter, which I know. But I never would've guessed he was part of this club, mainly because he's always injured. That is more of a recent occurence with Berkman, though, but it clouded my better judgement nonetheless. And despite injuries, Fat Elvis still hit 25 last year in 2009. He has two years of just 25 homers, and meets the minium with 8 years, but he's on there, and that's no small achievement. If Berkman can stay healthy for a few more years, he's likely to had to these numbers considerably.
The fourth and final member of this group, I never would've guessed. He came from a time before my current player knowledge, and undeservedly fades into the background of some of the great names of the recent past. Eddie Murray, leads all members of this club with 12 seasons of 25 or more homeruns. The 1977 Rookie of the Year was a staple of Baltimore Oriole greatness, pounding the ball alongside Cal Ripken Jr. Steady Eddie, maybe one of the most accurate nicknames of all time, was a consistent hitter, day-in, and day-out. Sidenote, Eddie Murray only wore the number 33 while playing for five different teams.
Just so you know, this friend that sent the trivia my way, missed only Chipper Jones. I, on the other hand, batted a meager .250 on this question, getting only one right answer. If Teixiera gets 25 this year, I'll at least be 2 for 5 then. That's a little more respectable. And speaking of this friend, I now own one of his distant relatives. Let me explain.
I get a lot of information off of www.baseball-reference.com, as you can tell. And each player has a page that you can sponsor. After careful deliberation, I decided to sponsor the page of Joe Altobelli. The other Joltin' Joe wasn't too Joltin' though. He played only 166 games for both the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins.
Joe Altobelli was a great manager, though. As a minor league coach, his teams went a combined 870-670 over 12 years, including 4 league titles. In the major leagues he managed the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles and even the Chicago Cubs for one game. His most crowning achievement though came in 1983, when he led the Orioles to a World Series title. If you don't believe me, go take a look, and enjoy the rest of the site while you're at it. And then come on back here, so we can have more good times. Dy-no-mite!