600 home run club

On August 21, 1931, two years and 10 days after becoming the charter member of the 500 home run club, Babe Ruth hit his 600th career homer in a game in which his New York Yankees defeated the St. Louis Browns 11–7.

[3] Hank Aaron joined the 600 homer club on April 21, 1971, off of future fellow Hall of Famer[4] Gaylord Perry in a game in which his Atlanta Braves lost to the San Francisco Giants team that included the only other living 600 homer club member, Willie Mays.

For the following 31 years, there were only three members of the 600 home run club, all first-ballot Hall of Famers and three of the greatest legends of the game.

Some believe that by not electing Mark McGwire (583 career homers) to the Hall the voters were establishing a "referendum" on how they would treat players from the "Steroid Era".

Four members of the 600 homer club have gone on to break the 700 home run threshold: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols.

Alex Rodriguez, who was suspended for 211 games including the entire 2014 season for violating MLB policy on performance-enhancing drugs,[30] came up shy with 696 homers.

[35] Katsuya Nomura, the only other member of NPB's 600 home run club, joined Oh almost exactly a year later while with the Nankai Hawks, in the 8th inning of a May 22 game against the Nippon-Ham Fighters at Korakuen Stadium.

A man in full baseball attire wears a pinstriped jersey and a hat with overlapping white "N" and "Y". Looking to the left of the camera, he is holding a baseball bat upward.
Babe Ruth was the first player to reach 600 home runs. He set a career home run mark of 714 that stood until 1974.
An African American man in a white baseball uniform with "GIANTS" on the chest takes a left-handed baseball swing as a catcher kneels behind him to receive the pitch.
Barry Bonds (pictured here in 2006) joined the 600 home run club in 2002 and set a new career home run record of 762 in 2007.
Having joined on June 3, 2017, Albert Pujols is the most recent addition to the club.