Hank Aaron hit his 714th in at bat number 11289.

Barry Bonds hit his 714th in 9236 at bats.

Want to futz about with home run rate marks, go right ahead, HR/AB or HR/PA or HR/hotdogs eaten. Baseball statistics is a big, nay, HUGE tent, a wonderland of stupid fun. Delve in, please yourself. Different means of analysis tell us different things. And thus, we learn.

And to this post: Why are u yelling? (All caps)

One of the first arguments about stats that I ever had, and one that went on entirely too long, also concerned Ruth. Then it was HR/season. When Maris hit 61 in"61 he had the benefit of a newly lengthened a season. The widespread argument resulted in that famous asterisk being permanently affixed to Maris’ name in the record book. My argument against that said the record was for an unqualified season. You could close the book on Ruth where he would reign eternally supreme in the 154 game season. Or, and here is where I was called a heretic, you could put an asterisk next to Ruth, citing that fact.

I remember mentioning the Maris-Ruth controversy to a friend of mine for the first time during McGuire’s 70 HR season and was surprised at how strong his feelings still were. Time did not heal that wound.