30-30 club

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For information on the rifle round, see .30-30 Winchester.

Alfonso Soriano has another 30-30 season in 2005.

The 30-30 club is a grouping of Major League Baseball players who have reached the 30 stolen base and 30 home run plateaus in the same season.

The term "club" is used rather loosely, as it is generally used by sports writers and fans to group players together under a common heading. The word "club" was likely coined based on the original exclusiveness and rarity of a 30-30 season. Statistically, the 30-30 club is of note due to the pairing of power and speed - two nominal measurements usually isolated from one another. Power, in this case, is measured through the number of home runs hit during a season. Speed is measured through the amount of bases stolen in that same season. For example, a slugging first baseman would not usually accumulate high stolen base totals. Likewise, a speedy center fielder may be more adept at stealing bases, but may not supply much power. Thus, many players may be able to either steal 30 bases or hit 30 home runs, but only a rare handful may be able to do both.

The current year of 2006 featured a 30-30 season by Alfonso Soriano. He reached the mark when he stole his 30th base on August 18, 2006. Soriano had the sole 30-30 season for the second year in a row. Players who fell just short were Carl Crawford, Jimmy Rollins, Vladimir Guerrero, and Carlos Beltran.

1 Trends and Breakdown
2 30-30 Seasons
3 Notes and Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Trends and Breakdown

Recent trends show that club membership has steadily increased since the 1970s. Ken Williams was the first player to reach the mark in 1922 with 39 home runs and 37 stolen bases. He was the sole member of the club for 34 years until Willie Mays had back-to-back 30-30 seasons in 1956 and 1957. Occurrences then began to increase thereafter, as there were 2 in the 1960s, 5 (4 by Bobby Bonds) in the 1970s, 7 in the 1980s, and 20 (5 by Barry Bonds) in the 1990s. So far there has been 11 instances in this decade.

Most 30-30 seasons come from players who play the outfield, particularly left and right field. However, several center fielders have enjoyed 30-30 seasons, including Willie Mays, Dale Murphy, Eric Davis, Preston Wilson, and Carlos Beltran. The remaining breakdown is as follows: first baseman (2) (Joe Carter, Jeff Bagwell); shortstop (2) (Barry Larkin, Alex Rodriguez); third baseman (2) (Tommy Harper, Howard Johnson). The only player to record a 30-30 season at second base was Alfonso Soriano, before he moved to his current position of left field (Tommy Harper and Ron Gant had previously played 2B earlier in their careers). There has not been a 30-30 season recorded by a player who predominately plays catcher.

There have been 48 30-30 seasons by 28 different players. Barry and Bobby Bonds account for 10 of those seasons.

[edit] 30-30 Seasons

40-40 club seasons in bold.

Name	Team	Year	HR	SB
Ken Williams	St. Louis Browns	1922	39	37
Willie Mays	New York Giants	1956	36	40
Willie Mays (2)	New York Giants	1957	35	38
Hank Aaron	Milwaukee Braves	1963	44	31
Bobby Bonds	San Francisco Giants	1969	32	45
Tommy Harper	Milwaukee Brewers	1970	31	38
Bobby Bonds (2)	San Francisco Giants	1973	39	43
Bobby Bonds (3)	New York Yankees	1975	32	30
Bobby Bonds (4)	California Angels	1977	37	41
Bobby Bonds (5)	Chicago White Sox/Texas Rangers	1978	31	43
Dale Murphy	Atlanta Braves	1983	36	30
Joe Carter	Cleveland Indians	1987	32	31
Eric Davis	Cincinnati Reds	1987	37	50
Howard Johnson	New York Mets	1987	36	32
Darryl Strawberry	New York Mets	1987	39	36
José Canseco	Oakland Athletics	1988	42	40
Howard Johnson (2)	New York Mets	1989	36	41
Barry Bonds	Pittsburgh Pirates	1990	33	52
Ron Gant	Atlanta Braves	1990	32	33
Ron Gant (2)	Atlanta Braves	1991	32	34
Howard Johnson (3)	New York Mets	1991	38	30
Barry Bonds (2)	Pittsburgh Pirates	1992	34	39
Sammy Sosa	Chicago Cubs	1993	36	33
Barry Bonds (3)	San Francisco Giants	1995	33	31
Sammy Sosa (2)	Chicago Cubs	1995	36	34
Dante Bichette	Colorado Rockies	1996	31	31
Barry Bonds (4)	San Francisco Giants	1996	42	40
Ellis Burks	Colorado Rockies	1996	40	32
Barry Larkin	Cincinnati Reds	1996	33	36
Jeff Bagwell	Houston Astros	1997	43	31
Barry Bonds (5)	San Francisco Giants	1997	40	37
Raul Mondesi	Los Angeles Dodgers	1997	30	32
Larry Walker	Colorado Rockies	1997	49	33
Shawn Green	Toronto Blue Jays	1998	35	35
Alex Rodriguez	Seattle Mariners	1998	42	46
Jeff Bagwell (2)	Houston Astros	1999	42	30
Raul Mondesi (2)	Los Angeles Dodgers	1999	33	36
Preston Wilson	Florida Marlins	2000	31	36
Bobby Abreu	Philadelphia Phillies	2001	31	36
Jose Cruz, Jr.	Toronto Blue Jays	2001	34	32
Vladimir Guerrero	Montreal Expos	2001	37	37
Vladimir Guerrero (2)	Montreal Expos	2002	39	40
Alfonso Soriano	New York Yankees	2002	39	41
Alfonso Soriano (2)	New York Yankees	2003	38	35
Bobby Abreu (2)	Philadelphia Phillies	2004	30	40
Carlos Beltran	Kansas City Royals/Houston Astros	2004	38	42
Alfonso Soriano (3)	Texas Rangers	2005	36	30
Alfonso Soriano (4)	Washington Nationals	2006	46	41

[edit] Notes and Trivia

A 20-20 season (20 home runs and 20 stolen bases) is also of note, however it is much more common. A 20-20 season is usually noticed on a local level by sports writers or team officials, especially if the player is a second baseman or catcher. The first and only 20-20 season by a catcher was attained by Ivan Rodriguez in 1999 with 35 home runs and 25 stolen bases.
There have been three seasons in which four separate players recorded 30-30 seasons. The first was 1987 (Joe Carter, Eric Davis, Howard Johnson, and Darryl Strawberry). The second was 1996 (Dante Bichette, Barry Bonds, Ellis Burks, and Barry Larkin). The last occurrence was in 1997 (Jeff Bagwell, Bonds, Raul Mondesi, and Larry Walker). The last time a player did not record a 30-30 season was 1994 - the season shortended by the player's strike. The closest player was Barry Bonds, who finished with 37 home runs and 29 stolen bases (112 games), while Sammy Sosa had a shot with 25 home runs and 22 steals (105 games). During the shortened 1981 season, Andre Dawson finished with 24 home runs and 26 steals in 103 games. The last full season without a 30-30 player was 1986.
The players with the most 30-30 seasons are Bobby Bonds and his son Barry with 5 each. The only other players with more than 2 are Alfonso Soriano with 4, and Howard Johnson with 3. Players with two 30-30 seasons: Willie Mays, Ron Gant, Sammy Sosa, Jeff Bagwell, Raul Mondesi, Vladimir Guerrero, and Bobby Abreu.
The rarer 30-40 season has been repeated only by Bobby Bonds (4), Barry Bonds (2), and Alfonso Soriano (2), the 40-30 season only by Barry Bonds (2) and Jeff Bagwell (2), and only Barry Bonds and Alfonso Soriano have had at least one 40-30 and one 30-40 season. There have been only two 30-50 seasons (Eric Davis and Barry Bonds), and no 50-30 seasons. For more elite seasons, see the 40-40 club.
The 30-30 season has only been accomplished by two players on the same team during the same season twice: the New York Mets in 1987 and the Colorado Rockies in 1996.
Many players have narrowly missed joining the 30-30 club for a number of reasons ranging from not enough home runs, not enough stolen bases, or not combining power and speed in a single season. This includes MVPs Rogers Hornsby, Mike Schmidt (1975), Joe Morgan (1976), Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Don Baylor, Robin Yount, Andre Dawson (1982), Kirk Gibson (1984-1986), Ryne Sandberg (1984, 1990), Rickey Henderson (1986, 1990), and Ken Griffey Jr.. The list of players who have not had a 30-30 season maintains the prestige of the current 30-30 club; although the club is a poor measure of career success.
There is a nightclub in Manhattan, New York with the name "Club 30-30", however this name is presumed to be based on the address (which is 30-30), and not the grouping of baseball players. The rapper/CEO Jay-Z owns a nightclub named "The 40-40 Club", also located in Manhattan. The name is based on the 40-40 club, implying a sense of prestige and exclusiveness [1].