Mel Ott, along with Bobby Orr, Ernie Els and Brian Eno, is a core member of the Hall of Fame of Crossword Puzzle Answers. The Polo Grounds had one of the most evocative names for a ballpark in all of baseball history. Together, Ott and the Polo Grounds (which was a ten- or fifteen-minute walk from Yankee Stadium) produced the greatest combination of home run hitter and home park that the major leagues has ever seen. The stats to prove it are after the jump.
Here is a list of the most home runs hit by a player at any particular park. In most cases, all were hit by the slugger in question as a home team player, but there are some cases where a small number of the player’s homers listed here occurred while playing for the visiting team.
1. Mel Ott, 323 homers at the Polo Grounds
2. Sammy Sosa, 293 homers at Wrigley Field
3. Ernie Banks, 290 homers at Wrigley Field
4. Mickey Mantle, 266 homers at Yankee Stadium
5. Mike Schmidt, 265 homers at Veterans Stadium
6. Frank Thomas, 263 homers at US Cellular Field/New Comiskey Park
7. Babe Ruth, 259 homers at Yankee Stadium
8. Stan Musial, 253 homers at Sportsman’s Park/Busch Stadium
9. Lou Gehrig, 251 homers at Yankee Stadium
10. Ted Williams, 248 homers at Fenway Park
11. Carl Yastrzemski, 237 homers at Fenway Park
12. Willie McCovey, 236 homers at Candlestick Park
13. Paul Konerko, 235 homers at US Cellular Field/New Comiskey Park
14. Billy Williams, 231 homers at Wrigley Field
15. Al Kaline, 226 homers at Tiger Stadium
16. Harmon Killebrew, 224 homers at Metropolitan Stadium
17. Chipper Jones, 216 homers at Turner Field
T18. Todd Helton, 212 homers at Coors Field
T18. Norm Cash, 212 homers at Tigers Stadium
T18. Ron Santo, 212 homers at Wrigley Field
21. Eddie Mathews 211 homers at Milwaukee County Stadium
22. Yogi Berra, 210 homers at Yankee Stadium
23. Jim Rice, 208 homers at Fenway Park
24. Dale Murphy, 205 homers at Fulton County Stadium
25. Willie Mays, 203 homers at Candlestick Park
Mel Ott had 323 homers in his home games and 188 homers in his away games. That’s 135 more homers at home than on the road. I believe the only other player in MLB history to have over 100 more homers at home than on the road is Frank Thomas. The Big Hurt had 312 total homers in home games and 209 in away games, for a net home over road number of 103. I believe, although I’m not positive with respect to possible pre-1919 players, that Joe DiMaggio had the largest net road-game homer over home-game homer number (213 road, 148 home, for a net of 65).