September 22, 2009

Sluggers Vie for Homer Throne

The eleventh season of 23Mattingly23 will feature two aging sluggers chasing a power benchmark reached by only one other in league history. Cleveland’s Mac Hogan and Rochester’s Ken Sullivan look to join Bombers’ masher Albert O’Neill as the only players with 500 career homeruns, and each man should gain entrance into the prestigious club by the end of the season’s first month.

Hogan, 34, has amassed 491 homers in nine major league seasons for the Dobys; including 56 homers during his Rookie of the Year campaign in season one, and a career-best 60 homers enroute to winning his first MVP award in season four. Even though the venerable Hogan has seen a decline in his power output over the past three seasons, surpassing 40 homeruns only once, yet he could vie for the all-time homerun crown by the end of his illustrious career.

At 33-years-old, Sullivan looks like the heir-apparent to O’Neill’s homerun king crown and holds a slight advantage over Hogan with 495 career homers. In his first season in Rochester Sullivan saw a sharp decline in his homerun total, posting a career-low 35 homeruns and failing to drive in 100 runs since his rookie year. Entering his 11th pro season and coming off of a season in which he played in only 130 games, Sullivan needs to stay on the field if he has any hope of retiring as long ball king.

No comments: