Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Home Run |
Home RunNoun1. A base hit on which the batter scores a run. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In baseball, a home run is a base hit in which the batter is able to circle all the bases, ending at home plate and scoring a run, with no errors on the play.
Home runs are among the most popular aspects of baseball, and the biggest stars are typically the players who hit many of them.
In almost all cases, a home run involves hitting the ball over the outfield fence. Very rarely, a batter can hit the ball in play and circle all the bases before the fielders can stop him; this is called an inside-the-park home run, and typically requires that the fielder misplay the ball in some way, or that the ball is made difficult to play by caroming in unexpected ways or by getting caught in something. If the misplay is labeled an error by the official scorer, however, the batter is not credited with a home run. A grand slam home run occurs when the bases are "loaded" (that is, there are players standing on first, second, and third base) and the batter hits a home run.
Prior to 1931, a ball that bounced over an outfield fence during a Major League Baseball game was considered a home run. The rule was changed to require the ball to clear the fence on the fly, and balls which reached the seats on a bounce became ground-rule doubles in most parks.
The all-time career record for home runs in Major League Baseball is 755, held by Hank Aaron. Only three other Major League Baseball players have hit as many as 600, Babe Ruth (714), Willie Mays (660), and Barry Bonds (658). The single season record is 73, set by Barry Bonds in 2001.
Other home run legends include Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Josh Gibson and Sadaharu Oh.
Slang terms for home runs include: big-fly, bomb, dinger, blast, clout, four-bagger, homer, jack, shot, moonshot, round-tripper, swat, tater.
A game with many home runs in it can be referred to as a slugfest.
Player nicknames that describe homerun-hitting prowess include:
- The Sultan of Swat (Babe Ruth)
- Hammerin' Hank (Hank Aaron)
- Juan Gone (Juan Gonzalez)
- Downtown (Ollie Brown)
- Frank "Home Run" Baker
Progression of the Single-Season Home-Run Record
See also: List of lifetime home run leaders through history
- 5, by George Hall, Phinadelphia Athletics (NL), 1876 (70 games)
- 9, by Charley Jones in 1879
- 14, by Harry Stovey, 1883
- 27, by Ned Williamson, Chicago White Stockings (NL), 1884
- Williamson benefitted by a short outfield fence in his home ballpark. The year before and the year afterward, balls hit over that fence in that park were ground-rule doubles, but in 1884 they counted as home runs. Williamson led the pace, but several of his Chicago teammates also topped the 20 HR mark that season. Noticing the fluke involved, fans of the early 20th century were more impressed with Buck Freeman's total of 25 home runs in 1899 or Gavy Cravath's 1915 total of 24.
- 29, by Babe Ruth, Boston Red Sox (AL), 1919
- 54, by Ruth, New York Yankees (AL), 1920
- Ruth hit nearly the same number of home runs on the road in 1920 as he did in 1919, but hit far more in the Polo Grounds in New York (where the Yankees played at the time) than he did in Fenway Park in Boston the year before.
- 59, by Ruth, New York (AL), 1921
- 60, by Ruth, New York (AL), 1927
- Ruth hit more home runs in 1927 than each of the other seven American League teams. His closest rival was his teammate, Lou Gehrig, who hit 47 homers that year.
- 61, by Roger Maris, New York (AL), 1961
- Pushing Maris that year was teammate Mickey Mantle; slowed by an injury late in the season, Mantle finished with 54.
- 70, by Mark McGwire, St. Louis Cardinals (NL), 1998
- Pushing McGwire that year was Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, who finished with 66.
- 73, by Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants (NL), 2001
Home run also refers to a cable configuration where cable runs from a central location to each device individually, i.e. a Star Topology as opposed to a Daisy Chain Topology.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Home run."
Synonym: Home RunSynonym: homer (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Success | Trump card; hit, stroke, score; lucky hit, fortunate hit, good hit, good stroke; direct hit, bull's eye; goal, point, touchdown; home run, homer, hole-in-one, grand slam; killing, windfall bold stroke, master stroke; ten strike; coup de maitre, checkmate; half the battle, prize; profit; (acquisition). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Home Run |
| English words defined with "home run": homer ♦ solo blast, solo homer. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Home Run Derby (1959) Dud's Home Run (1920) Home Run Ambrose (1918) The Last Home Run (1996) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
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| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Home Run Baker. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Babe Ruth crossing the plate after making his first home run of the season today. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Bucky Harris scoring his home run in the 4th inning in the 7th game of the World Series. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Bill Clinton | 1993-2001 | From his days as our all-time home run king to his recent acts of healing, he has always brought people together. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "home run"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Hungarian | hazafutás (baseballban). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | ホーミング魚雷 (family doctor, family physician, get home, goal reached, HA, hall, Hands up!, HI, hold, Hold up!, holding, hole, hole in one, hole out, Holmes, home, home automation, home banking, home bar, home comedy, home cooking, home drama, home economics, home electronics, home freezing, home game, home ground, home helper, home improvement, home page, home plate, home reservation, home run derby, home security system, home shopping, home team, home terminal, home trade, home-directory, homemade, homemaker, homeroom, homesick, homespun, homestay, homestretch, homework, homing torpedo, horn, house dress, party, plain dress for everyday wear, platform, service that goes to clients' homes to give beauty treatments, soap opera, stealing home in baseball, wheel, wheel cap, whip, whipped cream, whistle), 本塁打 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ホームラン , ほんるいだ. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | omehay unray.(various references) | |
Russian | большая пробежка. (various references) | |
Turkish | beysbolde tur vuruşu (Homer). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-m-n-o-r-u" | |
-2 letters: enorm, heron, homer, honer, humor, mohur, mourn, rheum, rouen, rumen. | |
-3 letters: euro, herm, hern, hero, hoer, home, hone, horn, hour, meno, menu, meou, more, morn, moue, muon, mure, neum, nome, norm, omen, omer, roue, rune. | |
-4 letters: emu, eon, ern, hem, hen, her, hoe, hon, hue, hum, hun, men, mho, mon, mor, mun, noh. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-m-n-o-r-u" | |
+3 letters: neurohumor. | |
+4 letters: archegonium, churchwomen, countermyth, euchromatin, homonuclear, neurohumors, nourishment, outhomering, pneumograph. | |
+5 letters: consumership, countermarch, countermyths, euchromatins, heteronomous, housewarming, humorousness, malnourished, neurochemist, neurohormone, neurohumoral, nourishments, perionychium, pneumographs, pneumothorax, southernmost, thunderstorm, warehouseman, warehousemen. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
