By Eddie Gold*

    George Herman Ruth in his heyday was known as the Sultan of Swat. If the Babe were around today, he might be the Shah of Slam or possibly the Ayatollah of Assault. Anyway, when it comes to Home Runs by Decades, the Ruth is mighty and still prevails.

    Ruth hit 467 of his 714 homers during the 1920s, easily the top mark for any decade. He outdistanced runner-up Rogers Hornsby in the 1920s by 217 homers. In contrast, Hank Aaron, the all-time home run leader with 755, was never the top man in any decade. He came close in the 1960s, finishing second to Harmon Killebrew, 393 to 375. Roger Mans, whose 61 homers in 1961 topped Ruth's season total by an asterisk, could do no better than 14th place in the 1960s with his 217 total.

    The all-time leaders by decades are Harry Stovey (1880s), Hugh Duffy (l890s), Harry Davis (1900s), Gavvy Cravath (1910s), Ruth (1920s), Jimmie Foxx (1930s), Ted Williams (1940s), Duke Snider (1950s), Killebrew (1960s), and Willie Stargell (1970s). The tightest race was in the recently concluded decade where Stargell had 296, Reggie Jackson 292, and Johnny Bench 290. Rounding out the top ten were Bobby Bonds 280, Lee May 270, Dave Kingman and Graig Nettles 252, Mike Schmidt (who has the best start for the 1980s) 235, Tony Perez 226, and Reggie Smith 225.

    Harry Stovey hit 91 roundtrippers in the 1880s with a season high of 19 for Philadelphia of the American Association in 1889. But home runs weren't his big schtick. He was the first player to wear sliding pads and is best known for his base stealing.

    Hugh Duffy, with 85 fourbaggers in the 1890s, edged Ed Delahanty by six. His best season was in 1894 when he hit 18, to go with a record .438 batting average. Roger Connor, the 19th century's top slugger with 138 home runs, could do no better than sixth in the 1880s and fifth in the 1890s.

    The 1900s were the heyday of the dead-ball era, and Davis' 67 homers were the best of a poor bunch. The A's first baseman enjoyed his best season in 1906 when he hit a dozen fourbaggers.

    The teens produced the first one-two homer punch, Cravath and Fred Luderus of the Philadelphia Phihies. Cravath hit 116 of his 119 career total, while Luderus hit 83 of his 84 lifetime homers. Luckily for Cravath and Luderus, Ruth was still a pitcher with the Boston Red Sox. The Babe was switched to the outfield in 1919 and hit a record 29 homers. But his total for that decade was only 49, placing him 11th.

     Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees the following season and averaged 46.7 homers during the Roaring Twenties. The only other slugger to average more than 40 homers was Foxx the following decade with a 41.5 mark. Ruth played only a half decade during the 1930s, but still managed to finish eighth with 198 homers to Foxx' 415.

     Home run production tumbled during the war-torn 1940s as Ted Williams led with 234 despite spending one/third of the decade in military service. In fact, seven of the top ten served in the armed forces.

     Williams hit 227 homers the following decade, only seven fewer than in the 1940s, but couldn't break into the top ten. The Brooklyn Dodgers' duo of Snider (326) and Gil Hodges (310) finished one-two during the 1950s. Roy Campanella hit 211 to give the Dodgers three 200-plus homer hitters, but Campy could place only 14th in that competitive decade.

     There were 18 players with 200 or more homers during the 1960s, with five - Killebrew, Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson and Willie McCovey - reaching 300. The Chicago Cubs had three stars with 200 homers in that decade, the well-bunched trio of Ernie Banks, 269, Ron Santo, 253, and Billy Williams, 249.

     Seven players appeared in the top ten for successive decades. They were Connor and Sam Thompson in the 1880s and 1890s, Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the l920s and 1930s, and Mays, Banks and Mantle in the l950s and l960s.

     Following is the list for the top ten in each decade. It includes homers for that decade, lifetime homers and percentage of career homers for that 10-year span:

HOME RUN LEADERS BY DECADES

*Assisted by John Tattersall