40-40 club
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The 40-40 club is a term coined by sportswriters to distinguish Major League Baseball players who accumulate a total of both 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season.
Becoming a member of the 40-40 club is one of the most elusive achievements in modern American sports, as players who possess either the power to hit 40 home runs or the speed to steal 40 bases in a season are a rarity in and of themselves. This remains true even as statistical trends change in baseball; stolen base totals in the 1980s were unusually high, but very few players reached 40 home runs, and home run totals were extremely high in the late 1990s, but stolen bases became more and more rare as the steal became a much more sparingly used tactic.
As such, only three players in history can claim membership in the 40-40 club. They are:
- Jose Canseco, 42 home runs and 40 stolen bases in 1988
- Barry Bonds, 42 home runs and 40 stolen bases in 1996
- Alex Rodriguez, 42 home runs and 46 stolen bases in 1998
Bonds also had a near-miss 40-40 season in 1997, hitting 40 home runs and stealing 37 bases. His father Bobby Bonds was one home run away from being the founding member of the club in 1973 with 39 home runs and 43 stolen bases.
Members of the 40-40 club are already members of the 30-30 club.
Rapper Jay-Z named his sports bar in Manhattan after this exclusive club.