There are 25 players who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season, and they have combined to accomplish the feat on 41 different occasions.
While hitting 50 home runs in a season is certainly more common now than it traditionally has been throughout baseball history, it is still a rare feat nonetheless.
But imagine for a moment being one of the 17 players who have hit 49 home runs in a season, like Andre Dawson, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next month.
If these guys had played 155 games instead of 154, or played one more game in a hitter-friendly park, or perhaps even batted one spot higher in the batting order that day they watched the game end from the on-deck circle, they would have joined the 50 Home Run Club.
Instead, they are forever linked to one another by the one swing of the bat that kept them from immortality.