Home run numbers have totally lost their mystique in the Selig Era

There is never a time -- never a time -- when I look at Sammy Sosa's page on Baseball-Reference.com and do not come away with a shock. Sure, I know this stuff. I KNOW Sosa beat Roger Maris' famed 61-homers-in-a-season three times in his career (as many as Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds combined). Three times.

I KNOW he hit 609 home runs in his career (man, 600 home runs; even as I type the words, they shock). I KNOW that from 1996 through 2003 -- just eight seasons -- he hit more home runs than Jim Rice, Dale Murphy, Al Kaline, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Rogers Hornsby and a bunch of other Hall of Famers hit during their entire careers.

In fact, he hit more home runs in those eight seasons (408 homers) than Babe Ruth did in his best eight-year stretch (367, 1920-27). More than Barry Bonds hit in his best eight-year stretch (369, 1997-2004). More than Mark McGwire's best stretch (354) or Jimmie Foxx's (348), or Mickey Mantle's (320), or Willie Mays' (303), or Ralph Kiner's (329), or Jim Thome's (330) or well, anyone else's.

I KNOW these things, but they jolt me a bit every time. Sammy Sosa's career is a perpetual surprise, sort of like how watching the movie This is Spinal Tap always gives me a line I never quite noticed before. It's a strange thing, I never look at a United States map and think, "Holy cow, I didn't realize that New York was east of Chicago." But I always look at Sammy Sosa's career numbers and think, "I cannot believe the guy hit more than 60 home runs THREE times."*

*Five other baseball players whose numbers constantly surprise me:

1. Joe Sewell: In his long career, he struck out 114 times. That's his WHOLE CAREER. His walk-to-strikeout ratio is 842-114, and in 1925, when he had 699 plate appearances, he struck out four times.

2. Ted Kluszewski: Since 1950, there have been only three seasons where a player hit 40-plus homers while striking out fewer than 40 times. Those three seasons were all by Big Klu. As an aside to an aside, he was famed for his big arms -- he would walk around with rolled up sleeves -- and when he was the hitting coach for the Big Red Machine, he would walk up to people, flex his arm and ask the riddle: "Do you know what this is?" The answer: "A Polish joke stopper."

3. Nolan Ryan: From 1971 through 1981, Ryan led the league in strikeouts seven times. He led the league in fewest hits per nine innings seven times. But he led the league in WALKS eight times and his record was only 176-148.

4. Gaylord Perry: From 1969 through 1975, he threw 300-plus innings every year but one. The amazing part isn't that he threw the spitball. The amazing part is that his arm stayed attached.

5. Stan Musial: His stats page is just a symphony of numbers -- the man led the league in every single thing except homers and stolen bases. In his most famous year, 1948, he finished second in home runs and led the league in hits, doubles, triples, runs, RBIs, total bases, extra base hits, runs created, OPS+, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, an amazing achievement. But here's something just as amazing: He led the league in EVERY ONE OF THOSE CATEGORIES at least one other time in his career.