A Campy Power Surge

A Campy Power Surge

By Paul Semendinger

March 2025

***

NOTE - This article was one I wrote for the IBWAA for their newsletter. This was published by the IBWAA on March 8, 2025

***

Today, when a random player has an sudden power surge, a strange and unaccounted-for increase in home runs, some immediately wonder if that player has found a new legal (or illegal) supplement that all of a sudden made that player a power-hitter.

That often isn't the case, though. Sometimes a player simply has a career year, everything goes right, or other factors beyond the player's control helped him achieve a total unforeseen by anyone.

When fans think of players with unexpected jumps in homers, they often cite some of the following:

• Brady Anderson (50 homers in 1996). His previous career high was 21. Over the previous three seasons before blasting 50 homers, Anderson averaged 14 homers each season.

  
  

• Wade Boggs (24 home runs in 1987). His previous career high was 8. Over the previous three seasons before knocking out those 24 homers, Boggs averaged 7 homers each season.

  
  

• Joe Mauer (28 homers in 2009). His previous career high was 13. Over the previous three seasons before blasting 28 homers, Mauer averaged 10 homers each season.

  
  

• Davey Johnson (43 homers in 1973). His previous career high was 18. Over the previous three seasons before clubbing 43 homers, Johnson averaged 11 homers each season.

  
  

• Jacoby Ellsbury (32 homers in 2011). His previous career high was 9. Over the previous three seasons, before crushing 32 homers, Ellsbury averaged 6 homers each season.

Baseball history is replete with examples such as these. In fact, even Roger Maris fits into this description...

Roger Maris (61 homers in 1961). His previous career high was 39. Over the previous three seasons before setting the all-time single season home run record, Maris averaged 28 homers each season.

One player, most people never think about when citing remarkable home run totals is Bert Campaneris.

When people think back at the career of Bert Campaneris, they often remember him as the shortstop on the great Oakland A's teams of the early 1970s. Campaneris was a smooth fielder who was also an adept base-stealer. Campy led the American League in stolen bases in 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, and 1972. During the Athletics’ great run, Campaneris was an All-Star each year from 1972 through 1975. He also earned Most Valuable Player votes in each of those seasons.

Known for once playing every position in a single major-league game, he performed the same feat in the minors.

Bert Campaneris is remembered for much, but of all the accomplishments he is remembered for, hitting home runs is certainly not one of them. Over his first five full major-league seasons, Campaneris hit a grand total of 20 home runs. His career season high to that point was 6.

And then, in 1970, Bert Campaneris hit 22 homers. In doing this, he more than doubled his total career output — in one season!

This power surge did not last. Campaneris never reached double figures in homers again. His next highest season total came in 1972 when he hit 8.

I was very interested in this singular season for Campaneris. I wondered if there was a reason for his prolific output of round-trippers. One answer that interested me was the fact that in 1970, Charlie Lau, who would one day be considered one of the greatest hitting coaches ever, served in that capacity for the A's that 1970 season. Should some of the credit go to Lau? Maybe.

The season before, 1969, when Campaneris hit only two home runs, the batting coach was Joe DiMaggio. The season after Campy's 22-homer season, 1971, when he hit only five home runs, the hitting coach was... no one.

According to Baseball-Reference, the A's did not have a hitting coach in 1971. In fact, Baseball-Reference doesn't list any player serving as a hitting coach for the Oakland A's after 1970 until 1983. It seems to this author that the idea of hitting instruction was handled by some or all of the coaches who also held other titles such as first base coach, third base coach or simply "coach" with no other specifics.

While it is possible, and maybe likely, that Charlie Lau played a role in Campaneris' big year with the long ball, what is also interesting is that Lau wasn't necessarily known as a coach who taught people to hit homers. Lau was a coach that taught batters how to be consistent hitters, not necessarily power threats. In fact, Lau's book on hitting is titled The Art of Hitting .300 (not How To Club Homers).

How did Campaneris find a sudden power surge? In the end, it could have just been one of those special seasons a ballplayer has.

***

Paul Semendinger, Ed.D. is the Vice President of the Elysian Fields Chapter of SABR and contributes to the IBWAA newsletter monthly. Paul has been published in three SABR books and authored several of his own, including Scattering the Ashes, The Least Among Them, Impossible is an Illusion, 365.2: Going The Distance, and From Compton to the Bronx (Roy White's autobiography). Paul's first (of three volumes) on the Battle of Gettysburg will be published by Sunbury Press in 2025. His next book on the Yankees will be published by Artemesia Publishing in February 2026. Paul frequently gives book talks, motivational speeches, and more.