Switch Hitting Sluggers

I don't want to lose my faithful readers (all 4 of you (-; ), so here's today's entry, focusing on switch-hitting sluggers. Until Mickey Mantle came along, that phrase was an oxymoron. The typical switch-hitter, both in the deadball era (pre-Ruth) and later was a slap, spray, singles and gapper hitter, a get-on-base kind of guy. I gotta do a little more research, but I wouldn't be surprised if the top career HR total for a switch-hitter pre-Mantle was no more than 150. Then the Mick came along and smashed the swith-hitter stereotype, hitting over 50 twice on his way to 536 total (he looked headed for much more until debilitating injuries and the bottle halted things a bit early). Forty years later, Mantle is still the career leader. In the 1970's, 2 ex-Cardinals, Reggie Smith and Ted Simmons, took 2nd and 3rd at the time with 314 and 248. The first one to approach Mantle's total, "Steady" Eddie Murray, did it with constistency and longevity. Today's top switch-hitting sluggers include Chipper Jones, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, and Mark Teixeira. Here's the career Top Ten:
536 Mantle
504 Murray
353 Chipper Jones (passed Davis Aug. 26)
350 Chili Davis
314 R. Smith
306 Ruben Sierra
287 Bobby Bonilla
286 Bernie Williams (about to move into 7th)
248 Ted Simmons
246 Ken Singleton (teamed with Murray several years for better tandem than Smith-Simmons)

At age 34, Jones has a shot at 500 if he can stay healthy. Berkman is coming on strong with 216 in only 7+ years. And Beltran has over 200 at age 29. Look for future entries on the lefty-righty breakdown of these switch-hitters (some's power stats are more equally distributed than others), as well as single season switch-hitting homer records.