Joe Bauman, 83; Set Home Run Record That Lasted 47 Years

Joe Bauman, 83, whose 72 minor-league home runs in 1954 stood as a professional baseball record until Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001, died Tuesday in Roswell, N.M., where he played for the Roswell Rockets of the Longhorn League during the 1950s.

He succumbed to pneumonia, a complication from an Aug. 11 fall during a ceremony to rename the old Fair Park as Joe Bauman Stadium.

He broke his pelvis in the fall and remained hospitalized until his death.

Bauman, a left-handed first baseman, had his record season at age 32, when he also hit .400 over 138 games.

His single-season home run record lasted 47 years, but Bauman’s feat wasn’t widely heralded because it happened in the minors.

“I never thought it’d last this long, to be honest,” Bauman said in 2001. “I was watching on TV when Barry Bonds hit that last one. It didn’t bother me or anything. I just thought, ‘There goes my record.’ ”