Kansas City Royals: Top all-time home run hitters
By Joel Wagler
Kansas City Royals. Mike Sweeney. 2. player. 7. . 1B/DH
Kansas City Royals all-time run leaders: 2. Mike Sweeney (197)
Memories sometimes fail, but who realized Mike Sweeney played for the Kansas City Royals for 13 seasons? In hindsight, it didn’t seem that long, but Sweeney was a productive hitter for a long time.
Part of this is because for nearly half of his career, Sweeney played less than 100 games, and he only played in 106 and 108 in two other seasons.
In his 13 years with the Kansas City Royals, he only played in more than 125 games five times, and in under 110 games eight times.
For one seven-year stretch, though, Mike Sweeney was as good as any Royal has even been over a long time period. In those seven seasons, from 1999 through 2005, Sweeney had a beautiful slash of .313/.383/.521/.905 in 918 games.
He hit more than 20 home runs in six of those seasons, topping out at 29 in both 2000 and 2001. He averaged 97 RBI, including a whopping 144 in 2000. Sweeney was also a five-time All-Star during this stretch.
There is little doubt the Mike Sweeney is one of the all-time greatest Kansas City Royals, and he sits second on the list of franchise home run hitters.