40-40 club

The 40-40 club is a term coined by sportswriters to distinguish Major League Baseball players who accumulate a total of both 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season.

Becoming a member of the 40-40 club is an elusive achievement in modern American baseball, as players who possess either the power to hit 40 home runs or the speed to steal 40 bases in a season are themselves rare. This remains true even as statistical trends change in baseball — stolen base totals in the 1980s were unusually high, but very few players reached 40 home runs; home run totals were extremely high in the late 1990s, but stolen bases became more rare as the steal was a sparingly used tactic.

Only four players in history have achieved the requisite numbers for the 40-40 club, and none have done so more than once.