The year was 2017. The date, September 20th. The record that had stood for over 30 seasons was finally broken by fan favorite Mike Moustakas. The Royals had a new home run king.
Moose struggled in September that year. Having hit number 36 to tie Balboni’s record on September 1st, the following 15 games he played in he slashed an abysmal .234/.315/.298 for a 61 wRC+ (a state where 100 is league average and more is better). There was little doubt he’d manage to get another one out of the park before the end of the season (October 1st that year) but there was some mild grumbling in the comments section here on RR, and a bit in the media when such a long time passed between homers that maybe, just maybe it would not be broken.