This Week in MLB History: 3 Baseball Legends Join the 500 Home Run Club

Welcome to "This Week in Baseball History," a new feature on B/R's Horsehide Chronicles blog meant to get you up to speed on baseball trivia. The game of baseball has provided us with a ton of memories since it was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1846, and this is where those memories will be revisited.

Please note that we're defining "this week" to be within a couple days on either side of today's date.

Presently, there are 25 members in baseball's 500 Home Run Club. It just so happens that three of them joined the club right around this time of year: Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks and Rafael Palmeiro.

Here's a look back at each of the days the three of them clubbed their 500th home run, with box scores courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

May 14, 1967

By the time the 1967 season rolled around, Mickey Mantle's best days as a major leaguer were well behind him. He managed to play in just 108 games in 1966, hitting .288 with 23 home runs and 56 RBI. He missed the All-Star Game for the first time since his rookie season in 1951.

Mantle wasn't doing much better early in the 1967, as he entered the final game of a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles on May 14th, 1967 batting just .232. He was, however, just one home run away from No. 500 for his career.

The Yankees were clinging to a 5-4 lead when Mantle came up in the bottom of the seventh to face Stu Miller, who had finished 11th in the AL MVP voting in 1966.

Mantle got the better of him that day, blasting a solo home run to right field to bring his career tally to an even 500. It was his fourth on the season.

He went on to hit 22 home runs in 1967, and 18 in 1968 before calling it quits with 536 career home runs. Mantle would later hint that he could have done a lot better if he'd had a better head on his shoulders during his career.

"Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and someone else's brain, who knows how good a player I might have been," said Mantle, per Baseball-Almanac.com.

May 12, 1970

Ernie Banks wasn't quite the impact player he used to be by the the time the 1970 season rolled around, but he could still hit. In 1969, he hit 23 homers and drove in 106 runs, and was selected to play in the All-Star Game.

Banks was batting in the .240s when the Cubs hosted the Atlanta Braves on May 12, 1970, and he was due to face a tough pitcher in Pat Jarvis, who won 16 games with a sub-3.00 ERA in 1968.

Banks came to the plate in the bottom of the second with two out and nobody on, and he was looking to slice Atlanta's 2-0 lead in half. He did just that by blasting a solo home run to left, the third of his season and the 500th of his career.

He went on to hit just 12 home runs in 1970, and three more in 1971. He retired with 512 career homers. It's safe to say that he had tons of fun during his career.

"The riches of the game are in the thrills, not the money," he once said, according to Baseball-Almanac.com.

May 11, 2003

Rafael Palmeiro was in the midst of an impressive streak when the 2003 season began. In each of the eight seasons prior, he'd hit at least 38 home runs.

Palmeiro was already up to six home runs when the Rangers hosted the Cleveland Indians on May 11, 2003. The game ended up being a wild one, and the Rangers went into the bottom of the seventh with a 9-5 lead.

They proceeded to tack on a few more runs in that inning. By the time Palmeiro came to the plate to face Dave Elder, four runs were already in and two more were on board for Palmeiro.

He launched a 3-2 pitch into the seats for his seventh home run of the season, and the 500th of his career.

Palmeiro went on to hit 38 home runs once again that season, and then he moved on to a second stint with the Baltimore Orioles that lasted until 2005. He retired with 569 home runs and over 3,000 career hits.

Mantle ranks 16th on baseball's all-time home run list, and his 536 home runs are good for the most ever by a switch-hitter. Ernie Banks is tied for 21st all-time with Eddie Mathews.

Palmeiro ranks 12th all-time. If the numbers were the only thing that mattered, he'd be with Mantle and Banks in the Hall of Fame right now.

It's unclear if Palmeiro ever will get into the Hall of Fame. Voters have been tough on all players from baseball's "Steroid Era," for which Palmeiro is a key poster boy.

For all the great things he accomplished in his career, Palmeiro is best remembered as the guy who wagged his finger at Congress. Though it happened just nine years ago, his 500th home run is a distant memory.

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