Book excerpt: Who was the greatest home run hitter of all time? Babe Ruth? Henry Aaron? Willie Mays? Mickey Mantle? How about Negro Leaguers such as Josh Gibson or Norman Turkey Stearnes? Or minor league sluggers such as Joe Bauman who hit 72 four-baggers in 1954? And where does Sadaharu Oh and his 868 homers in the Japanese Central League fit in? Using statistical comparisons and accounting for the variances between players of different eras and levels of competition, this work provides the answer to the question of the greatest home run hitter of all time. The minors, Japanese, Negro and major leagues--both the deadball and lively ball eras--are fully analyzed. The home run hitting careers of the candidates in each league are first compared against other top sluggers in their own league, accounting for such differences as level of competition, size of ballparks, altitude in which the player played most of his games, night baseball and major league expansion. Players from different leagues are then compared to find the one player who stands out as the greatest home run hitter in the game's history. And the answer might surprise you.