Mike Moustakas topped Balboni, but can he break the KC professional home-run record?

Mike Moustakas officially holds the all-time single-season home-run record for the Royals, as he hit No. 37 on Wednesday night.

Now, Moustakas just needs to catch Bob Cerv.

Cerv, who died in April at the age of 91, hit more home runs in a Kansas City uniform than any major-league player when he clubbed 38 for the A’s in 1958.

That season was the finest Cerv had in a 12-year major-league career, and he finished fourth in the MVP voting and was the starting clean-up hitter for the American League in the All-Star Game.

The 1958 season was Cerv’s second in Kansas City, which acquired him a trade with the Yankees. In New York, he had been a part-time player. With the A’s, Cerv got the chance he craved and showed what he could do as a starting outfielder.

“I was tickled to death because I could play every day,” Cerv told the Omaha World-Herald in 2015. “And I proved to them that I could play every day.”

In fact, the Yankees traded for Cerv during the 1960 season, and he played for them in the World Series that fall when they lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Cerv won a World Series ring with the Yankees in 1956, but that 38-homer season remained his favorite.

“Kansas City, he said, was his personally most satisfying season, but he really liked playing for the Yankees and winning lots of games, too,” Cerv’s son Joe told The Star earlier this year.

This story was originally published September 21, 2017 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Mike Moustakas topped Balboni, but can he break the KC professional home-run record?."