The World Series begins on Friday, and during the coverage I expect to be bombarded with lots of statistics regarding postseason records. Before the graphics start to hit the screen, I implore all fans to remember that Mickey Mantle hit 18 postseason home runs, and he hit every one of them in the World Series.

I really get tired of seeing the list of players with the most postseason home runs because they usually only show the totals of the top five players, and Mantle’s measly 18 homers would put him in a four-way tie for tenth place on such a list.

Manny Ramírez holds the record for most postseason home runs; he hit 29 of them, and that’s mighty impressive. But a breakdown of his homers shows that he hit only four of them in the World Series. Ramirez hit 12 home runs in the Division Series and 13 in the League Championship Series.

Jose Altuve has the second most postseason home runs with 27. Again, Altuve hit only four homers in World Series play. He hit 11 in the Division Series and 12 in the League Championship Series. Altuve has been quite the power hitter in the postseason, but I submit that he is no Mickey Mantle.

Mantle hit his first World Series home run in 1952, and at 20 years, 362 days of age, he was the youngest player to hit a home run in the Fall Classic. His record stood until 1996 when Andruw Jones, at the age of 19 yeas, 180 days homered in his first two World Series at-bats. Mantle’s final World Series home run came in 1964 when he hit a three-run shot off Bob Gibson.

Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees enters the World Series with 16 postseason home runs, and Kikî Hernández and Max Muncy of the Los Angeles Dodgers have 15 and 13 respectively, so it’s possible one of them could crack the top 10.

Juan Soto of the Yankees and Mookie Betts of the Dodgers each have three World Series home runs. If either one of them hits four homers in the Series, they would join five other players in a tie for tenth place for most home runs in World Series history.

The frustrating thing to me is that in this age when someone can tell us a player’s batting average in day games played on Tuesday against a certain opponent, it seems it would be very little trouble to generate a list of players with the most home runs in whichever series they happen to be playing at the time of their latest round-tripper.

There is room for legitimate debate about whose accomplishments are most impressive without even mentioning performance-enhancing drugs or the effect the trash can bangers had on postseason home runs. For example, Stanton hit his 16 postseason homers in 149 plate appearances in 36 games in 11 series, while Mantle hit his 18 homer runs in 273 plate appearances in 65 games in 12 World Series. But to date, Stanton has not hit a single World Series home run.

And speaking of postseason accomplishments, Babe Ruth hit 16 home runs in 167 plate appearances in 41 World Series games. He also made three World Series starts as a pitcher, went 3-0 with a 0.87 earned run average, had two complete games, including a shutout, and ran off a streak of 29 2/3 scoreless innings. So, think twice when you hear an announcer say that a player in this year’s Fall Classic is the greatest player in the history of the World Series.

(All statistics are from Baseball Reference.)