Last night, Twins’ rookie Eddie Rosario smashed a home run with the first pitch he saw in the majors. Homering on the first pitch has happened before, but not very often (29 times). Homering in your first game is still pretty cool and every time it happens, memories of past instances come rushing back…so let’s take a look down memory lane.
Miguel Cabrera – Marlins
June 20, 2003
Long before he was considered the best hitter in the game, Miggy was just a young kid brought up to the Marlins to help a team that had playoffs aspirations. The team eventually won the World Series, but in his game Cabrera gave a preview of what the future held. A walk-off no less.
Jeff Francoeur – Braves
July 7, 2005
Francoeur did not enter the majors until half-way through the season and that just seemed to add to the hype. Against the Cubs, he brought the house down with the count full and two runners on base.
Jeremy Hermida – Marlins
August 31, 2005
This one was special: a pinch-hit grand slam. Hermida only played through 2012 and ended up playing for 5 different teams during his career. This was unquestionably his greatest moment.
Jason Heyward – Braves
April 5, 2010
Heyward entered the league in 2010 to even more fanfare and hype (a la Kris Bryant). In his first major league at-bat, against Carlos Zambrano of…yup the Cubs, he just added to the hype.
Starlin Castro – Cubs
May 7, 2010
Well the Cubs were on the good side of this one. Castro took Homer Bailey deep for a 3-run shot when he was just 20 years old. Castro had roughly 500 more plate appearances that season and only hit two more dingers.
Daniel Nava – Red Sox
June 12, 2010
Against the Phillies and Joe Blanton, Nava brought Fenway Park to life during his first major league at-bat with a grand salami. He was the second player to hit a slam on his first major league pitch (Kevin Kouzmanoff had the other). He’s only hit 22 homers since then…so hopefully he enjoyed the moment.
Notes
For many of these rare occurrences videos are hard to find. So while it would be great to find a broadcast version of Will Clark’s first homer it’s not publicly available.
Possibly the most remarkable example of this phenomenon though is Hoyt Wilhelm. The Hall of Fame pitcher hit a homer in his first at-bat ever in 1952 and upon the conclusion of a 21-year career, he still only had one career homer. Wilhelm is one of two eventual Hall of Famers who accomplished this feat, Earl Averill being the other. Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright is another notable pitcher that managed this feat in 2006.
Nineteen of the 118 players who hit a homer in their first at-bat never hit another homer in their career. Tommy Milone and Eddy Rodriguez are the other active players (Rosario being the other) who haven’t homered since their first.
