More things than you ever wanted to know about things you don't know about

Having now completed the last two lists, I thought you didn’t have quite enough information on this subject. So here is more than you ever wanted to know about batters hitting a homerun in their first major league plate appearance.

First, a quiz. Only one pitcher has given a homerun to a batter in their first plate appearance more than once. He was a knuckleballer in the 70’s. Please make your guess and leave it in the comments. The winner will receive nothing but satisfaction from the fact that they probably know more baseball trivia than a sane person should.

Only 2 Hall of Famers have done this, and one was a pitcher. They are Hoyt Wilhelm and Earl Averill. I’m surprised that only one Hall of Fame batter has done this.

Of the 106 players to do this, 18 have been pitchers.

2 of the 4 pitchers to do it since the Kevin Graham Rule was instituted have been American League pitchers.

2 have been inside the park. Luke Stuart in 1921 and Johnnie LeMaster in 1975. One from each league.

25 have hit it on the first pitch they saw

44 have been hit in the American League and 62 in the National League

21 hit their only career homerun in their first at bat

26 have hit it as a pinchhitter

4 have hit a grand slam for their first homerun

10 did in the top of the 1^st inning, before they even had a chance to play defense (call this the anti-Moonlight Graham syndrome)

The following clubs have done it the most:

Boston Red Sox – 4

Brooklyn Dodgers – 4

Chicago Cubs – 8 (that’s Wrigley, folks)

Detroit Tigers – 6

Houston Astros – 4

Minnesota Twins – 5 (only 1 in the Metro Dome)

Montreal Expos – 4

New York Giants – 4

Philadelphia Phillies – 5

St Louis Cardinals – 7

The only franchise not to have a player do is the Milwaukee Brewers

1890’s – 2

1900’s – 1

1910’s – none

1920’s – 4

1930’s – 7

1940’s – 10

1950’s – 7

1960’s – 12

1970’s – 10

1980’s – 10

1990’s – 13

2000’s – 31

52 (less than half) hit double figures in career homeruns

16 hit 100 or more homeruns

8 hit over 200 (Earl Averill, Bill White, Will Clark and Tim Wallach in the 200’s)

3 ht over 300 (Jermaine Dye, Carlos Lee, and Garry Gaetti)

Gary Gaetti hit the most with 360

By position:

C - 13

1B – 12

2B – 8

3B – 7

SS – 8

LF – 11

CF – 3

RF – 5

P – 18

Utility – 21

Took 21 years for the American League to do it. Only 20 for the National League.

The first time it was done more than once in a season was 1937, when two players from the Philadelphia Athletics did it.

The National League followed with two the next year, with one of them playing for the Phillies

They did it on the same day.

The American League only had 1 player do it during the war years, the National had 4.

The longest streak for the National League is six years in a row. The American’s streak is 5.

The longest gap for the American League was 11 years. For the National League, it was 13.

Ed Sanicki did on September 14^th, 1949. Ted Tappe was the next to do it, exactly a year later.

The American League did it 3 times in 2006 and 2010, the most ever.

Some of the notable names that did it:

Bob Nieman

Gates Brown

Bert Campaneris

Gary Gaetti

Jay Bell

Carlos Lee

Marcus Thames

Miguel Olivo

Mike Napoli

Elijah Dukes

Whitey Lockman

Hoyt Wilhelm

Chuck Tanner

Wally Moon

Bill White

Benny Ayala

Johnny LeMaster

Tim Wallach

Will Clark

Jose Offerman

Jermaine Dye

Kaz Matsui

Jason Heyward

Starlin Castro

3 players, Bob Neiman, J.P. Arencibia, and Bert Campaneris homered twice in their first game. Neiman did it consecutively. Keith McDonald did it consecutively over 2 days.

8 Hall of Famers have given up a first plate appearance homerun:

Walter Johnson

Nolan Ryan

Warren Spahn

Bert Blyleven

Randy Johnson (I’m jumping the gun)

Don Sutton

Grover Cleveland

Catfish Hunter

Other pitchers of note:

Bret Saberhagen

Jim Bouton

Van Lingo Mungo (love the name)

Mickey Lolich

Andy Pettitte

Justin Verlander

Dennis Martinez

Tom Candiotti

Jack Morris

Lindy McDaniel

Diego Segui

Monte Stratton

Jim Katt

Prime-time matchups:

Will Clark vs Nolan Ryan

Bert Campaneris vs Jim Kaat

Jay Bell vs Bert Blyleven

Jason Heyward vs Carlos Zambrano

Carlos Lee vs Tom Candiotti

Marcus Thames vs Randy Johnson

Jose Offerman vs Dennis Martinez

Terry Steinbach vs Greg Swindell

Charlie Hough vs Gary Gaetti

Brad Fulmer vs Bret Saberhagen

Hoyt Wilhelm hit one homerun in his career. He hit off of Dick Hoover, who only gave up one homerun in his career.

The top-10 least likely guys to hit a homerun in their first major league plate appearance

Back in April, I was watching a Pirates games and Josh Rodriguez, a Rule-5 draftee, came to the plate for his first major league plate appearance. This is how slow I am at writing things up at times. Anyhow, I started thinking about first at bats and was thinking it would be great if he hit a homerun, joining a semi-exclusive club. He didn’t hit a homerun in his first plate appearance, but it isn’t that surprising. Of the over 17,000 players to appear in a game, only 106 have done it, leaving it an astronomical .00062 chance of doing it. Failure, at this particular task, is an option.

For some strange reason, because that’s how my mind works, I started thinking about this particular event and just wondering how unlikely it really it is. Then I started thinking about who was the most likely of all the players who have done to homer in their first plate appearance. Along with that, I wondered about who was the least likely to have done it. Then I wondered what happened to my life and why I’m writing about something like this.

So I devised a simple little formula to figure all of this out. It’s so easy it can be done at home. If for some reason you wanted to. Take a player’s total number of plate appearances and divide by the total number of homerun’s he hit. I’m using plate appearance instead of at bats, because a plate appearance can be any unique event, from a homerun to a sacrifice fly, catcher’s interference, reached on error, or a dozen other plays. The higher the number, the less likely the player was to hit a homer. The lower the number, the more likely.

I didn’t leave it at just that, because even those new-fangled statistics show that pitchers are involved in homeruns. Not much else, but at least that. So I looked at all the pitchers who gave the homerun to see how often they give up dingers. Simply take all of their batters faced and divide by total number of homeruns allowed. The higher the number, the less likely to give up a homer; the lower, the more likely.

So add those two numbers together. Add 10 points if the batter was a pitcher. This is my anti-designated hitter bonus. (We'll call this the Kevin Graham rule). Add 10 points if it was on the 1^st pitch. Add another 10 points if it was the only homerun that particular batter hit. 10 more points if it was a pinchhit homerun, because it’s hard enough to do it normally. 10 points if it was a “clutch” homerun (you know, late innings, extra innings, gave the team a lead late in the game, put them ahead, something with a little stress to it), 10 points if it was  grand slam, and 10 points if it was hit in the first inning or led of the game. Add all of those points together, and you get the list.

The top-10 least likely guys to hit a homerun are listed below:

10 - Ace Parker  (211.6)                      2 homeruns in 228 plate appearances over 2 seasons

A utility infielder for the Athletics in the late-30’s. He hit only 33 in 11 minor leagues seasons, only hitting double figures the season after he was done in the majors. Spent time in the minors after the homerun, but ended up finishing the season with the big club, and got a full year in the next year. Still alive at the age of 99. Member of the Pro Football and College Football Halls of Fame. Coached football at Duke University.

Hit his homerun off of Wes Ferrell

9 - Buddy Kerr  (219.1)                       31 homeruns in 4056 plate appearances in 9 seasons

A shortstop for the Giants throughout the war years into the early 50’s, where he finished with the Braves. Hit 5 homeruns in over 1700 plate appearances in the minors. Played a then-record 68 consecutive games without an error. Won 2 league championships as a minor league manager.

Hit his homerun off of Bill Lee (no, not that Bill Lee, the other Bill Lee)

8 - Cuno Barragan  (233.4)                 1 homerun in 190 plate appearances in 3 seasons

A catcher for the Cubs in the early 60’s. Hit 25 homeruns in over 1600 plate appearances in the minors. Even playing in a park like Wrigley, he couldn’t get much power. Didn’t get to the bigs until he was 29, so he was never much of a prospect. This was obviously his only homerun.

Hit his homerun off of Dick LeMay

7 – Daniel Nava (2345.7)                    1 homerun in 188 plate appearances in 1 season

A leftfielder. This only happened in 2010, so Nava could have another shot at the majors. Actually showed homerun ability in the minors, but couldn’t duplicate in the majors, which is surprising considering he played his home games in Fenway. Only the 4^th player to hit a grand slam for his first homerun.

Hit his homerun off of Joe Blanton

6 - Dustin Hermanson (241.8)                        2 homeruns in 384 plate appearances in 12 seasons

I almost left Hermanson off of the list, but only because he pitched in 40 games before ever coming to the plate. While he is a pitcher and hadn’t swung a bat, he didn’t really have the stress of doing it in his first game. I’ll leave him, however, as it’s still got to be hard to hit a homerun not matter how you go about it, and this is my anti-designated hitter pick. Didn’t hit one in the minors, but he only got to the plates 10 times. Won a World Series with the White Sox in 2005.

Hit his homerun off of Shane Reynolds

5 – Luke Stuart (254.4)                       1 homerun in 3 plate appearances in 1 season

A second baseman who only had 3 plate appearances in the majors, but hit it off of a Hall of Famer who rarely gave up homeruns. The first one to do this in American League history, taking 20 years to get it done. It was obviously his only homerun. Hit quite a few homeruns in the minors, topping out with a high of 20 in 1923. Stuart might not belong on this list to some people, as he could hit homeruns, but he did it off a pitcher who only game up a homerun every 8 games or so, which accounts for his high score.

Hit his homerun off of Walter Johnson

4 – Gordon Slade (261.1)                    8 homeruns in 1504 plate appearances in 6 seasons

A National League infielder for 3 teams in the 30’s, he has the second most homeruns of any player in the bottom 10. Hit homeruns at about twice the rate in the minors, but not too many. Topped out at 4 homeruns in 1934, which was his only season as a full-time starter, when he finished 15^th in the MVP voting.

Hit his homerun off of Bob Smith

3 – Bill Duggleby (331.1)                    6 homeruns in 686 plate appearances in 8 seasons

A pitcher who played in the deadball era, he never played any other position. He hit like modern pitchers, not deadball era ones, so he belongs on the list. Just the second player to do this (there is no box score for the first guy, so I don’t know who he hit it off of); he was the first to hit a grand slam in his first plate appearance. To top it off, it was a pinchhit shot. How’s that for a debut. Hit 3 in the minors, but that was after his debut. There is no data for prior to that. Hit if off of a pitcher who would go on to later fame as an outfielder who hit 53 homeruns in his career.

Hit his homerun off of Cy Seymour.

2 – Walter Mueller (332.1)                2 homeruns in 369 plate appearances in 4 seasons

An outfielder and pinchhitter, he was a Missouri boy who hit his on the first pitch he saw, in the top of the first inning. He barely edged out Bill Duggleby for second place on the list. The highest rated non-pitcher on the list, he had absolutely no power at all. Father of Don Mueller, right fielder with the Giants in the ’54 World Series. He didn’t have much power either, but was a better hitter than his father. Played in Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, which probably accounted for his low total.

Hit his homerun off of Pete Alexander.

1 – Hoyt Wilhelm (539.0)                   1 homerun in 493 plate appearances in 21 seasons

If you know anything about baseball, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you. He did pitch in 4 games previously to getting to the plate, but I will count it regardless. The highest Hall of Famer on the list (the entire list), but the only one to make it as a pitcher. Hit it off a pitcher who didn’t give up many homeruns, which just padded his score, as he would have topped the list without it. Went 21 years without another homerun. Earned a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge.

Hit his homerun off of Dick Hoover

So that’s the list of the 10 most unlikely players to hit a homerun in their first plate appearance. Only 3 pitchers on the list, so I was pleased by that. Looks like you needed to be a middle infielder between the war years to have the best shot to make this list. Next up, the 10 most likely to hit a homerun in their first plate appearance.