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unusual facts about home runs



Beaumont Exporters

Greenberg led the league with 39 home runs and 123 runs scored, while pitcher Schoolboy Rowe — a Texan who would star with Greenberg on the 19341935 Tiger pennant-winners — posted a league-best 2.34 earned run average.

Ray Mueller

He did not catch every inning for the 1944 Reds (backups Len Rice, Joe Just and Johnny Riddle handled 17 total chances) but Mueller handled 545 chances, threw out 39 percent of would-be base-stealers, and batted a career-high .286 with ten home runs and 73 runs batted in.

Zack Greinke

When Greinke started playing baseball at Apopka High School, he was primarily a shortstop, he hit over .400 with 31 home runs in his high school career.


see also

1954 Missouri Tigers baseball team

Missouri defeated Oklahoma A&M Aggies 7-3 in the behind a strong outing from starting pitcher Norm Stewart and home runs from Jerry Schoonmaker and George Gleason.

1959 Milwaukee Braves season

Mathews finished second to Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs in the voting for the league's Most Valuable Player, who hit 47 home runs and lead the league in runs batted in.

1977 Caribbean Series

Managed by Buck Rodgers, the team received strong support from Series MVP Rico Carty, who led the hitters in runs (8) and RBI (10), while setting a new Series record with five home runs.

1996 National League Championship Series

Needing the win to help stave off an upset, the Braves built a 3–0 lead with solo home runs by Ryan Klesko and Mark Lemke as well as a two-out RBI single by Jermaine Dye in the sixth.

1997 National League Championship Series

Home runs by Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko drew Atlanta to 5–3 but the Florida bullpen held the Braves hitless over the final three innings.

2008 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby

10 Home Runs were hit while the Gold Ball (special balls used when the batters have nine outs) was in play, earning $170,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

2008 National League Division Series

Burrell became only the second Phillies hitter in their history to hit two home runs in a playoff game, the other being Lenny Dykstra.

2011 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby

State Farm donates US $3,000 for each non-Money Ball home run for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and US $18,000 (one dollar for each State Farm agent) for Gold Ball homers (which are home runs hit after 9 outs have been recorded) in the first round, increasing after each round.

Aces Ballpark

Trent Oeltjen hit the park's first triple on opening night, but there were no home runs.

Al Simmons

Simmons had another great season, winning his 2nd batting title hitting .390 with 22 home runs, 128 RBI, 100 runs scored, 200 hits, 37 doubles, 13 triples and slugged .641 while playing in only 128 games, finishing 3rd in AL MVP voting behind the MVP, his teammate pitcher Lefty Grove and the Yankees' Lou Gehrig.

Brian Giles

He was named National League Player-of-the-Week after hitting .400 with two doubles, three home runs and 12 RBIs between May 2 and May 7 and shared player of the week honors with Colorado's Todd Helton after hitting .523 with three doubles, one triple, three home runs, eight RBIs and six runs scored between August 12 and August 20.

Cal Ripken, Sr.

Next year, he was promoted to the Wilson Tobs of the Class B Carolina League, where in 118 games he batted .216 with 85 hits and four home runs.

Carol Habben

As everyday center fielder in 1954, Habben hit a .276 average with a .363 OBP in 98 games, while slugging for a .445 average to become the second half of the called Home Run Twins, as she hit 15 home runs and Chris Ballingall belted 17 to power the Lassies to the Championship Title.

Chris Aguila

He batted .351 with 7 home runs and 25 RBI in 35 games with Albuquerque, and he was promoted back to the Major Leagues on July 7, when the Marlins placed Josh Willingham on the disabled list.

Clay Davenport

This allows comparison, for example, of the number of home runs hit by Babe Ruth and modern players, to estimate how many each would have hit in a season or a lifetime if they had all played under the same playing conditions (parks, leagues, levels of competition, and eras).

Del Bissonette

The following season, Bissonette joined the Brooklyn Robins — the once and future Dodgers — of the National League and continued his lusty hitting, batting .320 with 25 home runs in 155 games.

Dick Kryhoski

On July 16 of that year, the Browns tied, by then, a majors record with three successive home runs belted by Clint Courtney, Kryhoski and Jim Dyck, in the first inning of a 8–6 victory over the Yankees.

Duke Snider

Duke rebounded that year to hit .308 with 25 home runs and 88 RBI in 400 at bats while platooning in center field with Don Demeter.

Eddie Murray

In 2008, Murray released a charity wine called Eddie Murray 504 Cabernet, a nod to his 504 career home runs, with all of his proceeds donated to the Baltimore Community Foundation.

Felipe Crespo

On June 7, 2001, Crespo hit two home runs for the Giants, while his brother César hit his first major league homer with the San Diego Padres, joining a select club that includes Aaron and Bret Boone, Héctor and José Cruz, Al and Tony Cuccinello, Dom and Joe DiMaggio, Graig and Jim Nettles, and Rick and Wes Ferrell.

Giancarlo Stanton

Stanton hit the longest home runs of the season by any player in 2011 at Citi Field (465 feet), Nationals Park (455 feet), Coors Field (475 feet), and Sun Life Stadium (466 feet).

Gulf Tower

Since 2001, the opening of PNC Park across the Allegheny River, fans have noticed that after Pittsburgh Pirates home-runs, the "beam" light flashes in celebration.

Jill Justin

The former Husky also played during the summer season for the Connecticut Brakettes from 1999 to 2004 and set all-time team records for RBIs, home runs and doubles.

José Julio Ruíz

He was second in the tourney in slugging (behind Alfredo Despaigne), led in home runs (4, winning the World Port Tournament Home Run King award), tied Jordan Danks for second in runs (8, behind Hector Olivera Jr.), tied Roger Kieschnick for 4th in RBI (6), tied for second in doubles (2), second to Despaigne in total bases (23) and tied for 4th in walks (4).

Josh Phelps

Phelps is the all-time leader in home runs for a player born in Alaska.

June Peppas

Katie Horstman connected two home runs for the Daisies in a lost cause, and her teammate Joanne Weaver slugged one.

Ken Griffey, Sr.

In Griffey's final season of his first stint with the Reds, the strike-shortened 1981 campaign, he batted .311 with only two home runs and 34 RBIs.

In 1975, Griffey began to break out with a .305 batting average with four home runs and 46 RBIs.

Lee Cruz

Cruz made his professional debut at Rookie-level for the Kannapolis Intimidators in the South Atlantic League (A) for the Chicago White Sox farm system in 2007, hitting .301 (81-for-269) with 17 doubles, six triples, five home runs and 39 RBIs.

Luke Sewell

He demanded that umpires check Ruth's bat after he clouted two straight home runs off Garland Buckeye.

Mike Fontenot

In 136 games (tied with Earl Snyder for fourth in the league behind Bry Nelson's 142, Víctor Díaz's 141, and Jhonny Peralta's 138), he batted .279 with 146 hits, eight home runs, 49 RBI, and 10 triples (tied for second in the league with John Rodriguez and Pete Orr behind Mark Budzinski's 15).

Mo Vaughn

Vaughn continued to improve over the next several seasons, batting .315 or higher from 1996 to 1998 and averaging 40 home runs and 118 RBIs.

Nate Colbert

Colbert's best day in the majors was August 1, 1972, when he slammed 5 home runs - one of two players to have done so, Stan Musial being the other in 1954 - and drove in 13 runs in a doubleheader, breaking Stan Musial's record of 11 runs batted in.

Nate Freiman

He played for the Israeli national baseball team in the September 2012 World Baseball Classic qualifier, batting .417 with four home runs among his five hits.

Ned Williamson

Cap Anson, the team captain, and on-field manager, decided that in 1884, balls that were hit over the fence were to be home runs.

Nick Esasky

Though he twice hit more than 20 home runs in a season with the Reds, his best statistical year came in 1989 as a member of the Boston Red Sox to whom he was traded along with relief pitcher Rob Murphy for switch-hitting first baseman/outfielder Todd Benzinger and pitcher Jeff Sellers.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka

He hit his 200th career home run against Chiba Lotte Marines submariner Shunsuke Watanabe on April 17 and finished the year with a .315 batting average, 46 home runs and 121 RBI, leading the league in home runs and RBI for the second straight season and becoming the first hitter in NPB history to record more than 120 RBI in three straight seasons.

Norm Zauchin

His most productive season came in 1955, when he hit .239 with 27 home runs for the Red Sox and finished third in American League Rookie of the Year voting, behind Herb Score and Billy Klaus.

Reggie Abercrombie

Though he never materialized into a consistent option for the Marlins, on April 19, 2006, while playing against the Cincinnati Reds in the Great American Ballpark, Abercrombie, facing pitcher Mike Gosling, hit a home run 486 feet, according to Hit Tracker Online's Standard Distance (considered "the best way of comparing home runs hit under a variety of different conditions" by the website).

Rich McKinney

He spent the entire 1976 season with Tucson, batting .317 with career highs in home runs (22) and RBI (95), but did not get a call to the majors.

Ron Jackson

In 2003 the Sox set ML records for extra-base hits, total bases and slugging, finishing one off the major league lead with 238 home runs.

Stephen Drew

In 2007, although the Diamondbacks would be division champions that year, Drew had a disappointing season, hitting only .238 with 12 home runs but a career-high 9 stolen bases.

Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks

Former Chicago Cubs first-round pick Ty Griffin hit .274 and tied for the league lead with 11 home runs.

Tom Lawless

Lawless, who only hit two regular-season home runs his entire career, is also remembered for his dramatic game-winning home run in Game 4 of the 1987 World Series (he had hit .080 in 25 at-bats during the regular season.) "When it went over the wall, I thought" Lawless told reporters at the time.

Tom Phoebus

Although Tom couldn't hit for average, he hit his two major league home runs against all-stars Jim Coates (1967) and Jim Kaat (1968).

Tommie Aaron

The only other brother of a 500-home run man to play in the majors was Rich Murray (brother of Eddie Murray), who hit four home runs in a brief major league career.

Woody Smith

In 1951, he had perhaps his best season when he hit .320 with 30 doubles, six triples, three home runs and 162 hits for the West Palm Beach Indians.

Yi-Chuan Lin

He finished 4th in average (behind Wu-Hsiung Pan, Cheng-Min Peng and Wilton Veras), second in hits (169, behind Veras) and third in home runs (18, behind Chih-Sheng Lin and Chin-Feng Chen).

He batted .306/.342/.500 in the 2007 World Port Tournament – he tied Sidney de Jong for fifth in the tournament in home runs (2), tied Yosvani Peraza for 6th in runs (6) and was 6th in RBI (5).