Homered in first game and then never again
Posted by Andy on September 27, 2011
Here are the 26 guys since 1901 who homered in their first career big-league game and then never homered again in the rest of their careers:
| Rk | Player | HR | From | To | Age | G | PA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Milone | 1 | 2011 | 2011 | 24-24 | 4 | 8 |
| 2 | Wilkin Ramirez | 1 | 2009 | 2011 | 23-25 | 35 | 43 |
| 3 | Steve Hill | 1 | 2010 | 2010 | 25-25 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Daniel Nava | 1 | 2010 | 2010 | 27-27 | 60 | 188 |
| 5 | Mark Saccomanno | 1 | 2008 | 2008 | 28-28 | 10 | 10 |
| 6 | Brandon Watson | 1 | 2005 | 2007 | 23-25 | 40 | 96 |
| 7 | Dave Matranga | 1 | 2003 | 2005 | 26-28 | 7 | 6 |
| 8 | Marty Malloy | 1 | 1998 | 2002 | 26-30 | 35 | 58 |
| 9 | Dave Eiland | 1 | 1988 | 2000 | 21-33 | 92 | 27 |
| 10 | Mitch Lyden | 1 | 1993 | 1993 | 28-28 | 6 | 10 |
| 11 | Ray Stephens | 1 | 1990 | 1992 | 27-29 | 19 | 37 |
| 12 | Andre David | 1 | 1984 | 1986 | 26-28 | 38 | 63 |
| 13 | Jamie Nelson | 1 | 1983 | 1983 | 23-23 | 40 | 111 |
| 14 | Dave Machemer | 1 | 1978 | 1979 | 27-28 | 29 | 55 |
| 15 | Denny McLain | 1 | 1963 | 1972 | 19-28 | 285 | 709 |
| 16 | Hal Haydel | 1 | 1970 | 1971 | 25-26 | 35 | 6 |
| 17 | Bobby Locke | 1 | 1959 | 1968 | 25-34 | 168 | 113 |
| 18 | Bill Roman | 1 | 1964 | 1965 | 25-26 | 24 | 37 |
| 19 | Cuno Barragan | 1 | 1961 | 1963 | 29-31 | 69 | 190 |
| 20 | Dan Bankhead | 1 | 1947 | 1951 | 27-31 | 62 | 48 |
| 21 | Dummy Lynch | 1 | 1948 | 1948 | 22-22 | 7 | 8 |
| 22 | Red Durrett | 1 | 1944 | 1945 | 23-24 | 19 | 58 |
| 23 | Bill LeFebvre | 1 | 1938 | 1944 | 22-28 | 75 | 102 |
| 24 | Eddie Morgan | 1 | 1936 | 1937 | 21-22 | 39 | 79 |
| 25 | Hank Erickson | 1 | 1935 | 1935 | 27-27 | 37 | 97 |
| 26 | Tom Sullivan | 1 | 1922 | 1922 | 26-26 | 3 | 4 |
A few of the more recent guys may, of course, homer again yet and get off this list.
September 27th, 2011 at 8:21 am
That's still one more home run than I'll ever hit in the majors.
September 27th, 2011 at 8:40 am
Hey Andy, I got to talk to that Dave Machemer back in July, down in Richmond, where he managed the AA Flying Squirrels. Good guy. Here's his account of that home run: Part 2: He Connected
September 27th, 2011 at 8:41 am
Nava did it with style...grand slam on first MLB pitch he saw.
September 27th, 2011 at 9:05 am
I was at the Nava game . . . it was really amazing to see. I thought to myself "even if he never hits another home run again, he won't forget this one". Didn't think that would happen though!
September 27th, 2011 at 9:11 am
I saw this list and wondered how the query missed Hoyt Wilhelm. Turns out he did not homer in his first big league game because he didn't get an at bat until his 3rd game. He hit a homer in his first big league at bat, then played 20 more years and never hit another homer.
September 27th, 2011 at 9:27 am
Dave Eiland pitched in 32 games for the Yankees before getting his first at-bat (and HR) with the Padres.
September 27th, 2011 at 9:28 am
Andy;
your enthusiasm for plumbing the depths of the obscure makes for great entertainment. What a list!
September 27th, 2011 at 9:33 am
Sweet Jesus barkie...where ya been?
September 27th, 2011 at 10:07 am
I, too, was at the Nava game. Off Chad Durbin, who came in to pitch in relief of Joe Blanton, who pitched a terrible game for the Phillies that day. Three of those four runs were charged to Blanton.
September 27th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Cuno Barragan! Can't have a list like this without a Cub.
September 27th, 2011 at 10:33 am
Nava's was the first pitch he ever saw in the bigs - and with bases loaded!
September 27th, 2011 at 10:56 am
@5 - I had the same thought. Glad you did the extra research to answer my Wilhelm question. Thank you!
September 27th, 2011 at 11:47 am
Uh, no, Nava's HR was off Blanton, in the 2nd inning that day. Blanton pitched 2 more full innings, before Durbin came in. Phillies were likely trying to have Joe eat a couple of innings at least, since the day before Moyer had been torched for 9 runs in 1 inning+.
September 27th, 2011 at 11:48 am
On YouTube, there's a cell phone video of Saccomanno's home run, evidently taken by friends/family of his. They go completely nuts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_DPi0wuN7M
September 27th, 2011 at 11:49 am
Steve Hill. I guess we're all tied with him for fewest major league games in which we didn't hit a home run.
September 27th, 2011 at 11:56 am
#'s 5 & 12
I was thinking the same thing about Hoyt Wihelm. Nice to see other people on the same wavelength. I am also guessing that outside of Wihelm, no one on the above list made the HOF.
September 27th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Interesting. I had heard of Dan Bankhead before, but didn't know much about him. Sounds like he was a better batter than a pitcher:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Bankhead
September 27th, 2011 at 11:57 am
Andy, from time to time I run some queries that I think you'd make fun posts out of. How (if at all) can/should I send them to you?
September 27th, 2011 at 11:58 am
Email me, link on the right under 'contact'
September 27th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Earl Averill is another Hall of Famer who homered in his first at bat, but of course his career total didn't stay at 1.
September 27th, 2011 at 12:26 pm
I was expecting Hoyt Willhem too. Thanks for make that clear and for not letting embarrass myself.
September 27th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
Dave Machemer! That's a familiar name. Played third base and later he managed in Mexico's Winter League.
September 27th, 2011 at 12:39 pm
if that thing about Eiland is true, that is absolutely stunning
September 27th, 2011 at 1:14 pm
based on Nava's 2011 minor league season and age you'd have to figure he may be done as a pro.
The best thing for me that this thread did is steer me to an obscure Brewers pitcher's very obscure statistics.
As a starter Larry Anderson in his career had a shutout in every start he ever made (1) and had the following slash lines against him:
.161/.212/.161
And as a reliever his ERA was 7.24 and the slash line was:
.323/.406/.529
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=anderla01&year=Career&t=p
September 27th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I'm still trying to figure out why Eiland qualifies for the list but Wilhelm doesn't. I know that AL has the DH but there's no rule against the pitcher actually hitting either.
September 27th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
Kevin Kouzmanoff also hit a grand slam on the first pitch he ever saw in his career.
September 27th, 2011 at 1:57 pm
@20
There is a trick question.
Who are the three Hall of Famers who hit a home run on their first AB? The answer is Earl Averill, Hoyt Wilhelm and Ace Parker. The trick is that Parker is a football HOFer. More trivia: Parker is the second oldest still living baseball player and the oldest still living football player.
September 27th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Besides Eric "Crash Test Dummy" Byrnes, Dummy Lynch is the only player with the nickname "Dummy" to have played in the majors since 1914. I haven't been able to find out whether he was hearing-impaired.
September 27th, 2011 at 2:19 pm
@27
I should have mentioned that Parker had a brief career as a MLer before becoming a famous football player.
September 27th, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Wow - two Nationals on that list! Brandon Watson & Tommy Milone.
September 27th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Homered in first game and then never again
come on who does your reasearch ray charles
how can u have dave eiland on here where he came up with the yankees and in the al..
figure out a better title.
its stuff like this that makes arm chairs think they know their baseball
and they read it and never dig deep into it.
dave eiland never homerd in his 1st game..
dave eiland homered in his 1st game as a nl pitcher.
thanks pals
September 27th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
@31, first game in which the player had a plate appearance, then. I should know not to feed the trolls
September 27th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Cool. Denny McLain was only 19 when he did it in his debut (exactly 1 month before I was born), while pitching a 4-3 CG Win over the White Sox (1 ER, 8 Ks).
McLain homered in his 2nd time up, off Fritz Ackley, tying the game at 1. Leadoff man Bill Bruton followed with another HR. McLain blew the lead in the 8th thanks to his own error. But Norm Cash provided the winning margin with a HR off noted author Jim Brosnan, in the final inning of his career.
September 27th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
John Miller of the 1966 Yankees and the 1969 Dodgers hit a home run in his first at bat and his last at bat in the majors. He was called in to pinch hit for Jim Brewer four days after that second home run. When he was announced, the Giants changed pitchers. Walter Alston promptly called for Len Gabrielson to pinch hit for Miller before any pitches were made.
September 27th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
@25 Eiland doesn't have offensive games counted because he wasn't in the batting order. Wilhelm had a place in the batting order, but never came up to bat.
September 27th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Esteban Yan hit a HR in his first AB, but not in his first game, and never then again...
September 27th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Did I see Bob Saccomanno on the list...I thought that he sold Russian Hats in Battery Park...I'll never forget the "Bob Saccomanno Story." You know that he went into the hospital for a hernia operation & due to malpractice, now sits by a window repeating "My name is Bob!" in a high-pitched voice.
September 27th, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Marty Malloy had a book written about him while he was still in the minors. I don't recall the title offhand. I got it at the library, probably looking on the shelf for new baseball books, one Friday night in December 1996, the day before we were leaving for vacation. (Very few public libraries are open on Friday nights these days. The one in my town was open until 9:00 p.m. on Fridays up until and including September 2, 2011. This was not part of an hours cutback but rather a re-distribution of hours to more popular times.) I remember the flight attendant on our trip the next day asking if she could see the book because her husband loved baseball books, and she thought she might want to get it for him.
September 27th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
@ 28 KT:
I realize your list is from 1914 to date but "I" think the most famous MLB player nicknamed "Dummy" was William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hoydu01.shtml
He last played in 1902 for Cincinnati
Unfortunately in those days before political correctness he was called "Dummy".
He was deaf and went to a high school for the deaf in Columbus, Ohio
September 27th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Hoyt Wilhelm homered in his first major league at bat on April 23, 1952 (His first game as a batter, third as a pitcher). He never hit another one in his 21-year career, spanning 493 plate appearances. I believe he should be included on this list and in fact would be the Hall of Famer to qualify.
September 27th, 2011 at 10:39 pm
@13, You're right. You'd think I'd remember who he hit it off of as I do remember when he hit it that I remarked to my friends that he was the second player to hit a slam on his first pitch seen. I remember sitting on the first base line about thirty rows back. I even remember who I was sitting between. But I didn't remember the details of the AB other than it being a grand slam on the first pitch and then I misread the box score and mistook Nava's double off Durbin for his homer off Blanton. Oh well.
September 28th, 2011 at 2:29 am
I saw that Dave Eiland, a pitcher, is listed on this list, but he hit a home run in his first at-bat but not in his first game. Thus, he should be removed from the list.
Eiland actually hit a home run on his first major-league at-bat in 1992, but that was four years years after his major league debut in 1988. He pitched four years for the Yankees from 1988 through 1991, so he never batted with the DH in effect for all games that he played.. He moved to the Padres in 1992 and hit a home run in his first at-bat on April 10, 1992 versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. You can see this game here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN199204100.shtml.
September 28th, 2011 at 9:17 am
i have a trivia question
can u name the only mlb player to die while sliding into home???
answer tonite at 10pm eastern time
September 28th, 2011 at 10:57 am
I realize your list is from 1914 to date but "I" think the most famous MLB player nicknamed "Dummy" was William Ellsworth "Dummy" Hoy
I'd agree with you, Mike. My comment on Dummy Lynch had to do with "Dummy" not being an acceptable nickname for a deaf player after the teens. I'm really glad Curtis Pride didn't have to put up with that garbage in the papers and over the public-address system.
September 29th, 2011 at 9:59 am
[...] • Nationals pitcher Tom Milone hit a home run in his first major league game. It’s too early to tell if he’ll never hit another one, but you know how pitchers are. Baseball-Reference decided to look at the most recent players who hit one out in their debut and never hit a second one. You may notice some familiar names: ex-Tigers outfielder Wilkin Ramirez, now in the Braves organization. Also, Denny McLain. Random. [B-R] [...]
September 29th, 2011 at 3:18 pm
@43
STFU.
October 7th, 2011 at 12:30 am
[...] • Nationals pitcher Tom Milone hit a home run in his first major league game. It’s too early to tell if he’ll never hit another one, but you know how pitchers are. Baseball-Reference decided to look at the most recent players who hit one out in their debut and never hit a second one. you may notice some familiar names: ex-Tigers outfielder Wilkin Ramirez, now in the Braves organization. Also, Denny McLain. Random. [B-R] [...]