Homering in the only post-season plate appearance
From a user suggestion by gswitter, here is a look at players who homered in their only plate-appearance of a post-season series.For starters, the PI isn’t set up to search just by post-season, but we can start by finding players who homered in their only plate appearance of any one post-season game.
Here are the last 25 guys to do it:
Cnt Player Date Series G Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions +----+-----------------+-------------+------+-+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+ 1 Bobby Kielty 2007-10-28 WS 4 BOS @COL W 4-3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 2 Chris Duncan 2006-10-17 NLCS 5 STL NYM W 4-2 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 3 So Taguchi 2006-10-13 NLCS 2 STL @NYM W 9-6 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd LF 4 So Taguchi 2006-10-07 NLDS 3 STL SDP L 1-3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH LF 5 Wilson Betemit 2006-10-05 NLDS 2 LAD @NYM L 1-4 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3rd 3B 6 Geoff Blum 2005-10-25 WS 3 CHW @HOU W 7-5 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5th 2B 7 Chris Burke 2005-10-12 NLCS 1 HOU @STL L 3-5 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 8 Mike Lamb 2004-10-13 NLCS 1 HOU @STL L 7-10 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 9 Jason Lane 2004-10-06 NLDS 1 HOU @ATL W 9-3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2nd RF 10 Tom Wilson 2004-10-05 NLDS 1 LAD @STL L 3-8 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th C 11 Jason Giambi 2003-10-23 WS 5 NYY @FLA L 4-6 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 12 Aaron Boone 2003-10-16 ALCS 7 NYY BOS W 6-5 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th PR 3B 13 Troy O'Leary 2003-10-15 NLCS 7 CHC FLA L 6-9 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 14 Ruben Sierra 2003-10-13 ALCS 4 NYY @BOS L 2-3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th PH 15 Mike Lowell 2003-10-07 NLCS 1 FLA @CHC W 9-8 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 3B 16 Trot Nixon 2003-10-04 ALDS 3 BOS OAK W 3-1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8th PH 17 Eduardo Perez 2002-10-10 NLCS 2 STL SFG L 1-4 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 18 J.D. Drew 2002-10-09 NLCS 1 STL SFG L 6-9 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 19 Jay Buhner 2001-10-20 ALCS 3 SEA @NYY W 14-3 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3rd PH RF 20 Daryle Ward 2001-10-12 NLDS 3 HOU @ATL L 2-6 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 21 J.T. Snow 2000-10-05 NLDS 2 SFG NYM L 4-5 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6th PH 1B 22 Mark McGwire 2000-10-05 NLDS 2 STL ATL W 10-4 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH 23 Jim Leyritz 1999-10-27 WS 4 NYY ATL W 4-1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6th DH 24 Ricky Ledee 1999-10-17 ALCS 4 NYY @BOS W 9-2 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6th DH 25 Turner Ward 1999-10-08 NLDS 3 ARI @NYM L 2-9 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9th PH
If you look at the “positions” column at the right, you can see that most of these guys were pinch-hitters. The full list is right here.
Gswitter pointed out that bobby Kielty had just one plate appearance in this year’s World Series, and the questions was how many of these others guys also had just one PA in whichever series they homered in.
The answer is that I don’t know of any way that the PI can determine this as of right now (since there is yet no way of doing post-season season searches, only game searches.) I think the only way to do it is to sort through the list manually.
I don’t believe that anybody else among the 5 above had just 1 PA in their series. Anybody else care to check the full list? (linked above.)
Interestingly, the first time such an event ever happened was in 1928! Then it didn’t happen again until 1952! There’s another big gap between 1961 and 1975
Which of those homers do I remember most?
Kirk Gibson. no doubt.
JT Snow’s 3-run game-tying shot! (2000-10-05) What a heartbreaker.
Aaron Boone’s game seven winner (2003-10-16)
Ed Sprague’s game winner in game 2 of the WS (1992-10-18)
Ledee’s grand salami vs. Boston (1999-10-17)
Leyritz’s game-tier (1998-10-01)
Pag’s game winner in the ALCS (1991-10-11)
Mike Lowell’s game one winner (2003-10-07)
Trot Nixon’s game three winner (2003-10-04)
Chili Davis’ game tier in the WS (1991-10-22)
And the one I wasn’t around for, but I’ve read about:
Dusty Rhodes (1954-09-29)
Comment by kingturtle — October 30, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
Here’s the list who have homered in their only plate appearance of an individual postseason series through 2006. From The Lahman Baseball Database (baseball1.com).
yearID round playerID teamID lgID
1953 WS shubage01 BRO NL
1976 WS masonji01 NYA AL
1988 WS gibsoki01 LAN NL
2004 NLDS1 wilsoto02 LAN NL
2005 WS blumge01 CHA AL
2006 NLDS2 tagucso01 SLN NL
Comment by OscarAzocar — October 30, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
Ah, Jim Mason. When I was little, and all the data I had came from the backs of my 1970s Topps baseball cards, I was fascinated with Jim Mason. How could a guy keep playing if he batted in the low .200s and high .100s? He was the guy I loved to hate. Nothing personal. It’s just the way a nine-year old’s mind works.
I was pretty upset when he hit a dinger against my beloved Reds.
Comment by kingturtle — October 30, 2007 @ 1:32 pm
From the list of the guys whose homer came in their only series at-bat, I noticed that two of them - Mason and Wilson - never had another postseason plate appearance, making them the only two guys to have a home run in their only postseason play appearance.
Comment by BunnyWrangler — October 30, 2007 @ 9:12 pm