Most 4-hit games in the first 50 games of a career
This is an easy PI Game Finder search, limiting to the first 50 games of a career, 4 or more hits in a game, sorted by most games in a player’s career.
Do you know who is first? Give yourself 5 guesses and you probably won’t get it.
Games Link to Individual Games +-----------------+-----+-------------------------+ Jeff Stone 4 Ind. Games Ichiro Suzuki 3 Ind. Games Kirby Puckett 3 Ind. Games Hunter Pence 3 Ind. Games Tony Oliva 3 Ind. Games Adam Kennedy 3 Ind. Games Bo Jackson 3 Ind. Games Bob Hazle 3 Ind. Games Cliff Cook 3 Ind. Games Orlando Cepeda 3 Ind. Games Carlos Beltran 3 Ind. Games Clint Barmes 3 Ind. Games Brent Abernathy 3 Ind. Games
That’s right, it’s the inimitable Jeff Stone. He was a guy who, as an undrafted free agent, showed a lot of promise for the Phillies, but never put it together. Eventually, the Phillies dumped him in the same trade where they dumped Rick Schu, who was once going to be their next great 3B after Mike Schmidt.
The list above is a mixed bag. We’ve got Ichiro, Puckett, Oliva, Jackson, Cepeda, and Beltran on the one hand, and Cliff Cook, Bob Hazle, Stone, and Brent Abernathy on the other. Too early to weigh in on Pence, although he had a nice rookie year. Barmes, you might remember, hit.329 in the first half of 2005 before a weird injury ruined his season and perhaps his career. And Adam Kennedy? I’m not sure what to think about him. He’s had some very good years, for sure, but after posting a .572 OPS (!!!) this past year, I wonder if he’s done.
“Do you know who is first? Give yourself 5 guesses and you probably won’t get it.”
More like 1000 guesses.
Stone had 5 4-hit games in 1984 and none in the rest of his career. The first two came within a few days in June and the last 3 in a three week span in September. 3 were against the Mets(2 started by Ron Darling) and 2 were against the late Montreal Expos (both started by Steve Rogers).
Comment by OscarAzocar — January 6, 2008 @ 11:20 am
Hurricane Hazle deserves slightly more credit than being relegated to “the other” hand. Phenomenal partial rookie year for the World Series champs. His career went nowhere after that, but he wasn’t just a Brent Abernathy.
Comment by Johnny Twisto — January 7, 2008 @ 8:08 pm