Comments on: The Twins’ Luke Hughes and homering in the first career plate appearance

By: Theron

Theron — Sat, 08 May 2010 02:22:34 +0000

My father bought a Mark Saccomanno game-worn jersey in an Astros.com charity auction solely because of that Seinfeld name.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:24:17 +0000

Sweet. My wife and I went to Sydney and several other spots in that neck of the works for our honeymoon. Sydney ranks as one of my most favorite cities in the world.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:01:53 +0000

Yes, Andy, I live in Sydney.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 01 May 2010 16:36:26 +0000

Gerry, if I'm not mistaken you live in Australia, right? I have been there myself.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:19:35 +0000

I think Hughes is the first Australian to homer in his first major league PA. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!

By: DoubleDiamond

DoubleDiamond — Sat, 01 May 2010 01:39:24 +0000

I am hopelessly out of touch with popular culture. The meaning of a possible name of Bob Saccomanno is beyond me. I even tried saying it out loud, but the pronounced name didn't give me any clue, either.

I just posted an amount of $406 in another comment here tonight. In case you are wondering where I came up with that figure, think about some famous achievement associated with a famous Red Sox player.

By: Vidor

Vidor — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:06:11 +0000

No prob--I suspected that was the reason, his first PA not coming in his first game.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:28:59 +0000

Wainwright doesn't come up in the search because he has all of the following games that show up as official batting games:

Rk	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB
1	2005-09-11	STL	NYM	L 2-7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	2005-09-12	STL	PIT	W 4-3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	2005-09-23	STL	MIL	L 6-9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

4	2006-04-03	STL	PHI	W 13-5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	2006-04-07	STL	CHC	L 1-5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	2006-04-09	STL	CHC	L 4-8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	2006-04-13	STL	MIL	L 3-4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	2006-04-16	STL	CIN	W 8-7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	2006-04-22	STL	CHC	W 4-1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	2006-04-24	STL	PIT	W 7-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11	2006-04-30	STL	WSN	W 9-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12	2006-05-04	STL	HOU	L 3-4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13	2006-05-06	STL	FLA	W 7-6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
14	2006-05-09	STL	COL	W 4-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	2006-05-10	STL	COL	W 7-4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	2006-05-14	STL	ARI	L 6-7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 4/30/2010.

In all these cases, he came in on a double-switch and therefore replaced an actual batter, but he never got a plate appearance, as you are correct that he homered in his eventual first plate appearance later in 2006. Unfortunately there is no way to fix this in the search. First career game is first career game, regardless of whether the player got a plate appearance or not. So a non-pitcher who appeared as, say, a pinch-runner or defensive substitution but never got a plate appearance would also be missed in this search if they eventually did homer in their first plate appearance and it came in a later game. Thanks for pointing out the shortcoming of this list.

By: Vidor

Vidor — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:18:42 +0000

You forgot Adam Wainwright.

By: wboenig

wboenig — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:37:24 +0000

I think I can top that one. On September 4, 1978 Dorian Boyland made his ML debut with the Pirates as a pinch-hitter for Ed Whiton in the 7th inning. The count went to 1 and 2, then Mets righty Skip Lockwood hurt his arm and was replaced by lefty Kevin Kobel. Chuck Tanner countered by replacing the left-handed Boyland with right-handed Rennie Stennett. Stennett took strike three, but because Boyland took strike two, the strikeout was charged to him. So he struck out in his first major league at-bat while sitting on the bench!

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197809041.shtml