A Bo Jackson Moonshot, Ruben Sierra & Don Mattingly Make Yankee Stadium Erupt -- Random HR History for Week of 1/13
Come for the random homers, stay to remember just how great Jim Thome was.
Just because it’s the offseason doesn’t mean I still don’t share home run videos every day. Instead of discussing “on this date in home run history,” you now get a chance to see which random players/moments I’ve been thinking about recently.
And since you’re on this email list, you get a sneak peek of what I’m sharing for the upcoming week before everyone else does. Enjoy!
Monday, 1/13
5/2/1989: Mike Schmidt hit the 548th and final home run of his Hall of Fame career for the Phillies.
8/14/2009: Brandon Inge broke a scoreless tie and sent the Tigers home with a win thanks to this walk-off dinger.
10/9/2015: Josh Donaldson got the Blue Jays on the board in ALDS Game 2 with a first-inning home run.
Tuesday, 1/14
9/30/1995: Albert Belle slugged his 50th home run of the season. He led the league in homers (50), RBI (126), doubles (52), runs scored (121), slugging percentage (.690) and total bases (377), but finished second in AL MVP Award voting.
4/15/1993: Andre Dawson slugged the 400th home run of his big-league career. He hit 13 homers with 67 RBI and a .738 OPS in 121 games for the Red Sox in ’93.
6/18/2015: Kyle Schwarber hit his first MLB home run. He finished his rookie season with a .842 OPS and 16 homers in 69 games played.
Wednesday, 1/15
10/4/1995: Ruben Sierra and Don Mattingly made Yankee Stadium erupt with back-to-back home runs in ALDS Game 2 against the Mariners.
10/1/1996: Juan Gonzalez gave the Rangers an ALDS Game 1 lead with this three-run homer. He posted a 1.901 OPS with five homers in 19 plate appearances during the series.
4/8/2024: Fernando Tatis Jr. helped the Padres erase an 8-0 deficit with this go-ahead homer in the eighth inning at Petco Park. San Diego would win the game, 9-8.
Thursday, 1/16
7/5/1993: Rickey Henderson played in a doubleheader for the Athletics. He slugged a leadoff homer in each contest because of course he did.
7/28/2002: Jim Thome helped Cleveland beat Detroit by slugging a walk-off grand slam. His 52 homers during the 2002 season are still a franchise record.
3/30/2023: Adley Rutschman homered in his first at-bat of the regular season. That was just the start of a five-hit, four-RBI day at the dish.
Friday, 1/17
4/6/2001: Richie Sexson gave the Brewers a lead in the eighth inning of their first game at Miller Park with a homer, and he knew it immediately.
10/16/1985: Jack Clark’s clutch three-run homer gave the Cardinals a ninth-inning lead in NLCS Game 6.
5/17/2006: Chipper Jones walked it off against the Marlins with a three-run homer at Turner Field.
Saturday, 1/18
9/16/1990: Bo Jackson’s 25th home run of the season for the Royals was a tape-measure shot. He’d finish with 28 dingers, his fourth straight year with 20-plus taters.
7/14/2006: Carlos Guillen broke a 9-9 tie at Comerica Park by hitting a walk-off homer for the Tigers. Through 153 games played, Guillen posted a .920 OPS with 19 homers, 41 doubles and 85 RBI for Detroit.
8/7/1999: Wade Boggs hit a home run for his 3,000th career hit, becoming the first MLB player to reach that exclusive club with a dinger.
Sunday, 1/19
5/30/2015: Giancarlo Stanton made Citi Field look very small with this mammoth home run for the Marlins. Just an excellent reaction from the booth and an equally excellent hat from Alex Torres on the mound.
6/21/2008: Jim Edmonds enjoyed homering in the fourth inning for the Cubs so much that he decided to do it twice.
5/13/2012: Following a long rain delay, Joey Votto went off for three homers. He capped his night with a walk-off grand slam.
An Underrated First-Ballot Hall of Famer?
Jim Thome will always be underrated in my book.
He enjoyed 12 seasons with 30-plus homers, including eight times in a row from 1996 through 2004. His single-season career-high was 52 dingers in 2002.
Despite that, he only led the league in homers once (47 in 2003 with the Phillies). Even though Thome racked up 1,699 career RBI, he also never led in that category during a single season.
Thome only won one Silver Slugger Award (1996) and was selected to just five All-Star Games. Yet, he’s just one of nine hitters to surpass the 600-homer plateau and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame after getting 89.8% of the vote on his first ballot.
A legendary slugger that I think doesn’t get as much love as he should.
Always up for seeing Bo highlights!