Eric Davis Joins the 30-30 Club & Ken Griffey Jr.’s 100th Dinger -- Random HR History for Week of 1/27
Come for the random homers, stay for a newsletter announcement.
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, 1/27
9/30/1999: Manny Ramirez slugged this three-run homer for Cleveland. It brought his season-long RBI total to 164, setting a new franchise record. He’d finish the year with 165 rib-eye steaks.
5/18/2003: Scott Rolen extended the Cardinals’ lead over the Cubs with this two-run shot.
7/12/2008: Jason Michaels gave the Pirates a come-from-behind win at PNC Park with this two-run homer.
Tuesday, 1/28
10/14/2008: Shane Victorino tied up NLCS Game 4 with a clutch two-run homer. The Phillies would win 7-5 before clinching the NL Pennant with a Game 5 victory.
10/10/2005: Garret Anderson got the Angels on the board in ALDS Game 5 against the Yankees with a solo home run off Mike Mussina.
5/28/2022: Rougned Odor went to the deep part of Fenway Park to slug a three-run homer for the Orioles.
Wednesday, 1/29
10/4/2022: Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, and Francisco Lindor hit back-to-back-to-back homers to start things off in the first inning for the Mets.
4/5/1996: During a game being played in Las Vegas, Matt Stairs and Terry Steinbach hit back-to-back home runs for the Athletics.
8/23/2023: Paul DeJong went deep in Philly during his first game as a member of the Giants.
Thursday, 1/30
8/8/1987: Eric Davis joined the 30-30 club in epic fashion thanks to this walk-off home run for the Reds. He became the seventh player in MLB history to accomplish the feat.
4/5/2004: Shannon Stewart ended Opening Day on a happy note for the Twins by slugging a three-run walk-off homer.
7/17/2016: Jarrod Saltalamacchia blasted a no-doubter into the right-field seats to give the Tigers a walk-off victory.
Friday, 1/31
9/22/2010: Miguel Tejada slugged the 300th home run of his MLB career. He’d hit seven more taters before hanging up his spikes.
4/11/2007: Carlos Peña is the only Rays hitter to register a 40-homer season. He hit 46 in 2007 to set the franchise’s single-season home run record. This was his first homer of the year.
10/19/2010: Bengie Molina gave the Rangers an ALCS Game 4 lead with this three-run homer.
Saturday, 2/1
7/24/2001: Juan Encarnacion visited the bleachers at Old Yankee Stadium by hitting a solo homer over the left-field wall.
9/4/1993: Randy Velarde extended the Yankees’ lead to 4-0 during Jim Abbott’s memorable no-hitter.
7/12/1994: Marquis Grissom went oppo-taco against Randy Johnson for an All-Star Game home run.
Sunday, 2/2
6/15/1993: Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 100th career home run, which made him the sixth-fastest player to reach that milestone at the time.
7/20/2000: Tony Womack hurt his knee earlier in the game, but that didn’t stop him from slugging a walk-off home run for the DBacks.
6/29/2007: Mark Loretta helped the Astros secure a walk-off win over the Rockies with this game-winning dinger.
Some (Fun!) Changes/Additions To The Newsletter
MLB Daily Dingers has been around in some form since 2020. First, it was strictly on social media (mostly Twitter/X) before also becoming a blog in 2022. I joined Substack in June and I’ve enjoyed bringing my perspective on the game to you all. I’ve been mentioning eventual changes for months, and they’re finally here.
The newsletter now has a paid subscription option! There is one thing I wanted to mention up front, though: what you’ve been getting to your inbox will (always) remain free. Keeping content accessible for everyone is important to me.
So, regardless of whether you’re a free or paid subscriber to MLB Daily Dingers, you’ll be getting emails from me on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The biggest difference is the addition of a few things for paid subscribers, which I’ll list below.
Free Access to Digital Products
I’ve created a Gumroad storefront that currently has three ebooks available:
· Single-Season Home Run Leaders for Each Team in Baseball History
· All-Time Home Run Leaders for Each Team in Baseball History
· Single-Season Home Run Leaders at Each Position for Every MLB Team
Paid subscribers will have free and unlimited access to these books (and the yearly updates), along with any other digital product I create. Once you become a paid subscriber, you’ll get a welcome email with a coupon code to use.
And if you’d just like to buy an ebook, they’re available for $7 (they’ll be more expensive on Amazon and I’m only actively telling Substack subscribers about this).
Subscriber-Only Chats, Polls, and Requests
What’s baseball if we can’t discuss/debate what’s happening in today’s game? What about memorable moments from the past? Substack’s chat feature will allow us to have some fun each week.
And if there’s a specific topic, player, or team you’d like me to focus on for a future newsletter, you’ll have a direct line to request it.
Other Fun Things That Are Still TBD
I’ve been kicking around a couple of ideas for the final paid subscriber perk, some of which include:
A home-run prediction contest (monthly and season-long)
A daily fantasy league that’s run on DraftKings or Underdog
That hasn’t been finalized yet, so if you’re on the fence about being a paid subscriber and have an opinion on what would be more fun, I’m all ears.
Finally, there’s the price — a paid MLB Daily Dingers subscription is $5 per month or $50 for the year. If you have any questions about anything I’ve detailed above, don’t hesitate to ask!
Ken Griffey’s swing was beautiful, but for my money I’d rather watch Eric Davis hit. As far as being aesthetically pleasing and powerful I don’t think it gets much better than Davis.