The First Home Run

I was perusing the Blue Jays Media Guide, having no life and all, and I was reminded that Fred McGriff had hit the first home run ever struck at the Rogers Centre. I knew that, it's a Trivial Question I'm ready for! Fred was also the man who stole the first base ever pilfered there later that same evening, something which seems a little less likely (and thus an even better Trivial Quesion, one I am likewise ready for.) Anyway I naturally wondered, because I'm funny that way - who hit the first home run at the other parks? Maybe it'll be interesting.

Well, turns out that it's really not - but having gone and done the bloody work I'm certainly not going to keep it to myself. It is my obligation, my sacred duty to inflict... uh, share this with the world.

SO, here they are in chronological order. You will  notice that today's baseball stadiums often had a different name back when that first long ball was hit. Even Wrigley Field.

1912
Fenway Park, BOS - Hugh Bradley BOS (off Lefty Russell, PHA), 26 April 1912

1916
Wrigley Field (Weeghman Park) CHC - Johnny Beall CIN (off Claude Hendrix, CHC), 20 Apr 1916

1962
Dodger Stadium, LAD - Wally Post CIN (off Johnny Podres, LAD), 10 Apr 1962

1966
Angel Stadium LAA - Rick Reichardt CAL (off Tommy John, CHW), 19 Apr 1966

1968
Ring Central Coliseum (Oakland Coliseum) OAK - Boog Powell BAL (off Lew Krausse, OAK), 17 Apr 1968

1973
Kauffman Stadium (Royals Stadium) KCR - John Mayberry KCR (off Bill Gogolewski, TEX), 10 Apr 1973

1989
Rogers Centre (SkyDome), TOR - Fred McGriff TOR (off Don August, MIL), 5 June 1989

1991
Guaranteed Rate Field (Comiskey II) CLE - Cecil Fielder DET (off Jack McDowell, CHW), 18 Apr 1991

1992
Camden Yards BAL - Paul Sorrento CLE (off Bob Milacki, BAL), 9 April 1992

1994
Progressive Field (Jacobs Field) - Eric Anthony SEA (off Dennis Martinez, CLE), 4 Apr 1994

1995
Coors Field, COL - Rico Brogna NYM (off Bill Swift, COL), 26 Apr 1995

1998
Tropicana Field, TBR - Luis Gonzalez DET (off Dan Carlson, TBR), 31 March 1998
Chase Field, ARI - Vinny Castilla COL (off Andy Benes, ARI), 31 Mar 1998

1999
T-Mobile Park (Safeco Field) SEA - Russ Davis SEA (off Woody Williams, SDP), 17 July 1999

2000
Minute Maid Park (Enron Field) HOU - Scott Rolen PHI (off Octavio Dotel, HOU), 7 Apr 2000
Oracle Park (Pacific Bell Park) SFG - Kevin Elster LAD (off Kirk Reuter, SFG), 11 Apr 2000
Comerica Park DET - Juan Gonzalez DET (off Ryan Rupe, TBR), 14 Apr 2000

2001
American Family Field (Miller Park) MIL - Michael Tucker CIN (off Jeff D'Amico, MIL), 6 Apr 2001
PNC Park, PGH - Sean Casey CIN (off Todd Ritchie, PGH), 9 Apr 2001

2003
Great American Ball Park, CIN - Reggie Sanders PGH (iff Jimmy Haynes, CIN), 31 Mar 2003

2004
Petco Park, SDP - Marquis Grissom SFG (off Antonio Osuna, SDP), 8 Apr 2004
Citizens Bank Park PHI - Bobby Abreu PHI (off Paul Wilson, CIN), 12 Apr 2004

2006
Busch Stadium III, STL - Bill Hall MIL (off Mark Mulder, STL), 10 Apr 2006

2008
Nationals Park, WAS - Hanley Ramirez FLA (off Tim Redding, WAS), 7 Apr 2008

2009
Yankee Stadium, NYY - Jorge Posada NYY (off Cliff Lee, CLE), 16 Apr 2009 (At the original Yankee Stadium, it was - who else - Babe Ruth off Howard Ehmke of the Red Sox on 18 April 1923)
Citi Field NYM - Jody Gerut SDP (off Mike Pelfrey, NYM), 17 Apr 2009

2010
Target Field MIN - Jason Kubel MIN (off Scott Atchison, BOS), 12 Apr 2010

2012
LoanDepot Park (Marlins Park) MIA - J.D. Martinez HOU (off Edward Mujica, MIA), 13 Apr 2012

2017
Truist Park (SunTrust Park) ATL - Ender Inciarte ATL (off Craig Stammen, SDP) 14 Apr 2017

2020
Globe Life Field TEX - Joey Gallo TEX (off Kyle Freeland, COL), 26 July 2020

No, I never heard of Hugh Bradley, either. Yes, he was a member of the Boston team that won the fabled 1912 clash with the Giants that I may have discussed once or twice. But Bradley was a backup firstbaseman and didn't appear in the World Series. His Fenway Park homer was the third - and last - of his career.

There's a remarkable lack of Hall of Famers found here, although Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff still have more than a fighting chance. Alex Rodriguez homered in the first game at Safeco, Barry Bonds homered in the first game at Pac Bell and Albert Pujols homered in the first game at Busch III - but they were each beaten to the punch by Russ Davis, Kevin Elster, and Bill Hall.

I do think a special shout-out is owed to the immortal Jody Gerut, who was the first man ever to bat at Citi Field, and homered on the third pitch of the game.

Two parks saw their homer maiden broken on the same day in 1998 - but the game in Tampa Bay had concluded before the one in Arizona got started. Hence Luis Gonzalez comes before Vinny Castilla. That, my friends, is called attention to detail, although it's been called a few other things over the years. Castilla made up for tardiness by hitting another homer in the next inning.

But Kevin Elster could beat that. After hitting the first homer ever in Pac Bell Park to tie the game at 1-1, he watched Barry Bonds strike the second to put the Giants up 2-1. So Elster went and hit another, with a runner on, to put the Dodgers up 3-2. Later on, Doug Mirabelli hit the fourth homer of the game, to bring the Giants to within a run. So Elster went and hit another, putting the Dodgers up 6-4. Yet another homer, this one by J.T. Snow got the Giants back to within a run but that was as close as they got.

I could have done this for hits as well, I suppose. First winning pitcher. Hell, first error. Well, there will be other off-days. But please don't think that's a threat.

Finally - we've been expending some angst over the Blue Jays performance with Runners in Scoring Position, which has indeed been something that makes one simply want to look away. Until this past weekend, anyway. So here's a quick Copy and Paste of the individual numbers:

                       GP   AB   R   H	2B  3B	HR  RBI	BB  SO	 AVG	 OBP	 SLG	 OPS	
Tyler Heineman         10    3	 2   1	 0   0	 0   1	 0   0	.333	.333	.333	.667
Zack Collins           20   13	 3   4	 1   0	 1   7	 1   5	.308	.357	.615	.973	
Cavan Biggio           17   11	 5   3	 1   0	 0   1	 1   3	.273	.333	.364	.697	
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.  46   37	11  10	 1   0	 2  16	 9   8	.270	.408	.459	.868	
George Springer        45   38	17   9	 1   1	 1  15	 5  14	.237	.319	.395	.714	
Teoscar Hernandez      24   22	 4   5	 0   0	 1   8	 3   6	.227	.320	.364	.684	
Raimel Tapia           42   38	10   8	 1   0	 0  10	 0   9	.211	.205	.237	.442	
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.    43   34	 9   7	 5   0	 0  14	 4   8	.206	.293	.353	.646	
Matt Chapman           47   44	12   9	 1   0	 1  12	 5  17	.205	.294	.295	.590	
Santiago Espinal       47   40	11   8	 3   0	 0  12	 4   7	.200	.255	.275	.530	
Bo Bichette            47   40	17   7	 1   0	 2  15   4  10	.175	.250	.350	.600	
Alejandro Kirk         41   25	14   4	 0   0	 0   8  10   1	.160	.378	.160	.538	
Danny Jansen           14   10	 2   1	 0   0	 1   3   0   2	.100	.100	.400	.500	
Gosuke Katoh            8    1	 2   0	 0   0	 0   0	 1   1	.000	.500	.000	.500	
Vinny Capra             8    0	 2   0	 0   0	 0   0	 1   0	.000   1.000	.000   1.000	
Bradley Zimmer         33    9	 3   0	 0   0	 0   0	 1   6	.000	.182	.000	.182	

Basically, Vlad's been okay and everyone else has been various degrees of bad and awful. But I would want to draw your attention to the line for Alejandro Kirk. No, not the 4-25, but rather the 10 bases on balls. The plate discipline is admirable, especially from such a young hitter. I was curious to discover who was hitting behind Kirk in the lineup. Most often it was Matt Chapman (13 games). On other occasions, it was Santiago Espinal (7), Raimel Tapia (7), Lourdes Gurriel (3), Cavan Biggio (3), and Bradley Zimmer (1).

Pitchers are afraid.