50 Fun Facts About Home Run

Barry Bonds, MLB's career home run leader with 762, is the godson of which Giants great?

Willie Mays was a Giants teammate and close friend of Barry's father, Bobby Bonds, who asked him to be the boy's godfather; Barry spent his childhood around their clubhouse.

Whose all-time record did Bonds break with his 756th home run in 2007?

Hank Aaron had taken the record from Babe Ruth in 1974, after a chase that brought him thousands of letters a week, hate mail and death threats among them.

Which pitcher gave up Barry Bonds's record-breaking 756th home run in 2007?

Mike Bacsik's father, also a big-league pitcher, had faced the previous record holder in 1976 with that slugger on 755; the son joked that if Dad had given one up, both would have allowed number 756.

The 715th home run that broke Babe Ruth's career record in 1974 came off which Dodgers pitcher?

Al Downing's pitch was driven into the Braves' bullpen, where reliever Tom House, who had stationed himself in left-centre expecting just such a drive, caught the ball.

Who holds the verified world record for professional career home runs, with 868?

Sadaharu Oh hit from a 'flamingo' stance, balanced on one leg as the pitch came, which he perfected through martial-arts training that included swinging a samurai sword.

Babe Ruth was nicknamed the Bambino and 'the Sultan of' what?

Swat fitted the game's most famous slugging outfielder, yet Ruth began his big-league career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

Which Negro league slugger's Hall of Fame plaque says he hit 'almost 800' home runs?

Josh Gibson, often compared with Babe Ruth, never played in the American or National League: he died at 35 in January 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson's debut.

Barry Bonds hit a record 73 home runs in 2001 while also piling up a then-record 177 of what?

Walks: pitchers would rather put Bonds on base than pitch to him, and by 2004 he was being walked 232 times in a season, 120 of them intentionally.

Babe Ruth's record 60 home runs in 1927 anchored which famously nicknamed Yankees lineup?

Murderers' Row outscored its opponents by nearly 400 runs that year, and Ruth's 60 homers alone were more than any other American League team managed.

Who broke Ruth's single-season mark with 61 home runs in 1961?

Roger Maris was so worn down by the chase that his hair fell out in clumps and he had trouble sleeping; number 61 came on the last day of the season.

Why did baseball's commissioner want the 61-homer record of 1961 kept apart from Ruth's?

The season was eight games longer, 162 instead of 154; Ford Frick, once Ruth's ghostwriter and friend, never actually called for an asterisk, which was a sportswriter's suggestion.

In which 1988 film does veteran catcher Crash Davis break the minor-league home run record?

Bull Durham has Crash set the record with a different club, the Asheville Tourists; writer-director Ron Shelton drew on his own years as a minor-league infielder.

Which slugger hit 62 home runs in 2022, breaking an American League record that had stood since 1961?

Aaron Judge hit number 62 in Texas in the Yankees' second-to-last game of the season; that winter the team re-signed him and named him its captain.

Who was Mark McGwire's rival in the 1998 home run chase, finishing with 66?

Sammy Sosa is the only player with three seasons of 60 or more home runs, yet he led the league in none of them; his 66 in 1998 did win him the MVP award.

McGwire's record-breaking 62nd home run in 1998 came off which Cubs pitcher?

Steve Trachsel gave up a drive that only just cleared the left-field wall: at 341 feet it was the shortest of the 70 home runs McGwire hit that season.

According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, the term 'grand slam' comes from which card game?

Contract bridge players call winning every trick in a hand a grand slam, a card-table sense recorded as early as 1800; sport later borrowed it for the bases-loaded homer.

Fernando Tatís Sr. hit two grand slams in one inning in 1999, both off which pitcher?

Chan Ho Park was left in to face Tatís a second time with the bases loaded in the same third inning; the eight runs driven in remain a record for one inning.

Which Red Sox switch-hitter is the only player to hit grand slams from both sides of the plate in one game?

Bill Mueller hit them in consecutive at-bats against Texas in July 2003, part of a three-homer night, and finished that season as the American League batting champion.

Who hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, in Game 1 in 2024?

Freddie Freeman, playing on a badly sprained ankle, hit it in the tenth inning for a 6-3 Dodgers win, then homered in each of the next three games as well.

Which Hall of Fame reliever is credited with coining the term 'walk-off'?

Dennis Eckersley called a game-ending homer a 'walk-off piece', a phrase in print by April 1988; that October he gave one up himself to lose Game 1 of the World Series.

Whose ninth-inning homer won Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, the first Series ever to end on a home run?

Bill Mazeroski, a second baseman prized for his glove, beat a Yankees team that had outscored Pittsburgh 55-27 across the seven games.

Joe Carter's 1993 World Series-winning home run came off which Phillies pitcher?

Mitch Williams, the closer nicknamed 'Wild Thing', never pitched for Philadelphia again: after death threats from fans during the Series, he was traded to Houston that December.

The 1951 'Shot Heard 'Round the World' was hit by which New York Giant?

Bobby Thomson's homer won the pennant; in 2001 a newspaper revealed the Giants had been stealing signs with a telescope that season, though he always said he got no help on that swing.

Who hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run for the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series?

Kirk Gibson had injured both legs and limped around the bases; it was his only appearance of the Series, and weeks later he was named the league's MVP.

Fenway Park's left-field foul pole is named after which catcher, whose 1975 World Series homer struck it?

Carlton Fisk hopped down the line waving the ball fair in the twelfth inning of Game 6, forcing a seventh game that his team then lost to Cincinnati.

Which light-hitting Yankees shortstop homered over the Green Monster in the 1978 tiebreaker?

Bucky Dent had hit only four home runs all season before that three-run shot; he went on to be named World Series MVP, and Red Sox fans gave him an unprintable middle name.

Babe Ruth's 'called shot' came against the Cubs in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series at which ballpark?

Wrigley Field's crowd and the Cubs' bench had been heckling Ruth; film shows he gestured before the pitch, but whether he was pointing to the bleachers is still argued.

Who hit three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series, on three consecutive first pitches?

Reggie Jackson hit them off three different Dodgers pitchers; counting his final swing of Game 5, he had homered on four swings in a row.

Who holds the career record for home runs leading off a game, with 81?

Rickey Henderson, better known as the stolen-base king, could also open a game with a homer; in 1993 he led off both games of a doubleheader with one.

Which Mets star hit a go-ahead home run in New York's first baseball game after the September 11 attacks?

Mike Piazza's two-run shot in the eighth inning put the Mets ahead 3-2 at Shea Stadium, which days earlier had served as a staging area for rescue workers.

Which pair are the only father and son to hit back-to-back home runs in the majors?

Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. did it two weeks after Seattle signed the father, newly released by Cincinnati, to play beside his son; in their first game together they hit back-to-back singles.

Hitting a solo, two-run and three-run homer plus a grand slam in one game is called a home run what?

Cycle: no major leaguer has hit a home run cycle, but two minor leaguers have, the second being Chandler Redmond, who drove in 11 runs in a 21-4 win in 2022.

Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, the home-run-hitting 'Bash Brothers', were teammates on which club?

Oakland Athletics: the pair celebrated homers by bashing forearms, and from 1988 the club reached three straight World Series, winning in 1989.

A fair ball bouncing over the outfield fence was a home run in the 1920s but is scored as what today?

A double: the American League dropped the bounce homer for 1929 and the National League for 1931. Fans call it a ground-rule double, though it is automatic under the league-wide rulebook.

Which Yankee hit a 1953 home run in Washington that a team official announced at 565 feet?

Mickey Mantle drove it off Chuck Stobbs clean out of Griffith Stadium; Yankees official Red Patterson put the distance at 565 feet, though estimates range down to 540.

In which city did a minor leaguer hit the longest verifiable pro home run, 582 feet, in 1987?

Denver: Joey Meyer of the minor-league Zephyrs drove the ball into the second deck in left-centre at Mile High Stadium, and a city engineer was called on to measure it.

Through the 2024 postseason, who held the career record for postseason home runs, with 29?

Manny Ramirez played when a title took three playoff rounds, and he appeared in 111 postseason games; in Babe Ruth's day the World Series was the only round there was.

Who set the record for most home runs in a single postseason, ten in 2020?

Randy Arozarena hit more home runs in that one postseason than in the regular season, when he managed seven in 23 games after starting the year on the COVID-19 injured list.

Which team's 2019 'Bomba Squad' hit 307 home runs, setting an MLB single-season record?

Minnesota Twins: they finished one homer ahead of the Yankees, who hit 306 that year, then met them in the playoffs and were swept in three games.

Whose 2008 home run at Tropicana Field was the first ever reviewed by instant replay?

Alex Rodriguez's drive struck a catwalk near the left-field foul pole and was ruled a homer; when Tampa Bay's manager protested, the umpires used the new replay system and upheld the call.

Which 2007 All-Star Game MVP hit the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history?

Ichiro Suzuki's drive hit the right-field wall and kicked away at an odd angle, leaving the outfielder chasing while he circled the bases; he went 3-for-3 that night.

Who hit the only known walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in the majors, at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field in 1956?

Roberto Clemente came up with his team three runs down in the ninth, cleared the loaded bases and kept running all the way home for a 9-8 win over the Cubs.

Which slugger, nicknamed the Polar Bear, won back-to-back Home Run Derbies in 2019 and 2021?

Pete Alonso won as a rookie in 2019 and again in 2021, when he hit a then-record 35 in the first round despite not being picked for the All-Star Game itself.

Who set the Home Run Derby single-round record with 41 homers in 2023?

Julio Rodríguez hit them in the opening round before his home crowd in Seattle, then lost the semifinal by a single homer, 21-20, to the eventual champion, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Who became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in one season, in 2024?

Shohei Ohtani passed both marks in a single game against Miami, with six hits, three homers, two steals and ten RBIs, in a year when elbow surgery kept him from pitching.

'Splash hits' land on the fly in McCovey Cove, beyond the right-field wall of which ballpark?

Oracle Park backs onto San Francisco Bay, so fans wait in boats and kayaks to scoop up the balls; Barry Bonds hit 35 of the Giants' splash hits.

Which dead-ball-era star was nicknamed 'Home Run' despite never hitting more than 12 in a season?

Frank Baker earned the name in the 1911 World Series, homering on consecutive days off two future Hall of Fame pitchers, Rube Marquard and Christy Mathewson.

Which Red Sox legend homered in his final major-league at-bat in 1960, then refused to tip his cap?

Ted Williams ignored the crowd's chants of 'We want Ted' and never came back out; John Updike, who was in the stands, explained it in five words: 'Gods do not answer letters.'

Which slugger, known for his menacing bat waggle, hit MLB's 250,000th home run, a grand slam, in 2008?

Gary Sheffield had also hit number 249,999 in his previous at-bat, off the same Oakland pitcher, Gio González; the running count is Baseball-Reference's.

According to an old baseball saying, home run hitters drive Cadillacs while singles hitters drive what?

Fords: Ralph Kiner, who led his league in home runs seven years running, made the line famous but credited it to his Pirates teammate, pitcher Fritz Ostermueller.