36 Responses to “Fewest career HR for a player with a 3-HR game since 1951”

1. Kirby Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 11:51 am

   I remember the Freddie Patek 3-HR game very well. It was at Fenway Park and I couldn't believe that little guy could hit 3 HRs!

2. DavidRF Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:12 pm

   Gary Gaetti almost did it in 5 back in 1982:

   http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN198204060.shtml

   In just his 10th MLB game with 2 career homers going in, he was thrown out at the plate trying to stretch a 3B into an IPHR in the second inning and hit 2 HR later in the game.

3. John Autin Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:27 pm

   A fun list!

   -- Don Leppert's 3-HR game was 1963-04-11, 3rd game of the year, for the host Senators against the Red Sox. In that same game, Tom Cheney (who had set the single-game strikeout record with 21 in 16 innings the previous September) threw a 1-hit shutout with 10 Ks, allowing only Eddie Bressoud's single in the 4th.

   Cheney was on fire to start the '63 season. He followed the 1-hitter with 3 more CG wins allowing a total of 1 ER. After 4 starts he was 4-0, 0.25 ERA, 15 hits in 36 IP, with 38 Ks and 5 walks. Cheney threw 2 more shutouts in June, but was injured by mid-season and missed most of the 2nd half, and was essentially finished after that year.

4. John DiFool Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:30 pm

   Is there a reason why Patek is not on the list (should slot in at T-19 with Bobby Estalella)?

5. Andy Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:32 pm

   Patek is at #17

6. DavidRF Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:34 pm

   @2
   Oh... I read the post wrong. I thought it was career HR at the time of the 3-HR game. This is career HR total. Gaetti never hit a 3-HR game anyways, but the hypothetical case of him being safe at home in that game early in his career would no longer put him on the list.

7. JohnBoy Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:37 pm

   Ahh... Tuffy Rhodes. Memories of Rotisserie Baseball owners seriously overbidding for his services. Great list Andy.

8. Yetijuice Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:42 pm

   I was at the Hee-Seop Choi and Tony Solaita three home run games. Choi was on fire that weekend. In three games against Minnesota the Dodger first baseman hit six home runs. After his three home run game the L.A. Times headline proclaimed "Three Sock Joy!"

9. John Autin Says:
   May 16th, 2011 at 12:52 pm

   Bill Glynn's big day came while batting leadoff for Cleveland in Tiger Stadium, and included a grand slam off Ralph Branca.
   http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET195407051.shtml
   He finished with 8 RBI, which ties the record for a #1 hitter in the searchable era. (Shared with Ronnie Belliard, Jim Northrup and Bill Bergamo.)

   Glynn batted 6 times that game and hit 6 fly balls. The first 2 were caught, then came the 3 HRs. In his final trip, he batted with the bases loaded and a chance to tie the single-game HR record and the AL RBI record, but his fly to deep CF was hauled in and he settled for a sac fly.

   As far as the Play Index can tell, Glynn was the 2nd leadoff man ever to hit 3 HRs in a game.

   That game was the 1st of a doubleheader. In the nightcap, Glynn went 0-5 with a GDP, as Detroit's George Zuverink tossed an 11-inning, 3-hit shutout, won on Harvey Kuenn's walkoff HR against Don Mossi.

   Glynn's outburst had given Cleveland an 8-game win streak and a record of 53-22 (.707). Then they got hot, going 58-21 (.734) the rest of the way to finish at 111-43.

   Glynn was a backup 1B and frequent defensive replacement for Vic Wertz. He got into 111 games that year, but had just 185 PAs. He got into 2 WS games as a pinch-hitter. He had a chance to be a hero in game 1, batting in the top of the 10th with runners on the corners and 1 out, but he struck out against Marv Grissom. (Dusty Rhodes won it with a HR in the bottom half.) He doubled and scored late in game 3, but the rally came up far short. Bill Glynn never played in the majors again.

10. Blake Gray Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    Tuffy Rhodes went on to be a great player in Japan.

11. Drew Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    I was positive José Reyes would be here, but alas... 75 HR and counting for the "slugger" from Santiago de los Caballeros.

12. argman Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    @1 - and I remember watching the Yankees game that night and Bill White teasing Rizzuto about Patek being the better power hitter.

13. John Autin Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    If you sort the list by career PAs, the "winner" is Jose Ortiz.

    On 2001-08-17, Ortiz hit 3 HRs for host Colorado against the Marlins.
    Florida scored 5 runs in the top of the 1st inning but never scored again.
    All 3 of Ortiz's HRs came with 2 out, including a 2-run shot in the 5th that tied the game.

    Ortiz had a big year at AAA in 2000, hitting .351 with 24 HRs, .983 OPS. Oakland dealt him in the package that brought Jermaine Dye, on the same day that Dye had been traded from KC to Colorado. The Rockies brought him up and put him in the lineup, and Ortiz hit 6 HRs in both August and September, 13 HRs in 204 AB with Colorado that year. The following year he hit just 1 HR in 65 games and got sent back to the minors, never to return. Ortiz played in Japan and Mexico from 2007-10.

14. eorns Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    It's unbelievable that Patek did this. Prior to this game, he had averaged just one home run every 164 PA in over 6,000 career PA. And before he hit three homers in four trips to the plate, he had hit a total of 3 homers in his previous1,002 PA! And he was a 35-year-old shortstop.

15. JohnBoy Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    #10 (Blake) - Sadly, we never played in a Japanese Fantasy Baseball League...

16. Thomas Court Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    @2 and 6

    The hypothetical only exists if Gaetti was safe at home for the last of his three home runs. You cannot assume that if he was safe for an IPHR in the 2nd inning that his following two at bats would have the exact same results. If he was safe it would have changed everything that happened from that point forward - the order of batters faced, pitch location, etc.

    If Gaetti was safe it would have prolonged the second inning instead of ending when the next man up (Butch Wynegar) struck out. Dave Engle led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single. He would not have led off if Gaetti had homered in the second. He would have come up at the end of the 3rd inning.

    For all I know Gaetti might have hit 5 home runs in that game if he was safe at home. No one know what would have happened. The pitcher he hit them off of, Floyd Bannister, might have been yanked before he had a chance to give up the third home run.

    I think baseball announcers will be the last people to learn this little "butterfly effect" thing that is so easy to explain with baseball. Hypothetical situation:

    Ellsbury on first, one out. Ellsbury gets picked off. Pedroia homers three pitches later. Announcer (Joe Castiglione): "Well, Ellsbury just cost the Red Sox a run by getting picked off there."

    No, NO, NO!!!

    If Ellsbury was still on first, the pitcher would be pitching from the stretch. He might have thrown over a few more times to keep Ellsbury close. And he probably would have pitched to Pedroia more carefully with a runner on base. He would not have thrown the same exact pitches, to the same exact location to generate the same exact result.

17. Andy Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    Thomas, great choice to pick on Castiglione. That guy makes Red Sox radio broadcasts absolutely unlistenable. Aside from being a complete homer, he's also remarkably ignorant.

18. Thomas Court Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Freddie Patek does stand out on this list. He has more than twice the number of games and hits as anyone on the list. He also has the lowest slugging percentage. I would have loved to watch a 5'5" 148 pound shortstop pop three balls over the Green Monster. Must have been some game for him. It was a day game played on a Friday - I wonder if his teammates took him to the Foxy Lady to celebrate that night.

19. Richard Chester Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    @9

    I loved when Bill Glynn was in the line-up because it meant when the Yankees played the Indians Luke Easter was not in the line-up.

20. John Autin Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    @19, Richard Chester -- Since you mentioned Luscious Luke Easter....
    Looking at his minor-league career, I noticed that he played for more than a decade after his last year in the majors, mostly in the AAA International League.

    For the first 5 of those years, he was extremely productive, one of the best hitters in his league every year. He led the IL in OPS in 1954. In '55, he was among the American Association leaders in OPS, HRs and RBI. In '56, he led the IL in OPS, HRs and RBI. In '57, he led again in OPS and had 40 HRs (only player in the IL with 30+) and 128 RBI (2nd was 102). In 1958, at age 42, he was 2nd in OPS, HRs and RBI.

    In his 3 full MLB seasons (1950-52), Luke Easter averaged 29 HRs, 102 RBI (in 132 games) and a 127 OPS+. In '53 he got hurt after 4 games and missed 2 months, but came back to finish at .303 with a 118 OPS. But in '54 he never started a game; he pinch-hit 6 times, then was farmed out in early May. And despite raking for many more years, he never got back to the major leagues.

    Does anyone know why?

    His minor-league numbers were not produced in some hitter's haven. For 1956-58 combined, he hit 27% of Buffalo's total HRs (133 of 422) and was far above the team average in all rate stats.

21. Evil Squirrel Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 3:36 pm

    The first person I thought of when I saw this blog post was Darnell Coles, then was shocked to see so many people with fewer than his 75 career HR's on the list...

    Then I remembered Coles' claim to fame was hitting three homers in a game TWICE! I'm thinking he may be the record holder for fewest by a player with a pair of hat tricks...

22. Andy Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 3:46 pm

    #21 Here is the answer:

    91 players since 1901 have had at least 2 career games with 3+ HR. They are here.

    Fewest career HR among those 91 players:

    Rk	Player	HR
    1	Dusty Rhodes	54
    2	Darnell Coles	75
    3	Pat Seerey	86
    4	Erubiel Durazo	94
    5	Geronimo Berroa	101
    6	Jonny Gomes	110
    7	Aaron Boone	126
    8	Pinky Higgins	140
    9	High Pockets Kelly	148
    10	Cory Snyder	149
    11	Don Demeter	163
    12	Claudell Washington	164
    13	Tony Lazzeri	178
    14	Bobby Higginson	187
    15	Glenn Davis	190
    16	Gus Bell	206
    17	Al Oliver	219
    18	Geoff Jenkins	221
    19	Johnny Callison	226
    20	Hal Trosky	228
    21	Nomar Garciaparra	229
    22	Ben Oglivie	235
    23	Doug DeCinces	237
    24	Roberto Clemente	240
    25	Goose Goslin	248

    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
    Generated 5/16/2011.
23. Thomas Court Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    @21

    When I see the name Darnell Coles I think of the first pages of Moneyball. He was one of the players that ran a sprint against a young Billy Beane and got smoked.

    There was talk of a movie, with Brad Pitt as the Oakland GM. Given the success of Lewis' The Blind Side, you would think a movie based on Moneyball is inevitable. Casting ideas anyone? It's too bad he is dead because Lawrence Tierney (old cursing leader from Reservoir Dogs) would have been perfect to play one of the old scouts who would grumble at Beane's draft room performance.

24. Evil Squirrel Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    Learn something new every day..... thanks Andy!

25. Hartvig Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    John Austin @ 20

    I'd guess that the reason Easter didn't get another chance pretty much boils down to racism. In '55 several teams, including the Red Sox and Cardinals, still weren't integrated and Ellie Howard had just joined the Yankees that year. He supposedly wasn't a good fielder and I think some people thought he had attitude problems but I'd put my money on ignorance and racism.

26. eorns Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    Regarding Dusty Rhodes, he only had 5 multi-homer games in his career. In these games, he had just 5 PA in which he was vying for his third home run of the game, and he homered in 2 of them!

27. Fewest career HR for a player with a 3-HR game since 1951 » Stathead » Blog Archive Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    [...] Fewest career HR for a player with a 3-HR game since 1951: Andy K. of B-R’s blog lists the 3-HR-in-a-game club members who hit the fewest career HR. [...]

28. Richard Chester Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 6:17 pm

    @25

    John: Age may also have had something to do with it. Easter was 38 when he left the Indians who were probably more anxious to go with the younger Vic Wertz at first.

29. Luis Gomez Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 7:53 pm

    The first player I thought of was Adam Kennedy, but then I remeber that he hit those 3 homeruns on a LCS game. Another one was Bobby Avila.

    Jonny Gomes once hit 3 homeruns in a Mexican Winter League playoff game, all measured 480+ feet, all three completely out of the stadium in Mexicali.

30. DoubleDiamond Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 8:39 pm

    The first name that came to mind for me when I saw this topic but hadn't yet read the list was Jeff Treadway. His 3-homer game, for the visiting Atlanta Braves in Veterans Stadium, came during the game in which the Phillies were honoring Mike Schmidt, who had recently retired.

31. Adam Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 9:35 pm

    On the topic of 3 homer games, I have to give a shout out to my favorite player - Frank Thomas. He had two 3 home run games. Both were started by Tim Wakefield.

    In the first game 09/15/96, Wakefield actually gave up 5 home runs. 3 to Thomas, 1 to Ventura and 1 to Tartabull. They were all solo shots. Wakefield gave up just one other hit in his six innings of work and worked a no decision as the Red Sox won 9-8. It probably did not help that Kevin Tapini also gave up three home runs, including two to John Valentin.

    In the second 3 home run game, almost 11 years to the day - 09/17/07, Thomas "only" hit 2 off Wakefield and finished the game with his third off Kyle Snyder.

    Sorry to be off topic, but I wanted to have my John Autin moment. By that I mean I am always impressed and excited to read one of John's posts because I will most likely learn some obscure and interesting fact that I did not know earlier in the day. Thank you to all the work of the blog wrtiers and all the other contributers of the best site on the internet.

32. John Autin Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 9:47 pm

    @31, Adam -- Cool! I did not know that story about Big Hurt and Wake's wobbly offerings.

    Funny thing ... In the 10+ years between those two 3-HR games, Thomas faced Wakefield 38 times and collected just 5 hits (1 HR), with 14 Ks (!) and 5 walks.

    In all, Thomas hit 7 HRs in 65 PAs against Wakefield, with 16 strikeouts.
    "Swing hard -- in case you hit it!"

    Give Wakefield this, though: He never intentionally walked big Frank!

33. John Autin Says:
    May 16th, 2011 at 10:05 pm

    @25/Hartvig, @28/Richard -- Racism and age likely were major reasons that Easter never got another look.

    Still seems weird that the KC A's (who were Buffalo's parent club when Easter was mashing in 1957-58) made no move for him. The A's were integrated; they had Vic Power as a regular from 1954-58, and Harry "Suitcase" Simpson for most of the time from 1955-58. At the trade deadline in '58, they dealt Power to Cleveland, and made a separate deal to re-acquire Simpson from the Yankees, then installed Simpson at 1B the rest of the year. With the team out of contention (as always), why bother trading for Simpson when Easter was just sitting there?

    But maybe the arrangement with Buffalo wasn't a straight "farm team" setup. I see a lot of older players on that Buffalo roster; 7 of their 10 most regular hitters were at least 32.

    Well, at least Easter found a home and wound up in the I.L. Hall of Fame.

34. Darrel Says:
    May 17th, 2011 at 12:01 am

    I was listening to the Royals the evening Patek hit his 3. Denny Matthews said "You won't believe who just hit his 2nd homer in Boston." Later in the broadcast, he said "You won't believe who just his his 3rd homer in Boston." Patek was, of course, an ex-Royal.

35. Fewest career RBI for a player with an 8+ RBI game since 1919 » Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive Says:
    May 18th, 2011 at 6:02 am

    [...] with my recent post about fewest career HR buy a guy with a 3+ homer game, I have included active players here who are likely to move off the list given some [...]

36. Pete Cottrell Says:
    May 18th, 2011 at 8:29 am

    I know the search was only since 1951, but on 9/17/38, Merv Connors of the White Sox had 3 HRs against the Philadelphia A's.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA193809172.shtml

    Connors ended up with 8 career major league HRs, although he hit over 400 more in the minors. His Bullpen entry on this site says that he has the fewest home runs of any player who hit 3 or more in a game.