Most Home Runs Without a 3 Homer Game
Posted by Raphy on February 23, 2009
Recently, Andy looked at the unlikely players who hit 3 home runs in a game. I'd like to do the opposite and find the home run hitters who have never have hit 3 in one game. Since 1956, 35 players have 400 or more home runs. Three of those players (the ones on this list whose career home runs are all accounted for) never hit 3 in one game*:
Cnt Player **HR** From To Ages G PA AB R H 2B 3B RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Positions Teams +----+-----------------+-------+----+----+-----+----+-----+-----+----+----+---+---+----+----+---+----+---+---+---+---+----+---+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+-----------+ 7 Rafael Palmeiro 569 1986 2005 21-40 2831 12046 10472 1663 3020 585 38 1835 1353 171 1348 87 15 119 231 97 40 .288 .371 .515 .886 *3D7/98 CHC-TEX-BAL 18 Gary Sheffield 499 1988 2008 19-39 2476 10635 8949 1592 2615 454 25 1633 1435 127 1125 133 9 109 225 251 103 .292 .394 .516 .910 957D/63 MIL-SDP-TOT-FLA-LAD-ATL-NYY-DET 19 Fred McGriff 493 1986 2004 22-40 2460 10174 8757 1349 2490 441 24 1550 1305 171 1882 39 2 71 226 72 38 .284 .377 .509 .886 *3D TOR-SDP-TOT-ATL-TBD-TOT-CHC-LAD-TBD
It is interesting that (before the streroid scandall) these players all sort of had the same reputation; players who no one thought of as Hall-of-Famers that all of a sudden had career numbers to warrant a discussion.
* Note: Mickey Mantle hit 415 home runs from 1956 until the end of his career without a three home run game. However, according to this list, Mantle had a 3 home run game on May 13, 1955.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:16 am
Interesting list. I'm not sure the crime dog was invovled in the steroid scandal, and if he wasn't, its a real shame he finished 7 homers short of the 500 mark.
Also, too add to andys other list, Bobby Estella in 1997 hit 3 homers in one game while having just FOUR for the entire year in just 13 games
February 24th, 2009 at 3:33 am
I have the SABR HR Encyclopedia, which is up-to-date through 1995. At that time, there were 25 players with 400+ career homers, and every one of them had at least one three-homer game. You had to go down to #28, Graig Nettles, 390 HR, to find a player without one. But just below Nettles, there were quite a few; Dwight Evans at 385, Frank Howard at 382, Perez, Cash, Fisk and Hodges in the 370s, and not a 3-homer game between them.