The Twins’ Luke Hughes and homering in the first career plate appearance
Posted by Andy on April 30, 2010
Most fans won't have heard of Luke Hughes. He made his major league debut two days ago for the Twins and homered in his first major league plate appearance.
| Rk | Gcar | Player | Date | Tm | Opp | Rslt | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | WPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Luke Hughes | 2010-04-28 | MIN | DET | L 6-11 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.002 |
| 2 | 1 | Jason Heyward | 2010-04-05 | ATL | CHC | W 16-5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0.197 |
| 3 | 1 | Ian Desmond | 2009-09-10 | WSN | PHI | W 8-7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0.201 |
| 4 | 1 | John Hester | 2009-08-28 | ARI | HOU | W 14-7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.012 |
| 5 | 1 | Trent Oeltjen | 2009-08-06 | ARI | PIT | W 11-6 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.095 |
| 6 | 1 | John Mayberry | 2009-05-23 | PHI | NYY | L 4-5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.212 |
| 7 | 1 | Wilkin Ramirez | 2009-05-20 | DET | TEX | W 5-3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.111 |
| 8 | 1 | Gerardo Parra | 2009-05-13 | ARI | CIN | L 3-10 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.058 |
| 9 | 1 | Jordan Schafer | 2009-04-05 | ATL | PHI | W 4-1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.075 |
| 10 | 1 | Lou Marson | 2008-09-28 | PHI | WSN | W 8-3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.033 |
| 11 | 1 | Mark Saccomanno | 2008-09-08 | HOU | PIT | W 3-2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.159 |
| 12 | 1 | John Bowker | 2008-04-12 | SFG | STL | L 7-8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.112 |
| 13 | 1 | Kosuke Fukudome | 2008-03-31 | CHC | MIL | L 3-4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.467 |
| 14 | 1 | Elijah Dukes | 2007-04-02 | TBD | NYY | L 5-9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.107 |
| 15 | 1 | Kevin Kouzmanoff | 2006-09-02 | CLE | TEX | W 6-5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0.218 |
| 16 | 1 | Delmon Young | 2006-08-29 | TBD | CHW | L 9-12 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.112 |
| 17 | 1 | Carlos Quentin | 2006-07-20 | ARI | LAD | W 5-2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.025 |
| 18 | 1 | Eliezer Alfonzo | 2006-06-03 (1) | SFG | NYM | W 6-4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.237 |
| 19 | 1 | Kendry Morales | 2006-05-23 | LAA | TEX | W 7-6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.179 |
| 20 | 1 | Mike Napoli | 2006-05-04 | LAA | DET | W 7-2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.079 |
| 21 | 1 | Kenji Johjima | 2006-04-03 | SEA | LAA | L 4-5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.126 |
This is the list of players to homer in their first career game (from the last 5 years.) The Play Index doesn't allow us to search by just first place appearance so to narrow down this list we need to look at each individual game.
I've gone through the above list and the guys who homered in their first plate appearance were Hughes, Hayward, Hester, Parra, Schafer, Saccomanno, Kouzmanoff, and Napoli.
Three further things:
1) That Kouzmanoff home run was unforgettable. He hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in the big leagues. I mentioned this before in a similar post from 3 years ago.
2) Want a little bonus readers' research? Here is the full list of guys to homer in their first game. You can go through the box scores and give the list of guys to do it in their first PA.
3) Don't you think Saccomanno's first name should have been Bob?
April 30th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Hughes was actually at the plate the previous inning and saw 3 or 4 pitches. Delmon Young got caught stealing to end the inning and the count was reset. I know this still counts for the many places that track "homer in first at bat", but I thought it was an interesting footnote.
April 30th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Yeah that goes down in the annals of weird first plate appearances, along with Timmy Raines and Barry Bonds appearing in games long before their actual ML debuts thanks to how rain-suspended games are logged officially.
April 30th, 2010 at 11:37 am
I think I can top that one. On September 4, 1978 Dorian Boyland made his ML debut with the Pirates as a pinch-hitter for Ed Whiton in the 7th inning. The count went to 1 and 2, then Mets righty Skip Lockwood hurt his arm and was replaced by lefty Kevin Kobel. Chuck Tanner countered by replacing the left-handed Boyland with right-handed Rennie Stennett. Stennett took strike three, but because Boyland took strike two, the strikeout was charged to him. So he struck out in his first major league at-bat while sitting on the bench!
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197809041.shtml
April 30th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
You forgot Adam Wainwright.
April 30th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Wainwright doesn't come up in the search because he has all of the following games that show up as official batting games:
Generated 4/30/2010.
In all these cases, he came in on a double-switch and therefore replaced an actual batter, but he never got a plate appearance, as you are correct that he homered in his eventual first plate appearance later in 2006.
Unfortunately there is no way to fix this in the search. First career game is first career game, regardless of whether the player got a plate appearance or not. So a non-pitcher who appeared as, say, a pinch-runner or defensive substitution but never got a plate appearance would also be missed in this search if they eventually did homer in their first plate appearance and it came in a later game.
Thanks for pointing out the shortcoming of this list.
April 30th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
No prob--I suspected that was the reason, his first PA not coming in his first game.
April 30th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
I am hopelessly out of touch with popular culture. The meaning of a possible name of Bob Saccomanno is beyond me. I even tried saying it out loud, but the pronounced name didn't give me any clue, either.
I just posted an amount of $406 in another comment here tonight. In case you are wondering where I came up with that figure, think about some famous achievement associated with a famous Red Sox player.
May 1st, 2010 at 8:19 am
I think Hughes is the first Australian to homer in his first major league PA. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!
May 1st, 2010 at 11:36 am
Gerry, if I'm not mistaken you live in Australia, right? I have been there myself.
May 1st, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Yes, Andy, I live in Sydney.
May 1st, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Sweet. My wife and I went to Sydney and several other spots in that neck of the works for our honeymoon. Sydney ranks as one of my most favorite cities in the world.
May 7th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
My father bought a Mark Saccomanno game-worn jersey in an Astros.com charity auction solely because of that Seinfeld name.