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Four hits in a major-league debut

Posted by Andy on May 3, 2010

Yesterday, Wilson Ramos of the Twins appeared in his first career game and had four hits. Here are all the guys in history to do that (1920-1939 and 1952-2010):

Player Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO BOP Pos. Summary
Wilson Ramos 2010-05-02 MIN CLE W 8-3 5 5 1 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 8 C
Derrick Gibson 1998-09-08 COL FLA W 11-10 4 4 2 4 1 0 0 2 0 0 7 LF
Delino DeShields 1990-04-09 MON STL L 5-6 6 6 2 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 2B
Bill Bean 1987-04-25 DET KCR W 13-2 6 6 2 4 2 0 0 1 0 2 1 LF
Kirby Puckett 1984-05-08 MIN CAL W 5-0 5 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 CF
Ted Cox 1977-09-18 BOS BAL W 10-4 5 4 3 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 2 DH
Mack Jones 1961-07-13 MLN STL W 6-3 5 5 1 4 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 CF
Willie McCovey 1959-07-30 SFG PHI W 7-2 4 4 3 4 0 2 0 2 0 0 3 1B
Spook Jacobs 1954-04-13 PHA BOS W 6-4 5 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2B
Cecil Travis 1933-05-16 WSH CLE W 11-10 7 7 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 3B
Russ Van Atta 1933-04-25 NYY WSH W 16-0 5 4 3 4 0 0 0 1 0 0 9 P
Art Shires 1928-08-20 CHW BOS W 6-4 5 5 2 4 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 1B
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 5/3/2010.

As one would expect with such a small sample (just one game), this is a very mixed list. For each Kirby Puckett and Willie McCovey there is a Derrick Gibson and a Spook Jacobs. Gibson finished his career with just 14 total hits, the fewest on this list.

Perhaps the most impressive is Russ Van Atta, who was a pitcher! That first season he batted .283 in 67 plate appearances.

Last year Ramos hit pretty well in AA-ball, batting .317 over 54 games. However he slugged only .454 and had a .795 OPS. Certainly he's good enough to be a backup catcher but he's not exactly the second-coming of, umm, Joe Mauer.

18 Responses to “Four hits in a major-league debut”

  1. Ross Says:

    Interesting to think there are no HRs on this list despite 49 hits. Statistically improbable!

  2. DavidRF Says:

    Thanks for posting this Andy.

    Both ESPN and MLB are reporting that this has been done 21 times. Does anyone have any information on the other nine times this has happened? Through googling, I've been able to find baseball-almanac and baseballlibrary references to this feat being accomplished by Ray Jansen on 09-30-1910, Casey Stengel in "late 1912" and Fred Clarke on 06-30-1894.

  3. dquinn Says:

    Happens to be part of the sample. To get to 21, there must be some more prior to 1900:
    http://www.esb.com/ebbr-2006-sample.pdf

    Most Hits, First Major League Game
    5 Fred Clarke, NL:Lou. June 30, 1894 (1-3b)
    Since 1900:
    4 Ray Jansen, AL:StL. Sept. 30, 1910
    Art Shires, AL:Chi. Aug. 20, 1928 (1-3b)
    Russ Van Atta, AL:NY Apr. 25, 1933
    Spook Jacobs, AL:Phil. Apr. 13, 1954
    Ted Cox, AL:Bos. Sept. 18, 1977 (1-2b)
    Kirby Puckett, AL:Minn. May 8, 1984
    Billy Bean, AL:Det. Apr. 25, 1987 (2-2b)
    Casey Stengel, NL:Brk. Sept. 17, 1912
    Ed Freed, NL:Phil. Sept 11, 1942 (2-2b, 1-3b)
    Willie McCovey, NL:SF July 30, 1959 (2-3b)
    Mack Jones, NL:Mil. July 13, 1961 (1-2b)
    Delino DeShields, NL:Mtl. Apr. 9, 1990 (1-2b)
    Derrick Gibson, NL:Col. Sept. 8, 1998 (1-2b)
    Extra-Inning Game:
    5 Cecil Travis, AL:Wash. May 16, 1933 (12 inn)

  4. DavidRF Says:

    Thanks Dquinn!

  5. TheGoof Says:

    Not the next coming of Mauer? Probably not, but Ramos has similar figures to Posada at that age. Actually, Mauer's slugging was worse his last year in the minors!

  6. John Tierney Says:

    If you look at the Van Atta game he didn't have the best game on his team. Earle Combs was 5 for 5, altough it was of course not his first game.

  7. Ryan Says:

    John,

    Yes but Van Atta pitched a 5-hit shutout... did Combs do that? 😉

  8. Leatherman Says:

    McCovey is one of only three players to have 2 triples in their first game.

  9. Zachary Says:

    Crazy that McCovey collected two triples in his first game. He didn't exactly hit many of them.

  10. Gerry Says:

    A lot of interesting ballplayers on these lists, but none more so than Art "The Great" Shires. See, e.g., http://www.seamheads.com/2009/05/18/punch-drunk-the-art-shires-story/

  11. Gerry Says:

    Ray Jansen's 4-hit game was the only (major league) game he ever played! Career OPS 1.600. He played 3rd base that day, and made 3 errors - perhaps that explains why he never got into another game.

    Wikipedia says he had never played a professional game before his first and only MLB appearance. He later played a few years in the minors, but never hit .300.

  12. Mike Says:

    I wouldn't be so quick to put down Spook Jacobs. He was one of the best players in Cuba in the 1950's and spent a great deal of his minor league career in the Brooklyn Dodgers system stuck behind Jackie Robinson until he was signed by the A's at 28. Jacobs was another victim of the reserve clause. He was a better player than his ML stats show.

  13. Andy Says:

    Mike--sorry, I wasn't trying to put Jacobs down--I was just remarking on his final ML stats. Thanks for the background info on his career.

  14. DoubleDiamond Says:

    I don't get to too many games, especially minor league games, but in a doubleheader I saw in Trenton on August 29 against New Britain, two Twins farmhands who appeared that night have had Major League debuts this season that have occasioned entries in this blog - first Luke Hughes and now Wilson Ramos.

  15. Johnny Twisto Says:

    On a team with Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey batted 3rd in his first major league game. He had been pulverizing the ball in the minors, but still...

  16. Mick Doherty Says:

    Batter's Box Interactive Magazine ("Baseball from a Canadian Perspective") has published a brief followup to this item (thanks, Lee!) ... The Four-Hit Wonders.

  17. Raphy Says:

    With his 3 hits tonight Ramos joins Coaker Triplett as the only 2 players in the PI era with 7 total hits in their first 2 career games. In 1938 Triplett went 9 for his first 14 and then 0 for his next 22 to finish his season.

  18. Brian Says:

    By no means am I predicting a Hall of Fame career for Ramos, although that would certainly be fun for me being a Minnesota fan and following Mauer with those hopes nowadays. However; furthermore, taking from Andy's (original poster) and DQuinn's (follow up) lists, as I'm sure most of you have made the connection, here is the list of the Hall of Famers who had 4+ hits in their MLB debuts. Little did they know what they would accomplish.

    Kirby Puckett
    Willie McCovey
    Fred Clarke
    Casey Stengel

    An interesting thing is Stengel did not necessarily put up HoF caliber numbers as a player, although he was a decent player in the era in which he played. He inconsistently appeared on the top ten leader board for several scattered hitting categories throughout his seasoned career, but his biggest feats seemed to be recognized when he went into the HoF as a manager of 25 years (post-playing years), 7 of them coaching the Yankees to World Series Championships!

    As a player:
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stengca01.shtml

    As a manager:
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/stengca01.shtml

    Does anyone have a list of the Hall of Famers who accomplished other common feats in their debut? Like hit a HR, pitched a shutout, or other hitting and pitching feats.....