Matt Stairs Passes Cliff Johnson
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 22, 2010
Yesterday, Matt Stairs hit his 21st homer as a pinch-hitter - which is now the most in big league history - passing Cliff Johnson, who had held the career record for most pinch-hit homers.
It's been 24 years since Johnson hit his last pinch-hit home run. That's nearly a quarter-century.
Congrats to Stairs, and, condolences to Heathcliff for losing his place in baseball trivia history.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:29 am
The Cliff Johnson link brings up 23 appearances. I'm assuming he hit homers in 3 of those in subsequent at-bats after he had entered the game.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:38 am
Yup.
August 22nd, 2010 at 10:02 am
Wait a second. You're telling me that 24 is almost 25 years? I had no idea. Thanks for insulting the intelligence of your readers, Steve. Stand up guy you are. Just quit blogging already.
August 22nd, 2010 at 11:24 am
Wow, have some coffee and a valium, VLM.
August 22nd, 2010 at 12:31 pm
LOL - no worries. I don't take comments like that too seriously.
August 22nd, 2010 at 12:40 pm
VLM,
I'm not sure "Stand up guy you are." is a sentence. I'm pretty sure "stand up" - in that context - is hyphenated. Sure, Steve can stop blogging, but it would be easier if you just stopped reading his blogs. Which begs the question; If you are compelled to read stuff (and then complain) - Do you have any intelligence to insult?
The guys who blog here take up their time to give us geeks something to read and comment on, not insult.
I enjoy and appreciate all of them.
The one thing I do hate however, is when I'm reading an interesting thread, that contains some cool facts, points and counterpoints, and then some knucklehead chimes in with nothing helpful to just waste my time. If you wanted to argue a blogger's opinion, please do so with your own facts and opinions. Don't attack his writing style. And don't "waste my time. Stand up guy you are..."
If you wanted to be childish and nitpick, why not go play bingo at the old folks home and leave the big boys to have big boy discussions about baseball.... or just see Jason W @ #4, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat.
Steve L.
Sometimes letting your audience know the context of a number is helpful and good writing.
I think the record stood for so long because it is hard to find a decent hitter that can not only come off the bench 'cold' - usually facing a closer in a tight spot, but one who is good enough to play that long in a back up role, where he might be offered a starting job with a small market team.
It must be hard to ride the pine for three games, then have 3 minutes notice to loosen up and face Johnathan Broxton.
August 22nd, 2010 at 3:40 pm
It's actually a small miracle Stairs is still in the league given his age and recent performance. I'll always root for guys born in the 60s.
August 22nd, 2010 at 4:02 pm
With which of his pinch-hit HRs, and on what date, did Johnson actually set the old record? (I'm thinking it might have been his 19th.)
August 22nd, 2010 at 4:19 pm
I remember the write-up that Bill James had on Cliff Johnson in his HBA, where he believed if Johnson had been handled differently, he might have gone on to hit 500 HRs in his career. No way to know if that's true, but it's clear that Johnson could have had a much better career if the Astros didn't screw around with insisting he be a catcher, delaying the start of his career, etc. Insert him at 1B, make him a full-time player in a neutral park, and if he didn't hit 500 HRs, he probably would have come close. He banged 200 as a part-time player during a difficult hitting period.
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Joseph - thanks for the kind words and the advice regarding the context. Always appreciated.
John - you are correct:
1984-08-05 - Cliff Johnson sets a record with his 19th pinch hit HR
He broke the record of Jerry Lynch in 1984 who hit 18 pinch-hit home runs
http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/bS3jx
August 22nd, 2010 at 6:34 pm
One thing about both Stairs and Johnson - they were both "grip it and rip it" guys. Probably helped them go yard so often as PHers.
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:49 am
I guess the Astros chose to have Bob Watson (1B) and Greg Gross (OF) playing regularly, rather than make Cliff Johnson a full-time 1B. I still find 500 HR being quite a leap, even if they had moved him to first full-time. I only really saw him play with the Yankees (part-time player), so I guess I never really saw him as someone with that kind of potential...He seemed more like a guy that pitchers would catch up to if he had 500+AB's per year for like a 12 year period (hence his HR/AB rate would go down). I was definitely more "impressed" with Dave Kingman (another player I got to see regularly only with the Mets). I bring him up because Johnson hitting 500 HR would be most like Kingman (same era, power-only types). Or maybe a Kevin Mitchell type (couple of huge pwer years then a tail-off (although Mitchell was a better "hitter").
August 23rd, 2010 at 9:51 am
I have always been amazed with Stairs' hitting abilities...he never really looked like a ball player, but he could roll out of bed and swing the bat.
August 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 am
There actually seemed to be quite a few young players coming out of Houston during that era, whom were either held back, misused or didn't reach potential because of Houston's poor home offense. I don't know if they all would of been 500 HR or Hall of Famers, but they sure didn't seem to be helped by Houston.
1. Jimmy Winn
2. John Mayberry
3 Ceasar Cedeno
4. Rusty Staub
5. Bob Watson
6. Joe Morgan (who turned it around after houston)
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:19 am
Believe it or not, when Stairs first played in the minors, he was a 3B/2B and sometimes SS:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=stairs001mat
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Stairs' most famous pinch hit home run is likely one that is not even tallied among those 21 - his only postseason homer, against the Dodgers in the 2008 NLCS.
Incidentally, speaking of Phillies-Dodgers games, for two decades in a row, on August 21 in a year ending in zero, a major league or affiliated minor league team that was down 11-1 in the 8th inning came back to win the game 12-11. On August 21, 1990, it was the Phillies against the Dodgers in L.A. On August 21, 2000, it happened in a game in the Appalachian League. I don't have the details for that game handy, but the team that came from behind was the home team, and thus it was a walk-off win. The Phillies had to keep the Dodgers from scoring in the bottom of the ninth, which they did.
I think that if this had happened for the third decade in a row, I would have heard about it by now, so I'm guessing that this streak stopped at two.