20 Responses to “Happy Birthday Steve Balboni”

1. Chuck Cox Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 8:08 am

   I remember him very well with the AAA Columbus Clippers.... Saw him and Marshall Brant whack back to back homers against the hometown Toledo Mudhens one summer night.... Bye Bye Balboni's shot was a laser that cracked the huge backdrop in dead center field about 30 feet above the ground, off the backdrop and ricochet back onto the field. The back wall was about 25 feet behind thte fence.... It was quite possibly the hardest hit ball I have seen in my 45 years associated with the game. Happy Birthday Steve.

2. mannythemailman Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 8:42 am

   Remember Balboni's time in the majors and his prolific HRs. Was very surprised to run into Steve at one of my son Joes Varsity baseball games a few years back in Berkley Heights, NJ. Balbonis sons were on the Gov. Livingston team that Joes school was playing. I gave Steve a hello as I passed him by. He was runnig a baseball school (suprisingly with his stats) in the area!

3. Jon Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 9:08 am

   And Balboni is still the Royals all-time leader for home runs in a single season.

4. Andy Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 9:14 am

   Just to be clear, this post wasn't meant as a dig at Balboni...rather I was trying to point out how productive he was in a smallish number of ML plate appearances. The fact that he had a league-average OPS in the big leagues should not be overlooked--he may have been below-average for a first baseman or DH, and he got his stats somewhat unconventionally, but there's no arguing that he was productive to a significant degree.

5. dukeofflatbush Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 10:46 am

   239 minor league HRs.
   Does anyone know if that is the record?

6. Paul Drye Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 12:03 pm

   @Dukeofflatbush Buzz Arlett hit 432 HR in the minors.

   I notice that Mike Hessman has exactly 100 more minor league homers than Balboni did, and is still active to boot.

7. Paul Drye Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 12:07 pm

   Though come to think of it, you could argue that Sadaharu Oh is the minor league record holder.

8. ScottE Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 12:30 pm

   For some reason, "TOT" is listed as a team. I know Balboni played for Seattle, though I thought it was a lot longer than just part of a season.

9. Andy Says:
   January 16th, 2011 at 12:53 pm

   TOT in 1988 is the sum of his stints that year with the Royals and the Mariners.

10. Jimbo Says:
    January 16th, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    He was a feared hitter in his own way.

    I'm surprised he got 11 triples.

11. John Autin Says:
    January 17th, 2011 at 12:09 am

    @5, Dukeofflatbush et al., re: minor-league HR record:

    Just to offer another piece of information: B-R recognizes Hector Espino as the career minor-league HR leader, with 484.
    (http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Home_run)
    All but 3 of those HRs came in Mexico, the bulk of those in the Mexican League. Unfortunately, his B-R minor-league page has just a tiny sampling of his career stats.
    (http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=espino001hec)

    I couldn't even guess the basis on which B-R chose to recognize Espino. If the Mexican League is considered a minor league, then why not the Japanese leagues, too? -- and thus, as Paul Drye said, Sadaharu Oh would be the minor-league HR leader. In fact the Japan Central and Pacific Leagues are listed on the B-R minor league home page (http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/); however, only the 2009 stats from those leagues are linked.

12. John Autin Says:
    January 17th, 2011 at 12:13 am

    Paul Drye re: Mike Hessman -- Did you notice that Hessman has a career .231 BA ... in the minors? I wonder if that might be a record low for a long career; Hessman has about 6,600 PAs on the farm.

13. Tmckelv Says:
    January 17th, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    I have 2 reasons that I will never feel bad about the number of WS titles the Yankees have won.

    1) the end of the 1995 AL Wild Card seires Mariner's over Yanks.

    2) The following game includes my favorite Yankee moment of the 1980's (which is pretty sad). 🙂

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA198904140.shtml

    Down 4-1 in the bottom of the 5th (common in 1989) in that early season game, my college roomates and I watched "Bye Bye" crush a Grand Slam off of the reigning AL Cy Young award winner Frank Viola. Having rooted for Steve since his Columbus Clippers days, it was very exciting. Little did we know how bad the next 2 seasons would get.

    Side Note: In the same game as the Balboni Grand Slam, Al Lieter throw 163 pitches for the win.

14. brian Says:
    January 17th, 2011 at 10:55 pm

    I remember Steve Balboni playing on the Nashville Sounds farm team in Tennessee. Pat Tabler, Brad Gulden, Mattingly and Jamie McWerly were also on the team. It was fun to watch them, tickets were ony two dollars.

15. Dvd Avins Says:
    January 18th, 2011 at 8:11 am

    The Mexican League was part of the association of minor leagues; part of Organized Baseball. The Japanese leagues were not part Organized Baseball.

16. I Can’t Believe I Missed Steve Balboni’s Birthday | NotGraphs Baseball Says:
    January 20th, 2011 at 10:31 am

    [...] Luckily, Baseball-Reference’s blog was all over it. [...]

17. catlin Says:
    January 22nd, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    I can't believe you didn't mention his world series championship.

18. Anthony Says:
    January 25th, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    A late birthday gift for Balboni, He, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken, Jr were elected to the International League Hall of Fame today.

19. Nikita Saglimben Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 5:23 am

    Quite nicely done really.

20. Kingturtle Says:
    January 26th, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    here's a nice birthday gift for him...yesterday the International League announced they were putting him into their Hall of Fame...
    http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110124&content_id=16493048&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp