Batters who hit HR in 1st MLB times at bat

Ernie Koy, Sr. is one of 114 batters who homered in his first MLB time at bat.

Our reminder from friend Randy yesterday is the whole impetus behind this data column. Randy had written a reminder comment in response to yesterday’s piece about the first MLB games of 15 great HOF players to remind us that former UT star Ernie Koy, Sr. had once homered in his first 1938 MLB batting appearance for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Well, that’s a rare feat, all right. Only 114 major leaguers have done it and here’s the list of names in chronological order. The chart shows their names, their teams, the dates of their first time at bat explosions, and the number of homers they each compiled in their MLB careers (Thank you, Wikipedia, for doing all the work):


Joe Harrington	Boston Beaneaters	Sept 10, 1895	3
Bill Duggleby^&	Philadelphia Phillies	April 21, 1898	6
Johnny Bates	Boston Beaneaters	April 12, 1906	25
Luke Stuart	St. Louis Browns	Aug 8, 1921	1
Walter Mueller^#	Pittsburgh Pirates	May 7, 1922	2
Earl Averill^†	Cleveland Indians	April 16, 1929	238
Clise Dudley^#	Brooklyn Dodgers	April 27, 1929	3
Gordon Slade	Brooklyn Dodgers	May 24, 1930	8
Eddie Morgan^#	St. Louis Cardinals	April 14, 1936	1
Ace Parker	Philadelphia Phillies	April 30, 1937	2
Gene Hasson	Philadelphia Athletics	Sept 9, 1937	4
Ernie Koy	Brooklyn Dodgers	April 19, 1938	36
Heinie Mueller	Philadelphia Phillies	April 19, 1938	17
Bill LeFebvre^#	Boston Red Sox	June 10, 1938	1
Clyde Vollmer^#	Cincinnati Reds	May 31, 1942	69
Paul Gillespie	Chicago Cubs	Sept 11, 1942	6
Buddy Kerr	New York Giants	Sept 8, 1943	31
Hack Miller	Detroit Tigers	April 23, 1944	1
Whitey Lockman	New York Giants	July 5, 1945	114
Eddie Pellagrini	Boston Red Sox	April 22, 1946	20
Dan Bankhead	Brooklyn Dodgers	Aug 26, 1947	1
George Vico^#	Detroit Tigers	April 20, 1948	12
Les Layton	New York Giants	May 21, 1948	2
Ed Sanicki	Philadelphia Phillies	Sept 14, 1949	3
Ted Tappe	Cincinnati Reds	Sept 14, 1950	5
Bob Nieman	St. Louis Browns	Sept 14, 1951	125
Hoyt Wilhelm^†	New York Giants	April 23, 1952	1
Wally Moon	St. Louis Cardinals	April 13, 1954	142
Chuck Tanner^#	Milwaukee Braves	April 12, 1955	21
Bill White	New York Giants	May 7, 1956	202
Frank Ernaga	Chicago Cubs	May 24, 1957	2
Don Leppert	Pittsburgh Pirates	June 18, 1961	15
Cuno Barragan	Chicago Cubs	Sept 1, 1961	1
Bob Tillman	Boston Red Sox	May 19, 1962	79
John Kennedy	Washington Senators	Sept 5, 1962	32
Buster Narum	Baltimore Orioles	May 5, 1963	3
Gates Brown	Detroit Tigers	June 19, 1963	84
Bert Campaneris^#	Kansas City Athletics	July 23, 1964	79
Bill Roman	Detroit Tigers	Sept 30, 1964	1
Brant Alyea^#	Washington Senators	Sept 12, 1965	38
John Miller	New York Yankees	Sept 11, 1966	2
Rick Renick	Minnesota Twins	July 11, 1968	20
Joe Keough	Oakland Athletics	Aug 7, 1968	9
Gene Lamont	Detroit Tigers	Sept 2, 1970	4
Don Rose^#	California Angels	May 24, 1972	1
Benny Ayala	New York Mets	Aug 27, 1974	38
Reggie Sanders	Detroit Tigers	Sept 1, 1974	3
John Montefusco	San Francisco Giants	Sept 3, 1974	4
José Sosa	Houston Astros	July 30, 1975	1
Dave McKay	Minnesota Twins	Aug 22, 1975	21
Alvis Woods^#	Toronto Blue Jays	April 7, 1977	35
Dave Machemer	California Angels	June 21, 1978	1
Johnnie LeMaster	San Francisco Giants	Sept 2, 1975	22
Tim Wallach	Montreal Expos	Sept 6, 1980	260
Gary Gaetti	Minnesota Twins	Sept 20, 1981	360
Carmelo Martínez	Chicago Cubs	Aug 22, 1983	108
Mike Fitzgerald	New York Mets	Sept 13, 1983	48
Andre David	Minnesota Twins	June 29, 1984	1
Will Clark	San Francisco Giants	April 8, 1986	284
Terry Steinbach	Oakland Athletics	Sept 12, 1986	162
Jay Bell^#	Cleveland Indians	Sept 29, 1986	195
Ricky Jordan	Philadelphia Phillies	July 17, 1988	55
Junior Félix^#	Toronto Blue Jays	May 4, 1989	55
José Offerman	Los Angeles Dodgers	Aug 19, 1990	57
Dave Eiland	San Diego Padres	April 10, 1992	1
Jim Bullinger^#	Chicago Cubs	June 8, 1992	4
Jay Gainer^#	Colorado Rockies	May 14, 1993	3
Mitch Lyden	Florida Marlins	June 16, 1993	1
Garey Ingram	Los Angeles Dodgers	May 19, 1994	3
Jon Nunnally	Kansas City Royals	April 29, 1995	42
Jermaine Dye	Atlanta Braves	May 17, 1996	325
Dustin Hermanson	Montreal Expos	April 16, 1997	2
Brad Fullmer	Montreal Expos	Sept 2, 1997	114
Marlon Anderson	Philadelphia Phillies	Sept 8, 1998	63
Carlos Lee	Chicago White Sox	May 7, 1999	358
Guillermo Mota^*	Montreal Expos	June 9, 1999	2
Esteban Yan^*#	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	June 4, 2000	1
Alex Cabrera	Arizona Diamondbacks	June 26, 2000	5
Keith McDonald	St. Louis Cardinals	July 4, 2000	3
Chris Richard^#	St. Louis Cardinals	July 17, 2000	34
Gene Stechschulte^#	St. Louis Cardinals	April 17, 2001	1
Marcus Thames^#	New York Yankees	June 10, 2002	115
Miguel Olivo^*	Chicago White Sox	Sept 15, 2002	145
Dave Matranga	Houston Astros	June 27, 2003	1
Kazuo Matsui	New York Mets	April 6, 2004	32
Héctor Luna^*	St. Louis Cardinals	April 8, 2004	15
Brian Dallimore^&	San Francisco Giants	April 30, 2004	1
Greg Dobbs^*	Seattle Mariners	Sept 8, 2004	46
Andy Phillips^#	New York Yankees	Sept 26, 2004	14
Mike Jacobs^*	New York Mets	Aug 21, 2005	100
Jeremy Hermida^*&	Florida Marlins	Aug 31, 2005	65
Mike Napoli^*	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	May 4, 2006	157
Adam Wainwright^*#	St. Louis Cardinals	May 24, 2006	6
Kevin Kouzmanoff^*#&	Cleveland Indians	Sept 2, 2006	85
Charlton Jimerson^#	Houston Astros	Sept 4, 2006	2
Josh Fields^*	Chicago White Sox	Sept 18, 2006	34
Elijah Dukes	Tampa Bay Devil Rays	April 2, 2007	31
Mark Worrell^*	St. Louis Cardinals	June 5, 2008	1
Lou Montañez^*	Baltimore Orioles	Aug 6, 2008	5
Mark Saccomanno^#	Houston Astros	Sept 8, 2008	1
Jordan Schafer^*	Atlanta Braves	April 5, 2009	11
Gerardo Parra^*	Arizona Diamondbacks	May 13, 2009	30
John Hester^*	Arizona Diamondbacks	Aug 28, 2009	6
Jason Heyward^*	Atlanta Braves	April 5, 2010	66
Luke Hughes^*	Minnesota Twins	April 28, 2010	8
Starlin Castro^*	Chicago Cubs	May 7, 2010	33
Daniel Nava^&#*	Boston Red Sox	June 12, 2010	19
J. P. Arencibia^*#	Toronto Blue Jays	Aug 7, 2010	64
Brandon Guyer^*	Tampa Bay Rays	May 6, 2011	3
Tommy Milone^*#	Washington Nationals	Sept 3, 2011	1
Brett Pill^*	San Francisco Giants	Sept 6, 2011	7
Yasmani Grandal^*	San Diego Padres	June 30, 2012	9
Starling Marte^*#	Pittsburgh Pirates	July 26, 2012	14
Eddy Rodriguez^*	San Diego Padres	Aug 2, 2012	1
Jurickson Profar^*	Texas Rangers	Sept 2, 2012	4

Tags: batters who homered in their first times at bat in the big leagues

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9 Responses to “Batters who hit HR in 1st MLB times at bat”

Wayne Roberts Says:
December 17, 2013 at 7:08 pm | Reply
Wasn’t Will Clark’s dinger against Nolan? I remember snarling over that one.
- Bill McCurdy Says:
  December 17, 2013 at 7:33 pm | Reply
  Of course, you snarled, Wayne. In fact, you joined a chorus of snarls in Houston exactly because it was, indeed, our Nolan Ryan that the whippersnapper rookie Will Clark decided to take by summer thunder in his very first time at bat in the big leagues.
Cliff Blau Says:
December 18, 2013 at 2:36 am | Reply
Apparently more than 114 batters did it, since the list omits the first two, George Tebeau and Mike Griffin, who both did it April 16, 1887, and no one knows which did it first. ESPN has a better list:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=8227936

Dave Eiland, who is on the above list, also allowed a homer to the first batter he faced.
- Bill McCurdy Says:
  December 19, 2013 at 12:00 am | Reply
  Cliff – Great reminder. I think we went through this loop once earlier. I simply failed to keep good notes on your earlier corrections. As your list hows, these players included two guys from the American Association, George Tebeau and Mike Griffin, plus Billy Gumpert of 1890 NL Pittsburgh club.
  
  I do find it interesting that this ESPN list then turns around and overlooks Luke Stuart of the 1921 St. Louis Browns.
  
  There may be other discrepancies, but I don’t have time to check the whole list tonight. The discovered variations alone speak for a need to seek a more universally agreed upon and accurate tab on all those who have pushed this rare career-start button of a HR on the first time at bat. (And I’d hate to guess as to how many, if any, did it on the first pitch.) I doubt the records are that precise.
Skipper Steely Says:
December 18, 2013 at 2:25 pm | Reply
How many are hall of famers?
- Bill McCurdy Says:
  December 19, 2013 at 12:19 am | Reply
  Skipper, the first time up homer club has not produced many players who went on from there to the HOF. I count only two on our list and only one of them, outfielder Earl Averill, made his way there as a distinctively great hitter. The other fellow, Hoyt Wilhelm, got there as a knuckle-balling reliever over 21 years in the bigs. After Wilhelm homered in his first time at bat, he never hit another HR over the course of a two-decade, plus one year, opportunity.
  - Cliff Blau Says:
    December 19, 2013 at 2:34 am
    There is actually a third hall of famer there, as noted in his recent obituaries: Ace Parker.
Bill McCurdy Says:
December 19, 2013 at 3:30 am | Reply
Cliff – I wasn’t looking for NFL Professional Football Hall of Famers in my count, but, if we have to go there, then Ace Parker joins the tab as our 3rd man. When Ace died in early November, he left at the age of 101 as the oldest living football Hall of Famer. He sure didn’t do it in baseball.
- Doug S Says:
  December 19, 2013 at 12:06 pm | Reply
  I believe little remembered Keith McDonald hit HR’s in his first two AB’s any others done that or even 3 or more?