Flashback Friday: Dusty Baker Becomes Fourth Dodger With 30 Home Runs

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• Dodger Dogs Since 1962 Sweatshirt, Baseball Shirt, Vintage Baseball Crewneck
• Kirk Gibson 1988 World Series Home Run LA Los Angeles Dodgers Poster Art Photo Artwork 11x14 16x20 or 20x24
• Kirk Gibson World Series Home Run 1988 Poster Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Illustration Print Art
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• Los Angeles Dodgers
• 30 club

Delahanty and Horner are the only players to hit four home runs in a game as a part of a losing effort. There are 30 teams in the NBA, therefore, 30 players were drafted in the first round. In this article, I’ll devote time to each member of the old guard of the 30-homer club and compare them to their counterparts of 2019’s own club.

Green had just five homers on the year before breaking out in a monster way with arguably the most impressive offensive day in baseball history. Delgado had 37 homers on the year before belting a three-run shot in the first inning, and then solo homers in the fourth, sixth and eighth to cap off his ridiculous game. Gennett ended the night with 42 career home runs, meaning he hit 9.5 percent of his home runs to date in one game. It was perhaps the most unlikely of any of the occurrences on this list. The D-backs acquired Martinez from the Tigers in mid-July to add pop to their lineup, and the slugger showed off that power in highly impressive fashion against the rival Dodgers. Bill Mueller is the only player to hit a grand slam from each side of the plate.

Dodger Dogs Since 1962 Sweatshirt, Baseball Shirt, Vintage Baseball Crewneck

Don Mattingly hit all six grand slams of his career in 1987. To use individual functions (e.g., mark statistics as favourites, set statistic alerts) please log in with your personal account. As of October 2022, Duke Snider tops the ranking of the Los Angeles Dodgers all-time home run leaders with 389 home runs throughout his career. Snider is followed within this ranking by Gil Hodges with a total of 361 home runs recorded throughout his career. No team had ever had four players with 30 or more home runs in a season but the Dodgers were positioned to achieve that feat. After that, no leadoff hitter reached 30 home runs until Brady Anderson in 1996, a season that came out of nowhere in many ways.

In 1997, he led Major League Baseball in home runs, but led neither the American nor National League, as his season was split between the Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals. If that season were to be included, he would be the league leader for five seasons, four of which were in succession. The Dodgers and watching the offseason from the outside Carlos Correa switching from the Giants to the Mets was great MLB theater. But the Dodgers shouldn’t be quick to laugh at their rivals in San Francisco, considering the dormant offseason in Los Angeles to date. It took a week for Baker to hit his 29th home run, at Houston on September 25th.

Kirk Gibson 1988 World Series Home Run LA Los Angeles Dodgers Poster Art Photo Artwork 11x14 16x20 or 20x24

In the tables below, players and teams denoted in boldface are still actively contributing to the record noted, while denotes a player's rookie season. The other player is an outfielder who started his career and played 625 games for the Atlanta Braves. He was then traded to the Los Angeles, where he had his greatest success. Betts is the second Dodger to hit 30 leadoff homers in a season. He’s three behind Joc Pederson, who hit 33 of his 36 home runs in 2019 while batting first. Thirty home runs, more than 200 hits, the fourth 20–20–20–20 player in the history of the game.

The stars have aligned for these Dodgers in the power department in 2019. And the last time LA had this much power concentrated amongst four players was all the way back in 1997, 20 years after the aforementioned four-member 30-home run club. As good a player as Baker was during his playing career, he would find great success as a manager. If and when the 2020 season begins, Baker will seek the elusive World Series title that would almost ensure him a Hall-of-Fame induction as a manager.

Kirk Gibson World Series Home Run 1988 Poster Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Illustration Print Art

In arguably the craziest way to achieve the feat, Delahanty hit two of his four home runs inside the park, according to Baseball Almanac. He is the only member of the four-homer club to even have one inside-the-park homer as part of his feat. Hodges homered off the great Warren Spahn in the second inning, took Normie Roy deep in the third before clubbing a two-run homers off Bob Hall in the sixth and Johnny Antonelli in the eighth. Colavito was a prolific home run hitter in his prime, topping 20 homers 11 times, eclipsing 30 homers seven times and 40 homers on three occasions. The legendary Mays got going early, crushing a solo home run in the first inning. He then went deep again in the third, sixth and eighth innings in what resulted in an eight-RBI day and 16 total bases.

By then, the Dodgers had clinched the division and had not too much else to play for besides Baker joining his teammates in the 30-home-run club. I have been a Dodger Fan since 1959, In 1960 I think I collected almost every teams baseball cards. The 1977 season was a memorable one for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Barry Bonds joined the 30–30 club in five seasons, a record he shares with his father Bobby. It was punctuated by Finley’s walk-off grand slam that gave the Dodgers an NL-best 53rd comeback win of the season, setting a franchise record that was previously held by the 1953 Brooklyn team . One-eighth of Hodges' homers that season came in one game, as he clubbed 32 home runs for the year.

In his final at-bat on Oct. 2, 1977, Dusty Baker hit a home run to give him 30 on the season. After calling the final play of the game — a Chris Taylor groundout — Scully gave his final sign off, closed up his book, and walked out of the booth a final time. Adcock had 15 home runs on the season coming into the game and finished the season with 23. Mays was reportedly nauseated because of a snack he ingested the night before, but that didn't stop him from history. As a young fan, that’s my only exposure to the great historical feat of the 1977 sluggers. So, for all of the other less seasoned fans out there, first I’d like to say I feel your pain in terms of never having watched the Dodgers win a World Series.

Betts has 20 multi-homer games out of the leadoff spot, passing Soriano for the most in MLB history. Lowe was not a slugger by any means, hitting just 71 homers in 18 seasons throughout his Major League career. Gehrig hit another rocket in the ninth inning that flew to deep center field but was caught short of the wall. He finished the season with 34 home runs and hit 493 homers during his 17-year career.

That’s already good for third place in franchise history, five behind Pederson, with Davey Lopes and his 99 leadoff home runs holding down the top spot. In as many innings, the Dodgers hit another two-run home run off Kuhl. Trayce Thompson took the struggling right-hander deep to center for his fourth home run in his second stint with the Dodgers. Julio Urías pitched a solid seven innings and only allowed two runs on four hits in the 5-4 Dodgers win. Craig Kimbrel had another rough night in the ninth when he allowed two runs, but the Dodgers hung on for the victory.