I’m not a big baseball fan, but last night I saw everybody get all excited because the Mets’ pitcher <something> Benitez just hit his 2nd RBI in only his 5th at-bat. That got me mind racing on tangents, as is its wont, and I finally ended up dwelling on this question:
Has any Major League player every homered in his first career at-bat?
I tried to search the web, but I couldn’t find anything since I don’t know where to begin looking for obscure baseball stats.
I know this has happened - Terry Steinbach of the A’s (80’s) hit HRs in both his first major-league at-bat and his first all-star game at-bat.
Ah, here is something interesting:
If you count spring training games I know the A’s pitcher Mark Mulder did in his first ML at bat. It was a bomb too. (I don’t know where to find a cite for that, but I was there and remember it.)
Player or pitcher? Players do it all the time; at least two or three a year, it seems.
As for pitchers, there probably aren’t many, but I’m certain it has happened at least once… Consider the sheer number of pitchers in the 120+ years of baseball. Also consider that the DH is a rather new invention (late 70s). Also, many pitchers play other positions in their collegiate or minor league careers. Mark McGwire, for example, was a pitcher at USC.
I would say chaos theory applies. Even a blind squirrel stumbles on a nut every now and then.
I was in attendance when Junior Felix hit a home run on the first PITCH he ever saw in the major leagues.
The most notable pitcher to homer in his first at-bat was Hall of Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm. He never hit another one.
The people who have homered in their first at bat are a notably undistinguished lot, although Will Clark is on the list. And he hit his off of Nolan Ryan.
Keith McDonald of the Cardinals homered in his first TWO major league ABs as did Bob Nieman of the Browns in 1951.
There are fewer pitchers who have given up a home run to the first batter they have faced. Bob Gibson did so in 1959.
He got better.
There are a few stars on the list; in addition to Wilhelm and Clark, Earl Averill, Gates Brown, Bert Campaneris, Gary Gaetti, Terry Steinbach, Whitey Lockman, Bill White, John Montefusco (a pitcher), and Tim Wallach had solid major league careers.
Oh, sure. Provide a link to an authoritative source with definitive information. Now we can’t argue about it!
It seems to me I knew at one time that Gary Gaetti had done it. The name of Barry Foote, an otherwise undistinguished back-up catcher on the Yankees in the 80s stuck in my mind as well, but he isn’t on the list so I must be mistaken. He might have homered in his first game, a far less rare event.
Barry Foote broke into the majors in 1973 and he had no home runs that year. He did hit a triple. He hit his first home run on 4/17/1974 against George Stone of the Mets.
I wouldn’t think this would be too difficult, since the pitcher’s almost certainly not going to be one who’s gone up against you before.
Hitting a HR on the first pitch of the season…now that’s impressive. And if I’m not mistaken, it happened in back-to-back seasons not too long ago.
Oh, well. The neurons in my brain that had some factoid re: Mr. Foote in their custody obviously abdicated their responsibility a long time ago.
Did you get that info from a book, or is there a site with such detailed baseball info?
You can get that information from “The Home Run Encyclopedia.” For instance, Kevin Koslofski hit his first home run on 8/27/92 off Nolan Ryan. Barney Olson hit his first (and only) home run on 9/26/41 off Lefty Hoerst. Joe DeMaestri had his on 9/30/1951 off Ned Garver . . . .
Thanks for the info, guys. That’s pretty damn cool, especially homering your first pitch ever. 
My son made an unassisted triple play in the very first baseball game he ever played. It ruined his career, since it was all down hill from there on.
Another application of chaos theory!
How does that work? Catch a line drive (out #1), then tag a runner (out #2), then, I assume, throw another runner out at third base or home plate. Doesn’t someone have to catch the throw? Is that still considered unassisted?
I’m confused. (But I’m not a big baseball fan, so this might be obvious…)
I’ve never seen one, but I’ve heard of it happening where, say, a second baseman catches the ball, steps on the bag to get a runner who left second for third, then is able to tag the runner coming towards him from first.