Rambling On About My Glory Days: My “Little League” Homer
May 17, 2009 by Jack Perconte · 1 Comment
I once hit a “Little League” homer on a 30-foot bunt. How many others have ever done that?
Following up on my last post, I have been informed by our Seamheads leader, Mike Lynch, that I had three intentional walks in my major league career. Obviously, that is up from the one I remember. Maybe I was more intimidating than I previously thought. Upon further review, it turns out that two of those intentional walks were given by the Baltimore Orioles. In light of this new development, I venture to say that even the mention of my name to an Oriole fan will make them cringe in fear, even to this day.
Because Mike seems to be able to find out everything related to baseball, I will test this ability. In a major league game I hit a legitimate “little league” home run. For those of you unsure of what this term means, a little league homerun is when the hitter makes it all the way around the bases on their batted ball when there is a minimum of two errors on the play. I am not sure when or where the term began, and no disrespect to little leaguers is intended, of course.
Here is how it came down. I dropped a bunt down the third base line. The third baseman for the Detroit Tigers hurriedly threw the ball past the first baseman so I proceeded to second. Before my arrival I noticed our third base coach was waving me on to third. Approaching third, I saw that the right fielder had air-mailed the ball over the third baseman’s head, at which point I took off for home. Having arrived safely, I was too exhausted to enjoy it much at the time. However, over the years, I have become very fond of my feat. I realize there are inside the park homeruns and little league homeruns of this nature when the ball is misplayed by an outfielder, but I have often wondered how many big leaguers are on the list of belting a little league homerun on a ball that traveled no more than 30 feet?
In my next post, stay tuned for the details on my two out of the park homeruns, one of which is still going I believe.
Former major leaguer Jack Perconte is the author of The Making of a Hitter ( http://jackperconte.com ) and has a baseball instruction site that can be found www.baseballcoachingtips.net . He has recently published his second book Raising an Athlete – How to Instill Confidence, Build Skills and Inspire a Love of Sport
As soon as I saw Jack’s article, I started to dig for information and I’ll be damned if Jack didn’t perform this feat TWICE and against the same team with the same pitcher on the mound!
August 30, 1984 @ the Kingdome: Jack bunted towards the mound; Tigers pitcher Jack Morris dove for the ball, which fell in safely, then tried throwing to first while sitting down and airmailed it over Darrell Evans’ head. Right fielder Kirk Gibson retrieved the errant throw and tossed the ball into the Mariners’ dugout, which allowed Jack to come all the way around to score.
June 5, 1985 @ Tiger Stadium: Jack bunted towards third for a hit; Tom Brookens fielded it and threw it past Barbaro Garbey, right fielder Alejandro Sanchez retrieved the errant throw and threw it away as well, allowing to Jack to come all the way around to score.
I also found an “infield homer” hit by Yankees infielder Pat Kelly on July 24, 1991 against the Mariners (go figure) at Yankee Stadium. With the score 3-2 Yankees in the bottom of the fourth, Kelly came up with runners on second and third and one out. Kelly grounded to Mariners pitcher Erik Hanson, who threw the ball to third baseman Edgar Martinez to catch Kevin Maas off third base. Martinez threw home, but hit Maas in the back and the ball rolled away from catcher Dave Cochrane. Cochrane threw to Hanson covering the plate to try to catch Alviro Espinoza, who was trying to score from second, but the throw went into the Mariners’ dugout. Kelly was already on his way to third and was awarded an extra base on the error and scored.
I’m also aware of an “infield homer” allegedly hit by Dodgers outfielder Casey Stengel, but I’m still hunting that down. It supposedly occurred in the first game ever played at Ebbets Field but that’s impossible because the Dodgers lost to the Phillies that day, 1-0. Stay tuned!