Was Cardinals’ Joshua Baez’s three-homer MLB debut the best ever?
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jake Mintz and Baltimore Orioles and ESPN sportscaster Kevin Brown react to St. Louis Cardinals Joshua Baez's spectacular MLB debut and call it the greatest of all time. Hear the full conversation on the "Baseball Bar-B-Cast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
This is the single greatest debut in the history of Major League Baseball.
Joshua Baez called up by the St. Louis Cardinals' first career MLB game on Saturday, goes yard in his first plate appearance, goes yard in his second plate appearance, and goes yard in his third plate appearance.
The Cubs fans gave him a standing ovation, not something you see quite often when the Cardinals are in town.
Kevin, w- what did we see here?
What did we watch?
What was this?
I, I'd love to come on here and, and be contrarian and say, "Well, actually, Jake, it was, like, the fourth-best Major League debut in history."
I, I can't get there.
I couldn't find anything offensively that was, like There are some really cool pitching debuts, right?
But, no one has ever had an offensive debut like this.
No one.
And I, I mean, I just wanna know where this ranks for the best first pitches of a Major League career.
Be- guys have homered on the first pitch they've seen, but to go 449 to dead center in Wrigley- in a Cubs-Cardinals game, that alone is sick.
But you're right.
There was something about the home run that Joshua Baez hit, the first one, 449 to dead center, over the batter's eye, just to the left of it, that perfectly encapsulated what this player is.
Joshua Baez has some of the wildest, wackiest, top-of-the-scale raw power that exists in professional baseball, that exists on the planet.
And so for him to say, "Oh, sure, the first pitch I ever see, here's the thing that I do for a living," was wonderful theater.
The second plate appearance is the one that I was thinking a lot about because, like, when he comes back up for the second one, you're not necessarily thinking, "Is he gonna do it again?"
He does do it again on a full count, kind of pokes it out opposite field, over the basket, over the ivy in left.
The third one, though, everyone in the yard is thinking about it.
Just unbelievable performance here from Joshua Baez.
