Starting Post-Season Series Off With A HR
Posted by Steve Lombardi on February 21, 2011
How many times has the first batter in the first game of a post-season series started off the contest by going yard?
Amazingly, in the entire history of post-season baseball, all those "Game One" match-ups in World Series, LCS and LDS play, it's happened just once, per Play Index' Post-Season Batting Event Finder:
| Cr# | Gm# | Date | Series | Gm# | Batter | Tm | Opp | Pitcher | Score | Inn | RoB | Out | Pit(cnt) | RBI | WPA | RE24 | Play Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2007-10-04 | ALDS | 1 | Johnny Damon | NYY | @CLE | CC Sabathia | tied 0-0 | t1 | --- | 0 | 5 (3-1) | 1 | 0.09 | 1.00 | .87 | *LEADOFF GM*:Home Run (Line Drive) |
.
That's one time out of 256 times. How's that for a baseball trivia question?
February 21st, 2011 at 5:07 pm
For context, here are the rates of game-opening HRs in various regular seasons:
-- 2010: 1 per 135 games
-- 2000: 1 per 99 games
-- 1990: 1 per 168 games
-- 1980: 1 per 168 games
-- 1970: (at least*) 1 per 144 games
-- 1960: (at least*) 1 per 124 games
-- 1950: (at least*) 1 per 225 games
* Per B-R: "Event data is complete back to 1973 and mostly complete back to 1950."
February 21st, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Well obviously, since 100% of teams that accomplished this feat went on the lose the series, that must why teams have not done it more often. 🙂
February 21st, 2011 at 7:12 pm
What about.Pedroia in 2007
Ooooo
Or was that bottom half of 1st
February 21st, 2011 at 9:53 pm
There have only been 256 post-season series??? That number seemed impossibly wrong when I first saw it, but I guess it has to be right. While we currently see 5 series per post-season, that is only a recent development. For a long time, there was only one series per post-season. Crazy to think about things in this way.
February 21st, 2011 at 9:58 pm
From the Play Description data, it seems a few guys might have been close:
Earle Combs flew out to deep left field in 1927.
Bert Campaneries flew out to deep left-center field in 1974.
Lloyd Moseby lined out to deep center field in 1989.
Lance Johnson flew out to deep left-center field in 1998.
Omar Infante doubled to deep left-center field in 2010.
Obviously, this is all based on subjective second-hand accounting, but still interesting to look at.
February 21st, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Rickey Henderson was the first batter in 11 series-opening games, but never homered in that situation. He did homer leading off game 4 of the 1989 WS.
P.S. For his career, RIckey homered about 24% more often when he was the first batter of a game than he did in all other situations:
-- Leading off the game: 1 HR per 37 PAs
-- Not leading off the game: 1 HR per 46 PAs
February 21st, 2011 at 11:53 pm
BSK #4, There are 7 series now. (8 teams, 7 must lose, one at a time.) 65 WS before 1969. 25 x 3 for 1969 to 1993. 7 x 16 for 1995 to 2010. I get 252. Plus 4 for 1981 equals 256.
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:38 am
#7/... Kds Says: "BSK #4, There are 7 series now... 65 WS before 1969. 25 x 3 for 1969 to 1993. 7 x 16 for 1995 to 2010. I get 252. Plus 4 for 1981 equals 256."
Thanks Kds; ...so, since 1995, there have been 112/256, or about 44%, of all playoff series ever played. Keep this in mind whenever you hear a player's all-time great status bolstered with the claim, "...amongst the all-time playoff leaders in {X}".
Looking at the post-season leaders in (counting) batter stats, practically all of them have careers predominantly post-1995,with the occassional Pete Rose or Reggie Jackson or Mickey Mantle or Lou Brock.