Granillo: Too many leadoff home runs
From SABR member Larry Granillo at Baseball Nation on May 29, 2013:
Have you ever gotten up to get a hot dog between innings at a ball game only to find a longer line than you expected? And then, as you inch closer and closer to the counter, you realize that you aren’t going to make it back to your seat in time for the first batter? It’s the worst feeling, right? Especially when that first batter ends up doing something exciting like, say, hitting a home run?
Imagine what it must have been like to be a hungry fan at Minute Maid Park on October 2, 2004, when the Astros faced the Rockies. In that game, which Houston won 9-3, there were six different (half-)innings where the leadoff batter hit a home run. Six! That means that more than one-third of the game was spent disappointing some tired dad or some thirsty college kid who mistakenly thought he could make it back to his seat before anything interesting happened.
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The six leadoff home runs are a record for any game in the Retrosheet era (from 1950-2012), though the Rockies/Astros game doesn’t hold it alone. The record was first set in 1995 by the White Sox and Tigers at old Tiger Stadium.
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballnation.com/hot-corner/2013/5/29/4375970/too-many-leadoff-home-runs
Originally published: May 29, 2013. Last Updated: May 29, 2013.