August 31, 2005: More than 100 years in the making, Jeremy Hermida hits a one-of-a-kind grand slam

Until August 31, 2005, only one major-league baseball career had begun with a grand slam in a player’s first at-bat. That honor belonged to Bill Duggleby, a rookie pitcher making his debut with the Philadelphia Phillies. He hit a grand slam in the second inning in his very first at-bat against the visiting New York Giants on April 21, 1898.1

It would be 39,213 days — or 107 years, 4 months, and 10 days later — before another player matched that feat. On a Wednesday night at Dolphins Stadium, the left-handed-hitting Jeremy Hermida stepped into the batter’s box as a pinch hitter for the Florida Marlins and crushed a grand slam to right field in the bottom of the seventh inning. In front of 20,656 fans, Hermida jumped on a 1-and-1 pitch from St. Louis Cardinals right-handed relief pitcher Alberto Reyes in the Marlins’ 10-5 loss.2 Hermida became the second player to hit a grand slam in his first major-league at-bat, and the first to hit a pinch-hit grand slam in his first at-bat.

Hermida was born in Atlanta on January 30, 1984. His great-great-grandfather emigrated from Cuba and settled in the Ybor City area of Tampa, where he met his wife, Lindsay. Hermida’s father, Larry, a Tampa native, moved from Tampa to Atlanta in the early 1980s, shortly before Jeremy was born.3 His mom Tammy was born in Hollywood, Florida, just a few miles north of where Hermida hit his grand slam at Dolphins Stadium.4 

When the 2005 season began, the Florida Marlins were less than two full years removed from winning their second World Series. Going into the season, team President David Samson boldly predicted a franchise-record 93 wins, and one national magazine pegged the Marlins to win the World Series.5 Their 74-year-old manager, Jack McKeon, the architect of the 2003 championship, was still at the helm when the team entered the playoff hunt in August. They were on the cusp of going to the postseason again in search of their third World Series championship in nine years.

But as August came to an end, the team struggled to make the playoffs. Hermida was the prospect they thought could put them over the top. He got his opportunity to become a big-leaguer on a late-August night with the temperature at 87 degrees.  

Hermida was the Marlins’ first draft pick (11th overall) in the 2002 free-agent draft. He received a $2.012 million signing bonus.6 Playing for the Double-A Carolina Mudcats at the time of his call-up, Hermida was the team’s top prospect. He was hitting an impressive .293 with 18 home runs and 63 RBIs. He had a .975 OPS in 118 games on August 31.

The Marlins were hoping to use Hermida in the postseason, but he suffered a right wrist bone bruise on August 21 and had not swung the bat since. Calling him up was risky since his wrist had to be examined in order for him to be cleared to play.7 To be eligible for the postseason, a player has to be on an active roster of his team before September 1.8 Hermida passed the physical and made the team.

Going into the August 31 game, the Marlins were on a run. They had won six of their last 10 games and nine of their last 14. In beating the Cardinals 7-6 the day before, they finished a streak that took them from fourth place and 6½ games behind the first-place Atlanta Braves to second place and 4½ games behind. More important, they were tied in the wild-card race with the Phillies.9

Much like the spark that 20-year-old rookie Miguel Cabrera gave the Marlins in 2003 to help them win the World Series, the team hoped that Hermida, a 21-year-old power hitter, would be the key ingredient they needed to get to the World Series in 2005.

On the mound that night for the Marlins was another highly touted rookie, lefty Jason Vargas. The Cardinals’ roster featured three future Hall of Famers, Scott Rolen, Larry Walker, and their manager, Tony La Russa. Neither player was in the lineup, but Vargas would face two other true stars, 2005 NL MVP Albert Pujols and second-year catcher Yadier Molina.

After working around a hit and an error in the first, Vargas retired the side in order in the second, then ran into trouble in the top of the third. He retired opposing pitcher Jeff Suppan to start the inning and got ahead of shortstop David Eckstein 0-and-2. Eckstein fouled off the third pitch of the at-bat, and then hit his seventh home run of the season to put the Cardinals ahead. Pujols and Molina later hit back-to-back doubles to give the Cardinals a two-run cushion. The Cardinals tacked on another run in the top of the fourth on an RBI single by Abraham Núñez.

Suppan, in the midst of back-to-back 16-win seasons,10 had limited the Marlins to two hits through the first four innings as Vargas went back to the hill in the fifth to begin his final inning of the night. A leadoff single by So Taguchi brought Pujols to the plate, and Vargas fell behind in the count 3-and-1. Pujols tripled to drive in Taguchi, and then scored on Molina’s sacrifice fly. Vargas retired Mark Grudzielanek on a groundout before giving up a two-out single to Scott Seabol, bringing Hector Luna to the plate. As he did with Pujols, Vargas fell behind Luna, who crushed a 2-and-0 offering for a home run. Vargas retired the next hitter, ending his outing after giving up 10 hits and seven earned runs in five innings.

Facing Marlins relief pitcher Brian Moehler, the Cardinals added three more runs in the top of the seventh inning to make the score 10-0.

Brad Thompson was working his second inning of relief for the Cardinals when he walked Mike Lowell and gave up a single to Alex Gonzalez. An error by second baseman Grudzielanek on catcher Matt Treanor’s groundball left the bases loaded.

Cardinals skipper La Russa brought in Reyes from the bullpen to replace Thompson, with Hermida stepping in to pinch-hit for Moehler. On the third pitch of his at-bat, after he “swung 1-and-0 about as hard as I could to get a little jitters out and missed by about a foot and a half,”11 Hermida provided the Marlins with a highlight. He blasted Reyes’ next pitch into the right-field stands. Trying to hold in a smile as he rounded the bases, Hermida was greeted by his teammates at home plate and in the dugout, a debut that he would never forget.12

His quick call-up did not give his parents Larry and Tammy a chance to travel to Miami to watch their son play in his first major-league game, so they watched the game from their home in Marietta, Georgia. “I think I ran out of the room and my husband fell to the floor screaming, ‘That’s my boy! That’s my boy!’”13

The Marlins added a run in the eighth inning before closer Jason Isringhausen shut the door in the ninth to give the Cardinals a 10-5 win, their 85th of the season en route to an NL Central Division title and 100 wins overall. The loss dropped the Marlins to 70-63. They sputtered down the stretch to finish 83-79, six games behind the wild-card-winning Houston Astros.

After that muggy night in August, Hermida went on to play eight years in the big leagues, suiting up for the Marlins through the 2009 season. He was traded to the Boston Red Sox, for whom he played in 2010 before he was released and signed with Oakland. Hermida eventually played for four big-league teams, last appearing in the majors in 2012. After two seasons in the minor leagues with Cleveland and Milwaukee affiliates, he finished his career with a brief stint in Japan, playing for the Nippon-Ham Fighters.14 While playing for the Fighters, Ippei Mizuhara served as his interpreter.15 Since leaving baseball, Hermida has built a career in finance. As of 2024, he was a business development officer for BIP Wealth. He, his wife, Lindsay, and their three children lived in Dunwoody, Georgia.16

To say the beginning of Hermida’s career was its highlight would not be totally fair. In 2007 he had his best year as a major leaguer, hitting .296 with 18 home runs and 63 RBIs in 123 games. Although the Marlins’ 2005 season will be remembered as an “83-win embarrassment,”17 Hermida’s grand slam will be remembered as a home run for the ages.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the authors consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO200508310.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B08310FLO2005.htm

The authors wish to thank Sam Zygner, former chair of the South Florida SABR chapter, for his suggestions.

Photo credit: Jeremy Hermida, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Phil Williams, “Bill Duggleby,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bill-duggleby/, last visited May 3, 2024. See also “This Was Easy, Very/The Phillies Put Together Eight Unearned Runs in the Eighth,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22, 1898: 4; and “Duggleby’s All Right; Pitches Like a Veteran, and Clears the Bases with a Drive Over Right Field Wall,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 22, 1898: 5. The article did not call the home run a “grand slam,” rather the article called it “a home run drive while all the bases were occupied.”

2 MLB Film Room, “Hermida’s First Hit Is a Slam,” https://www.mlb.com/video/hermida-s-first-mlb-hit-is-slam-c28360807, last viewed, May 12, 2024. Since his first at-bat grand slam, this accomplishment was repeated by Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2006 and Daniel Nava in 2010.

3 Mike Berardino and Juan C. Rodriquez, “Hermida Pulls Up his Roots,” South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), July 15, 2006: 3C.

4 Tim Reynolds, “Hermida’s historic HR has family ‘still shaking,’” Stuart (Florida) News, September 2, 2005: C1, last visited June 30, 2024.

5 Mike Berardino, “An Astute Bell Ringer,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel,  April 6, 2005: 6C.

6 The Baseball Cube, Jeremy Hermida, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/player/20620/#google_vignette,  last viewed May 16, 2024.

7 Juan C. Rodriguez, “Prospect Needs Wrist Examined,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, August 31, 2005: 3C.

8 Joe Capozzi, “Ex-No. 1 Pick Hermida Could Join Club Today,” Palm Beach (Florida) Post, August 31, 2005: 5C.

9 Kevin Baxter, “Familiar Feeling,” Miami Herald, August 30, 2005: 1D.

10 The Baseball Cube, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/player/420/, last visited May 31, 2024.

11 Jeff Hem, “Audio from Iowa – Jeremy Hermida,” On the Air … And Off, May 10, 2014,  https://jeffhempbp.wordpress.com/2014/05/10/audio-from-iowa-jeremy-hermida/, last visited May 15, 2024

12 “Hermida’s First Hit Is a Slam.”

13 Reynolds, “Hermida’s historic HR has family ‘still shaking’”.

14 The Baseball Cube.

15 In 2024, Mizuhara pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani. “Orange County Man Agrees to Plead Guilty to Illegally Transferring Nearly $17 Million from MLB Star’s Account and Signing False Tax Return,” press release, United States Department of Justice, May 8, 2024, https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/orange-county-man-agrees-plead-guilty-illegally-transferring-nearly-17-million-mlb.  Accessed May 18, 2024. See also Michael Bradburn’ “Everything You Need to Know: Ohtani’s Scandal,” The Score, March 26, 2024, https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2877128, last viewed May 14, 2024.

16 BIP Wealth, Jeremy Hermida, https://bipwealth.com/team/jeremy-hermida/, last visited May 16, 2024.

17 Mike Berardino, “Offseason Real Downer,” South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 11, 2005: 1C.