June 10, 2005: Orioles beat Reds in first matchup of three members of 500-homer club

Cincinnati’s roots in professional baseball date to 1876, and the Queen City has seen a lot of baseball history—including the first major-league game to feature three members of the 500-home-run club. It happened on June 10, 2005, when Ken Griffey Jr. and the Cincinnati Reds hosted Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, and the Baltimore Orioles in what turned out to be a 4-3 Orioles win at Great American Ball Park.

It took until 1945—when Mel Ott joined Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx—for baseball to have a three-member 500-home-run club. The first time that three members of the club were active at the same time was July 1967, when Eddie Mathews joined Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.1

Orioles right fielder Sosa had become the 18th member of the 500-home-run club while playing for the Chicago Cubs on April 4, 2003—coincidentally, at Great American Ball Park, with a home run against Cincinnati’s Scott Sullivan.2 Baltimore first baseman Palmeiro was the 19th in major-league history with 500 homers, reaching the milestone with the Texas Rangers on May 11, 2003, against Dave Elder of the Cleveland Indians.3 And Reds center fielder Griffey made it a 20-member club with his 500th homer off Matt Morris of the St. Louis Cardinals on June 20, 2004.4

What brought Sosa, Palmeiro, and Griffey together at three-year-old Great American Ball Park was a relatively new aspect of baseball in 2005: regular-season interleague play, which had begun in 1997. The first time that National League Central Division teams like the Reds and American League East Division teams like the Orioles were matched in interleague play was 2003. That season, the Reds played three AL East teams: the Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and New York Yankees. The Orioles’ interleague schedule included the Cubs, Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, and Houston Astros of the NL Central.

The 2005 season was the next chance for an NL Central-AL East matchup. It was Baltimore’s first trip to play in Cincinnati since the teams met in the World Series in 1970, which the Orioles won four games to one, when the Reds called Riverfront Stadium home.

The Orioles entered the three-game weekend series leading the AL East with a 35-24 record, good for the second-best record in the AL behind the majors-best 40-19 mark of the eventual World Series champion Chicago White Sox. Meanwhile, Cincinnati was struggling at 24-35, just half a game out of last place in the NL Central, but the Reds had put up 34 total runs while sweeping a three-game series from the Devil Rays.

The 36-year-old Sosa (580 career homers) was batting fifth for manager Lee Mazzilli’s Orioles, followed by the 40-year-old Palmeiro (559 homers) in the sixth spot. Dave Miley’s lineup for the Reds had the 35-year-old Griffey (510 homers) batting cleanup.

The Friday night game was scoreless through two innings. Palmeiro’s two-out single in the top of the second—the 2,971st hit of his career—provided the only baserunner against Reds starter Aaron Harang and Baltimore’s Rodrigo López.

The Orioles went ahead in the top of the third. Gerónimo Gil’s leadoff single and David Newhan’s two-out walk set up third baseman Melvin Mora with two runners on base. Mora gave Baltimore the lead at 3-0 with a three-run homer, his 13th of the season, off Harang’s 93-mph fastball. Mora’s home run, which finished off a nine-pitch at-bat, traveled an estimated 424 feet before hitting the facing of the second deck in left-center field.5

The Reds attempted to rally in the middle innings. Cincinnati shortstop Felipe López, no relation to Baltimore starter Rodrigo, led off the third with a home run, his ninth, making it 3-1. The Reds loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth, but Rodrigo López got Jason LaRue to hit into a force at home, struck out Harang, and retired Ryan Freel on a popup to keep Cincinnati off the scoreboard.

In the bottom of the sixth, Reds first baseman Sean Casey singled with one out, and Griffey beat the Orioles’ shift with a bunt single toward third for career hit 2,215. Three-time Gold Glove winner Palmeiro was unable to grab Wily Mo Peña’s smash, and the bases were again loaded with Reds.6

Mazzilli brought in lefty Steve Kline to face lefty-swinging Adam Dunn. Kline’s two-strike pitch hit three feet in front of the plate; Casey scored on the wild pitch.7 But Kline set down Dunn on a popup and Felipe López on a grounder to keep it a one-run game.

In the top of the eighth, with veteran lefty Kent Mercker on the mound for Cincinnati, Mora doubled with one out. Miguel Tejada followed with a fly ball that tailed away from Dunn in right. Dunn appeared to be in position to make the catch, but he fell and missed the ball.8 Tejada’s 21st double of the season scored Mora to increase the Orioles’ lead to 4-2.9

Griffey hit a solo homer off Orioles reliever John Parrish with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. The ball landed just beyond the outstretched arm of Sosa in right field.10 It was his 10th of the year and 511th of his career, tying Ott for 18th place on the all-time list. The home run got the Reds a bit closer, trailing 4-3 entering the ninth inning.

But Baltimore closer B.J. Ryan, who had made his major-league debut with the Reds in 1999, entered the game in the ninth for his league-leading 32nd appearance. Ryan struck out Dunn, Felipe López, and LaRue to pick up his 16th save. Rodrigo López improved to 5-2 with the win; Harang dropped to 4-4 with the loss.11

Sosa was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts against Harang, who struck out 10 Orioles. Sosa was also intentionally walked by Mercker. Palmeiro finished the night 1-for-4, thanks to his second-inning single. Griffey’s bunt single and solo homer gave him a 2-for-4 night.

The Reds and Orioles played twice more that weekend, and Griffey, Sosa, and Palmeiro appeared in both games. In Sunday afternoon’s 10-6 Cincinnati win, Sosa hit two home runs, pushing his career total to 582, and Griffey passed Ott—and tied Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks—with his 512th career homer. It was the fourth time in major-league history that two members of the 500-home-run club had hit home runs in the same game, following Banks and Mays in 1970, Henry Aaron and Mays in 1971, and Barry Bonds and Palmeiro in 2004.12

In June 2005, Sosa, Palmeiro, and Griffey all seemed destined for the Hall of Fame. All 15 eligible players with 500 or more lifetime homers had been inducted into the Hall of Fame at that time. But by 2025, only Griffey, who retired in 2010 with 630 career home runs, had made it to Cooperstown. As with several other players from this period, evidence or allegations of performance-enhancing drug use have kept Sosa, who retired in 2007 with 609 career homers, and Palmeiro, whose career ended later in the 2005 season with 569 home runs, out of the Hall of Fame.13

As of 2025, there were 28 members of the 500-home-run club.The most recent addition was Miguel Cabrera on August 22, 2021. The three Reds-Orioles games in June 2005 remain the only instances of three members of the club playing in the same game.

Author’s Note

The author and his father attended this game in Cincinnati, and the author realized the historical significance when he saw the starting lineups posted on the video board. During the game, there was a special message on the video board about the current three members of the 500-home-run club playing in the same game for the first time.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Kurt Blumenau.

Photo credit: Ken Griffey Jr., Trading Card Database.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN200506100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/B06100CIN2005.htm

Notes

1 On July 9, 1968, participants in the All-Star Game included Mays, who had 576 career home runs at that time; Mantle, 529 home runs; and Henry Aaron, 499 home runs. Aaron joined the 500-homer club five days later, on July 14.

2 Phil Rogers, “Hall of Fame Cinch,” Chicago Tribune, April 5, 2003: 3,6.

3 T.R. Sullivan, “Welcome to the Club: Home Is Where Palmeiro’s Heart Is as He Hits Milestone Homer in Win over Indians,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 12, 2003: 1D.

4 Marc Lancaster, “500!,” Cincinnati Post, June 21, 2004: 1A

5 Roch Kubatko, “Mora, O’s Edge Reds, 4-3, to Add to East lead,” Baltimore Sun, June 11, 2005: C1; ESPN Sports Center, “2005 MLB Highlights June 10,” YouTube video (SW561), 14:31, accessed November 30, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok-I1D4jLxE.

6 John Fay, “Reds Drop the Ball on Bases-Loaded Chances,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 11, 2005: C1.

7 Fay, “Reds Drop the Ball on Bases-Loaded Chances.”

8 Fay, “Reds Drop the Ball on Bases-Loaded Chances.”

9 Tejada went on to lead the major leagues with 50 doubles.

10 ESPN Sports Center, “2005 MLB Highlights June 10.”

11 The Reds fired Miley on June 21 with their record 27-43. They finished fifth in the NL Central at 73-89-1. The Orioles fired Mazzilli on August 4 after a slide of 28 losses in 37 games. They came in fourth in the AL East at 74-88.

12 John Erardi, “History Takes Front Seat in Reds-Orioles Series,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 13, 2005: C1.

13 Palmeiro recorded his 3,000th career hit, a double off Joel Piñeiro of the Seattle Mariners, five weeks after this game on July 15. On August 1, he was suspended for 10 games after testing positive for steroids. Roch Kubatko, “Palmeiro Suspended: Oriole Given 10-Day Penalty for Violating Steroid Policy,” Baltimore Sun, August 2, 2005: 1A. He appeared in seven games after the suspension, concluding his major-league career.