Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs
Edited by Giselle Stancic, Bill Nowlin, and Jacob Pomrenke
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-30-7, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-31-4, $24.95
8.5″ x 11″, 167 pages
Every baseball player experiences a series of firsts when they step onto the field: the nervous excitement of entering the locker room, the pride of putting on the team uniform, the awe-inspiring moment of exiting the dugout and crossing the white lines. But when a player walks up to the plate and hits a home run in his first major-league at-bat, he creates a wave of excitement among the fans, achieves a rare feat for the record books — and experiences the thrill of a lifetime in his professional career.
Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs celebrates those moments – from inside-the-park homers to grand slams to those hit by pitchers. Some foreshadowed many homers to come; in other cases, the first at-bat homer was the only one the player ever hit.
Each major-league franchise is represented in one way or another, and we also look at first at-bat home runs hit in the Negro Leagues, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. We hope to have conveyed some of the excitement of a player entering a game and promptly hitting one outta here!
- Explore more online: Our special Featured Spotlight web project complements the new Digital Library book available above. At SABR.org/dazzling-debuts, explore the Dazzling Debuts companion website to find 60 biographies, more than 50 thrilling game recaps with play-by-play accounts, photographs and videos of their memorable swings, plus exclusive oral history interviews of players reliving their first at-bat homers in their own words — including Ed Sanicki (1949), Cuno Barragan (1961), Al Woods (1977), Dave Machemer (1978), Jon Nunnally (1995), and Daniel Nava (2010).
The Dazzling Debuts book is a collaborative effort of 33 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Contributors include: Joe Adona, Malcolm Allen, Jorge Colón Delgado, Mike Cooney, Rory Costello, Richard Cuicchi, Joey Elledge, Carlos Fragoso, John Fredland, Dave Gagnon, Craig Garretson, Paul Geisler Jr., Chip Greene, Yoshihiro Koda, Sean Kolodziej, Tara Krieger, Justin Krueger, Bryan Lake, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, Laura H. Peebles, Zac Petrillo, Jacob Pomrenke, Bill Pruden, Carl Riechers, Tom Schott, Barrett Snyder, Giselle Stancic, Stew Thornley, Michael Trzinski, Joseph Wancho, Bob Webster, and Phil Williams.
The companion website includes contributions from 57 additional SABR members: Davy Andrews, Jeff Angus, Mark Armour, Ed Attanasio, Jeff Barto, Anthony Basich, Gary Belleville, Charlie Bevis, Kurt Blumenau, Brian Bratt, Jude Butler, Warren Corbett, Tom Crisp, Larry DeFillipo, Charles F. Faber, Matt Faltas, Doug Feldmann, Dan Fields, Scott Fiesthumel, Zak Ford, John Gabcik, Gordon J. Gattie, Hayden Goethe, Andrew Harner, Tom Harris, Paul Hirsch, Paul Hofmann, Mike Huber, Bob Hurte, Norm King, Zach Kleiman, Herm Krabbenhoft, Gerard Kwilecki, Bill Lamb, Barb Mantegani, Seth Moland-Kovash, Victoria Monte, Chad Moody, Shawn Morris, Charlie O’Reilly, Tim Odzer, Tony Oliver, Pete Palmer, Chris Rainey, Joel Rippel, Tim Ryan, Rick Schabowski, Herb Schaper, Jason Scheller, Louis H. Schiff, Wyatt Schroeder, Joe Schuster, Jacob Shanker, David E. Skelton, Everett Williams, Tomotada Yamamoto, and Don Zminda.
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