What was remarkable about this feat was the nature of the baseball used for the game, the spacious, irregular shape of the playing field, and Pike’s size. The ball Pike struck was not the “dead ball” of later decades, but a livelier ball that was often used for an entire game. After a few innings the ball’s condition was not suitable for power hitting. The playing field had an irregular shape with spacious power alleys that sprawled from 300 to about 400 feet in center field.2 Batting ninth, the 21-year-old left-hander in his first year with the Athletics stood only 5-feet-8 and weighed 158 pounds. Years after his playing days were over, fans still talked about the batting prowess and long-distance slugging of the “Iron Batter.” Another Pike feature that contributed to his notoriety was his Jewish faith.

Pike’s father was a refugee from Holland who settled in New York among the Dutch Jewish merchant families. Born in 1845, the second of five children, Lipman grew up in Brooklyn. Against their father’s wishes, he and his older brother, Boaz, played baseball. By 1865 Lipman was good enough to be invited to play for the renowned champions of the National Association, the Atlantics of Brooklyn. He was 20 years old when he appeared in his first game for the Atlantics. The following year Pike made a career move and joined the Atlantics’ major rival, the Athletics of Philadelphia, who lured him by paying him $20 a week.3 The year before he signed with the Athletics, the club leased a new playing ground from the city and outfitted it. Located between 15th and 17th and Montgomery and Columbia Avenues, this irregularly shaped field was the Athletics’ home site until 1871. The grounds were formerly a bivouac and staging area for the Union Army. Here soldiers and workmen for a natural history museum, the Wagner Free Institute, played pick-up ball games. The first regular sanctioned game was played on May 12, 1865.4

Pike’s first season with the Athletics (1866) was marked by historic contests with the Atlantics of Brooklyn. Record crowds attended each game. The first game drew over 30,000 spectators, and the crowds were so dense that it had to be called after one inning. Between the next two Atlantic contests Pike and the Athletics played the Alerts. In this contest Pike used his remarkable speed to beat out long hits that soared to gaps in the spacious center field, a distance of about 400 feet. His other home runs were lofted over 290 feet, clearing a seven-foot-high fence bordering Columbia Avenue in right field. In all the Athletics stroked 12 home runs and won the game 67–25.5

Not much attention was given to Pike’s great game. There were no bold headlines or commentaries about his feat. It was reported merely as another victory for the Athletics. The Athletics finished their National Association schedule with a 23–2 record. But Pike’s tenure in Philadelphia was tenuous. Questions were raised about the loyalty and reliability of paid professional ballplayers.6 As a result, he and other professionals were purged from the team. In 1867 Pike found himself playing for Association teams in New Jersey and New York.

By the time he ceased full-time play a dozen years later, Pike had won four home run titles and set the professional National Association career record for home runs. He was also fourth in RBIs. Despite all of that, Lipman Pike would always be known for what he accomplished in his first full year as a professional ballplayer on the sweltering afternoon of July 16, 1866.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

Further exacerbating things, it had become en vogue for top clubs to declare games between one another to be exhibitions rather than meaningful contests. “People are willing to pay to see a well played game,” the Herald reported, but crowds naturally became upset “when they are cajoled into paying for the privilege of being present at a game in which neither club has anything to lose … [and which] lacks, therefore, the necessary incentive to work hard.” The attendance for big matches began to dwindle.2

This was not the case on September 6. The Eckford Club of Brooklyn had reclaimed the title from the Mutuals earlier in the summer. The Atlantic Club was Eckford’s first challenger, and both clubs’ directors made it clear beforehand that this match was the beginning of a championship series.3

For the Atlantic Club, George Zettlein was their pitcher and Bob Ferguson his catcher. An 1868 profile in the Brooklyn Eagle called Zettlein “as regular as a pitcher can be and exceedingly swift … and [he] exhibits as much speed in the ninth as in the first innings.”4 The Eckfords’ battery was Alphonse “Phonney” Martin at pitcher and Nat Jewett at the backstop. Martin was known as the “professor of the new school of slow pitching,”5 as opposed to the swift pitching that was growing popular. Jewett had caught for Martin from 1865 through 1867, first with the Empire Club and then with the Mutual Club. The 1869 season was the first they were reunited with the Eckford Club.

Joe Start, the Atlantic Club’s 26-year-old star first baseman, had a history of hitting Martin well. The two men had faced off in eight games, starting in 1865. Start had a career total of 32 runs scored against 19 outs made against Martin; an average of 4.0 runs scored per game against 2.375 outs made. To put those numbers in perspective: According to historian Marshall Wright, a player who scored two runs and made three outs per game was considered average by the standards of the time.6 Start’s performance against Martin was 2½ times better than average.

Against the Eckfords on September 6, Start hit four home runs and made 23 total bases. Single-game efforts like this weren’t unheard of in the pre-professional era: W.H. Murtha hit five home runs in an 1861 contest against the Brooklyn Club, and Lipman Pike hit five in a game against the Danville Alerts in 1866.7 Pike’s and Murtha’s opponents, however, were amateur “country club” teams of no renown, so their achievements are tempered by the anemic quality of their opponents. Start’s big game happened against the defending pennant-holders, his highest available level of competition, making it a parallel to subsequent prodigious big-league slugging performances.  

The game commenced at 3:05 P.M. with the Atlantic Club batting first.8 Start was third in the lineup. Martin induced groundouts from the first two hitters, Dickey Pearce and Charlie Smith. With the bases empty and two out, the left-handed Start connected with Martin’s offering and pulled it deep to right field, far beyond the fielder’s reach, for a clean home run. Start’s hit was so powerful that he “trotted” home, according to the New York Clipper, despite the ball staying in play within the cavernous Capitoline Grounds.9

In the top of the second, Start took his second at-bat with two outs, a runner on first and a 4-2 Atlantics lead. Start’s second clout flew over right fielder Ed Pinkham’s head again and carried all the way to the clubhouse in the far-right corner of the grounds.10 Start made it around the bases again for his second home run. The challengers had a 6-2 advantage.

Start was not the only Atlantic to make a four-bagger early on: Dan McDonald hit one earlier in the second inning, and Pike struck a ball to the right-field clubhouse for a home run in the third inning. The ball was “very lively,” according to the New York Sun, which was in character with the Atlantics’ preference.11 Eckford’s second baseman, Jimmy Wood, learned this the hard way when Start came up for his third at-bat. He smoked a line drive toward Wood, who bravely put his hands in front of it. Wood’s efforts were in vain – not only did Start get a double, but Wood’s thumb was injured on the play.12 The Atlantics scored seven in the inning to push ahead, 13-2.

The Eckfords scored four runs in their half thanks to errors from Smith, Pike, and Pearce. Martin and company held the Atlantics to one run in the fourth inning. The score line was now 14-6 and the Eckford bats sprang to life. A combination of sharp hitting by the champs and sloppy fielding by the Atlantics led to 12 runs. The champions were now ahead 18-14 after four innings.

Start led off the top of the fifth inning with yet another massive hit to right field. Accounts differ on whether he scored on his own hit. The Clipper wrote that Start scored when Jewett muffed a throw to home plate. Other accounts say that Start held up at third and scored on Jack Chapman’s home run the next at-bat.13 The important thing to note is that, even in the Clipper’s account, Start was not credited with a home run on the play.

The Atlantics batted around in the fifth, and Start came up for a second time in the inning. He hit toward Wood again, who this time was able to corral the ball and force out Charlie Smith running to second base. The rules of 1869 called for the first batter of an inning to be the player slotted after the person who made the final out in the previous inning. This applied to runners who were put out on the basepaths.14 Because of this quirk, the third out of the fifth was not charged to Start but instead to Smith, meaning that Start batted again to lead off the sixth inning. To the Eckfords’ relief, Martin induced a popout for Start’s first official out. Unfortunately for the champions, the next eight batters all reached base, only one being a base on error.

Start came to bat with still only his one out on the board for the sixth inning. Again, he smashed the ball to right field for his third home run.15 The Eckfords managed to make the final two outs before another run was allowed. The champions scored only one in their half, putting the score at 28-22 in favor of the Atlantics after six innings.

Martin was clearly struggling to get outs, but the Eckfords left him in to pitch the seventh.16 The Atlantics took advantage to blow the game open: all nine men reached base safely before the first out was made. Start contributed a double, his second of the day. The Atlantics scored nine runs and then shut out the Eckfords for a 37-22 lead. The game had become a blowout.

The Eckfords must have considered it a miracle when the Atlantics went one-two-three in the eighth. Dickey Pearce flied out before Charley Smith and Start both fouled out.17 The Eckford Club did not take advantage. They posted their own zero, and the ninth inning began with the same 15-run deficit.

Because he made the final out in the eighth, Start was ninth in the order to start the last inning. His teammates did not let up on the champions, however. Chapman opened with his second home run of the game.18 Out of the next seven batters, only Zettlein was put out. Start came up to bat for the final time and hit another howitzer to right field that rolled to the dugout – his fourth homer of the game.19

All told, Joe Start went 7-for-10 with four home runs, two doubles, and a triple for 23 total bases in the Atlantic club’s 45-25 victory.20 To put his output in context, Shawn Green holds the major-league single-game record for total bases with 19. The Eckford Club recovered to win the second match, 23-9, on October 9, but the Atlantics won the rubber match on November 8 by a score of 16-12 to claim the championship, which they held through the end of 1869.

• Read more: Click here for SABR’s comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in professional baseball history

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Joe Start, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information. Special thanks to Jacob Pomrenke for his first-draft notes.

Notes

1 “Atlantic vs. Eckford for the Championship,” New York Herald, September 7, 1869: 3.

2 New York Herald.

3 New York Herald.

4 “Atlantic vs. Mutual. – Statistics Concerning the Nines Which Are to Play on Monday Next,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 15, 1868: 2.

5 “Personals and Sundries, “Brooklyn Eagle, June 22, 1868: 2.

6 Marshall D. Wright, The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2000), xvi-xvii.

7 Start was Murtha’s teammate for the 1861 game. He also hit a home run that day. “Enterprise vs. Brooklyn,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 23, 1861: 3.

8 “First Game for the Championship Between the Atlantics and Eckfords – The Atlantics Victorious – A Grand Batting Game – ‘Old Rocks’ Goes In for Four Home Runs,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 7, 1869: 2.

9 “The Championship,” New York Clipper, September 11, 1869: 178.

10 New York Clipper.

11 “Atlantic vs. Eckford – The Champions Badly Beaten,” New York Sun, September 7, 1869: 2.

12 New York Clipper.

13 “Eckford vs. Atlantic – Defeat of the Eckfords – Score, 45 to 25,”New York Tribune, September 7, 1869: 5.

14 For more on this rule, read “An Odd Playing and Scoring Rule” by John Thorn, Bob Tholkes, and John Zinn in the SABR Origins Committee’s February 2025 newsletter.

15 New York Clipper.

16 New York Clipper.

17 New York Clipper.

18 New York Clipper.

19 New York Clipper.

20 Modern box-score figures were extrapolated from the Clipper’s play-by-play account from September 11. As it happened, Start fell a single short of hitting for the cycle.

Fans arriving for the second portion of the Boston Beaneaters’ morning-afternoon Memorial Day twin bill with Cincinnati on May 30, 1894, had reason to anticipate a pleasant afternoon. It was warm and sunny, with a breeze blowing from the south and southwest.1 Beyond the pleasant conditions, their three-time defending National League champions had won four straight (including the morning game) and six of their last seven.

The crowd of 8,500 did indeed cheer their heroes on to a fifth straight victory. But beyond that, they witnesssed an unprecedented achievement. Bobby Lowe, the team’s popular second baseman, that afternoon became the first major-league player to hit four home runs in a game.

The crowd for the afternoon portion of the split-admission holiday twin bill was much larger than the 3,000 who had showed up for the morning game, won by Boston in a 13–10 slugfest. Kid Nichols, on his way to his fourth straight 30-victory season, started for the home team in the second game. But the Reds treated Nichols roughly, with Bug Holliday’s first-inning home run over the leftfield fence giving the visitors a 2–0 lead. Cincinnati hurler Elton “Icebox” Chamberlain, winless since the season’s second game, disposed of Lowe leading off the home half of the first, but a walk followed by hits by Tommy McCarthy and Billy Nash knotted the score at 2–2.

Boston took the lead in the bottom of the third on Lowe’s first home run, a line drive that cleared the left-field fence. The rest of the Beaneaters took it from there. Herman Long was hit by a pitch, Hugh Duffy sacrificed, McCarthy singled, and Nash walked, loading the bases. Tommy Tucker hit a fly to right field for the second out, but Jimmy Bannon, Jack Ryan, and Nichols followed with consecutive singles. Lowe, who had started the rally with his first home run, climaxed it with his second, again clearing the left field fence. The champions produced nine runs off Chamberlain that inning, taking an 11–2 lead.

The Reds attempted to get back into the game in the fifth when Dummy Hoy and Jack McCarthy singled, Arlie Latham connected for a double, and Holliday drove them in with his second home run. That made the score 11–6. But in the home half of the inning, Lowe clouted his third round-tripper, this one easily clearing the left-field fence. That tied the major-league record for home runs in a game, held by six players.

Already leading 12–6, Boston added five more runs in the sixth. Nash walked, Tucker was hit by a pitch, and Bannon singled. That brought up Lowe again, and he etched his name in the record books by hitting his fourth home run, the ball again sailing over the left-field fence. The crowd, aware that it was witnessing an exceptional exhibition, cheered Lowe wildly, some throwing coins at him. Teammates helped the player gather the loot, which was later found to total $160. Long followed that blast with one of his own.

Neither Lowe nor his teammates were through yet. In the seventh inning, bases on balls to Tucker and Bannon and hits by Nash, Ryan, and Lowe scored two more runs. Lowe’s fifth hit, a single, gave him 17 total bases for the game, another National League record and one that stood for more than 60 years until it was broken by Joe Adcock on July 31, 1954. In the eighth inning Boston scored its 20th and final run on a single by Long and a double by McCarthy.

Trailing 20–6, the Reds mounted a ninth-inning comeback against Nichols that produced five runs, including two more home runs, by Farmer Vaughn and Jimmy Canavan. The latter’s carried into the top of the center-field bleachers. Amazingly, for a game that saw 31 runs scored, 33 hits, nine bases on balls, and two hit batsmen, both Chamberlain and Nichols pitched a complete game.

In recent years, some have questioned whether Lowe’s accomplishment was aided by the fact that the game was played at the Congress Street Grounds—a facility abandoned by the Boston Reds when the American Association ceased play in 1891—rather than the Beaneaters’ usual home, the South End Grounds. That park had burned in the Great Roxbury Fire just two weeks earlier. The fences at Congress Street Grounds were generally much closer than at South End Grounds.2 Those on the scene, however, saw it differently. “His home runs were on line drives far over the fence, and would be good for four bases on an open prairie,” wrote the Boston Globe’s Tim Murnane in his account of the game the following day.3

Two years after Lowe accomplished his batting feat, Philadelphia slugger Ed Delahanty duplicated it in Chicago. But not until Lou Gehrig in 1932 did any of the great 20th-century sluggers hit four home runs in one game. Just a few weeks after Gehrig did so, photographers in Detroit, where the Yankees were playing, arranged for the famed slugger to pose with a plain-looking, 66-year-old, 20-year Detroit city employee with whom the Yankee powerhouse had something in common. The city employee was Bobby Lowe. As reported in the newspapers of the time, Gehrig’s first question upon meeting the small, quiet man was, “Did you really hit four home runs in a single game?”4

Yes, he did.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. To read more stories from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Notes

1 North Adams (Massachusetts) Daily Transcript, May 31, 1894.

2 The dimensions at Congress Street Grounds were 250 feet to left field and 400 feet to center field. The South End Grounds dimensions were 250 feet to left field, 445 to left center, 500 feet to center field, 440 feet to right center and 255 feet to right field. See Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals (New York: Walker & Company, 2006), 25. Lowry does not give the dimensions to right field at Congress Street Grounds.

3 T. H. Murnane, “Cheered Bobby,” Boston Globe, May 31, 1894: 13

4 Bobby Lowe File, A Bartlett Giamatti Research Library, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Philadelphia Phillies had high hopes for the 1896 season. It was hoped that Billy Nash, acquired in a trade from Boston to be the new third baseman and manager-captain, could bring teamwork and playing fundamentals to the talent-laden team. The ballclub also signed Big Dan Brouthers to play first base. But after a good start, their pitching soured and the team lost eight straight games. From May 11 to the end of June the club went 16–24. One writer suggested that the team looked like they were “dosed on morphine.”1

A closer look revealed a troubled team. Nash was beaned and could not play. Brouthers played poorly and was dropped after a salary dispute. Injuries and illnesses laid up Jack Clements, Al Orth, Lave Cross, and Con Lucid. The most troubling injury was to Ed Delahanty, who had reinjured his old separated shoulder. At one point he was hospitalized and missed eight games. Yet when the Phillies departed for Cincinnati after a July 4 doubleheader, Ed was in the midst of a 19-game hitting streak. He ultimately batted safely in 27 out of 28 games.

Despite Delahanty’s effort, the ball club did not improve its standing, arriving in Chicago 0-for-6 on the road trip including three losses to last-place Louisville. The city, which had just hosted the Democratic Party convention that nominated William Jennings Bryan for president, gave little thought to the Monday afternoon midsummer ballgame. A heat wave that recorded 133 deaths the day of the game also hurt interest, and only about 1,000 hardy fans turned out at West Side Park. The thermometer in the grandstand read in the triple digits.

The Phillies started a lanky rookie hurler, Virgil Garvin. He was opposed by the veteran William “Adonis” Terry. This handsome right-handed curveball specialist had already won more than 180 major- league games. Delahanty had had previous success against the clever offspeed Terry, with 16 hits in 48 at-bats for a .333 average. But he had never hit a home run off Terry.

The ballpark that hosted this memorable game was oddly fashioned. The foul lines were 340 feet to the perimeter fence, and the on-field clubhouses in center field were more than 450 feet from home plate. The right-field wall was 40 feet high with a scoreboard and a canvas screen fastened to telephone poles in order to block the view of rooftop spectators. It was an unlikely setting for the greatest hitting performance of the 19th century.

The Phillies began the game with Duff Cooley getting a walk and being sacrificed to second base. With two outs, Delahanty, batting fourth in Dan Brouthers’ former spot, swung at an outside pitch and hit it over the inner, lower bleacher fence in front of the right field wall. Jimmy Ryan chased the ball into the narrow bleachers between the two fences as Cooley and Delahanty scored. In the third inning, Ed hit a vicious line drive toward shortstop that knocked over the leaping Bill Dahlen and went into left field for a single. Del’s third at bat came with two runners on base. This time he struck a towering blow that soared over the scoreboard and canvas-topped right-field wall. It landed across the road in a flock of chickens. A young boy picked up the ball and was chased by a panting policeman. This home run was said to be the longest ever hit at West Side Park.

With the Phillies losing, 9–6, Delahanty came to the plate in the seventh inning. He swatted a fastball that went over the head of the fleet-footed Chicago center fielder, Billy Lange. The ball rolled to the distant clubhouses, giving Delahanty his third home run. When Delahanty came to bat in the ninth inning, fans had forgotten the score and were cheering for another home run. Chicago manager Cap Anson threatened to fine his whole team “the price of three meals at World Fair rates” if any Philadelphia player was put on base before Delahanty got his last at bat.2 To make sure everything was in order, center fielder Lange called time and retreated to the farthest part of the grounds—the uncut grass before the centerfield clubhouses. Delahanty, in his soaking-wet woolen uniform, laughed at the spectacle of the retreating center fielder.

With Chicago fans behind him, many standing on their seats, Delahanty fooled everyone and bunted the first pitch foul. His action brought shouts from the grandstands: “Line it out, Del!” Ed enjoyed this stunt and waited on Terry’s next pitch, a slow, outside curve. The bat, it was reported, impacted with the sound of a “rifle shot.” The hit carried over 450 feet, beyond Lange, and bounded onto the roofs of the center-field clubhouses. Delahanty easily scored his fourth home run without a throw. As he crossed the plate, Terry was waiting to shake his hand. Outfielder Lange hid the ball under the clubhouse for a souvenir, and the fans remained standing on their seats cheering wildly for about 10 minutes. After the game, spectators followed Del to the omnibus and offered him congratulatory claps on his back. A local gum factory recognized Ed’s achievement by giving him a box of gum for each home run. One Chicago paper wrote that if it were not for Delahanty’s hitting the overheated fans would have “cursed the day baseball was invented.”3

The Phillies lost the game, 9–8, their seventh setback in a row. Ed had five of the team’s nine hits. He knocked in seven runs and had 17 total bases. That evening, back at the hotel, many commiserated with Delahanty. They told him it was a tough loss after the way he batted. Ed replied, “I did the best I could. I couldn’t hit any more.”4 Queried about “Adonis” Terry, Delahanty confessed that he never hit hard against him, but “Today they came just right. Tomorrow I probably would not get a hit. Those things can’t be explained.”5

Before Delahanty, only Boston’s Bobby Lowe, in 1894, had hit four homers in a game. Nothing again rivaled Delahanty’s power display until Lou Gehrig hit four cork-centered baseballs out of Philadelphia’s Shibe Park in 1932.

Delahanty finished the year with 13 home runs and 126 RBIs. In a Sporting Life feature, he was praised: “Amid the wreck of the year the performance of Delahanty shines out luminously and marks him as indeed the star of the team.”6

• Related link: Click here for a comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in professional baseball
  

Notes

1 Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 1896, June 10, 1896.

2 Randall Papers (Letters and Papers of Norine Delahanty, Mobile, Alabama), packet one.

3 Randall Papers, packet two.

4 Sporting Life, August 1, 1896, August 8, 1896; Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1896.

5 Sporting Life, July 14, 1896.

6 Sporting Life, August, 22, 1896, October 17, 1896.

On any other day, Yankees third baseman Tony Lazzeri would have owned the newspaper sports-page headlines. But on this day he was overshadowed by four different baseball events. On a day when Lazzeri hit for a natural cycle (single, double, triple, and home run in that order, the homer being a grand slam), Lou Gehrig amazingly hit four home runs and narrowly missed a fifth. On top of that, Babe Ruth launched his 15th home run of the season, second-best in the major leagues. Jimmie Foxx hit his ML-best 19th homer for Philadelphia. Still more headline-worthy, John McGraw announced that he was retiring from baseball after 29 years as manager of the New York Giants because of a two-year battle with a serious sinus condition.

According to the New York Times, “Largely because of Gehrig’s quartet of tremendous smashes the Yankees outstripped the Athletics in a run-making marathon, winning 20 to 13, after twice losing the lead because of determined rallies by the American League champions.”1 Gehrig joined the Boston Beaneaters’ Bobby Lowe (May 30, 1894) and the Philadelphia Phillies’ Ed Delahanty (July 13, 1896) as the only players to collect four home runs in a game. In the first and fifth innings, Gehrig hit his bombs beyond the fence in left-center field, and in the fourth and seventh, he cleared the wall in right field. With the home run in the fifth inning, Gehrig became “the first man in baseball history to ever hit three home runs in one game for the fourth time.”2 On top of that, that third home run was a back-to-back-to-back shot, as Earle Combs and Ruth had homered ahead of him.

In the top of the ninth inning, Gehrig “pointed a terrific drive which Al Simmons captured only a few steps from the furthest corner of the park.”3 Estimates put the drive at 460 feet from home plate. (It was 468 feet from home to the deepest part of the ballpark in center field, near the flagpole.4)

George Earnshaw started for the Athletics and pitched five innings, allowing seven runs (six earned). His counterpart for the Yankees, Johnny Allen, gave up eight runs (four earned) in 3 2/3 innings. Allen was ejected by home-plate umpire Harry Geisel in the fourth inning for “bench jockeying,” the usual phrase used when a player argues balls and strikes from the dugout. The Yankees committed five errors in the contest (Ruth, Gehrig, Frank Crosetti with 2, and Allen). The Yankees used five hurlers and Athletics four, and all nine pitchers in the game allowed at least one run. Jumbo Brown picked up his first win of the season in relief, and Lefty Gomez earned his first save. Reliever Roy Mahaffey took the loss for Philadelphia.

Lazzeri stroked five hits in six at-bats. In addition, he stole a base. As of 2015, he was one of only 14 major leaguers to have a natural cycle, and was the only one whose home run was a grand slam.5 With his five hits, Lazzeri’s average jumped to .357, third-best in the American League. Lazzeri and Gehrig each drove in six runs in the Yankees victory. Every starting position player for New York drove in at least one run. Doc Cramer and Ed Coleman led Philadelphia with three RBIs each.

The New Yorkers tied the then-major league record by hitting seven home runs in the game. The Yankees’ 20 runs scored were their highest run total of the season. The 23 hits by New York set a modern record at the time.6

The game seesawed back and forth. The Yankees scored twice in the first, highlighted by Gehrig’s first home run of the game, a two-run shot. The Athletics responded with two runs in the bottom half of the first, with a Mickey Cochrane home run. Gehrig’s second blast, a solo homer, was part of a two-run fourth inning for New York, but then Allen allowed six Philadelphia tallies in the bottom of the fourth, before he was chased from the game. New York seemed to have batting practice, scoring in each of the final six frames, with two runs in the fourth inning, three in the fifth, two in the sixth, three in the seventh, two in the eighth, and six in the ninth inning, capped by Lazzeri’s grand slam home run to give him the cycle. Gehrig’s missed home run could have meant an even higher score. Philadelphia scored twice in the bottom of the sixth for a short-lived lead, and the A’s added two runs in the eighth and a Jimmie Foxx solo home run in the bottom of the ninth. The final score: New York 20, Philadelphia 13.

The next day, the New York Times carried the headline, “Gehrig Ties All-Time Record With Four Straight Home Runs as Yankees Win,” across the top of its sports page on June 4, 1932. However, it then only gave the first column to describing the game, and only a small portion was for Gehrig’s record-tying feat. Five of the eight columns on the front page of the sports section in the New York Times were devoted to John McGraw, who was only 59 years old when he announced his retirement. Joe McCarthy, manager of the Yankees, told reporters, “McGraw must have been pretty sick, for he is not the kind to give up baseball without a reason.”7 One of Gehrig’s finest offensive performances was apparently minimized by the news of McGraw’s retirement. Incoming Giants skipper Bill Terry was given close to a full column on the sports pages, and even his wife was given a short article, which stated that “Mrs. Bill Terry was a very, very proud young woman today when she heard of her husband’s appointment as manager of the New York Giants.”8

Notes

When the two teams took the field under cloudy skies the next afternoon, right-hander Jim Weaver started for the Pirates. Weaver had lost his previous two starts to see his record slip to 9-7 and was hoping to change his fortunes after the break.

Unfortunately for Weaver, the Phillies had other plans, jumping on him and scoring four runs in the top of the first. Ernie Sulik and Johnny Moore led off with singles that left runners at the corners. Chuck Klein stepped to the plate and “crashed the ball into the ground floor of the [right field] extension”1 to give the Phillies a three-run lead.

Klein had returned to Philadelphia in 1936 after spending the previous two seasons in Chicago. Cubs owner Phil Wrigley traded for Klein after the slugger led the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs in 1933. Wrigley even threw in $65,000 along with three players to obtain Klein. After Klein had spent two seasons in Chicago, Wrigley “set his eye on Phils pitcher Curt Davis this season, he coughed up $35,000 and tossed Klein back to Philadelphia in the bargain.”2 The Cubs also picked up Ethan Allen in the trade.

The Phillies were not done scoring. Weaver walked Dolph Camilli. Bill Atwood sacrificed and was safe at first on an error by second baseman Pep Young while Camilli raced to third. After Weaver struck out Lou Chiozza, Leo Norris executed a squeeze-play bunt to get Camilli across the plate when Weaver’s only throw was to first. Chile Gomez reached first on an error by shortstop Arky Vaughan but Weaver finally closed out the inning by striking out the pitcher, Claude Passeau.

Rookie Passeau’s start was just his second of the season. He had won his first, a seven-hit shutout of the Brooklyn Dodgers, just six days earlier, on July 4. Passeau looked solid through the first three innings. Lloyd Waner was the only baserunner, reaching first on an error by shortstop Norris in the first. The Pirates scored in the fourth. Passeau walked Paul Waner with one out and Gus Suhr’s two-out triple brought him home.

Klein batted again in the second and hit the ball hard again. “His line drive, another rifle shot into right field, went foul by about a foot and [Paul] Waner raced over to pull it down,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.3 After the Pirates scored in the fourth, Klein batted in the fifth and hit Weaver’s first pitch into the right-field stands for his second round-tripper of the afternoon.

Weaver made it through the fifth but Mace Brown replaced him in the sixth after Weaver was pulled for pinch-hitter Red Lucas in the bottom of the fifth. In the sixth, Pirates catcher Al Todd had to be replaced “when a foul tip from Passeau’s bludgeon caught him on the right hand and cracked a finger.”4 Tom Padden replaced Todd behind the plate.

The Pirates closed ground in the home sixth. Woody Jensen and Lloyd Waner led off with singles. Paul Waner’s single scored Jensen and sent Lloyd Waner to third. Arky Vaughan’s fly to center brought Lloyd Waner home. Suhr then hit the fourth Pirates single of the frame to score Paul Waner. Passeau got the next two batters out but the Pirates had narrowed the Phillies lead to one run, at 5-4.

Klein came to bat for the fourth time in the seventh. Again he sent the ball sailing into the right-field stands. It was his third home run of the game, and it gave the Phillies a 6-4 lead.

Passeau, “braving blistering heat, toiled for eight and two-thirds innings.”5 He allowed eight hits and six runs during that stretch while walking two and striking out two. Needing just one more out, he walked pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto. Then Padden reached on an error by Norris on his grounder up the middle. Fred Schulte, batting for the pitcher, singled to center. Lavagetto raced home and Padden ended up on third.

Bucky Walters replaced Passeau and walked Jensen to load the bases. Walters still couldn’t find the strike zone and also walked Lloyd Waner, sending Padden across the plate with the tying run. “Wilson was frantic on the bench, the whole Philly club was on the steps of the dugout as Paul Waner came to bat. A base hit would ruin Klein’s three-homer achievement, so far as a team victory. Walters toiled and toiled on the Pirate slugger”6 until the frame came to an end when Waner bounced out to the second baseman who flipped it to first for an easy out and sent the game into extra innings.

Bill Swift took over pitching duties for the Pirates in the 10th. The first batter was Klein. “Everyone in the park had been wishing for just such a situation in the ninth when it looked like Klein’s best effort would be three.”7 Rain began to fall as Klein stepped to the plate. Klein took Swift’s first pitch and banged it over the right-field wall, the longest ball he hit all afternoon.

The home run put Klein in the record books. He joined three other players who had hit four home runs in a game (although the other three players hit their clouts in a nine-inning game). Bobby Lowe accomplished the feat first in 1894 for the Boston Beaneaters. Ed Delahanty, also playing for the Phillies, repeated the feat two years later. Lou Gehrig joined the club in 1932 when he sent four over the wall in a Yankee romp over the Philadelphia Athletics.8 Klein finished the game with 16 total bases and six RBIs, tying Ty Cobb and Gehrig for the most in a game.9

But the game was not over. Swift continued to struggle. He surrendered a double to Camilli and Atwood bunted himself into a single that sent Camilli to third. Camilli scored when Chiozza popped up. Vaughan, running deep into center, caught the ball with his back to the plate. He turned and tried to throw out Camilli but his throw was not accurate and Vaughan was charged with an error. Wilson, who was running for Atwood, reached third on the play. Norris singled to score Wilson and give the Phillies a three-run lead. Swift finally retired the Phillies when he got Gomez to ground into a double play.

The Phillies now needed three outs to cap Klein’s big day and earn the win. Walters walked to the mound amid shouts of encouragement from the Phillies bench. Immediately he got himself in trouble. Vaughan singled and Suhr walked. When Bill Brubaker hit into an easy double play, many on the Phillies bench looked more relaxed.

But Lavagetto then sent a Texas Leaguer to left. Moore “came running like a wild man — ran as far as he could — stretched his gloved hand as far as he could toward his knees — and plop — in went the ball” to end the game.10

Klein’s big day finally ended in a 9-6 victory for the seventh-place Phillies. The four home runs raised Klein’s season total to 14 and he would finish with 25. Of Klein’s feat, the Inquirer said, “[a] playwright, able to read what was in Klein’s mind as he stood out there in the tenth, seeing two Pirates on base and victory endangered, would have been able to pen a masterpiece.”11

• Related link: Click here to view SABR’s comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in pro baseball history

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I also used the Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other pertinent material.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT193607100.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1936/B07100PIT1936.htm

Notes

1 Edward Balinger, “Four Base Blows Give Phillies Win in Ten Innings,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 11, 1936: 14.

2 Leslie Avery (United Press), “Klein Steps Into Spotlight With Four Homers,” Olean (New York) Times Herald, July 11, 1936: 32.

3 “Klein Hits 4 Homers — Phils Win 9-6,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 11, 1936: 13.

4 Balinger.

5 Philadelphia Inquirer.

6 Philadelphia Inquirer.

7 Philadelphia Inquirer.

8 Through the 2019 season, number of players with four home runs in a game was 18.

9 As of 2020 the record for total bases in a game is 19, set by Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had four home runs, a single, and a double in a game on May 23, 2002.

10 Philadelphia Inquirer.

11 Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia manager Connie Mack went with Carl Scheib in the first game. The righty had struggled with the Athletics in 1947, finishing with a 4-6 record. But he had turned things around and was making significant contributions to the Athletics’ starting rotation this season. Scheib won four in a row in June before taking his fourth loss of the season in his last outing.

Although Mack was known for moving players to the bullpen if they didn’t do well in the rotation, Scheib had impressed the manager enough to become a regular. Scheib entered the game with a 7-4 record and a 3.58 ERA. Scheib got through the first two innings with relative ease. The only baserunner was Taffy Wright, who walked with two outs in the second.

Chicago’s starter, left-hander Frank Papish, had been used primarily in relief. He made his second start of the season on July 5 and gave up two runs in 6⅓ innings on the way to his first win of the season.

Against the Athletics, Papish struggled from the outset. Eddie Joost led off the bottom of the first with a double. He took third on a sacrifice and scored on a wild pitch. Papish got Don White to ground out for the second out, but continued to struggle with his control. He walked two batters and hit Elmer Valo to load the bases. An infield popup finally drew the half-inning to a close.

The situation didn’t improve for Papish in the second. Pete Suder led off with a single. Scheib walked. Joost’s second double brought home both baserunners. When Papish walked Barney McCosky, manager Ted Lyons pulled the southpaw for righty Glen Moulder.

Moulder fared no better. White beat out a bunt and the bases were loaded. Joost scored on a fly ball by Ferris Fain. Moulder fanned Hank Majeski but shortstop Cass Michaels couldn’t handle a groundball by Valo and McCosky brought the fifth Athletics run across the plate. A wild pitch moved White to third, but Buddy Rosar grounded out to third.

The White Sox scored a run in the third when Michaels led off with a single and scored from first on a one-out single by Don Kolloway. Then White Sox slugger Pat Seerey led off the fourth with a solo home run that “cleared the roof of the pavilion in left”1 and made the score 5-2.

The Athletics scored a run in their half of the inning. White singled, took second on a groundout and scored on Majeski’s single. In the fifth, the White Sox picked up two runs when Kolloway tripled and scored when Seerey hit a second home run, which landed on the roof over the left field stands2 and made the score 6-4, Athletics. But the game was becoming a seesaw contest. With two outs in the Philadelphia fifth, Joost singled and scored the seventh Athletics run on McCosky’s double.

The White Sox grabbed the lead in the sixth. Bob Savage had replaced Scheib in the fifth. With one out Michaels singled and reached third when Savage threw a wild pitch to pinch-hitter Floyd Baker. Michaels scored on Baker’s fly ball. Then three singles brought home another run and Seerey came to bat for the fourth time in the game. Seerey “hit the roof again to round out a five run inning”3 and put the White Sox ahead, 9-7. Savage was banished and Bubba Harris came in to get the final out.

The White Sox extended their lead in the seventh. Philley reached on an error by Harris on his comebacker. Michaels singled and both runners advanced on a groundout down the first-base line. Kolloway hit a single, his third of the day, and both runners crossed the plate to give Chicago an 11-7 lead.

“The Sox thought they were on easy street,”4 but Philadelphia clawed its way back in bottom of the seventh. Howie Judson, now pitching for Chicago, walked Suder leading off and Harris singled. Joost then hit his 13th home run of the season, bringing the Athletics to within one run of the White Sox at 11-10.

Judson was still unable to find the plate and walked McCosky, who was sacrificed to second by Don White. Judson’s balk moved him to third and when Fain flied to deep center field, McCosky came home with the tying run.

After putting up 22 runs in the first seven innings, neither team scored in the eighth or ninth, and when the game went into extra innings, the 10th. Chicago loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth but reliever Joe Coleman got out of the jam. The White Sox got two on with one out in the 10th, but Lou Brissie, who had taken over from Coleman, struck out Judson and got Kolloway to fly out.

“The Sox had to wait for developments from Pat,” wrote Chicago sportswriter Vaughan, and Seerey came through with his fourth homer after two were out in the 11th, “this one going into the seats.”5 It just the sixth time a major-league player had homered four times in a game. The last time it had been done was in 1938 when Josh Gibson of the Negro National League’s Homestead Grays hit four homers in a game against the Memphis Red Sox.

Former Athletics pitcher George Earnshaw was in the stands for the twin bill. “Big George was able to appreciate just how the A’s staff felt,” reported a Philadelphia sportswriter. “Earnshaw was on the mound — the same mound — that day 16 years ago when [Lou] Gehrig cracked three of his four homers. So Earnshaw watched tensely as Seerey came to bat in the seventh but this time he fouled out to catcher Mike Guerra. Coleman, the fourth Mack flinger, walked Seerey in the ninth. [But] even George Earnshaw suffered in the frenzy among 17,296 spectators” as Seerey’s fourth blast put him in the record books.6

But “that wasn’t exactly the finish,” Chicago Tribune’s Irving Vaughan noted. With Chicago taking the lead by one run, Philadelphia made one last charge. “A single and two passes brought Judson to the end of his rope. Marino Pieretti stepped into the picture, made one pitch and Fain fouled to Luke Appling.”7

The papers noted that “Seerey was not a novice at the game-wrecking business.”8 He had knocked out three round-trippers along with a triple on July 13, 1945 as he led the Indians past the Yankees, 16-4.

Seerey’s heroics gave the lowly White Sox a three-game winning streak. He also received a $500 bonus from a Philadelphia scorecard advertiser. The merchant had offered $300 for any player who hit three home runs in a game. The advertiser called the ballpark and promised Seerey $500 if he hit his fourth. Seerey did and collected his prize.9

The game took 3 hours and 44 minutes to complete. With the afternoon quickly drawing to a close, the two teams took a brief break before returning to the field. They needed to get in the second game before Pennsylvania’s Sunday curfew law went into effect.

Bill McCahan took the mound for Philadelphia. McCahan had failed to win in four starts so far in the season. He had pitched a complete game in his last appearance, but took the loss against the Red Sox when the A’s were blanked.

Bob Gillespie started for the White Sox. The righty was also looking for his first win of the season. Lyons had used Gillespie as both a starter and reliever. His last start was on June 7, when he lasted just three innings after the Washington Senators tagged him for five runs and five hits.

After McCahan got the White Sox out in order in the first, his teammates gave him a one-run lead in bottom of the frame. McCosky singled, moved to second on a groundout, and came home when Fain singled to right field.

The White Sox came back in the second. McCahan, “fearing Seerey, issued him a pass with none out,” Vaughan commented.10 Taffy Wright’s single pushed him to third, and he scored on a grounder. Philley eventually reached third, but the White Sox couldn’t bring him home. Chicago almost grabbed the lead in the third. Kolloway led off with a single. He would have scored but Baker’s drive was ruled a ground-rule double when the ball went through the outfield fence. McCahan got the next two batters to fly out. Seerey came to bat twice more but he failed to get a hit either time.

The game stayed tied until the fifth inning. After McCahan got the White Sox out in the top of the fifth, the Athletics needed to score to earn the win before the game was called. They came up with four. “The Mack men slayed Gillespie with four hits, two passes and for good measure [Taffy] Wright tossed a fumble,” Vaughan wrote.11

Mike Guerra and Suder singled. Guerra went to third and Suder took second on the throw-in. Pitcher McCahan then singled both runners home.

The A’s weren’t done. Joost sacrificed McCahan to second, and Gillespie wild-pitched him to third. Gillespie walked McCosky and Coleman to load the bases. When Fain singled to right field, two more runners scored and Coleman got to third on right-fielder Wright’s throwing error. Majeski flied out to center field. Coleman tagged up and scored before Fain was thrown out trying for third.

With five innings complete and the Athletics up by five runs, umpires called the game and awarded the victory to the Athletics. Their split and the Indians’ sweep of the Washington Senators left Mack’s team a game and a half behind Cleveland. Philadelphia stayed in the race for most of the summer, but lost nine of their last 10 games and finished in fourth place.

After his production in Philadelphia, Seerey hit only eight more home runs to finish with 19 for the season. He struck out a league-leading 102 times. It was his last full season in the major leagues; he played in only four games for the White Sox in 1949 and spent most of the season in the minors. Seerey retired after the 1951 season.

• Related link: Click here for a comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in professional baseball history

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other pertinent material.

baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHA/PHA194807181.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1948/B07181PHA1948.htm

https://baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHA/PHA194807182.shtml

retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1948/B07182PHA1948.htm

Notes

1 Irving Vaughan, “4 Homers by Seerey Take 1st, 12 to 11,” Chicago Tribune, July 19, 1948: 35.

2 Vaughan.

3 Vaughan.

4 Vaughan.

5 Vaughan.

6 Art Morrow, “Pat’s 4th Blast in 11th Decides, Ties Record,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 18, 1948: 20.

7 Vaughan.

8 Morrow.

9 Fred Schuld, “Pat Seerey,” SABR BioProject, sabr.org/bioproj/person/b393a0e4.

10 Vaughan.

11 Vaughan.

Returning from a road trip on which they won 8 of 11 games, the Dodgers still trailed the league-leading Philadelphia Phillies by 6½ games. Back at Ebbets Field, they hoped to continue their solid playing and gain some ground on Philadelphia. If they could beat the Boston Braves, their first opponent, they could put some distance between themselves and the Braves, who were just 1½ games behind them.

Carl Erskine took the mound for the Dodgers. The right-hander had not pitched well early in the season. After being sent down to the Montreal Royals, he changed his arm motion and won 10 games before he was recalled in August. Erskine entered the game with a 1-3 record. He had struggled in his last outing, surrendering five earned runs in 3⅓ innings.

Erskine started out strong, striking out the first two Boston batters he faced and retiring the first five Boston hitters without allowing a ball out of the infield. But with two out in the second inning, the Braves’ Sid Gordon hit a solo blast into the left-field bleachers for his 24th home run of the season. The New York Times called Gordon’s smash the “most lonesome home run” of the game in light of the barrage that followed over the next eight innings.1

Braves starter Warren Spahn had 16 wins and was 2-3 against the Dodgers so far in 1950. After an easy first inning, the left-hander was tagged for a leadoff single by Carl Furillo. The next batter was Gil Hodges, who sent a fastball into the left-field stands for a home run. Hodges’ blast gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead and they would not look back for the rest of the evening.

Spahn got Roy Campanella on a fly ball, but allowed singles to Billy Cox and Erskine. After Spahn struck out Tommy Brown, Pee Wee Reese doubled to bring Cox across the plate for the Dodgers’ third run.

Spahn fared no better in the third. The first two Dodgers he faced singled and Braves manager Billy Southworth pulled his southpaw for Normie Roy. The first batter Roy faced was Hodges, who hit his first pitch, a curveball, into the left-field bleachers. After Roy surrendered hits to Campanella and Erskine, Southworth replaced him with Mickey Haefner.

Haefner walked Brown, loading the bases. Reese grounded into a force play at second, but when second baseman Roy Hartsfield, threw wild to first, two runs scored. Then Duke Snider hit his 24th home run of the season, bringing the Dodgers’ total for the inning to seven runs. It was the fourth time in the season that the Dodgers had scored that many runs in one inning.2 The home run, Snider’s only hit of the game, extended his hitting streak to 18 games.

The Dodgers struck again in the sixth. Bob Hall was now on the mound for the Braves, having replaced Haefner in the fifth. He walked Furillo to lead off the inning. Then Hodges hit a fastball over the left-field fence, his third round-tripper of the game.

Hall gave up three more singles before he could record the first out. One of the singles was by Erskine, his fourth of the game. With the bases loaded, Reese singled in another run and Snider’s grounder plated one more. By the time Johnny Antonelli got Robinson to fly out for the third out, the Dodgers led 14-1.

Antonelli, the Braves’ fifth pitcher, stayed on the mound for the rest of the game. He gave up three runs in the seventh. Hodges, hoping to hit a fourth home run, had to be content with an infield single. After the game, Hodges said, “I was really gunning for that fourth one. I knew it would tie the record. I got my chance in the seventh but I guess I was too anxious. I swung too soon on a change-of-pace and just beat out a slow roller for a single.”3

Trailing 17-1, the Braves picked up two runs in the eighth. Earl Torgeson hit a one-out single off Erskine and Bob Elliott walked. Del Crandall‘s force-play grounder left runners at first and third. A single by Gordon sent Torgeson home and a double by Willard Marshall scored Crandall.

The Dodgers – and Hodges – responded immediately. With Bobby Morgan on base after a walk, Hodges strode to the plate for the sixth time. With the count 2-and-2, he hit one over 400 feet into the upper left-field stands. Later he said: “I knew it was going for a homer as soon as I hit it. It felt better than the first three and I figured it would be longer. It sure was a great feeling – and what a night to do it with my wife here watching!”4

Hodges’ final home run gave him 23 for the season. Hodges set a major-league record for total bases (17) in a game.5

The final home run put Hodges in the record books as the fourth player to hit four home runs in a nine-inning game. Lou Gehrig was the last player to do it, on June 3, 1932. The other two players to achieve the feat were Bobby Lowe in 1894 and Ed Delahanty in 1896.6

When the press caught up with him in the locker room after the game, Hodges was asked about his accomplishment. “Did I think that I was going to hit the fourth one? I didn’t think I’d even hit three, and when I did, I didn’t figure to come up a sixth time.”7

John Griffin, the Dodgers clubhouse custodian, presented Hodges with the ball that he hit for homer number four. “A boy from the Bronx who told me his name was O’Dell Johnson just brought it to the door,” Griffin told Hodges. “He was sitting out in Section 33 and retrieved your fourth home run. He thought you might like it. I gave him two new baseballs in exchange.” Hodges put the ball on the shelf in his locker and noted, “I’ll find a spot for that.”8

In the clubhouse after the game, Reese shouted to Hodges, “You know you keep all of us late with all of your monkey business?” His teammate Bruce Edwards also called out to the reporters crowded around Hodges, “What about that double I hit in the eighth? Doesn’t anyone want to put my name in the paper? Boy, that ball was hit!”9

But this was Hodges’ night. The 14,226 paying customers got their money’s worth while the “thousands of Brooklynites who didn’t venture out in the August heat regret it today. They missed one of the best one-man shows of the year.”10

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, I used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other material.

NOTES

1 Roscoe McGowen, “Brooklyn Slugger Ties Major Record,” New York Times, September 1, 1950: 24.

2 Harold Burr, “Gil Only Living Player to Hit 4 Homers in Game,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 1, 1950: 16.

3 Norman Miller (United Press), “Hodges Joins 3 Greats With 4 Homers in Game,” Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin, September 1, 1950: 23.

4 Miller.

5 Another Dodger – Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers – set the record at 19 total bases in 2002.

6 McGowen.

7 Burr.

8 Burr.

9 Burr.

10 Burr.

When one thinks of home-run hitters and the Milwaukee Braves, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews immediately come to mind. However, Joe Adcock, the hulking 6-foot-4-inch former basketball player at Louisiana State University, had the reputation of smashing some of the longest home runs ever witnessed. Although measuring the distance home runs travel has historically been an imprecise science, driven by myth and legend, Adcock belongs to a select few sluggers whose feats still inspire awe. On April 29, 1953, Adcock hit the first ball into the revamped center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds and the first shot over the 83-foot-high grandstand onto the upper-deck roof in left-center field in Ebbets Field (June 17, 1956), and was the first right-hander to smash one over the 64-foot-high scoreboard in right-center field at Connie Mack Stadium (April 14, 1960).

Described by Brooklyn sportswriter Tommy Holmes as a “one-man demolition squad,” Adcock achieved his most enduring feat during a torrid streak in the summer of 1954 when he whacked four home runs and a double in a wild, record-setting affair at Ebbets Field.1 Braves beat writer Lou Chapman hailed Adcock’s power punch as the “most powerful individual performance for a single game in modern baseball history.”2

Skipper Charlie Grimm’s third-place Braves (54-45) were on a roll, propelled by an eight-game winning streak, yet trailed the red-hot NL-leading New York Giants by nine games. In Brooklyn as part of a 15-game road swing, the Braves bashed Walter Alston’s second place Dodgers (61-40) in the opener of a three-game set, 9-3, led by Adcock’s homer, double, and three runs batted in. The Braves, in their second season in Milwaukee since relocating from Boston, and Dodgers were quickly becoming the NL’s fiercest rivalry, which sports reporter Bill Paddock characterized as a bitter feud.3 Vocal, fiery-tempered Adcock was a major reason for that animosity. The 26-year-old right-handed slugger had scorched the Dodgers, hitting .365 (19-for-52) with 4 home runs and 13 RBIs in 13 games thus far in ‘54, and was the target of “more verbal ridings from the Dodger than any other player in the league,” reported the Brooklyn Eagle’s Dave Anderson.4

On a sizzling Saturday afternoon with temperatures in the mid-90s,5 Ebbets Field drew a modest paying crowd of 12,263, plus an estimated 5,000 children as part of the knothole gang.6 The Braves had their own cheering section in that hostile environment, as more than 600 fans were bused in from Milwaukee for the showdown.7

The Braves came out swinging against starter Don Newcombe (6-5). The former Dodgers ace, who reeled off 56 wins in his first three seasons with Dem Bums (1949-1951), had missed the previous two full seasons while serving in the military and had not regained his top-of-the-rotation form. Mathews, the reigning NL home-run leader with 47 in ‘53, began what sportswriter Holmes called the Braves’ “unprecedented power orgy” with a two-out, first-inning solo blast to deep right field, his 26th of the season. The Dodgers led off the bottom of the first with three straight hits, including Duke Snider’s RBI single, off journeyman Jim Wilson, who entered the game undefeated (7-0) and fresh off an All-Star berth.

Adcock led off the second with a deep blast to center field to put the Braves back in front, 2-1. “I broke my bat on the last single in Friday night’s game,” revealed Adcock, who used teammate Charlie White‘s stick. “It’s the heaviest on the team.”8 Andy Pafko doubled and scored on Johnny Logan‘s single to send the beleaguered Newcombe to the showers. Reliever Clem Labine retired the first two batters he faced before Bill Bruton lined a double to center to drive in Logan and increase the Braves’ lead to 4-1. Wilson, equally as ineffective as Big Newk, loaded the bases with no outs on a double by Sandy Amoros, Jackie Robinson’s hit-by-pitch, and Carl Furillo‘s single, then headed to the dugout. In relief came Lew Burdette, who escaped the fire by fanning Rube Walker and inducing Walt Moryn to hit into a 4-6-3 twin killing.

While Fidgety Lew settled into a groove, yielding only one run – on Don Hoak’s sixth-inning home run – over the next five innings, the Braves bashed the Brooklyn boys. In the third inning, Mathews greeted Brooklyn’s third reliever, Erv Palica, with a mammoth clout to deep center field. Two batters later, Adcock got under the ball and whistled a screeching liner for a double, then came home on Pafko’s single for the Braves’ 6-1 lead. After Palica tossed the only one-two-three inning by any pitcher in the game, he faltered in the fifth. With Mathews on via a walk and rookie Hank Aaron on a single, Adcock blasted a towering shot into the upper deck in left-center, extending the Braves lead, 9-1.

Leading 9-2 to start the seventh, the Braves battered 34-year-old rookie Pete Wojey, who had relieved Palica with one out in the fifth. Aaron led off with a double and scampered home on Adcock’s line-drive missile into the left-field bleachers. Pakfo followed with his 12th home run of the season to make it 12-2.

In the eighth inning, “Burdette finally wilted in the stifling temperatures,” quipped sportswriter Red Thisted.9 Gil Hodges led off with his 28th home run. Amoros singled and scored two batters later on Furillo’s single. The Dodgers’ fifth and sixth runs resulted from Rube Walker’s round-tripper to deep right-center. Bob Buhl entered in relief but was pulled after surrendering consecutive singles. Dave Jolly walked Don Zimmer to load the bases, but escaped the jam by retiring George Shuba and Hodges.

Adcock led off the top of the ninth facing his fourth different pitcher, Johnny Podres. “I wasn’t nervous or pressing,” said the muscular slugger. “I didn’t have time.”10 Nonetheless, he came to the plate thinking about hitting his fourth home run of the game. “[Coach] John Cooney has been of great help to me all season,” said Adcock after the game. “[He] kept telling me I had a chance. Just make sure you get under the ball.”11 Launch angles aside, Adcock connected squarely again and powered the ball into deep center field. An error and two singles loaded the bags for Jolly, who hit into a double play, but not before Jim Pendleton crossed the plate. Roy Smalley scored on Podres’ wild pitch to make it 15-6. The Dodgers tacked on a run in the ninth on Hoak’s sacrifice fly driving in Amoros, who had led off with a triple.

The game was an “unprecedented power orgy,” declared sportswriter Dick Young.12 Adcock became the seventh player in NL/AL history to hit four home runs in a game and the first since Gil Hodges on August 31, 1950.13 “If I played for the Dodgers, I’d hit 35 homers a year in this ballpark,” said Adcock, who took advantage of the 350-foot fence in left-center field.14

According to sportswriter Roscoe McGowen, Adcock hit two home runs and his double on the first pitch and his other two home runs on the second pitch.15 “I hit a fast ball for the first homer,” claimed Adcock, “a slider for the second, a curve ball for the third, and another fast ball for the last one.”16 His 5-for-5 performance with 5 runs and 7 RBIs set the big-league record for most total bases (18) in a game. In a contest characterized by “extraordinary slugging,”17 the Braves (7) and Dodgers (3) combined for 10 home runs to tie an NL record.18

While improving his season total slashmark to 19/69/.324, Adcock had already surpassed his home-run total from the previous season (18). His eight home runs at Ebbets Field tied an NL, record for the most home runs in an opponent’s park; he eventually tacked on one more home run in Flatbush and finished the season with a 1.231 slugging percentage in Brooklyn. A day after his four-home-run game, Adcock doubled in the third, and then was hit above the left temple in the fourth inning by Clem Labine, in what was described as a “deliberate beaning” by Brooklyn sportswriter Tommy Holmes. Adcock was wearing a protective helmet and was carried off the field on a stretcher.19 A hard-as-nails player, Adcock was back in the lineup the next day and smashed a double in five at-bats.

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, SABR.org, and The Sporting News archive via Paper of Record.

Photo credit: Joe Adcock, National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.

NOTES

1 Tommy Holmes, “A Hot Hitter Gets Skulled,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 2, 1954: 11.

2 Lou Chapman, “Adcock Used White’s Club,” Milwaukee Sentinel, August1, 1954: II, 1.

3 Bill Paddock, “Braves-Bums Feud Revives Over Beaning,” The Sporting News, August 11, 1954: 13.

4 Dave Anderson, “Adcock’s 4 Homers Help Rout Flock,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 1, 1954: 20.

5 “Weather Table,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 1, 1954: 1.

6 Roscoe McGowen, “Ten 4-Beggars Hit; Mathews Adds Pair to Adcock’s 4,” New York Times, August 1, 1954: S1.

7 Red Thisted, “Braves Out-Bomb Dodgers, 15-7, for 9th Straight,” Milwaukee Sentinel,” August 1, 1954: II, 1.

8 Lou Chapman, “Adcock Used White’s Club.”

9 Red Thisted, “Braves Out-Bomb Dodgers.”

10 Lou Chapman, “Adcock Used White’s Club.”

11 Lou Chapman, “Adcock Used White’s Club.”

12 Dick Young, “Adcock’s 4 Belt Flock, 15-7,” New York Daily News, August 1, 1954: 74.

13 Through the 2017 season, the other players in NL/AL history to hit four home runs in a game are Bobby Lowe (Boston Beaneaters) on May 30, 1894; Ed Delahanty (Philadelphia Phillies) on July 13, 1896; Lou Gehrig (New York Yankees) on June 3, 1932; Chuck Klein (Philadelphia Phillies) on July 10, 1936; Pat Seerey (Chicago White Sox) in 11 innings on July 18, 1948, and Gil Hodges (Brooklyn Dodgers), on August 31, 1950, Rocky Colavito (Cleveland Indians) on June 10, 1959, Willie Mays (San Francisco Giants) on April 30, 1961, Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia Phillies) April 17, 1976, Bob Horner (Atlanta Braves) on July 6, 1986, Mark Whiten (St. Louis Cardinals) on September 7, 1993, Mike Cameron (Seattle Mariners) on May 2, 2002, Shawn Green (Los Angeles Dodgers) on May 23, 2002, Carlos Delgado (Toronto Blue Jays) on Sept. 25, 2003, Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers) on May 8, 2012, Scooter Gennett (Cincinnati Reds) on June 6, 2017, and J.D. Martinez (Arizona Diamondbacks) on September 4, 2017.

14 Dave Anderson, “Secret’s Out: Adcock Used Borrowed Bat,” New York Daily News, August 1, 1954: 75.

15 Roscoe McGowen, “Ten 4-Baggers Hit; Mathews Adds Pair to Adcock’s 4.”

16 Associated Press, “Cooney’s Tip, White’s Bat Pay off for Joe,” Wisconsin State Journal Madison), August 1, 1954: 43.

17 Red Thisted, “Braves Out-Bomb Dodgers, 15-7, for 9th Straight.”

18 Records according to Dave Anderson, “Adcock’s 4 Homers Help Rout Flock.”

19 Tommy Holmes, “A Hot Hitter Gets Skulled,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 2, 1954: 11.

If you were to stroll by a Little League field in greater Cleveland in the late 1950s, you might have seen a trend among the players. You might have noticed that before a youngster stepped into the batter’s box, he would take the baseball bat with both hands, shift it beyond his back, lean forward slightly, extend the bat horizontally away from his body, and stretch. This act, which mimicked the preparation Rocky Colavito went through before stepping to the plate, was an example of the adulation most young players had for Rocky Colavito.

The slugger of the Cleveland Indians was the face of the franchise. Colavito smacked 41 home runs and drove in 113 runs in 1958. The Sporting News ran an article in its June 10, 1959, issue headlined “Best Bet to Beat Bambino’s 60?” The article wrote that Colavito and Milwaukee’s Eddie Matthews were the best candidates to eclipse the single-season home-run record Babe Ruth set in 1927. On that date Colavito was leading the Indians’ attack, clubbing 14 homers with 28 RBIs going into the evening’s matchup with Baltimore. Indeed “Don’t Knock the Rock” was a slogan that was catching on outside of Cleveland.

The Orioles and Chicago White Sox were tied atop the American League standings with records of 29-24. The Indians were close behind, trailing both teams with a 26-24 record, 1½ games back. The day before, Baltimore had won the first game of the three-game set at Memorial Stadium, 7-3.

The pitching matchup for the 10th was Gary Bell (4-5, 3.87 ERA) for the Indians and Jerry Walker (4-2, 2.14 ERA) for the O’s. Both starters were on losing streaks. Bell had dropped his last three games while Walker lost his last two. Both got off to rocky starts in this game. With two outs in the top of the first inning, Tito Francona singled to right field, Colavito walked, and Minnie Miñoso homered. The Orioles got one back in the bottom of the frame on a Gus Triandos sacrifice fly.

Billy Martin added to the long-distance parade with a solo shot off Walker in the second. Bell couldn’t hold the lead, as the Orioles loaded the bases after the first two batters were retired, and Al Pilarcik singled to center field to plate two runs.

With the Indians up 4-3, Vic Power walked, Francona popped out and Colavito smacked a changeup slider from Walker high over the left-field fence for a two-run homer. The blast chased Walker from the game, as he gave way to Arnie Portocarrero. The tall right-hander got out of the inning, but was not immune to Colavito’s power surge. The Rock hit a slow curveball some 420 feet for a solo shot in the fifth inning. After Francona doubled in the sixth inning with two outs, Colavito smacked another home run, this time off a fastball, to extend the Indians’ lead to 10-3. The ball got out in a hurry, a line drive to left-center field. “I wasn’t sure it would clear the fence,” said Colavito.2 It was noted in the press box by a Baltimore scribe, “No team ever has hit more than three home runs in one game in this park. Rocky has equaled that record himself. This is the toughest home-run park in baseball.”3

Meanwhile, Bell was keeping the Orioles off the scoreboard. After giving up three runs in the first two frames, he surrendered only two hits over the next four innings. But he ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh inning. After Gene Woodling singled to score a run and Joe Ginsberg walked, Bell left the game with the bases loaded and one out. He had given up eight hits, walked four, and struck out three.

Mike Garcia came in from the bullpen. The Big Bear had been relegated to relief duties after a stellar career as a starter. Garcia got out number two but then Billy Klaus doubled to left field to clear the bases, narrowing the Indians’ lead to 10-7. All three runs were charged to Bell, for a total of seven.

Both teams tallied a run in the ninth inning. The Indians’ run was courtesy of none other than Rocky Colavito. He crushed and inside fastball from Baltimore reliever Ernie Johnson. A towering shot to left field. The crowd of 15,883 at Memorial Stadium cheered for Colavito heartily, honoring his feat with a standing ovation. He was the ninth major-league player to hit four homers in a game, and only the third known to hit them consecutively. His stats for the day were indeed impressive: 4-for-4, five runs, and six RBIs. He tied the American League record for total bases in a game held by Pat Seerey, Lou Gehrig, and Ty Cobb. (Seerey and Gehrig on four homers.)

The other two players who had hit four consecutive home runs in a game were Bobby Lowe of the 1894 Boston Beaneaters and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees in 1932. “Gehrig? No kidding,” said Colavito. “He was my favorite player when I was a little kid. My brother, Vito, was a first baseman and he loved Gehrig; so naturally I did, too.”4

The ball was retrieved in the stands. The fan who caught it agreed to trade it in for two signed baseballs, one by Colavito and one by Herb Score. The recipient was also given $25 to sweeten the deal.5 Colavito did not have much of a chance to admire the baseball, as it was soon whisked away to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

“Somebody up there threw beer on me,” said Colavito, referring to the right-field stands. “It hit me on the arm. I knew who it was, too. It made me a little mad. After I hit that fourth homer and went out to right field, though, he waved at me. Nice fella.”6

As the 1959 season progressed, the Orioles faded out of the race for the AL pennant. Cleveland, Chicago, and New York held a three-team race. Chicago all but eliminated the Indians by sweeping the Tribe in a four-game series in late August at Cleveland Stadium. The White Sox returned to Cleveland a month later to clinch the pennant. Colavito tied Harmon Killebrew for the most home runs in the junior circuit with 42.

At the end of spring training in 1960, Colavito was traded to Detroit for shortstop Harvey Kuenn. The trade by general manager Frank Lane enraged fans, especially after Colavito hit 139 home runs during his four years with the Tigers. Kuenn was traded away from Cleveland a year later.

• Related link: View a comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in professional baseball history at SABR.org

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL195906100.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B06100BAL1959.htm

Notes