April 29, 1995: Jon Nunnally’s first-at-bat home run is bright spot in Royals’ loss to Yankees

On April 29, 1995, rookie Jon Nunnally stepped into the batter’s box with one thing on his mind: “Look fastball.”1

After Nunnally spent three seasons playing in Class-A ball for the Cleveland Indians, the Kansas City Royals, impressed by his hitting abilities, picked him in the Rule 5 draft in December 1994. He took part in the hasty three-week spring training after the end of the players strike. On Opening Day against the Baltimore Orioles, Nunnally was a pinch-runner in the bottom of the eighth inning and scored his first run as a major leaguer. In the Royals’ third game of the season, on April 29 against the visiting New York Yankees, Nunnally made his first start in the majors, playing right field and hitting leadoff.

“I came straight out of A-ball so there was a lot of development things going on there. But the one thing I knew I could do was hit a fastball so I really wasn’t that worried,” Nunnally said a half-dozen years later. “I had a pretty good zone. The main thing was just getting to know pitchers and knowing what they were going to do.”2

Rain delayed the Saturday afternoon start in Kaufmann Stadium for 81 minutes, to 2:56 P.M. The temperature was a cool 50 degrees under still misting skies. There were 14,431 fans in attendance.3

Right-hander Tom Gordon took to the mound for the Royals. Nicknamed Flash when he joined the team in 1988, he’d just signed a $3.3 million one-year deal.4 For the Yankees, right-hander Mélido Pérez got the start. Before the game, KC pitcher Mark Gubicza told Nunnally that Pérez was going to stay away from him and throw fastballs, to see what he could do.5

In the first inning, Yankees leadoff hitter Luis Polonia hit a groundball past second for a single. Gordon walked Wade Boggs, sending Polonia to second. Paul O’Neill hit into a force out at second, advancing Polonia to third. With runners on the corners, Danny Tartabull delivered a sacrifice fly to right-center, scoring Polonia and moving O’Neill to second. Don Mattingly’s grounder to third ended the inning.

Leading off for the Royals, the 23-year-old Nunnally let his nerves get a little ahead of him. “I forgot my batting helmet,” he said after the game. “I got out of the dugout and somebody yelled, ‘Hey where’s your helmet?’6 In a 2024 interview, Nunnally recalled, “I walked back and got my helmet and I think that broke the ice for me and made me start smiling.”7

The first pitch from Pérez was a fastball away, just as Gubicza predicted, for ball one. The next pitch was another fastball away for ball two. On the third pitch, Pérez went away again – ball three. Then KC manager Bob Boone gave Nunnally the take sign. Sure enough, the next pitch was a fastball strike, right down the middle.

On the 3-and-1 count, Pérez threw the same pitch and Nunnally saw it coming. He blasted the ball over the fences in center field. “Soon as I hit it, I could feel it. I got that one.”8

Nunnally became the first Royals player to homer in his first plate appearance.

“It’s an awesome feeling to be able to do it,” Nunnally told a sportswriter. “You have all those fans there, but I didn’t hear a thing. I guess I was so focused and locked in to where I was that I couldn’t hear nobody. I heard nothing until I touched home plate.”9

After Nunnally’s homer, Tom Goodwin singled to center but was picked off by Pérez. The pitcher walked Wally Joyner, but Bob Hamelin hit into a double play to end the inning.

In the top of the second, Jim Leyritz struck out swinging. Gordon then walked Bernie Williams and Tony Fernández. He came back to strike out Pat Kelly, but Polonia singled to left, scoring Williams and moving Fernández to third. A walk to Boggs followed. O’Neill flied out to left field for the third out. The Royals went down quietly in their half.

In the third, Gordon took care of the middle of the Yankees’ order. The Royals also failed to score. The Yankees held the lead, 2-1.

The top of the fourth was one the Royals wished they could get back. An error by shortstop Greg Gagne put Williams on base. Fernández doubled to left, moving Williams to third. Kelly came to the plate and on a 1-and-1 count, Gordon threw a wild pitch. Williams scored and Fernández sped to third. Gordon walked Kelly. Polonia hit a single and the bases were loaded. Five batters and still no outs.

Boggs flied to left and Fernández scored. Kelly took third on the play. Another sacrifice fly, by O’Neill, brought Kelly home. Polonia, still on first, stole second. Gordon then struck out Tartabull. But the Yankees were up 5-1. In their at-bat, the Royals went down in order.

In the top of the fifth, Doug Linton replaced Gordon and dispatched three in a row. The pitchers’ duel between Linton and Pérez continued through the top of the seventh. Then a Yankees pitching change – Andy Pettitte came in to replace Pérez – opened a window of hope for the Royals.

Rookie Pettitte was making his first major-league appearance. The 6-foot-5 lefty began by getting Joyner to fly out to center. Another rookie, Joe Vitiello, pinch-hit for Hamelin. Pettitte struck him out looking. With two outs, the Royals’ Gary Gaetti singled to left, then Pettitte threw a wild pitch to Gagne. Gaetti moved to second, setting up an RBI opportunity. Gagne delivered, crushing a double to left that scored Gaetti. Phil Hiatt pinch-hit for Michael Tucker and flicked a single to center that brought in Gagne. The score was 5-3. Yankees manager Buck Showalter called in right-hander Bob Wickman to replace Pettitte. Wickman did his job in three pitches, getting Félix José (pinch-hitting for Brent Mayne) to fly out and end the inning.

In the top of the eighth, Pat Borders came in to catch for the Royals. Nunnally moved to left field to replace Tucker and pinch-hitter Hiatt took over in right field. Linton returned to the mound. Mattingly led off for the Yankees, tapping out an infield single. He went to second on Leyritz’s grounder to shortstop, and to third on Williams’s single to right, with Williams taking second on the throw to get Mattingly. Fernández was given an intentional walk, loading the bases to get to the eighth-place batter Kelly. The gamble didn’t work. Kelly grounded to third and Mattingly made it home.

With the score 6-3 and runners on second and third, KC manager Bob Boone called for lefty Billy Brewer, but the situation only got worse. Brewer walked Polonia, loading the bases again. Boggs punched a single to center, bringing Williams and Fernández home and moving Polonia to third. O’Neill’s blooper over third base fell in for a single. Polonia scored, Boggs went to second, and Brewer was removed without getting anyone out. Dilson Torres came in and ended the inning on Tartabull’s force-play grounder to third. The Yankees’ lead had grown to 9-3.

Bob Wickman held the Royals scoreless in the bottom of the eighth. In the top of the ninth, the Yankees added another run on Leyritz’s homer to left. Yankees reliever Joe Ausanio took care of the Royals in the bottom of the inning and the game ended 10-3, Yankees. Nunnally’s first-at-bat home run in the first inning proved to be the bright spot for the Royals in an otherwise dismal afternoon. He went 2-for-5 in the game, with three hard-hit balls to the outfield and a single up the middle. While on first, Mattingly, the Yankees first baseman, asked Nunnally why he was hitting leadoff, saying “You’ve got too much power for that.” Nunnally replied, “Wherever they put me, I’m okay with that.”10

Nunnally played for the Royals in 1995, then moved between the majors and Triple A with four different organizations over the next five years. In 2000 he played in Japan for a season with the Orix Blue Wave.11 In his first game with Orix, on June 28, 2000, Nunnally hit a home run in his first at-bat.12 He is the only player (as of 2024) to accomplish the feat in both the US and Japanese major leagues.

Nunnally returned to the States and played in Triple A for five more years, then went on to a coaching career. He is reminded of his first-at-bat home run when he’s working with young players. He says, “One thing that stands out to me, when young men can own the middle of the plate, and own the middle of the field, they can be successful.”13

Acknowledgments

Special thank-you to Jon Nunnally. Telephone interview with author on June 22, 2024.

Photo credit: Jon Nunnally, courtesy of the Kansas City Royals.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com, and Retrosheet.org for box scores, play-by-play, and player information.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA199504290.shtml

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=199504290KCA

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1995/B04290KCA1995.htm

Notes

1 “Yankees 10, Royals 3,” UPI Archives, April 29, 1995. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/04/29/Yankees-10-Royals-3/7400799128000/, accessed May 9, 2024.

2 Tony Boone, “Nunnally Returns to Omaha with Indy,” mlb.com, May 29, 2021. 

https://www.milb.com/news/former-omaha-player-returns, accessed May 9, 2024.

3 “Perez Ends Five-Game Losing Streak against Royals,” Santa Cruz (California) Sentinel, April 30, 1995: 14. Fan attendance was slow to pick up after the strike-delayed season started.

4 “Royals Sign Gordon to 1-Year Deal,” Salina (Kansas) Journal, April 30, 1995: 39. 

5 Phone interview with Jon Nunnally, June 22, 2024.

6 Doug Tucker, “KC’s Nunnally Clubs Homer in First At-Bat,” Salina Journal, April 30, 1995: 39.

7 Phone interview with Jon Nunnally, June 22, 2024.

8 Phone interview with Jon Nunnally, June 22, 2024.

9 Tony Boone, “Nunnally Returns to Omaha with Indy.”

10 Phone interview with Jon Nunnally, June 22, 2024.

11 “Orix Buffaloes,” JapanBall.com. https://japanball.com/baseball/npb-teams/orix-buffaloes/, accessed May 11, 2004. The team became the Orix Buffaloes in 2005 after a merger with the Kintetsu Buffaloes.

12 Nippon Leagues history, first at-bat home runs research conducted by Yoshihiro Koda, SABR Tokyo Chapter.

13 Phone interview with Jon Nunnally, June 22, 2024.