May 14, 1993: Rockies’ Jay Gainer joins an exclusive club, homering on the first pitch he sees in majors

It would be very understandable to think that 26-year-old first baseman Jay Gainer would welcome a trade to another team while playing in the Texas League for the Wichita Wranglers, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, considering how his path to the majors was being blocked by perennial All-Star and future Hall of Famer Fred McGriff. But when he was finally dealt to a new club, his situation unfortunately didn’t improve.

Traded to the expansion Colorado Rockies in late March1993 for left-handed pitcher Denis Boucher and assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs, Gainer now found himself blocked by one of the most feared hitters in the NL, Andres “Big Cat” Galarraga.1

“At first, I thought I’d done something wrong,” Gainer recalled of the day he was told he’d been traded. “It turned out it wasn’t a bad deal. I was actually OK with the idea of being the left-handed bat off the bench behind McGriff. But I guess my success with the Padres pushed me into a spot where I’d gotten exposed a little bit.”2

Perhaps aided by the dry and rarefied air in Denver, Galarraga was off to a torrid start, putting up a slash line of .395/.422/.588 with 33 RBIs when he suffered a hamstring injury against Atlanta on May 9.

For the next four games, the Rockies employed a platoon of Jim Tatum and Jerald Clark at first base.

Meanwhile in Colorado Springs, Gainer was hitting .331 with 5 home runs and a PCL-leading 39 RBIs, when Sky Sox manager Brad Mills gave Gainer the news that he was going to join the big-league club in Cincinnati.

Gainer arrived in Cincinnati three hours before game time and when he got to Riverfront Stadium, he discovered that Rockies manager Don Baylor had enough confidence not only to plug him in as the starting first baseman, but to also bat him in Galarraga’s usual cleanup spot.3 

In major-league history, only 2.6 percent of all players who made their debut did so as their team’s cleanup hitter.4  

“No hesitation at all,” Baylor told the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph of batting Gainer cleanup. “He’s only going to remember his first major-league at-bat anyway so what difference does it make where he bats?”5

“The ride from the airport to the ballpark in Cincinnati was like 30 miles,” Gainer remembered. “So I had a lot of time to reflect. People ask me if I was nervous. No, I just took things in stride and did what I always did. I walked into the clubhouse and put my bags in my locker. The lineup card was right in front of my face. I saw that I was hitting cleanup. I said OK, here we go. I was going to come out swinging.”6  

On the hill for the Reds that evening was Tim Pugh, a 6-foot-6 right-hander. Pugh retired the Rockies in order in the first inning, meaning Gainer would lead off the top of the second.

Andy Ashby, who later became a two-time All-Star and a key part of a Padres staff that would win the NL pennant in 1998, was the starting pitcher for Colorado that evening.

The Reds’ potent lineup offered a rude greeting to Ashby, touching him up for five runs in the bottom of the first on doubles by Barry Larkin and Chris Sabo doubles and a two-run homer by Reggie Sanders.

With the Rockies trailing 5-0 in the top of the second, Gainer stepped into the box to lead off the inning.

The first pitch from Pugh was what Gainer remembered as being a “sinker that didn’t sink.”7  Gainer connected and sent the offering 375 feet over the outstretched glove of right fielder Sanders and into the seats.

In so doing, Gainer became the 67th player to hit a home run in his first major-league at-bat, a list that as of the beginning of the 2024 season has grown to 135 members.8

“I told the guys at Triple A that I was going to swing at the first pitch and try to hit one out,” Gainer said. “But I was joking. No one does that. Afterward, I was thinking, my God, what did I do? It was like I did something I shouldn’t have done.”9

“I was off and running, man,” he said. “By the time I looked back up and saw the umpire giving the home-run sign, I was already rounding second base.”10

Gainer was the first member of the Rockies to accomplish this feat and as of 2024 was still the only one ever to do so.

Gainer’s homer came on the first pitch to him, making him the 15th player to do so and one of only 31, through the 2023 season, major-league baseball history.

With the score 5-1, Ashby bounced back in the second, striking out three batters around a walk to Bip Roberts, but Ashby failed to get out of the third as Cincinnati batted around, scoring three runs with Ashby yielding two hits, two walks, and a hit batsman before giving way to Mark Knudson with two outs in the inning.

Ashby’s final line for the game was a painful 2⅔ innings pitched, 7 hits, 3 walks, 8 earned runs, and 3strikeouts. Knudson pitched 2⅓ innings and gave up 7 hits, 1 walk, and 5 earned runs.

The Rockies trailed 13-2 after five innings and got three late runs for a 13-5 final score, dropping their record to 11-24.

Gainer was hitless in his final four at-bats, putting the ball in play every time.

Gainer played in 23 Rockies games in 1993. He went 7-for-41; three of his seven hits were home runs, one a pinch-hit grand slam. He returned to Colorado Springs for the next two seasons and never played in a big-league game again. Even after Galarraga moved on, first base belonged to future Hall of Famer Todd Helton.11

Gainer was a part of the Rockies organization through the 1996 season, with his best campaign coming in 1995 when he batted .291 for Colorado Springs, blasted 23 homers, and logged 86 RBIs.

After leaving the Rockies organization, Gainer played 11 more seasons as a professional, with stops in Taiwan, the Mexican League, and in Italy. 

Overall, he hit .275 with 121 home runs and 484 RBIs in 11 minor-league seasons spanning 1990-2001. After retiring, he was the hitting coach and manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Yakima Bears and other minor-league teams.

Sources

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN199305140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1993/B05140CIN1993.htm

Photo credit: Jay Gainer, courtesy of the Colorado Rockies.

Notes

1 Mark Knudson, “Jay Gainer Made Every Swing Count,” Fort Collins (Colorado) Coloradoan, June 1, 2018. https://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/professional/denver/2018/06/01/jay-gainer-professional-baseball-mlb-colorado-rockies-san-diego-padres/657979002/.

2 Knudson.

3 Steve Acoo, “Jay Gainer Homered in His First Major League At-Bat, on the First Pitch He Saw; Saw 23 Total ML Games,” greatest21days.com, October 9, 2022. http://www.greatest21days.com/2022/10/jay-gainer-homered-in-his-first-major.html.

4 J.G. Preston, “They Batted Cleanup in Their First Major League Game,” The J.G. Preston Experience, March 23, 2013. https://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/they-batted-cleanup-in-their-first-major-league-game/.

5 Acoo.

6 Acoo.

7 Acoo.

8 https://www.mlb.com/news/home-run-in-first-at-bat-c265623820. Of all the major-league baseball players who homered in their first at-bat, two are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame (Earl Averill and Hoyt Wilhelm) and one is in the NFL Hall of Fame (Ace Parker.)

9 Tim Kurkjian, “And What a Year It Was,” Sports Illustrated, October 4, 1993. https://vault.si.com/vault/1993/10/04/baseball.

10 Knudson.

11 Knudson.