May 17, 1996: Jermaine Dye has a ‘dream’ debut as first Atlanta Braves player to homer in his first at-bat

On the night of May 17, 1996, a crowd of 40,612 came out to see the reigning World Series champion Atlanta Braves take on the Cincinnati Reds at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Atlanta took a 25-15 record into the game; they were just a half-game behind the Montreal Expos (27-14) in the National League East Division. The Reds were 16-19, but since the rest of the NL Central Division was off to a slow start, they were only a half-game behind the first-place Houston Astros.

Atlanta fans may have been feeling anxious, as they had recently learned that David Justice would be out the rest of the season with a dislocated right shoulder, suffered when he swung hard at a pitch. To replace him, the Braves called up Jermaine Dye from Triple-A Richmond. Drafted in 1993, Dye was a top prospect in the organization.

Pitching for the Braves was Greg Maddux. Coming off a dominant 1995 season, in which he went 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA to win his fourth consecutive Cy Young Award, Maddux so far this season was 4-3 in nine starts. On the mound for the Reds was John Smiley, an 11-year major leaguer and two-time All-Star.

Umpires for the game were Jerry Crawford at first, Ed Montague at second, and Wally Bell at third. Tom Hallion was behind the plate to call a strike as Reds left fielder Thomas Howard looked at the first pitch thrown by Maddux.

The Braves’ Fred McGriff scored the first run of the game when he led off the bottom of the second inning with a home run down the right-field line, his 10th round-tripper of the season. Smiley left a fastball over the plate, and McGriff did not miss. It was his 10th home run of the season. He went on to finish the season with 28 home runs, to go along with a .295 average and 107 RBIs. McGriff was one of six Braves to make the 1996 All-Star Game, the others being Chipper Jones, John Smoltz, Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Mark Wohlers.

The Braves kept up the pressure on Smiley, scoring four more runs in the inning. After inducing a groundout by Javy López, Smiley walked three of the next four batters to load the bases, then gave up a bases-clearing triple to Marquis Grissom on the 12th pitch of the at-bat. Mark Lemke followed with a single to drive in Grissom. Smiley got out of the inning with a fly out from McGriff, but after throwing 54 pitches in the inning, his day was done. Chuck McElroy relieved him in the third.

The Reds started the top of the third inning with back-to-back doubles by Bret Boone and Jeff Branson. Boone scored on Branson’s line drive down the left-field line to make it a 5-1 game. Maddux ended the inning with no further damage. This became the norm for the Reds as the game progressed. Cincinnati ended up getting 10 hits off Maddux, at least one in every inning, but with Maddux walking no one and striking out seven, he was able to limit their scoring. “It doesn’t mean anything to get hits off (Maddux) because, like all the great pitchers, he gets tougher in crucial situations,” Reds manager Ray Knight said after the game.1

Cincinnati tacked on another run in the top of the fourth. Eric Anthony doubled and scored on Eric Davis’s single. Davis stole second, but Maddux again got out of the inning with no other runs scored.

The Braves answered back in the bottom of the fourth. Lemke drew a walk from McElroy and scored on Jones’s double.

In the top of the fifth inning, the Braves’ Jermaine Dye came in as a defensive replacement for right fielder Jerome Walton, who had recently aggravated a groin injury. The Reds were quiet in the fifth. Thomas Howard singled to left field but was thrown out trying to steal to end the inning.

Marcus Moore replaced McElroy to pitch the bottom of the fifth for the Reds. López led off with a fly out to center field. Dye then stepped up to the plate for his first major-league at-bat. After taking the first pitch for a ball, he hit Moore’s next pitch 382 feet to left field for a home run. “I had the jitters, so I took the first pitch just to get a feel for what he was throwing,” Dye said. “He left the next pitch out over the plate, and I was able to drive it and it went out of the ballpark.”2 With that homer, Dye became the 71st player to hit a home run in his first major-league at-bat. It was the first time a Braves player had done so since Chuck Tanner in 1955, when the team was in Milwaukee.

“I got into Atlanta late and didn’t get to sleep until about 2:00 A.M. this morning,” Dye said.3 His parents were even able to attend the game. “They flew in from California and were in the stands. It was a great day. It’s a dream.”4

“Dye’s home run was great,” Maddux said. “You always want a guy in his first major-league appearance to have a good one. It was a great first impression, and easily may have been the biggest day of his career.”5

Justice was the first player in the Braves dugout to congratulate Dye. “Everyone was pulling for him,” he said, as one of his teammates yelled out “David Pipp,” a reference to Wally Pipp, the player Lou Gehrig replaced in the Yankees lineup.6 Justice would stay with the team for the season as he recovered from his injury, helping Dye in any way he could. The crowd gave Dye a standing ovation, and he responded with a curtain call.

“A great way to come in,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “He’s a young kid who’s going to help us a bit.”7

The Braves added a run in the eighth inning when Ryan Klesko hit a home run to center field, making the score 8-2. That ended up the final score, as the Reds couldn’t produce any more runs against either Maddux or the Braves’ bullpen. Maddux pitched seven innings to get the win, Greg McMichael pitched the eighth inning, and Pedro Borbón came on in the ninth to finish the game.

The Braves went on to make it to the World Series, losing to the Yankees in six games. Dye ended up winning the starting right-field job for the rest of the season, playing in 98 games and hitting .281 with 12 home runs and 37 RBIs. Traded to the Kansas City Royals in March 1997, Dye was an All-Star twice and was the 2005 World Series MVP for the champion Chicago White Sox.

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/ATL/ATL199605170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1996/B05170ATL1996.htm

Dye’s home run can be seen on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXnCcWypUuY

Photo credit: Jermaine Dye, Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 Jeff Horrigan, “Reds’ Smiley Routed,” Cincinnati Post, May 18, 1996: 43.

2 “Maddox Regains Winning Way,” Orlando Sentinel, May 18, 1996: 28.

3 Tom Saladino (Associated Press), “Grissom’s Hit Knocks Out Reds,” Muncie (Indiana) Evening Press, May 18, 1996: 24.

4 Saladino.

5 Saladino.

6 I.J. Rosenberg, “Dye’s HR Debut a Lift for Braves,” Atlanta Constitution, May 18, 1996: 44.

7 Rosenberg.