The Saga of Players Who Hit Home Runs in the Same Park as Both Minor and Major Leaguers
This article was written by Alan Cohen
This article was published in When Minor League Baseball Almost Went Bust: 1946-1963
Ted Kluszewski measures up Earl Averill Jr., 1961. (SABR-Rucker Archive)
R.C. Stevens of the 1960 Pirates made several stops in the minors and majors from 1952 through 1963. In an article in the Quad City Times, he remembered a homer against the Giants at Seals Stadium on May 5, 1958.1 He had also hit home runs at Seals Stadium as a member of the Hollywood Stars, for whom he played during the 1955, 1956, and 1957 seasons. The first of his homers at Seals Stadium came on April 24, 1955, and he also homered there on July 15, 1956, a year in which he hit 27 home runs, good for third in the Pacific Coast League.
More than 60 players, including five Hall of Famers, homered in the same ballpark in the minors and majors during the years from 1954 through 1962, as the number of teams, cities, and stadiums grew substantially.
Major-league baseball, as it was defined prior to 1953, was confined to 10 cities, but aging ballparks, dwindling crowds, and the moving of the country’s population resulted in owners looking to make changes. By 1962, franchise shifts and expansion resulted in a completely new major-league landscape, and five ballparks that had been minor-league venues were being used by major-league teams. They were Memorial Stadium (Baltimore), Roosevelt Stadium (Jersey City), Seals Stadium (San Francisco), Metropolitan Stadium (Minneapolis), and Wrigley Field (Los Angeles).
Brooklyn had won six of 10 National League pennants going into the 1957 season. They were drawing well at Ebbets Field, attracting 1,213,562 fans in 1956. But owner Walter O’Malley was determined to get a new facility. During 1956 and 1957, his Dodgers played 15 games at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey. O’Malley set his sights farther west, and in Los Angeles he found his pot of gold. Our story first takes us to Roosevelt Stadium, where three players homered in both the minors and majors.
ROOSEVELT STADIUM
On April 18, 1946, Montreal played the Jersey City Giants before a crowd of more than 25,500 on Opening Day at Roosevelt Stadium,2 and Jackie Robinson played his first game in Organized Baseball.
He observed “that watching this minor league game would be more sports writers than would be watching any opening day major league game—sports writers present because they knew that unfolding here on this diamond was a story much bigger than baseball, a story as far-reaching in essence as the very idea of democracy and the equality of men.”3 After grounding out in the first inning, he came to bat in the third with runners on base. It was a bunting situation, but manager Clay Hopper ordered Robinson to swing away, and Robinson slammed a three-run homer over the leftfield fence. In 1956, Robinson was in his 10th year with Brooklyn, and seven games were played at Roosevelt Stadium. Robinson homered there on July 31, with his second-inning two-run blast putting the Dodgers ahead 2-1, as Brooklyn defeated the Braves, 3-2.
Another Hall of Famer homered there in both the minors and majors. Duke Snider first appeared with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and started 1948 in Brooklyn. He got off to a bad start and was sent to Montreal on May 22. He first played in Jersey City on June 10, and he went 3-for-5, scored three runs, drove in six, and homered in the process. As an established major-league All-Star, he hit two homers at Roosevelt Stadium in 1956, with the first coming on July 25 against Cincinnati. The score was tied in the bottom of the ninth. Snider came up with one out, and his walk-off homer gave the Dodgers a 2-1 win.
Hank Sauer was the third player to accomplish the “deed.” His first homer at Roosevelt Stadium came on May 20, 1946, when he hit one out in a 4-2 Syracuse win over Jersey City. In 1947 he hit 50 homers, including four at Roosevelt Stadium. He had the next-to-last major-league home run hit during the brief tenure of Roosevelt Stadium as a major-league site. Sauer had been acquired by the New York Giants in a trade with the Cardinals, and his Roosevelt Stadium home run came on August 7, 1957. With the Dodgers leading 5-3 in the top of the ninth, the Giants got the first two men on base. Sauer was called on to pinch-hit, and his three-run homer put the Giants in the lead in an 8-5 victory.
SEALS STADIUM AND WRIGLEY FIELD OF LOS ANGELES
In their championship year of 1954, the New York Giants’ home attendance was 1,155,067. From 1955 on, it went downhill, and owner Horace Stoneham was looking to move. His eyes were initially set on Minneapolis and the new ballpark in nearby Bloomington. However, Minneapolis wasn’t the destination for the Giants, and Metropolitan Stadium did not see major-league baseball until 1961. The Dodgers’ O’Malley encouraged Stoneham to set his eyes west, and San Francisco embraced the Giants with open arms. San Francisco had long been the home of the Seals in the Pacific Coast League, and they had been playing in Seals Stadium since 1931. For two years the Giants played at Seals Stadium, and in the 1958 season 1,272,625 fans came to see major-league baseball in the “City by the Bay.”
Los Angeles had two minor-league teams in 1957. The Hollywood Stars played at Gilmore Field and the Los Angeles Angels played at Wrigley Field, their home since it opened in 1925. Prior to the 1957 season, O’Malley bought Wrigley Field and affiliated with the Angels. But Wrigley Field, even as a temporary home, was too small for O’Malley in 1958, and the Dodgers played their first four seasons at the cavernous Los Angeles Coliseum. The seating capacity at the Coliseum exceeded 90,000. The Dodgers drew 1,845,556 fans in their first season, including 78,682 for their home opener. When the Dodgers advanced to the World Series in 1959, crowds exceeded 92.000 for each of the three games played in Los Angeles. Wrigley Field was unoccupied until 1961 when expansion delivered the big-league Angels to the facility. The Angels used Wrigley Field for one season before moving to Dodger Stadium.
Seals Stadium was not a home-run hitter’s paradise. The Seals homered in only 38 of the 84 games played at home in 1957, while the opposition homered in only 30 games. Eight players homered there in the minors and in the majors. Wrigley Field, with its power alleys being only 345 feet from home plate, was far more hospitable, and 242 homers were struck there in 1961.
On May 21, 1949, infielder Orestes “Minnie” Minoso was optioned by the Cleveland Indians to San Diego of the PCL. He had spent three years with the Negro League New York Cubans. Late in 1948 he was signed by the Indians and played 11 games for Dayton of the Class A Central League. He started 1949 with Cleveland, but the Indians wanted their new Cuban third baseman to learn to play the outfield, and he was sent to the PCL. In his first game with San Diego, he was charged with two errors. By the time he made it back to the majors, however, nobody questioned his ability in the outfield. He became the preeminent left fielder in the American League, leading the league in games played at that position for six consecutive seasons and earning three Gold Gloves.
In the second game of a PCL doubleheader on August 7, 1949, Minoso went 4-for-5 with a homer and five RBIs as the San Diego Padres defeated the homestanding Angels, 7-4. On May 1, 1951, he became the first player of color to play in Chicago for either major-league team. By the time major-league baseball came to Wrigley Field in 1961, Minoso was in the second year of his second go-round with the White Sox. On September 8, 1961, he homered at Wrigley Field.
Jackie Jensen was the Golden Boy, complete with as good a signing bonus as the Oakland Oaks could deliver in 1949. He started off slowly with Oakland, in the field and at the plate. When Oakland visited Wrigley Field on August 30, he homered in a 10-3 win over the Angels. For the season, Jensen batted .261. Jensen was then sold to the Yankees. He played with the Yankees and Senators before arriving in Boston in 1954 for his best years, highlighted by winning the American League MVP Award in 1958. With the Red Sox, he returned to Wrigley Field and homered on May 8, 1961.
In 1949 the Hollywood Stars won their first pennant since 1930. Their center fielder, Irv Noren, was chosen the league’s MVP. The Stars were not affiliated, and Noren was on loan from Brooklyn. He slugged 29 homers to go along with a .330 batting average. On April 22 the Stars played the second game of a series at Seals Stadium, and in the third inning Noren homered to give the Stars a 3-0 lead in a game they won, 6-4. His bat came alive with the Yankees in 1954. He had his best season, batting .319 and getting named to the All-Star team. By 1958, he was in the National League and returned to the West Coast to face the Giants as a member of the Cardinals, when he homered at Seals Stadium on July 6.
San Diego had an informal arrangement with Cleveland. The Indians were on the lookout for young Black talent, and Bill Veeck signed 20-year-old Al Smith off the roster of the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League in 1948. On April 8, 1950, with the Padres, Smith homered at Wrigley Field. In the majors, Smith’s best season for homers was 1961 with the White Sox. Of his 28 homers that year, three were hit at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, with the first coming on May 19.
Dale Long hit home runs in eight consecutive games for the Pirates in 1956. In 1944, at the age of 18, he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association. He spent the next seven years with no fewer than 11 minor-league teams before getting his first crack at the big time in 1951. It was a brief stay. After being selected off waivers by the St. Louis Browns and being subsequently released, Long signed on with the Seals, and found his stroke in Seals Stadium. The first of two 1951 Seals Stadium homers came on July 27, 1951, as the team shut out the Angels, 4-0.
In 1953, Long joined the Stars. Long’s first minor-league Wrigley Field blast came on May 28, 1953, and was followed by others on May 30 and May 31. On the Stars’ second trip to Wrigley, Long slammed four round-trippers in the eight-game series. He won both the home-run (35) and RBI (116) crowns. The first of his Seals Stadium minor-league homers with the Stars left the premises on June 12, 1953. He banged another two days later. He hit two more in July. In 1954, it was more of the same. Long hit another two homers at Wrigley Field and complemented these with a pair of two-homer games at Seals Stadium. Total minor-league damage: Wrigley Field—nine homers; Seals Stadium—10 homers.
With the Cubs on April 27, 1958, Long slugged the first of his Seals Stadium major-league homers. It came off Rubén Gómez as the Cubs defeated the Giants 5-4. He had three homers at Seals Stadium in 1958, and another one in 1959. With the expansion Washington Senators in 1961, he had three home runs at Wrigley Field, the first coming on May 21.
Earl Averill Jr. played for San Diego in 1957, blasting one out of LA’s Wrigley Field on May 29. In 1958 he batted .347 with 24 homers and 87 RBIs and was named the PCL Most Valuable Player. After the 1960 season, Averill was placed in the pool for the major-league expansion draft and was selected by the Angels. On April 27 the Angels played their home opener at Wrigley Field against the Twins. Angels manager Bill Rigney felt that Averill would hit well at Wrigley and put him in the starting lineup. In the bottom of the second inning, Averill hit a two-run homer, which was all the Angels would score in a 4-2 loss.4 It was the first Angels homer at Wrigley. Of his career-high 21 major-league home runs that year, 16 came at Wrigley Field.
Among those to accomplish the deed, however, none stands out more than the one-and-only Steve Bilko.
The LA legend hit 313 minor-league home runs, including 148 in three years (1955-57) with the PCL Angels, 97 of which were at Wrigley Field and four of which soared out of Seals Stadium. His first Wrigley blast came on April 20, 1955. His first Seals Stadium round-tripper came on May 21, 1955.
Bilko started 1950 with the Cardinals, but he was not ready for the big time. He was batting .182 when he was sent to Rochester in early May. By then the International League Orioles were playing in Memorial Stadium, and Bilko hit the first of his two minor-league Memorial Stadium home runs on June 23, 1950.
After three phenomenal PCL seasons (during which he slammed more than 50 home runs in both 1956 and 1957), Bilko returned to the majors in 1958 and hit homers at each of the three former minor-league venues. On June 9, 1958, with Cincinnati, he homered off Johnny Antonelli of the San Francisco Giants at Seals Stadium. On June 7, 1960, with Detroit, he homered off Hoyt Wilhelm at Memorial Stadium in a 5-2 Tigers win.
With the expansion Angels, Bilko hit 11 homers at Wrigley Field. The first came off Herb Score, who was then pitching for the White Sox, on May 19, 1961. The last of Bilko’s home runs at Wrigley was the last home run ever hit at the facility. It came on October 1, in the last inning of the last game played there. The solo homer came with two outs, but was too little, too late in an 8-5 loss.
Rocky Colavito was sent to San Diego of the PCL on June 25, 1956, and spent about five weeks with the Padres. During a July 4 doubleheader, there were 10 home runs, including three by Bilko. It was in the second game that Colavito slammed his first homer at Wrigley Field. On July 14, after hitting a total of 12 home runs and batting .368 in 35 games, he was recalled by Cleveland. In 1961, with Detroit, he returned to Wrigley Field and bashed the first of his Wrigley Field major-league homers on May 26. He had four home runs at Wrigley Field during the 1961 season.
Earl Battey spent the latter part of 1957 with the PCL Angels, going deep for the first time at Wrigley Field on August 13. On September 8 he sent three balls flying out of Wrigley, accounting for all three of his team’s runs in a 14-inning 3-2 win over Sacramento. Battey was traded to Washington prior to the 1960 season and moved with the team to the Twin Cities for the 1961 season. Returning to Los Angeles in 1961, he homered on April 27 in the first major-league game played at Wrigley Field. His three-run-homer in the sixth inning put the Twins in the lead as they spoiled the Angels’ home opener with a 4-2 win.
Dale Long, with catcher’s glove (SABR-Rucker Archive)
MEMORIAL STADIUM
The St. Louis Browns had long been one of the doormats of the American League, and by 1953 it was clear that the franchise could not survive in St. Louis. In hopes of attracting major-league baseball, Baltimore had completely renovated a facility then known as Babe Ruth Field. Memorial Stadium saw its first action in 1950, and for four seasons the Baltimore Orioles of the International League, a Phillies affiliate, called Memorial Stadium home. Eleven ballplayers homered there in the minors and majors during the time-period of this story.5
The first was Andy Carey, playing for Syracuse on September 7, 1952, who homered with one on at Memorial Stadium in a 5-0 win over the Orioles. Carey’s third-inning homer put the Chiefs in front to stay. He played for the great Yankees teams of the 1950s, hitting 47 homers before being traded to Kansas City and finishing his career with the Dodgers. He became the first player to hit homers at the same ballpark in the minors and majors in the migration/ expansion era when, in his second full year with the Yankees, he homered on May 16, 1954, as the Yankees defeated Baltimore, 2-0. He homered four times at Memorial Stadium as a major leaguer.
METROPOLITAN STADIUM
Minneapolis, in pursuit of a major-league team, replaced its minor-league facility, Nicollet Field, with Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington in 1956. The ballpark was built to be expandable to major-league size when major-league ball came to the Twin Cities. The minor-league Minneapolis Millers occupied the facility for five years. The Washington Senators, perennially at or near the bottom of the American League standings, moved to Minneapolis in 1961, became the Minnesota Twins, and took up residence at Metropolitan Stadium. Of the 29 players who homered at this ballpark in the minors and majors, two future Hall of Famers stand out.6
Carl Yastrzemski signed with Boston in 1958. With the Millers in 1960, he was among the league leaders in batting all season. Toward the end of the season, he went on a 30-game hitting streak that raised his average to .339, good for second in the league. Early in his career, the homers came slowly. His first homer of 1960 did not come until June 5, and it was on the road at Indianapolis. He connected at home for the first time on June 11, once again victimizing Indianapolis. He joined the Red Sox in 1961, and he hit 18 at the Minnesota locale, the first coming on May 29, 1962.
Harmon Killebrew hit 246 homers at Metropolitan Stadium during his career. He signed with Washington and spent parts of the next five seasons in the nation’s capital from 1954 through 1958, hitting 11 homers with 30 RBIs. In 1958 the Senators shipped him out to Indianapolis in the American Association where, in 38 games, he hit two homers and batted .215. The second of those two homers came at Metropolitan Stadium, on June 15. In 1959 he banged out an American Leagueleading 42 homers. He went to Minnesota when the Senators became the Twins in 1961, and his first bigleague Metropolitan Stadium blast came on April 30, 1961.
ALAN COHEN has been a SABR member since 2011. He chairs the BioProject fact-checking committee, serves as vice president treasurer of the Connecticut Smoky Joe Wood Chapter, and is a datacaster (MiLB stringer) with the Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats, the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. He also works with the Retrosheet Negro Leagues project and serves on SABR’s Negro League Committee. His biographies, game stories, and essays have appeared in more than 70 baseball-related publications. He has four children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, and resides in Connecticut with wife Frances, their cats, Zoe and Ava, and their dog, Buddy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This article was edited by Marshall Adesman and fact checked by Carl Riechers.
SOURCES
In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference. com, Retrosheet.org, and, for minor-league box scores, The Sporting News.
NOTES
1 Eric Page, “Davenport’s Stevens Made Big Splash in Majors Debut 50 Years Ago This Week,” Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa), April 13, 2008: Bi, B3.
2 Cy Kritzer, “Robinson Steals Int Show; Bears Off to Fast Getaway,” The Sporting News, April 25, 1946: 18.
3 Jackie Robinson (with Carl Rowan), Wait till Next Year: The Story of Jackie Robinson (New York: Random House, 1960), 151-152.
4 “Compact Wrigley Field Made to Order for LA’s Young Backstop, Earl Averill,” Bridgeport (Connecticut) Sunday Herald, May 14, 1961: 6.
5 The following players hit home runs at Memorial Stadium in the minors and majors:
| Player | Minors | Majors |
| Andy Carey | 9/7/1952 (Syracuse) | 4—First on 5/16/1954 (w NYY) off Dave Koslo |
| Bill Tuttle | 4/22/1953 (Buffalo) | 3—first on 6/18/1955 (w DET) off Fritz Dorish |
| Harry Chiti | 5/24/1952 (Springfield) | 6/06/1958 (w KCA) off Connie Johnson |
| Steve Bilko | 6/23/1950 (Rochester) | 2—first on 6/7/1960 (w DET) off Hoyt Wilhelm |
| Tom Burgess | 6/17/1953 (Rochester) | 5/15/1961 (w LAA) off Milt Pappas |
| Smoky Burgess | 5/22/1950 (Springfield) | 6/26/1967 (w CHW) off Pete Rickert |
| Chico Fernández | 7/17/1953 (Montreal) | 7/23/1960 (w DET) off Hal Brown |
| Bubba Phillips | 5/6/1952 (Buffalo) | 2-first on 4/24/1961 (w CLE) off Milt Pappas |
| Vic Power | 7/14/1951 (Syracuse) | 3—first on 6/10/1956 (w KCA) off Fritz Dorish |
| Don Bollweg | 4/20/1950 (Rochester) | 8/4/1954 (w PHA) off Duane Pillette |
| Jim Brideweser | 6/13/1953 (Syracuse) | 5/24/1957 off Frank Sullivan (BOS) |
| Hank Foiles | 9/08/1951 (Syracuse) | 9/29/1961 off Warren Hacker (CHW) |
| Glenn Davis | 9/4/1993 (Bowie) | 3—first on 4/19/1991 off Kenny Rogers (TEX) |
Henry Aaron hit his first Memorial Stadium home runs while with the Indianapolis Clowns on May 18, 1952. After spending the first 21 years of his major-league career in the National League, he returned to Memorial Stadium, as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, and hit his first Memorial Stadium AL/NL major-league homer on May 19, 1976.
6 The following players hit home runs at Metropolitan Stadium in the minors and majors:
| Player | Minors | Majors |
| Harmon Killebrew | 6/15/1958 (Indianapolis) | 246—first on 4/30/1961 off Bob Shaw (CHW) |
| Julio Becquer | 6/26/1956 (Louisville) | 3—first on 6/20/1961 off Jack Fisher (BAL) |
| Zoilo Versalles | 6/26/1960 (Charleston) | 57—first on 5/10/1961 off Dick Hall (BAL) |
| Sandy Valdespino | 8/17/1960 (Charleston) | 3—first on 4/13/1966 off Rollie Sheldon (KCA) |
| Johnny Goryl | 8/06/1959 (Minneapolis) | 2—first on 7/21/1963 off Don Rudolph (WSA) |
| Joe Altobelli | 6/13/1958 (Indianapolis) | 2—first on 9/11/1961 off Tom Morgan (LAA) |
| Marv Throneberry | 6/27/1957 (Denver) | 5/18/1961 (w KCA) off Jim Kaat |
| Johnny Callison | 6/15/1958 (Indianapolis) | 5/8/1972 (w NYY) off Bert Blyleven |
| Joe Koppe | 7/28/1958 (Wichita) | 6/24/1962 (w LAA) off Ray Moore |
| Willie Tasby | 8/11/1958 (Louisville) | 2—first on 4/22/1961 (w WSA) off Pedro Ramos |
| John Romano | 6/22/1957 (Indianapolis) | 11—first on 5/9/1962 (w CLE) off Jack Kralick |
| Lou Clinton | 5/17/1958 (Minneapolis) | 12—first on 8/17/1962 (w BOS) off Jack Kralick |
| Charley Lau | 8/16/1957 (Charleston, WV) | 5/08/1964 (w KCA) off Bill Dailey |
| Bob Schmidt | 5/09/1957 (Minneapolis) | 6/01/1962 (w WAS) off Jim Kaat |
| Eddie Bressoud | 6/27/1957 (Minneapolis) | 4—first on 8/17/1962 (w BOS) off Georges Maranda |
| Don Demeter | 5/04/1957 (St. Paul) | 7—first on 4/26/1964 (w DET) off Jim Kaat |
| Johnny Blanchard | 6/26/1957 (Denver) | 3—first on 6/24/1961 (w NYY) off Bert 9/Cueto |
| Woodie Held | 5/27/1956 (Denver) | 11—first on 5/22/1961 (w CLE) off Ed Palmquist |
| Willie Kirkland | 4/25/1956 (Minneapolis) | 2—first on 9/28/1961 (w CLE) off Don Lee |
| Bob Tillman | 4/23/1960 (Minneapolis) | 5—first on 5/29/1962 (w BOS) off Lee Strange |
| Steve Boros | 5/25/1960 (Denver) | 3—first on 5/23/1961 (w DET) off Ray Moore |
| Earl Wilson | 5/28/1960 (Minneapolis) | 8/17/1962 (w BOS) off Georges Maranda |
| Carl Yastrzemski | 6/11/1960 (Minneapolis) | 18—first on 5/29/1962 (w BOS) off Lee Strange |
| Ed Charles | 7/31/1960 (Louisville) | 2—first on 6/7/1966 (w KCA) off Jim Kaat |
| Chuck Schilling | 7/07/1960 (Minneapolis) | 4—first on 5/7/1961 (w BOS) off Camilo Pascual |
| Camilo Carreón | 8/15/1959 (Indianapolis) | 3—first on May 1, 1961 (w CHW) off Chuck Stobbs |
| Donald G. Leppert | 4/26/1956 (Wichita) | 8/18/1963 (w WSA) off Garry Roggenburk |
| Jim Gentile | 5/30/1959 (St. Paul) | 7—first on 5/9/1961 (w BAL) off Pedro Ramos |
| Jerry Kindall | 9/29/1959 (Fort Worth) | 5—first on 9/16/1962 (w CLE) off Camilo Pascual |