Grondahl: Historian finds first grand slam in MLB history — in Rensselaer
From Paul Grondahl at the Albany Times Union on March 19, 2019:
Each time Matt Malette stepped across the sodden field, his brown leather Oxford shoes made a slurping sound as he picked his steps across a muddy expanse speckled with Canada geese droppings.
Sandwiched between the Hudson River and Broadway, near the Amtrak train station, this forlorn patch of low-lying real estate hardly looks like a spot where major league baseball history was made more than a century ago. It sits in the shadow of a Dunn Memorial Bridge ramp.
There is no bronze plaque or anything to designate that herein lies the spot where Roger Connor became the first player to hit a grand slam in Major League Baseball history on Sept. 10, 1881, for the National League Troy Trojans in a game against the Worcester Ruby Legs.
“Connor’s grand slam was the first in MLB history,” John Thorn, official historian of Major League Baseball, confirmed in an email.
The grand slam is described in the definitive Society for American Baseball Research, but it erroneously listed Albany as the location.
Read the full article here: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Grondahl-Sleuthing-reveals-MLB-s-first-grand-13699502.php
- Related link: September 10, 1881: Roger Connor’s ‘ultimate’ grand slam (SABR Games Project)
Originally published: March 19, 2019. Last Updated: March 19, 2019.