SABR Digital Library: Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs
We hope you’ll enjoy this new baseball book from the SABR Digital Library and our companion website at SABR.org:
Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs
Edited by Giselle Stancic, Bill Nowlin, and Jacob Pomrenke
Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-30-7, $9.99
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-31-4, $24.95
8.5″ x 11″, 167 pages
Every baseball player experiences a series of firsts when they step onto the field: the nervous excitement of entering the locker room, the pride of putting on the team uniform, the awe-inspiring moment of exiting the dugout and crossing the white lines. But when a player walks up to the plate and hits a home run in his first major-league at-bat, he creates a wave of excitement among the fans, achieves a rare feat for the record books — and experiences the thrill of a lifetime in his professional career.
Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs celebrates those moments – from inside-the-park homers to grand slams to those hit by pitchers. Some foreshadowed many homers to come; in other cases, the first at-bat homer was the only one the player ever hit.
Each major-league franchise is represented in one way or another, and we also look at first at-bat home runs hit in the Negro Leagues, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. We hope to have conveyed some of the excitement of a player entering a game and promptly hitting one outta here!
- Explore more online: Our special Featured Spotlight web project complements the new Digital Library book available above. At SABR.org/dazzling-debuts, explore the Dazzling Debuts companion website to find 60 biographies, more than 50 thrilling game recaps with play-by-play accounts, photographs and videos of their memorable swings, plus exclusive oral history interviews of players reliving their first at-bat homers in their own words — including Ed Sanicki (1949), Cuno Barragan (1961), Al Woods (1977), Dave Machemer (1978), Jon Nunnally (1995), and Daniel Nava (2010).
The Dazzling Debuts book is a collaborative effort of 33 members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Contributors include: Joe Adona, Malcolm Allen, Jorge Colón Delgado, Mike Cooney, Rory Costello, Richard Cuicchi, Joey Elledge, Carlos Fragoso, John Fredland, Dave Gagnon, Craig Garretson, Paul Geisler Jr., Chip Greene, Yoshihiro Koda, Sean Kolodziej, Tara Krieger, Justin Krueger, Bryan Lake, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, Laura H. Peebles, Zac Petrillo, Jacob Pomrenke, Bill Pruden, Carl Riechers, Tom Schott, Barrett Snyder, Giselle Stancic, Stew Thornley, Michael Trzinski, Joseph Wancho, Bob Webster, and Phil Williams.
The companion website includes contributions from 57 additional SABR members: Davy Andrews, Jeff Angus, Mark Armour, Ed Attanasio, Jeff Barto, Anthony Basich, Gary Belleville, Charlie Bevis, Kurt Blumenau, Brian Bratt, Jude Butler, Warren Corbett, Tom Crisp, Larry DeFillipo, Charles F. Faber, Matt Faltas, Doug Feldmann, Dan Fields, Scott Fiesthumel, Zak Ford, John Gabcik, Gordon J. Gattie, Hayden Goethe, Andrew Harner, Tom Harris, Paul Hirsch, Paul Hofmann, Mike Huber, Bob Hurte, Norm King, Zach Kleiman, Herm Krabbenhoft, Gerard Kwilecki, Bill Lamb, Barb Mantegani, Seth Moland-Kovash, Victoria Monte, Chad Moody, Shawn Morris, Charlie O’Reilly, Tim Odzer, Tony Oliver, Pete Palmer, Chris Rainey, Joel Rippel, Tim Ryan, Rick Schabowski, Herb Schaper, Jason Scheller, Louis H. Schiff, Wyatt Schroeder, Joe Schuster, Jacob Shanker, David E. Skelton, Everett Williams, Tomotada Yamamoto, and Don Zminda.
SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!
- E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Dazzling Debuts for FREE from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, EPUB/Kindle formats.
- Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Dazzling Debuts paperback edition from the SABR Store ($15.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)
Buy the book
- E-book: Click here to download the e-book version of Dazzling Debuts for $9.99 from the SABR Store. Available in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB/Kindle formats.
- Paperback: Get the paperback edition of Dazzling Debuts from the SABR Store ($29.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)
About the SABR Digital Library
For more than 50 years, SABR and its members have led the way in publishing the best baseball historical and statistical research. Our publications program is shifting to take advantage of new methods of publishing. Not only will we continue to publish new books like Can He Play? A Look At Baseball Scouts and Their Profession (2011); Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (2013); Scandal on the South Side: The 1919 Chicago White Sox (2015); Jackie Robinson: Perspectives on 42 (2021), ¡Arriba! The Heroic Life of Roberto Clemente (2022); and Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan (2023); which showcase the best efforts of SABR’s members, chapters and committees, but new technology makes it possible for us to bring out-of-print titles like When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Champion Red Sox (2018); Green Cathedrals (2020); and The Miracle Has Landed: The Amazin’ Story of How the 1969 Mets Shocked the World (2021) back again.
Visit SABR.org/ebooks to find all past titles and download your favorites. Books will be available in digital formats as well as paperbacks produced by “print on demand” (POD).
SABR members can download all Digital Library e-book editions for free and save 50% on purchase of the paperback editions. If you’re not a member, click here to join SABR.
Stay tuned throughout the year for new (and old!) titles that we’ll be adding to the SABR Digital Library. To learn more about SABR Publications, contact Publications Editor Cecilia Tan at ctan@sabr.org.
Having trouble downloading our e-books? Click here for step-by-step instructions or a short tutorial video on how to download SABR digital publications.
Originally published: October 30, 2024. Last Updated: October 31, 2024.