ebarano.bsky.social

The only other more recent case was Bud Black's Padres playing Jerry Narron's Reds in 2007.

When the Angels host the Padres on April 17 in 2026, They will be only the second battery mates to ever manage against each other since Gil Hodges' Mets played Clyde King's Giants in 1970. (Hodges played some catcher in 1947 and 1948, and caught 10 innings for King.)

There are four managerial hire this year with no major league coaching experience (Tony Vitello for the Giants, Blake Butera for the Nats, and Kurt Suzuki for the Angels, and now Craig Stammen for the Padres). Stammen and Suzuki wer battery mates for the Nats in 2012 and 2013.

Over those 13 drafts ('12-'24), first round picks have a combined career bWAR of 21, and second round picks an astounding 1.6 WAR (that is not a typo). First through tenth rounds have combined to produce a grand total of 52.1 WAR over 126 total picks. That is unforgivably atrocious.

From 2012-2024 (13 years of drafting). The Nats had two players with more than 10 career bWAR (Lucas Giolito at 12.9 and Nick Pivetta and 12.2*) and only two others at more than 5 career bWAR (Jesús Luzardo and Erick Fedde).

(cont.)
Ivan de Jesus P.R. 198004
Mike Blowers Germany 199805
George Kottaras CAN 201109
Shin-Soo Choo South Korea 201507
Jose Abreu Cuba 201709
Shohei Ohtani Japan 201906

Here's a list of the first cycle hit by player's country of origin (using Retrosheet, games since 1914, showing player country date)
Ed Lennox USA 191405
Elmer Valo Czech Republic 195008
Rod Carew Panama 197005
Cesar Cedeno D.R. 197208
Cesar Tovar Venezuela 197209
(to be cont.)

The drop in the ninth inning is explainable, in that the home team may not bat in many of them. The second inning is a bit of an anomaly, but I guess the heart of the order may come up a lot in the first inning.

HR leaders by inning:
1st: Albert Pujols (154)
2nd: Adrian Beltre, Fred McGriff (tie, 72)
3rd: Barry Bonds (102)
4th: Barry Bonds (100)
5th: Ken Griffey Jr., Pujols (tie, 87)
6th: Alex Rodriguez (111)
7th: Henry Aaron (97)
8th: Willie Mays (90)
9th: Babe Ruth (55)
extra innings: Mays (21)

Babe Ruth had 5 multi-HR games against HoF pitchers, but he did it against only four different pitchers (he got Lefty Gomez twice). Jimmy Foxx had five such games but only against two pitchers (3x against Lefty Gomez and 2x against Red Ruffing). Pretty good company!

Looking into a trivia question about Jimmy Wynn (the Toy Cannon), I found that he was the only hitter to have multi-HR games against five different HoF pitchers: Gaylord Perry, Fergie Jenkins, Phil Niekro, Nolan Ryan, and Steve Carlton.