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Covering the Front and Back Pages of the Newspaper
December 15, 2004
BASEBALL: Grand Slam Trivia
A reader emailed me this question:
Well, I didn't know the answer, and haven't yet been able to verify that it happened that way (maybe someone can confirm this in the comments). But assuming that there is, in fact, precisely one such player, I think I found the answer. This link lists the 12 major leaguers to hit both a pinch hit grand slam and an inside the park grand slam in their careers: (A purportedly complete list of inside the park grand slams is here). Of the 12, precisely one player had just one career home run: Pete Milne of the 1949 New York Giants. Milne batted 29 times in 31 games for the Giants that year while making just one appearance in the field, so it stands to reason that he was used mostly as a pinch hitter. (The list above identifies the date of his grand slam as April 27, 1949, a game the Giants won 11-8 over the hated Dodgers, so it's not surprising that it won him a job as a pinch hitter). So that appears to be the answer. Comments
That's some fine researchin' there. Too bad the question wasn't: Then McCarver could have had the answer all to himself. Posted by: Stephen at December 15, 2004 10:02 AMPost a comment
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