100 GREATEST HOME RUNS OF ALL TIME |
Yogi Berra: Game 7, 1956 World Series Oct. 10, 1956: Berra hits two-run homers in the 1st and 3rd innings, both off Don Newcombe, to stake the Yankees to a 4-0 lead over Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. Final score: 9-0. |
Scott Hatteberg: 20 in a row for the A's
Sept. 4, 2002: The A's blow an 11-0 lead, but Hatteberg's walkoff HR in the 9th lifts Oakland to a 12-11 win over Kansas City -- its 20th straight victory.
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Sammy Sosa's 66th, 1998 Sept. 25, 1998: With a 4th-inning blast off Houston's Jose Lima on the season's final Friday, Sosa momentarily passes Mark McGwire in the Great Home Run Race. |
Mark McGwire's 70th, 1998
Sept. 27, 1998: McGwire caps his amazing season with a final home run off Montreal's Carl Pavano. He hits five home runs over the final three games to pass Sosa.
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Casey Stengel's inside-the-parker wins World Series game Oct,. 10, 1923: Stengel's game-winning, inside-the-park homer in Game 1 for the New York Giants both adds to and is fueled by Casey's legend. With the Giants and Yankees
tied at 4-4 and two outs, Stengel hits a deep blast on a 3-2 count, and his awkward baserunning becomes something of a legend.
Everyone assumes Stengel runs so strangely because he'd recently broken a leg
and because he is getting old. Actually, he limps because one of his shoes
is disintegrating as he circles the bases. |
Tony Fernandez sends Cleveland to World Series
Oct. 15, 1997: Fernandez takes Armando Benitez deep in the 11th inning as the Indians beat the Orioles 1-0 in Game 6 of the ALCS.
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Babe Ruth's final home run May 25, 1935: Ruth, playing for the Boston Braves, hits the final three home runs of his career. The third homer is believed to be the longest in the history of Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. |
Hank Blalock wins 2003 All-Star Game
July 15, 2003: Dodgers closer Eric Gagne is 55-for-55 in save chances in '03 -- not including the All-Star Game. The Rangers' Blalock gives the AL a 7-6 victory and home-field advantage for the World Series with a two-run, two-out HR in the 8th.
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Eddie Mathews: Game 4, 1957 World Series Oct. 6, 1957: Mathews caps a three-run rally in the bottom of the 10th with a two-run HR off Bob Grim in Milwaukee's 7-5 win over the Yankees. |
Mel Ott: Game 5, 1933 World Series
Oct. 7, 1933: Ott's blast in the top of the 10th gives the Giants a 4-3, Series-clinching win over the Senators.
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Robin Ventura's grand-slam single, Game 5, 1999 NLCS Oct. 17, 1999: In a 16-inning epic, the Braves score a run in the top of the 16th. But Ventura's bases-loaded blast wins it for the Mets. (Ventura never reaches second after getting mobbed by his teammates and is credited with a single). |
Kent Hrbek's grand slam, Game 6, 1987 World Series
Oct. 24, 1987: Minnesota trails the Cardinals 5-2 before rallying, and Hrbek's 6th-inning, two-out slam gives the Twins a 10-5 lead. They win the Series the next day. |
Roberto Clemente: Game 7, 1971 World Series Oct. 17, 1971: Clemente homers in the 4th off Mike Cueller for a 1-0 Pittsburgh lead. The Pirates go on to beat the Orioles 2-1 behind Steve Blass' complete-game four-hitter. |
Lenny Dykstra: Game 3, 1986 NLCS
Oct. 11, 1986: Dykstra, who hit just eight homers all season, pokes a two-run shot in the bottom of the 9th for a 7-6 Mets win over the Astros. |
George Brett: Game 3, 1980 ALCS Oct. 10, 1980: The Royals erase their Yankee demons with a three-game sweep, capped by Brett's monster three-run upper-deck blast at Yankee Stadium off Goose Gossage in a 4-2 win. |
Mike Scioscia: Game 4, 1988 NLCS
Oct. 9, 1988: Doc Gooden leads 4-2 in the 9th when Scioscia -- with just three HRs in '88 -- ties the game with a two-run shot. Dodgers win the game in 12 and the series in 7. |
Bill Skowron: Game 7, 1958 World Series Oct. 9, 1958: Tied 2-2 in the 8th, the Yankees score four runs to beat the Braves -- capped by Skowron's 3-run homer off Lew Burdette. |
Dave Henderson: Game 6, 1986 World Series
Oct. 25, 1986: Henderson looks like the World Series hero after leading off the 10th with his homer off Rick Aguilera. Then comes the bottom of the inning ... |
Dusty Rhodes: Game 1, 1954 World Series Sept. 29, 1954: It is a surprise when Leo Durocher sends Rhodes up to pinch-hit for Monte Irvin in the bottom of the 10th with the score tied 2-2 and two Giants on base. But Rhodes hits the first pitch off Indians pitcher Bob Lemon just barely over the right-field wall at the Polo Grounds, a limp pop fly that travels all of 270 feet. Willie Mays also makes a nice catch and throw in the 8th inning of that game on a 450-foot Vic Wertz blast -- maybe you've seen the photo. |
Mickey Mantle's titanic blast at Griffith Stadium, 1953
April 17, 1953: Mantle takes Senators pitcher Chuck Stobbs 565 feet, rocketing a 5th-inning pitch over a 55-foot wall in left-center field and into the backyard of a house near the stadium. Yankees PR man Arthur "Red" Patterson measures the blast, which travels 460 feet in the air before caroming off a football scoreboard atop the back of the high, 69-foot-deep wall ... and the art of overestimating the true distances of home runs is invented. |
Derek Jeter and Jeffrey Maier: Game 1, 1996 ALCS Oct. 9, 1996: Jeter's flyball off Armando Benitez to right field becomes a game-tying HR in the 8th when 12-year-old Maier reaches over the wall to snag the ball. Ump Richie Garcia blows the call and the Yanks top the Orioles 5-4 on Bernie Williams' HR in the 11th. |
Johnny Bench: Game 5, 1972 NLCS
Oct. 11, 1972: Trailing 3-2, Bench leads off the bottom of the 9th with a shot off Pittsburgh's Dave Giusti. The Reds score another run -- the winning run -- on a wild pitch to take the game and series. |
Home Run Baker: Game 3, 1911 World Series Oct. 11, 1911: The A's Frank Baker earns a nickname with a game-tying blast in the 9th off Christy Mathewson, his second homer in as many days (in an era of few home runs). |
Gabby Hartnett, 1938 pennant race
Sept. 28, 1938: Hartnett's "Homer in the Gloaming" in the 9th lifts the Cubs to a crucial victory over the Pirates and into first place (on their way to the NL flag). |
Steve Garvey: Game 4, 1984 NLCS Oct. 6, 1984: Garvey's 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th lifts the Padres to a 7-5 win over Lee Smith and the Cubs. |
Jack Clark: Game 6, 1985 NLCS
Oct. 16, 1985: For the second straight game, the Cardinals beat the Dodgers' Tom Niedenfuer with a 9th-inning HR. Clark's 3-run blast is the series clincher in a 7-5 victory. |
Ken Keltner: 1948 playoff game Oct. 4, 1948: In a one-game playoff for the AL pennant, Keltner gives the Indians a 4-1 lead in the 4th inning with a 3-run shot over the Green Monster off Boston's Denny Galehouse. |
Hal Smith: Game 7, 1960 World Series
Oct. 13, 1960: The Pirates' backup catcher gives Pittsburgh a 9-7 lead over the Yankees with his two-out, 3-run HR in the 8th. The Yankees tie the game in the 9th and Bill Mazeroski wins it in the bottom of the 9th. |
Bernie Carbo: Game 6, 1975 World Series Oct. 21, 1975: Carbo's pinch-hit, two-out, two-strike, 3-run shot ties the game in the bottom of the 8th, setting the stage for Carlton Fisk's game-winner in the 12th. |
Mark Whiten's 4th HR caps greatest one-man show
Sept. 7, 1993: The unheralded Cardinals outfielder ties major-league records with four home runs and 12 RBIs in one game, but is the only man to do both in the same game. |