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Another Edition of “It’ll Never Happen Again!”

Joshua Báez Does Something Never Seen Before In the 150 Years of Baseball History!

It’s not very often that I write about something from the current game and post it on my Baseball History Comes Alive website.  As I’ve said many times, anything after about 1970 is too modern for my taste. But I’m making an exception because what happened at Wrigley Field yesterday – in a game I was actually watching – has historic implications. When something like that pops up, no matter when it occurs, I’d be remiss in my duties as your “friendly baseball historian” if I didn’t call it to your attention.

There was something along those lines yesterday, August 15, 2026, and immediately my baseball history radar activated and my baseball history alarm bells went off. What was it that so aroused my interest? Joshua Báez, a 23-year-old outfielder making his major league debut with the Cardinals, hit a home run in each of his first three career at-bats!

How significant is this? Consider: Only one of approximately 10,250 major league position players to debut since 1876 has homered in each of his first three career at-bats. If my math is correct, that’s 1 / 10,250 = .0000975, or, stated another way, the odds of this occurring are something like nine one-thousandths of one percent! To put this in perspective, the National Weather Service estimates the annual odds in the United States of being struck by lightning are about one in 500,000, slightly higher at two ten-thousandths of one percent. 

There have been some spectacular major league debuts over the years. Players have hit home runs in their first at-bat, collected several hits, driven in a bunch of runs, and even hit two home runs in their first game. But what happened at Wrigley Field yesterday was something baseball had never seen before. Not three home runs in his first three games. Not three home runs in his first three hits. Three home runs in his first three at-bats in the major leagues!

Báez’s first home run came in the first inning, and it was particularly memorable. He hit it on the very first pitch he saw in the major leagues.  Over baseball history, only 17 players have hit homers on the very first pitch served up to them. This list is full of obscure names, except for Chuck Tanner (1955), Bert Campaneris (1964), and Starling Marte (2012). The list of players hitting home runs in their first two at-bats is also short: it includes only two rather obscure players. So you can start to appreciate the historical significance of what Baez did.

Baez homered again in the fourth inning and then completed the incredible feat with another home run in the sixth. Even more remarkable, the three home runs went to three different parts of the ballpark — right field, center field and left field. By the time the afternoon was over, Báez had gone 3-for-4, scored three runs and driven in five runs as the Cardinals defeated the Cubs, 8-4.

Every player who has ever played in the major leagues had to make a debut. Thousands upon thousands of players have stepped into a major-league batter’s box for the first time. Yet through all those years, nobody had ever hit a home run in each of his first three career at-bats.

Until Joshua Báez, that is…

And this wasn’t completely out of character for him. Báez had already demonstrated extraordinary power in the minor leagues. Earlier this season with Triple-A Memphis, he had a four-home-run game. Baseball America described him as a player with exceptional raw power. Still, I don’t think anyone could reasonably have predicted what happened yesterday at Wrigley. A player can have a long and successful career and never hit three home runs in a single game. A player can have hundreds — or thousands — of major-league at-bats and never homer three times in a row.

There is also something fitting that it happened at Wrigley Field. The old ballpark has witnessed more than a century of baseball history, from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to Ernie Banks and countless other legendary players.  Joshua Báez entered the major leagues as an unknown rookie. After his first game, he will forever be remembered as the answer to a great trivia question:

“Who is the only player in major league history to hit a home run in each of his first three career at-bats?”

As of August 15, 2026, the answer is Joshua Báez. And if baseball history teaches us anything, it may be a very long time – if ever – before anyone joins him on this list!

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All found on Google search

Much information for this essay provided by my friendly ChatGPT voice.

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