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"The Babe buys Brother Mathias a new Cadillac."
Br. Mathias is at the wheel. Also pictured is teammate Fred Merkle and Babe's first wife, Helen
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Two Grand Slams in One Game Photo Gallery
I’ve Uncovered the Rarest Baseball Feat Of All!
(Read on to find out what it is!)
I always enjoy trying to uncover rarities that occur on the baseball field. In the past, I’ve written about perfect games, unassisted triple plays, four home runs in a game, natural and reverse natural cycles, and the extremely rare “immaculate inning.” These are some of the rarest feats in the game.
Rare, but not the Rarest!
Today is the seventy-ninth anniversary of the Red Sox’ Rudy York hitting two grand slams in one game (see featured photo above of Rudy). It happened on July 27, 1946 in a game against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park. In doing so, Rudy became only the third player to accomplish the feat, joining Yankee Tony Lazzeri (May 24, 1936), and Red Sox Jim Tabor (July 4, 1939). Since Rudy’s big day, this exclusive club has grown to only 13 ball players (see list below).
However, I Found Something Even Rarer!
But hold on…I’ve uncovered another baseball feat that’s even rarer, something that’s only happened once. Want to guess what that might be?
Try two grand slams in the same inning!
Fernando Tatis, Sr. That’s right…Cardinals’ third baseman Fernando Tatis, Sr. is the only player in baseball history to have hit two grand slams in the same inning. His historic performance occurred in the third inning of a game between the Cardinals and the Dodgers played at Dodger Stadium on April 23, 1999 in front of 46,687 fans. Remarkably, he hit them off the same pitcher, the Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park.
According to Baseball Reference, there have been approximately four million innings in baseball history. So one occurrence comes to .0000002, or two ten-millionth of one percent! As Cardinal Mark McGuire said at the same: “You have a better chance of winning the lottery!”
Here’s the names of all the players who have hit two grand slams in one game: Tony Lazzeri (May 24, 1936), Jim Tabor (July 4, 1939), Rudy York (July 27, 1946), Jim Gentile (May 9, 1961), Tony Cloninger (July 3, 1966), Jim Northrup (June 24, 1968), Frank Robinson (June 26, 1970), Robin Ventura (September 4, 1995), Chris Hoiles (August 14, 1998), Fernando Tatis (April 23, 1999), Nomar Garciaparra (May 10, 1999), Bill Mueller (July 29, 2003), Josh Willingham (July 27, 2009).
Some Interesting Trivia About Two Grand Slams In One Game
Since we’re all baseball fans, that means we enjoy useless trivia…so take a guess what I have for you here: Useless trivia!
- In Tony Lazzeri’s game, he also hit another home run and just missed a fourth, giving him 11 RBIs for the game, an American League record that still stands.
- Only nine times in history has a player hit a grand slam and then come up again with the bases loaded in the same inning. Carl Furillo is the only player in history to come to bat twice in that situation. Both times he made an out.
- In Tatis’s game, he also set a major league record for eight RBIs in a single inning.
- Tony Cloninger is the only pitcher to have done it.
- Bill Mueller, a switch hitter, is the only player to hit his from both sides of the plate.
- Jim Northup is the only player to hit his on consecutive pitches in the fifth and sixth innings.
- Surprisingly, Nomar Garciaparra is the only player to hit his at home (Fenway Park). All the others have been hit on the road.
- Robin Ventura hit more career grand slams than any player in the group (18), while Frank Robinson is the only member of the 500 home run club.
I think we can all agree that hitting two grand slams in a single game is a baseball oddity, but hitting two in one inning maybe baseball’s rarest feat of all. It’s only happened once!
Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from Two Grand Slams in a Game Wikipedia page; and from article by Andrew Simon
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Great essay, Gary! Really interesting trivia and a lot of fun to read. Like your essay topic, you hit this one out of the park!
Thanks a lot Ron…I had some fun with this one!