Inside-the-park home run

In baseball, an inside-the-park home run is a play where a batter hits a home run without hitting the ball out of the field of play. It is also known as an "in-the-park home run" or "in the park homer".

Discussion

To score an inside-the-park home run, the player must touch all four bases (in the order of first, second and third, ending at home plate) before a fielder on the opposing team tags him out. In Major League Baseball, if the defensive team commits an error during the play, it is not scored as a home run, but rather advancing on an error.^[1] Statistically, an inside-the-park home run counts as a regular home run in the player's season and career totals.

The vast majority of home runs occur when the batter hits the ball beyond the outfield fence on the fly; this is purely a feat of hitting with power, along with a fortuitous flight angle of the ball. The inside-the-park home run is of a very different character; it is primarily a feat of fast baserunning, though strong hitting is also typically involved.

In the early days of Major League Baseball, with outfields more spacious and less uniform from ballpark to ballpark, inside-the-park home runs were common. However, in the modern era, with outfields less spacious, the feat has become increasingly rare, happening only a handful of times each season. Today an inside-the-park home run is typically accomplished by a fast baserunner hitting the ball in such a way that the ball bounces far away from the opposing team's fielders. In many such cases (such as Alcides Escobar's inside-the-park homer in the 2015 World Series), the outfielder misjudges the ball or otherwise plays it badly, but not so badly that an error is charged.^[2][3]

Major league statistics

Of the 154,483 home runs hit between 1951 and 2000, 975 (about 1 in every 158) were inside-the-park. The percentage has dwindled since the increase in emphasis on power hitting which began in the 1920s.

Career records

• Major League – Jesse Burkett – 55^[4]
• National League – Tommy Leach – 49^[4]
• American League – Ty Cobb – 46^[4]
• Major League post-1950 – Willie Wilson – 13^[5]

Single season records

• Major League and National League – Sam Crawford – 12 – 1901^[4]
• American League – Ty Cobb – 9 – 1909^[4]

Single game records

• Major League and National League – Tom McCreery – 3 – 1897^[4]
• American League – 17 tied – 2^[4]

In the World Series

Date	Gm #	Player	Team	Opponent
October 1, 1903	1	Jimmy Sebring	Pittsburgh Pirates	Boston Americans
October 2, 1903	2	Patsy Dougherty	Boston Americans	Pittsburgh Pirates
October 13, 1915	5	Duffy Lewis	Boston Red Sox	Philadelphia Phillies
October 9, 1916	2	Hy Myers	Brooklyn Robins	Boston Red Sox
October 11, 1916	4	Larry Gardner	Boston Red Sox	Brooklyn Robins
October 10, 1923	1	Casey Stengel	New York Giants	New York Yankees
October 3, 1926	2	Tommy Thevenow	St. Louis Cardinals	New York Yankees
October 7, 1928	3	Lou Gehrig	New York Yankees	St. Louis Cardinals
October 12, 1929	4	Mule Haas	Philadelphia Athletics	Chicago Cubs
October 27, 2015	1	Alcides Escobar	Kansas City Royals	New York Mets

Rare occurrences

• On July 13, 1896, Ed Delahanty of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four home runs in one game (itself an extraordinarily rare feat), two of which were inside-the-park home runs. This event is the only time any homers in a four-homer game have been inside-the-park.^[6]
• On April 27, 1949, Pete Milne hit an inside-the-park grand slam for his only career home run. It gave the New York Giants an 11–8 lead over the Brooklyn Dodgers,^[7] which was also the final score.^[8]
• On July 25, 1956, Roberto Clemente became the only MLB player to have ever hit a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in a 9–8 Pittsburgh Pirates win over the Chicago Cubs, at Forbes Field.^[9]
• On October 4, 1986 during a Twins' home game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, Greg Gagne tied a modern-era major league record by hitting two inside-the-park home runs against the Chicago White Sox. Only 18 players in major league history have performed this feat, with Gagne being only the second since 1930. Both home runs were hit off Chicago starting pitcher Floyd Bannister, who also tied a modern-era major league record by allowing the most inside-the-park home runs in a game. The Twins went on to win the game, 7–3.^[10]
• On June 17, 2007, Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers hit a popup to center field that became an inside-the-park home run when Minnesota Twins outfielder Lew Ford lost the ball after it struck a speaker on the ceiling of the Metrodome. Fielder weighed 262 pounds at the time, becoming the third-heaviest player to hit an inside-the-park homer.^[11] On June 19, 2008, he added a second inside-the-park-homer at Miller Park in Milwaukee versus the Toronto Blue Jays.
• In the 2007 All-Star Game, Ichiro Suzuki became the only player to hit an inside-the-park home run in an All-Star Game,^[12] hitting it at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Suzuki, playing for the victorious American League All-Stars, earned Most Valuable Player honors.
• On April 6, 2009, Emilio Bonifacio of the Florida Marlins became the first player in 41 years to hit an inside-the-park home run on Opening Day, which was also the first home run of Bonifacio's Major League career.^[13]
• On August 18, 2009, Kyle Blanks of the San Diego Padres hit an inside-the-park home run against the Chicago Cubs. Weighing at 285 pounds, he became the heaviest player to hit an inside-the-park home run.^[14]
• On July 18, 2010, Jhonny Peralta of the Cleveland Indians hit a three-run inside-the-park home run when Detroit Tigers outfielder Ryan Raburn crashed through the bullpen fence while trying to catch the ball. Peralta was one of the slowest runners then on the Indians' roster, and would be traded to the Tigers ten days later.^[15] He took 16.74 seconds to round the bases, which was, at that point in the 2010 season, the slowest of any inside-the-park home run and slower than five regular home run trots.^[16]
• On May 25, 2013, Ángel Pagán of the San Francisco Giants hit an inside-the-park home run at AT&T Park in San Francisco, a tenth inning, two-run walk-off home run, with teammate Brandon Crawford on base. It was the first walk-off inside-the-park home run since 2004, when Rey Sanchez of the Devil Rays hit one, also in the bottom of the tenth inning, also against the Rockies, albeit in a tie game.^[17]
• On May 21, 2014, Kurt Suzuki of the Minnesota Twins hit an inside-the-park home run against the San Diego Padres after Padres left fielder Seth Smith had it go off his glove and mistook it for a home run that had cleared the wall; by the time the ball had got back into the infield it was too late.^[18]
• On July 8, 2015, Logan Forsythe of the Tampa Bay Rays hit an inside-the-park home run in the 4th inning against the Kansas City Royals when, in attempting to field the ball, Royals left fielder Alex Gordon injured his groin. Gordon was replaced by Jarrod Dyson, who hit an inside-the-park home run of his own in the 6th inning of the game. Dyson's hit went past Rays left fielder David DeJesus, who, like Gordon, had been injured five years earlier, on July 22, 2010 while playing for the Royals on a play that led to an inside-the-park home run for Derek Jeter.^[19]
• On September 2, 2015, Rubén Tejada of the New York Mets hit the ball down the right-field foul line, under the glove of Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Domonic Brown who, running full speed, flipped over the out-of-play wall in foul territory. As Brown was unable to return to field the ball, it rolled to the deep right field fence in Citi Field before it was fielded by Phillies second baseman Cesar Hernández. Kelly Johnson scored on the play as well. Brown later left the game with concussion-like symptoms. At 74.5 mph off the bat, it was the softest-hit homerun of the season to that point.^[20]
• On October 27, 2015 Alcides Escobar hit an inside-the-park home run, the first in a World Series game since Mule Haas in the 1929 World Series^[2][3] and the first hit by a leadoff batter since Patsy Dougherty did it for the Boston Americans (now Red Sox) in 1903.^[21]

References

1. Major League Baseball Rule 10
2. Gonzalez, Alden (October 28, 2015). "Escobar's inside-the-park HR one for the ages". mlb.com. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
3. Snyder, Matt (October 28, 2015). "Alcides Escobar hits 1st World Series inside-the-park HR since 1929". cbssports.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
4. "Inside The Park Home Run Records". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
5. http://www.williewilsonbaseball.org/Inside_the_Park.pdf
6. "Box Score of Four Home Run Game by Ed Delahanty". Baseball Almanac. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
7. "Pete Milne Career Home Runs". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
8. "1949 Giants results from Baseball Reference". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
9. Fleitz, David. "Walk-Off Grand Slams". David Fleitz's Baseball Page. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06.
10. Jaffe, Chris (2011-10-04). "25th anniversary: two Greg Gagne inside-the-park homers". The Hardball Times. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
11. "Milwaukee Brewers vs. Minnesota Twins – Recap – June 17, 2007". ESPN.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
12. Brock, Corey (2007-07-10). "Ichiro runs into record book". MLB.com. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
13. "Dunn/Bonifacio". The Washington Post.
14. "Blanks' inside-the-parker". Major League Baseball. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
15. "Peralta goes inside-the-park after Raburn falls through fence". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
16. "Tater Trot Tracker: July 18". Retrieved 4 October 2014.
17. "Watch: Angel Pagan hits first inside-the-park walk-off since 2004". SI.com. 26 May 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
18. "MLB.com: Gameday". Major League Baseball. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
19. "Rays and Royals exchange inside-the-park home runs in Royals' win".
20. "Ruben Tejada hits an inside-the-park home run". Major League Baseball. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
21. Berg, Ted (October 27, 2015). "Alcides Escobar hits leadoff inside-the-park home run in World Series Game 1". USA Today. Retrieved October 28, 2015.

External links

• Baseball Almanac Records
• Baseball's most exciting play