In baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with all three bases occupied by baserunners ("bases loaded"), thereby scoring four runs--the most possible in one play. According to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, the term originated in the card game of contract bridge, in which a grand slam involves taking all the possible tricks. The word slam, by itself, usually is connected with a loud sound, particularly of a door being closed with excess force; thus, slamming the door on one's opponent(s), in addition to the bat slamming the ball into a home run.
Video Grand slam (baseball)
Notable highlights
Roger Connor is believed to have been the first major league player to hit a grand slam, on September 10, 1881, for the Troy Trojans. Although Charlie Gould hit one for the Boston Red Stockings (now the Atlanta Braves) in the National Association (NA) on September 5, 1871, the NA is not recognized by MLB as a major league.
Alex Rodriguez has 25 career grand slams, the most by any player in Major League Baseball history, passing Lou Gehrig's 23 on September 20, 2013. Don Mattingly set the one-season record with six grand slams in 1987 - remarkably, the only grand slams of his major league career. Travis Hafner tied Mattingly's Major League record in 2006, while in 2009, Albert Pujols tied the one-season National League record of five grand slams set by Ernie Banks in 1955.
Several grand slams, the first being Connor's in 1881, consisted of a player hitting a walk-off grand slam for a one-run victory; some baseball observers call this an "ultimate grand slam". Steve Pearce was the most recent to do so in an 11-10 victory by the Toronto Blue Jays over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on July 30, 2017. Roberto Clemente is the only player to have hit a walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in a one-run victory; the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Chicago Cubs 9-8 on July 25, 1956 at Forbes Field, a park known for its spacious outfield.
On April 10, 1980 - on Opening Day, the Milwaukee Brewers' Sixto Lezcano hit a walk-off Grand Slam, reportedly the first such feat on an Opening Day. (Lezcano also has the distinction of hitting a Grand Slam the previous year, also on Opening Day.)
During the 2005 major league season, grand slams accounted for 132 of the 5017 home runs hit (2.6%). On June 13-14, 2006, the Minnesota Twins hit grand slams in consecutive games against the Boston Red Sox, including a walk-off grand slam by Jason Kubel in the 12th inning on June 13.
In 2006, the Chicago White Sox hit grand slams in three consecutive games against the Houston Astros (June 23-25). Scott Podsednik hit the only grand slam of his career in the series opener. Joe Crede followed up with a slam of his own on Saturday, and Tadahito Iguchi hit a game tying grand slam in the bottom of the ninth with two outs in the series finale. (This followed a three run blast by Iguchi in the bottom of the eighth.) The White Sox became the first team to accomplish this since the Detroit Tigers in 1993. On the other hand, the 2007 Kansas City Royals surrendered grand slams in three straight games; two against the Baltimore Orioles (April 13-14) and one against the Tigers (April 16).
Also in 2006, Travis Hafner of the Cleveland Indians set a major league record by hitting five grand slams prior to the All-Star break, on his way to tying Mattingly for one season (his sixth was on August 13.) On July 16, Carlos Beltrán and Cliff Floyd of the New York Mets hit grand slams during an 11-run sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs, marking the eighth time two grand slams were hit in a team's at-bat (the fourth time in National League history).
Four players hit a grand slam in their first Major League at-bat: Bill Duggleby (1898), Jeremy Hermida (2005), Kevin Kouzmanoff (2006), and Daniel Nava (2011). Kouzmanoff, Nava, and Duggleby hit theirs on the first pitch; Hermida's grand slam was in a pinch-hit at bat.
Tony Cloninger is the only pitcher to hit two grand slams in one game, for the Atlanta Braves in a 1966 contest against the San Francisco Giants.
Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners became the first American League pitcher since the designated hitter rule went into effect in 1973 to hit a grand slam when he did so on June 23, 2008, off New York Mets ace Johan Santana in an interleague game.
The only major leaguer to hit two grand slams in one inning is Fernando Tatís of the St. Louis Cardinals, on April 23, 1999 at Dodger Stadium, with both grand slams coming off Los Angeles' Chan Ho Park in the third inning. Tatis was only the second National League player to hit two grand slams in one game, joining Cloninger. Park was only the second pitcher in major league history to give up two grand slams in one inning; Bill Phillips of the Pittsburgh Pirates did it on August 16, 1890, one to Tom Burns and one to Malachi Kittridge, but Park was the first to give up both to the same batter. Tatis had never hit a grand slam before in his career. Bill Mueller is the only player to hit grand slams from both sides of the plate in the same game, when he hit 2 on July 29, 2003 for the Boston Red Sox vs. the Texas Rangers. Robin Ventura is the only player to hit a grand slam in both games of a doubleheader, when he did so on May 20, 1999 for the New York Mets against the Milwaukee Brewers.
In Japan's professional league, the feat of multiple grand slams in a single inning by a team has been accomplished three times; most recently on April 1, 2007 by José Fernández and Takeshi Yamasaki of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. The Daiei Hawks accomplished the feat in 1999.
On August 25, 2011, the New York Yankees, hosting the Oakland A's, became the first team in MLB history to hit three grand slams in one game. Robinson Canó, Russell Martin and Curtis Granderson took pitchers Rich Harden, Fautino de los Santos, and Bruce Billings deep, with each grand slam being hit in a different inning. Coming back from a 7-1 deficit, the second grand slam gave the Yankees their first lead of the game; they went on to win 22-9.
On July 13, 2014, Buster Posey and batterymate Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants hit grand slams against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It marked the first time in Major League Baseball history that batterymates hit grand slams in the same game.
On June 3, 2017, a record-breaking seven grand slams were hit by teams in the MLB on one day: one for the Los Angeles Dodgers, one for the Milwaukee Brewers, one for the Atlanta Braves, one for the Colorado Rockies, one for the Chicago Cubs, one for the Seattle Mariners, and most notably, by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim whose Albert Pujols hit his 600th career home run.
Maps Grand slam (baseball)
Walk-off grand slams
A player on the home team that hits a grand slam in the ninth or subsequent inning, which wins his team the game, is known as a Walk-off grand slam.
Starting in the 1990s, a walk-off grand slam that erases a three-run deficit has come to be known as an ultimate grand slam. There have been 29 such instances documented in major league history - all taking place during the regular season, 15 of those coming with two outs. Of the 29 home runs, only Roberto Clemente's was hit inside the park, at spacious Forbes Field on July 25, 1956. Pirates manager/third base coach Bobby Bragan instructed him to stop at third, but Clemente ran through the stop sign to score the winning run. Alan Trammell's June 21, 1988 and Chris Hoiles' May 17, 1996 grand slams occurred under the cliché situation: bases loaded, two outs, full count, bottom of the ninth inning, and down by three runs. The most recent ultimate grand slam was hit by Toronto Blue Jays' outfielder Steve Pearce on July 30, 2017, who had already hit another walk-off grand slam earlier in the same week.
Three players have hit two walk-off grand slams in a season, Cy Williams in 1926, Jim Presley in 1986, and Steve Pearce in 2017. Pearce's first was on July 27 (an 8-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics). followed by his second on July 30 (an ultimate grand slam, for an 11-10 win over the Los Angeles Angels), becoming the first player in MLB history to hit multiple walk-off grand slams within the span of a single week.
Only five pitchers in major league history have surrendered two game-ending grand slam home runs in one season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau:
- Satchel Paige of the St. Louis Browns, in 1952, to Sammy White of the Boston Red Sox on June 30, and to Eddie Joost of the Philadelphia Athletics on July 15.
- Lindy McDaniel of the Chicago Cubs, in 1963, to Bob Aspromonte of the Houston Colt .45s on June 11, and to Jim Hickman of the New York Mets on August 9.
- Lee Smith of the California Angels, in 1995, to Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics, on June 30, and to Albert Belle of the Cleveland Indians on July 18.
- Francisco Rodríguez of the New York Mets, in 2009, to rookies Everth Cabrera of the San Diego Padres, on August 7, and Justin Maxwell of the Washington Nationals on September 30. Rodríguez is the only pitcher to surrender two game-winning grand slams to two rookies.
- Bud Norris of the Los Angeles Angels, in 2017, to Edwin Encarnación of the Cleveland Indians, on July 25, and Steve Pearce of the Toronto Blue Jays on July 30. Norris surrendered both in the same week, and it was the second game-winning walk-off grand slam by Pearce in the same week.
Notable calls
"Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma, it is grand salami time!"- used by longtime Seattle Mariners lead commentator Dave Niehaus from the 1995 season until his death in November 2010. Currently used by Niehaus' longtime partner Rick Rizzs.
However, archives have surfaced showing Milwaukee Brewers longtime announcer Bob Uecker using the term "Grand Salami" back in 1982, when the offense-tending team were dubbed "Harvey's Wallbangers" (a reference to manager Harvey Kuenn, and a takeoff of the cocktail Harvey Wallbanger).
World Series
Other major league postseason grand slams
All-star game
Career grand slam leaders
Players in bold are currently active (as of September 22, 2017).
1 - National League record
Single-season grand slam leaders
a - American League
n - National League
See also
- Grand Slam Single
- List of Major League Baseball single-game grand slam leaders
References
- Ryczek, William J. (1992). Blackguards and Red Stockings; A History of Baseball's National Association 1871-1875. Wallingford, Connecticut: Colebrook Press. ISBN 0-9673718-0-5
- Orem, Preston D. (1961). Baseball (1845-1881) From the Newspaper Accounts. Altadena, California: Self-published.
Notes
Works cited
Source of article : Wikipedia
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