Coolest Thing: Top This

[scottmitchell74]

It's of course very well known, but I say Ken Griffey Sr/Jr back-to-back HRs is the coolest thing ever.


What's cooler? What else?

[Honus Wagner Rules]

That will probably never be duplicated. As far as I can tell there has been just one other father/son duo who were even active players in the same season (Tim Raines Sr./Jr. in 2001)

[layson27]

Maybe only matched by Joe & Dom DiMaggio.

Dom's still standing club record 34 game hitting streak was stopped by.....Joe.

"I smacked a line drive right up the middle so hard that it passed Raschi’s ear! He ducked to get out of the way of it! As soon as I hit it, I said, “O.K., that’s 35.” But that ball wouldn’t drop. The ball refused to drop. Joe is standing out there in center field, and he didn’t have to move. He said it himself later — if he hadn’t caught the ball, it would have hit him right between the eyes. So there was no effort on his part. It wasn’t a great play by him, like they’re still saying today. I just hit the ball too damn hard!"

https://archive.nytimes.com/bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/dom-dimaggio-on-his-own-34-game-hitting-streak/

Another story:

“Do you always play that shallow?” Joe asked.

“Why?” Dom asked back.

“Well, you might want to back up a few steps,” Joe said. “The wind here is deceiving. The flags make it look like it’s blowing in, when it’s really blowing out.”

Good tip, Dom thought. Next day, he moved back seven or eight steps. And when his brother stepped up and hit one a country mile, Dom raced back and caught it, with barely a step to spare.

“That’s the last time I give you advice,” Joe said.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-18-sp-566-story.html

[layson27]

link won't work. nm

[ol' aches and pains]

OK, maybe not on the Griffey/DiMaggio level, but in 2009 White Sox teammates Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko hit their 300th home runs back-to-back. While that's widely known, what never gets mentioned is at the time they also were almost identical in career RBI, Batting average and Slugging, if memory serves. They were practically the same player.

[ol' aches and pains]

Also, Fernando Tatis (Sr.) hitting two grand slams in the same inning is pretty cool.

[Mongoose]

I'd say Ten Cent Beer Night (in Cleveland). For one thing, affordable ballpark beer is hard to find. For another, Billy Martin initiated the brawl and riot that caused the game to be forfeited in his team's favor. It was like poetry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Cent_Beer_Night

[pedrosrotatorcuff]

Also, Fernando Tatis (Sr.) hitting two grand slams in the same inning is pretty cool.

Definitely something that has next-to-zero chance of ever happening again. Outside of freak interventions by nature like the Randy Johnson seagull incident, I can't think of many plays/accomplishments as unlikely as that.

[That_guy]

To address Scott's question in the OP, this point may not top a father/son pair of home runs, but it easily makes the cool list.

On 09/13/65, the Giants played the Pirates. By a combination of pinch hitting and substitutions for defense, therefore sitting Willie Mays, three brothers manned the Giants outfield all at once for an inning or two. Jesus Alou pinch hit for Willie McCovey, Matty Alou went in when Willie was taken out, Felipe Alou was moved to CF. Matty Alou went into LF, and Jesus Alou took over RF.

I'm guessing it was the 9th inning when Matty went in to complete the arrangement.

Pretty cool, for a 13-5 blowout game.

[scottmitchell74]

To address Scott's question in the OP, this point may not top a father/son pair of home runs, but it easily makes the cool list.

On 09/13/65, the Giants played the Pirates. By a combination of pinch hitting and substitutions for defense, therefore sitting Willie Mays, three brothers manned the Giants outfield all at once for an inning or two. Jesus Alou pinch hit for Willie McCovey, Matty Alou went in when Willie was taken out, Felipe Alou was moved to CF. Matty Alou went into LF, and Jesus Alou took over RF.

I'm guessing it was the 9th inning when Matty went in to complete the arrangement.

Pretty cool, for a 13-5 blowout game.

Yes, very, very cool. Good one!

[milladrive]

To address Scott's question in the OP, this point may not top a father/son pair of home runs, but it easily makes the cool list.

On 09/13/65, the Giants played the Pirates. By a combination of pinch hitting and substitutions for defense, therefore sitting Willie Mays, three brothers manned the Giants outfield all at once for an inning or two. Jesus Alou pinch hit for Willie McCovey, Matty Alou went in when Willie was taken out, Felipe Alou was moved to CF. Matty Alou went into LF, and Jesus Alou took over RF.

I'm guessing it was the 9th inning when Matty went in to complete the arrangement.

Pretty cool, for a 13-5 blowout game.

Just for the record, the 13-5 blowout in which the three Alou brothers all played the outfield for the first time took place on September 15. They would do it again two more times by year's end (9/17 & 9/22), and in all three games, both Jesus and Matty were substitutions in what ended as routs by the Giants.

They did all play in the September 13 game, but Matty pinch hit only. In fact, the three Alous played in the same game 8 times in 1963.

[Seattle1]

It's of course very well known, but I say Ken Griffey Sr/Jr back-to-back HRs is the coolest thing ever.


What's cooler? What else?

I agree. I have that on videotape.

I also thought it was cool when Ichiro Suzuki hit an INSIDE THE BALL PARK homer in the MLB All-Star Game! Never been done before or since.

[KarmaLeagueBaseball]

Pete Rose catches Bob Boone's bobble.