Inside-the-park home run

In baseball parlance, 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.

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. 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

Single season records

Single game records

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

Inside-the-park grand slam

An inside-the-park grand slam is the same event but, like all grand slams, features the bases loaded for an inside-the-park home run. There have been 226 inside-the-park grand slams in Major League Baseball history, 28 in the past 50 years, most recently by Aaron Altherr of the Philadelphia Phillies against the Washington Nationals on September 25, 2015.[21] Honus Wagner has the most in MLB history with five.

References

  1. Major League Baseball Rule 10
  2. 1 2 Gonzalez, Alden (October 28, 2015). "Escobar's inside-the-park HR one for the ages". mlb.com. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  3. 1 2 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "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. "Ruben Tejada hits an inside-the-park home run". Major League Baseball. Retrieved 2015-09-03.
  20. 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.
  21. http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/mlb/484151/aaron-altherr-has-monster-night-vs-nationals

External links

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