From This Week in 1960s Baseball …
(September 29, 1969) Going deep off Washington Senators pitcher Jim Shellenback, Rico Petrocelli today became the first shortstop in American League history to hit 40 home runs in a season.
 |
| Rico Petrocelli |
The Boston Red Sox infielder’s record-setting home run was a seventh-inning solo shot that put the Red Sox ahead 6-3. The Red Sox would eventually win the game by a score of 8-5.
The winning pitcher for Boston was Sonny Siebert (14-11). Lee Stange pitched 2.2 scoreless innings to earn his second save of the season.
For the game, Petrocelli got 3 hits in 5 at-bats to raise his batting average to .301. He would finish the 1969 season hitting .297 with 40 home runs and 97 runs batted in. In 1969, he was also named to the American League All-Star team for the second time.
Only 3 shortstops have hit 40 or more home runs in a season. The first to do it – and the only National Leaguer – was Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubsin 1955 when he hit 44. Banks topped the 40-home run mark 4 times in his Hall of Fame career. His career best was 47 in 1958.
Petrocelli was the only American League shortstop to reach that plateau until 1998, when Alex Rodriguez blasted 42 bombs while playing for the Seattle Mariners. As a shortstop, Rodriguez topped 40 home runs 6 times. He hit 57 home runs with the Texas Rangers in 2002.
0 comments:
Post a Comment