With Day One of the 2010 Major League Baseball season in the books…pretty much everybody out there knows that one of Spring Training’s biggest stories (Atlanta’s Jason Heyward) quickly became one of the biggest stories of the new season.
Here is the Home Run by the numbers:
433 feet is the distance Heyward's blast traveled.
104 Major Leaguers have gone deep in their first career at bat.
42 Major Leaguers hit a home run in their LAST at bat? Two (Paul Gillespie and John Miller) also hit homers in their first at bat as well.
22 players have hit a home run on the first pitch ever thrown at them.
21 players who hit a homer on their first at bat never hit a second.
3 players in Major League history have hit grand slams in their initial plate appearance. (Bill Duggleby in 1898, Jeremy Hermida in 2005 and Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2006).
2 Bob Nieman and Keith McDonald are the only two players in Major League history to hit home runs in their first TWO at bats. Nieman did it during the same game in 1951, but McDonald had to wait two games in 2000.
The Heyward Challenge -- The best season ever by a player who went deep in his first at bat was by former All-Star Bill White, who had 22 home runs in his rookie year of 1956. Can Cameron beat that?
"Special people do special things at special moments,'' Braves pitcher Derek Lowe said. "I know I'm using the word 'special' a lot. But to have your first at-bat with the crowd chanting your name and then do that, it's special.''
Jason Heyward Autographed Major League Baseball
