Baseball's Amazing One Home Run Wonders

This article originally appeared in Here's the Pitch, the newsletter of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA). If you are interested in the group and/or would like to subscribe to the newsletter you can find more information here.

Since the live-ball era began in 1920, 2,028 major league players have totaled 2,000 or more at bats. Of those 2,028 players every one of them has hit at least one home run, but only 7 of them have hit exactly one and only one home run. To get 2,000 at bats in a major league career, you must be a pretty good player. To have 2,000 at bats and only hit one home run shows a remarkable determination to keep the ball in the ballpark. I believe that this unique achievement should be recognized and that these punchless Punch and Judy hitters deserve to have their achievement memorialized. So here they are, the mighty clouts of the power challenged.

Duane Kuiper

Kuiper played 12 seasons as a second baseman for the Cleveland Indians and San Francisco Giants between 1974 and 1985. He holds the major league record for most at bats with only one home run at 3,379. On August 29, 1977, Kuiper stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first inning of a “Monday Night Baseball” game between the Chicago White Sox and the Indians. To that point, four years and 1,381 at bats into his major league career, Kuiper had yet to connect for a home run. In fact, he possessed the longest homerless streak for an active player at the time. Steve Stone was on the mound for the White Sox and Kuiper drove his 1-0 pitch two rows back into the right field bleachers to the cheers of the 6,236 in attendance and the delight of his teammates. Kuiper described the moment to Bob Sudyk of the Cleveland Press this way: “Me and Sadaharu Oh, huh. Actually, I didn’t think of anything rounding the bases. I think I hit a slider. When I got back to the dugout, I tried to think back. Did I touch all the bases? I knew it would happen. Eventually, it has to happen. It was a big thrill. You lose perspective sometimes, it makes for a lot of laughs and I might like to have kept my homerless streak alive. But a home run has to happen, even by accident.” Kuiper had 1,997 more at bats in the major leagues and the “accident” never happened again.

Emil Verban

Verban was a second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Boston Braves from 1944 to 1950. On September 6, 1948 the Cubs were playing the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Verban had 2,423 at bats in the major leagues without a home run when he stepped to the plate with two out in the seventh inning against Johnny Vander Meer. The Cubs trailed 1-0. Verban sent one of Vander Meer’s offerings over the wall to tie the game. Thus ended the longest homerless streak to begin a career in major league history. Unfortunately, this story ends on a sad note as the Cubs eventually lost the game 3-1. Today, Verban has achieved celebrity status as the namesake of The Emil Verban Society, a group of dedicated, long-suffering, Cubs fans who chose Verban as a symbol of an “old, loyal, trustworthy, and plodding Cubs player.”

Floyd Baker

Baker was an infielder who played primarily third base for a number of teams between 1943 and 1955. He is certainly not to be confused with Frank “Home Run” Baker, the third baseman for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees from the dead ball era. Baker’s one and only home run came after 1,213 major league at bats while he was playing for the Chicago White Sox against the Washington Senators on May 4, 1949. Baker’s shot was a two-run homer that was part of a Sox seven run rally against Senator pitcher Sid Hudson. Whether we can call this home run a “shot” is open to question, however. As Bill Nowlin reports in his biography of Baker for the SABR BioProject, the game was played in Comiskey Park at a time that the owners had installed a “trick wire fence” that brought the fences in 20 feet. It is this fence that Baker’s home run cleared. The next day the trick fence had disappeared, perhaps spurred by Baker’s home run, but more likely because the Senators had hit two home runs over that fence in the ninth inning to win the game, 8-7.

Johnny Bassler

Bassler was a fine hitting catcher for the Detroit Tigers from 1921 to 1927. On July 23, 1924 in his 499^th major league game, he launched the only home run of his career into the right field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. It was a solo shot off the Yankees’ Tom Shawkey. Unfortunately for Bassler, his big blow was overshadowed by an error he made in the ninth inning which allowed the Yankees to score the tying run. With two out in the ninth and the Tigers up 3-2, the Yankees Wally Schang nailed a pitch to deep left and not satisfied with a triple, tried to score. Bassler got the ball in plenty of time but dropped it as he applied the tag. The Yanks won the game, 4-3, in the eleventh when a guy more familiar with hitting home runs, Babe Ruth, led off with a blast of his own.

Woody Woodward

Woodward was a light hitting utility infielder for the Braves and Reds from 1963 to 1971. On July 10, 1970, Woodward hit his only major league home run in his 1,761^st at bat, a two-run dinger for Cincinnati off Ron Reed, his former teammate on the Atlanta Braves. According to The Sporting News, Woodward’s teammates met the occasion with the proper amount of levity. Pitcher Wayne Granger said, “We figured out if he keeps hitting home runs at this pace it will only take him 4,198 years to catch Babe Ruth.” Woodward’s power outburst was to no avail, however, as the Reds lost the game 11-9.

Freddie Maguire

A second baseman for the Giants, Cubs, and Braves from 1922-23 and 1928-31, Maguire also spent several of his prime years with Toledo of the American Association. He hit the only home run of his career on opening day 1928 while playing for the Cubs against the Reds at Redland Field in Cincinnati. Maguire’s solo home run to the left field bleachers off Dolf Luque was the only run the Cubs scored on the day in a 3-1 loss. Maguire came to the plate 2071 more times in his career without duplicating the feat.

Al Newman

The most recent member of this exclusive club is Al Newman, a utility infielder with the Montreal Expos and Minnesota Twins from 1985-1992. Newman got his only home run fairly early in his career, in his 136^th at bat. Newman then went on a memorable streak of 2,273 at bats without hitting another home run, a mark that places him just behind Verban for home run futility. Newman’s blast came on July 6, 1986 at Fulton County Stadium. Newman, playing second base for the Expos, connected off Zane Smith in the 4^th inning with a man on base as part of a six-run inning. After the game, Newman told the Associated Press, “I guess there’s one in everybody.” Little did he know how right he was.