From Sebring to Bohm, a History of 1,000 World Series Homers

PHILADELPHIA — Alec Bohm hit the 1,000th home run in World Series history in Game 3 on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. For a while, it seemed as if his Philadelphia Phillies teammates might slam a thousand more.

They settled for five in their 7-0 wipeout of the Houston Astros, good enough to tie the single-game record for one team in a World Series game. It was fitting for a lineup built to bludgeon the opposition, whether or not they admit it.

“Guys aren’t trying to go up there and just hit homers,” Bohm said after the game. “We’re hitters. Guys were working at-bats. Guys are taking singles the other way. And sometimes they make a mistake and we get ‘em.”

By the end of the night — the end of the fifth inning, actually — the home run count had ticked up to 1,003, from Jimmy Sebring’s inside-the-park homer off Boston’s Cy Young on Oct. 1, 1903, to Rhys Hoskins’s liner into the left field seats off Lance McCullers Jr. on Tuesday.

Sebring, the right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, did not earn much acclaim from The Boston Globe, which called it a “weak fly” over second base “that rolled nearly to the ropes, the Boston outfielders taking their time in fielding it and permitting a home run.” The Pittsburgh Press, meanwhile, reported that Sebring “sent the ball to deep center” for his homer.

It’s fun to imagine all the homers listed, in order, on some sort of royal scroll in Cooperstown, N.Y. Light-hitting infielders like Al Weis (No. 437) and Walt Weiss (No. 621) make the list, but not celebrated sluggers like Ken Griffey Jr. or Ted Williams. Willie Mays Aikens shows up four times, Willie Mays not at all.

The most famous home runs — by guys named Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, Bill Mazeroski and Joe Carter, Carlton Fisk and Kirk Gibson — have been chronicled in depth for generations. Here are a few other milestones on the 119-year, one-month journey to 1,000.

No. 10: First by a guy nicknamed “Home Run”

Home Run Baker, 1911

John McGraw’s Giants tried to intimidate Baker, a third baseman, by spiking him repeatedly in the field. He responded with this crucial homer in Game 2, and another the next day to help beat the great Christy Mathewson. This was the first of Baker’s four seasons leading the American League in homers — with as few as 9 and as many as 12.

No. 29: Only home run in the Black Sox World Series

Shoeless Joe Jackson, 1919

Two of the infamous “Eight Men Out” hit World Series homers: Happy Felsch in 1917 and Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1919. They were, of course, was two of eight White Sox players banned for life for accepting bribes in 1919, when the Reds prevailed, five games to three. The record shows that Jackson’s .375 average led all Chicago regulars, and his Game 8 homer was the only one hit by either team.

No. 30: First grand slam

Elmer Smith, 1920

It takes a lot to overshadow the first grand slam in World Series history, by Cleveland’s Smith in the first inning of Game 5 off Burleigh Grimes. But second baseman Bill Wambsganss did it, snaring a line drive, stepping on second and tagging the runner for the first — and still only — unassisted triple play in World Series history.

No. 39 First at Yankee Stadium

Casey Stengel, 1923 (inside the park)

In the ninth inning of the opener, Stengel, then with the visiting Giants, lined a ball to deep left center as the outfielders gave chase. “It was very apparent he intended to make those old legs carry him home,” the Daily News reported, “if it should be the last time they ever functioned.” Stengel, who was then 33, scored standing up, retained the use of his legs, and went on to manage the Yankees to seven titles.

No. 115: The forgotten follow-up

Lou Gehrig, 1932

Everyone with a passing interest in American sports has heard of Babe Ruth’s “called shot” at Wrigley Field in 1932. It was mostly a myth — had Ruth pointed theatrically to the bleachers, pitcher Charlie Root would have drilled him — but Ruth was trying to silence the hecklers on the Cubs’ bench and did it in grand style. Lesser known is what happened next: a home run by Lou Gehrig, who actually hit for a higher average than Ruth in World Series play (.361 to .326) with, incredibly, the exact same on-base plus slugging percentage: 1.214.

No. 209: First walk-off

Tommy Henrich, 1949

It took until the 209th homer for one to end a game, when Henrich — nicknamed “Old Reliable” — drove a Don Newcombe pitch into the right field seats to beat Brooklyn in the opener at Yankee Stadium. Fifteen other players have ended World Series games with home runs, though nobody has ever hit a walk-off grand slam.

No. 345: Most significant Game 7 homer

Hal Smith, 1960

The Yankees were four outs away from victory when Smith, a backup catcher, connected for a three-run blast off Jim Coates in Game 7. Just like that, the Pirates stood three outs from winning the title — and though they lost the lead in the top of the ninth, Mazeroski’s leadoff shot against Ralph Terry won the championship. “The people in Pittsburgh realize — now, this is what they tell me — that my home run was more important than Mazeroski’s,” Smith told me in November 2019, two months before he died at age 89. “Because we could have got a double and single and won that game, but we had to have some runs when I hit mine.”

No. 401: Most improbable

Jose Santiago, 1967

The “Impossible Dream” Red Sox lived up to their nickname early in Game 1. Facing the dominant Bob Gibson, the Red Sox scored their first run on a homer by pitcher Jose Santiago, who hit just one in his career in the regular season. Gibson, naturally, had the last word: he hit a homer of his own in Game 7, when he won his second World Series M.V.P. award.

No. 500: Halfway there

Jim Mason, 1976

The halfway point on the path to 1,000 came from an unlikely source: Jim Mason, a backup shortstop for the Yankees who hit only 12 home runs in more than 1,500 major league at-bats. Mason’s homer — in Game 3 of a sweep by the Reds — was the Yankees’ first in the World Series at the remodeled Yankee Stadium. Mason is one of four players to homer in their only career World Series at-bat, with Geoff Blum (2005), Bobby Kielty (2007) and Michael A. Taylor (2019).

No. 528: Best answer

Reggie Jackson, 1978

Reggie Jackson, quite famously, finished the 1977 World Series with three homers off three first pitches from three different Dodger pitchers. But did you know that he also produced the final runs of the next season, too? Jackson was humbled in Game 2 at Dodger Stadium, when the hard-throwing rookie Bob Welch pumped fastballs past him for a game-ending strikeout. But Jackson asserted himself in the end, homering off Welch late in Game 6 to punctuate a 7-2 clinching victory.

No. 609: Best bat flip

Tom Lawless, 1987

With third baseman Terry Pendleton sidelined by injury, the Cardinals turned to Lawless, who hit .080 during the regular season and had just one homer to that point in his five-year career. Facing eventual World Series M.V.P. Frank Viola in Game 4 with runners at the corners, Lawless lifted a high fly to left — and started walking to first base, carrying his bat with him as he watched the ball barely clear the wall. When it did, Lawless casually flipped his bat — over his head. “I just must have blanked out there for a second,” Lawless said later. “This never happened to me before.”

No. 689: Best fulfillment of a prophecy

David Justice, 1995

On the afternoon of Game 6 of the World Series, Cleveland pitcher Jim Poole dropped by his alma mater, Georgia Tech, to watch a football game for a while. When Poole left, one of his buddies told him, “Whatever you do, don’t let Justice beat you!” And wouldn’t you know: That night, in the sixth inning, Atlanta’s David Justice homered off Poole for the only run of a 1-0 clinching victory.

No. 710 Best tip from a fan

Bobby Bonilla, 1997

The Marlins reached the seventh-inning stretch of Game 7 trailing, 2-0, to Cleveland’s Jaret Wright, with just one hit. As he waited to lead off the inning, Bobby Bonilla got a helpful tip from a man in the front row: “Take a step back from the plate; he’s not going to pick up that you adjusted your stance.” This was not just any fan — it was Joe Black, a former Brooklyn Dodger, who had fallen for that trick in Game 7 of the 1952 World Series. The Yankees’ Mickey Mantle had subtly moved back in the box, hoping for an inside pitch, and beaten Black with a go-ahead home run. Bonilla made the adjustment, smoked a leadoff homer, and the Marlins won in 11 innings.

No. 811: The last by a pitcher

Joe Blanton, 2008

In 216 career regular-season at-bats, Joe Blanton never got an extra-base hit. But for the Phillies in Game 4, he drove a pitch from the Rays’ Edwin Jackson into the same left-field seats where Bohm would rip No. 1,000. “It was a fastball, just trying to groove it in there,” Jackson said, many years later. “It ran back across, middle in, right into his bat path.”

No. 982: The first to start a World Series

Jorge Soler, 2021

Last October, in Houston, Atlanta’s Jorge Soler led off the top of the first inning of Game 1 and did something no player had ever done: start the World Series with a home run. “It’s pretty amazing we can come up with all these things,” a teammate, Adam Duvall, said in wonder that night. “Even more amazing is that the game has been played this long and there are still the first players to do something. That’s pretty cool. I guess there will be a day when there are no firsts anymore.”

The first 1,000 homers are now complete. Here’s to thousands more.