Just What Good Is A First At-Bat Home Run Anyway?

Earlier tonight, Starling Marte made a stunning Major League debut, going 2-for-4 and homering in his first Major League at-bat. Which is very nice and I’m sure will make a wonderful story to share with his grandkids, but such a thing does not a legend make.

Of the 110 players* to homer in their first Major League at-bat, none has bested even 400 homers in their career with Gary Gaetti the Great topping the list with 360. Carlos Lee, who had quite a nice run before getting into the ranching business, could soon top the list, currently sitting on 355.

However, far more players came up, hammered one out in their first at-bat and ne’er went deep again. Because remembering those who came before us is important, here are their names and year they lived in the sun (italics denotes pitcher):

Luke Stuart, 1921
Eddie Morgan, 1936
Bill LeFebvre, 1938
Hack Miller, 1944
Dan Bankhead, 1947
Hoyt Wilhelm, 1952
Cuno Barragan, 1961
Bill Roman, 1964
Don Rose, 1972
Jose Sosa, 1975
Dave Machemer, 1978
Andre David, 1984
Dave Eiland, 1992
Mitch Lyden, 1993
Esteban Yan, 2000
Gene Stechshulte, 2001
Dave Matranga, 2003
Mark Worrell, 2008
Mark Saccomanno, 2008
Tom Milone, 2011
Starling Marte, 2012

*The extent of my research was typing “Players who hit home runs in their first at-bat into Google and, upon finding a Wikipedia article, stopping my search.