Expert: Tom Schott - 7/28/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hi Tom,
I know Mike hit four consecutive homeruns against the Cubs in a extra inning game, but didn't he also hit four consecutive homeruns over a two game span? I believe he hit three in one game & one the next day with a walk preceding that one. This would make him the only player to have hit four consecutive homers twice. Is my memory correct?         Thanks, Frank

ANSWER: Frank,

You're right about Schmidt hitting 4 HRs in consecutive plate appearances. He is the only guy to do this twice. He did it on April 17, 1976, 4 HRs in a game, against the Cubs and then again on July 6-7, 1979, in Philly against the Giants.

Box scores of Schmidt games are at:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197604170.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI197907060.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI197907070.shtml

But another player also twice accomplished the feat of 4 HRs in consecutive at bats, but only one of these times was in 4 consecutive plate appearances. This was Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who did it on Sep 11-13, 1949, against the Cubs and Phillies, respectively. On Aug 15-16, 1947, he had HRs in 4 consecutive at bats at home against St Louis.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Tom,
I've been telling people this for years and could'nt back it up, till NOW!While looking at the boxscores,I found that Schmidt hit 4 homers in 4 consecutive AT-BATS twice.Ralph Kiner must have hit 4 homers in 4 consecutive PLATE appearances twice.Could you tell me more about Ralph Kiner's feat?Also why do you think these feats are realatively unknown? Thanks Again, Frank

Answer
Frank,

I don't have the box scores of the Kiner games. Note what I said originally. Kiner hit 4 HRs in consecutive plate appearances, but only  once. The other time, in September 1949, he hit 4 HRs in 4 consecutive ABs. We can surmise that in those two games, a base on balls or two (or a sac fly) came in between the HRs.

Schmidt's feat is for both plate appearances and at bats. Obviously, they're one and the same if you hit 4 dingers in a row without a walk (or sac fly or HBP) in between.

Baseball has got thousands of obscure records like these. In the modern era, since 1901, 4 HRs in consecutive ABs has only happened 34 times. And only 20 of these were in consecutive plate appearances. There are thousands upon thousands of things like this in baseball . . . we tend to remember only the big things. The amount of "relatively unknown" feats in baseball is probably about 99 percent of even the printed records.