Here’s a bit of an oddity that I stumbled across tonight. Although it has a very limited coverage, the Baseball-Reference PI game finder does have the option of limiting searches by weather condition. Out of curiosity I used the tool to find the players who hit the most home runs in the snow. Strangely enough, one of the guys at the top of the list is none other than Chris Snopek himself.
| Rk | Player | #Matching | PA | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR ▾ | RBI | BB | SO | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Snopek | 2 | Ind. Games | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | .429 | .600 | 1.286 | 1.886 |
| 2 | Andres Galarraga | 2 | Ind. Games | 9 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | .556 | .556 | 1.222 | 1.778 |
| 3 | Carlos Baerga | 2 | Ind. Games | 6 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .667 | .667 | 1.667 | 2.333 |
| 4 | Dave Winfield | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | .600 | .600 | 1.800 | 2.400 |
| 5 | Albert Belle | 1 | Ind. Games | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .500 | .500 | 2.000 | 2.500 |
| 6 | Doug Ault | 1 | Ind. Games | 5 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | .750 | .800 | 2.250 | 3.050 |
Snopek, indeed!
Just for fun because (as Raphy says) the data are very sparse…
Ken Cloude was only 1-4 when the sky was cloudy or overcast, but 16-16 overall.
Sun-Woo Kim was 5-5 pitching on sunny days, and 13-13 overall.
Tim Raines homered in 8 of 82 games (9.8%) in his career when it was raining, showering or drizzling. That’s a 50% better rate than his overall mark of homering in 162 of 2502 games (6.5%). On the other hand, Raines stole a base in 15 of 82 rainy games (18.3%), versus 631 of 2502 games overall (25.2%).
Only one of the 9 games in Raphy’s list took place in Canada – Doug Ault’s home run on the Blue Jays franchise debut game. Alvis Woods and Richie Zisk also homered in that game – I presume they’re omitted because they didn’t get two dingers.
The data, though, are rather suspect. One of Snopek’s games was played in 60 degree weather, and the other was under sunny skies. Also included in the snow games are an Aug 24 game in Baltimore (81 degrees at game time), and a July 27 game at Yankee Stadium (82 degrees). Must have reeeeeeally cooled off during those games.
Doug – You win.
80 degrees and snowing is clearly the odd fact of the day.
Mine pales in comparison.
I was about to say that it may be the temp that is inaccurate in that 4/6/97 game, since I recall the first half of April 1997 was very cold and snowy in the Midwest (We had a rare snowout in St. Louis on April 10th that year), but Weather Underground seems to agree with BR’s log. It lists the high in Chicago that day at 59, though the low was 32 (with no precip recorded)…..
Snopek homered in 3 straight games April 15, 21, and 27 of 1996. His career homerun total is only 13. Is that the fewest career homeruns for someone who homered in 3 straight games?
These are guys from 1919 to 1960 with 3+ game HR streaks and fewer career homers than Snopek.
4 – Paul Easterling
8 – Irv Jeffries, Pete Scott, Dick Cox, Tim Thompson
11 – Otis Brannan
12 – Chick Fullis
Easterling had his 3 game streak in career games 6 thru 8, en route to a 122 OPS+ in 43 games to start his first season at age 22. The Tigers were so impressed, they sent him back to the minors in June and didn’t call him back up for 2 years. Easterling played only 33 more games after that auspicious debut.
Thanks Doug! I’m curious why you cut the search off at 1960.
Since I’m not a B-R subscriber I can’t tell when Winfield hit his home run in the snow but he is the only player listed to have played for the Twins. Since the Minnesota actually built a domed stadium in large part because snow in late March & early April is hardly an uncommon event in these parts I have a difficult time believing that he would be the only Twin to have done so, if indeed he was even a Twin at the time that he hit it.
Winfield hit his 2 HR on July 27, 1988 at Yankee Stadium. It wasn’t a snow game, B-R game log notwithstanding.
The weather feature is interesting (if not always accurate). Only two people have pitched 2 complete games in 100 degree heat (for the games where temp. is known): Jon Matlack, Fergie Jenkins, and Charlie Hough. They all involved Texas.
Aptly named:
– Storm Davis got a win in his only game with winds of 25+ MPH.
– Jack Spring was at his best in April (2 runs allowed in 17.2 IP).
– George Winter lived to the age of 73.
False advertising:
– David Freese is 0 for 20 when the temperature is below 50 degrees.
– Hot Rod Kanehl played just 1 known game at a temperature of 90 degrees or more. (Also, he spent his whole career in a cold funk.)
– Champ Summers actually hit best in April.
– August John Galan hit better in May, June, July & September.
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