Craig Biggio hit his 282nd career home run last night, which brings his career total for homers even with his total for being hit by pitches.
Baseball Tonight noted the occasion last night with a list of (post-1900) players who have retired with career homers equal to career HBPs:
Ray Blade - 50
Lu Blue - 47
Bip Roberts - 30
If you include the pre-1900 players, Jake Beckley finished his years with 75 HRs and HBPs, and Bobby Lowe had 72 each. As you can see, no one has been close to Biggio for the highest career total when the two categories are equal.
This is the third time in Biggio's career, since 0, that he's gotten his home run and plunk totals to match. Early in his career, he had more homers than plunks, but his HBP total caught his homers on September 12, 1997 when he got hit twice by Chan Ho Park. That brought his HBP and homer total equal at 115. The two stats went there seperate ways for a few years, but met again on April 10, 2000 when Biggio hit his 153rd career homer, off Pat Hentgen. But since then, Biggio's HBPs have been in the lead - until last night.
Only one other player has had his career homers and HBPs equal each other within the range of the three times Biggio did it. Minnie Minoso finished his career with 192 HBPs and 186 homers, but his totals in the two categories were in a see-saw battle for the lead between June 26, 1960 and April 29, 1962. He homered on
June 26, 1960 to pull the two stats into a tie at 156, and they were even again at 157, 158, 159, 160, 162, 163, 171, 178, 179 and 180. But Minoso's HBPs took the lead for good on April 29, 1962.
The only other player who could have possibly had equal numbers of HBPs and homers with 100 or more of each is
Dan Brouthers who finished his career in 1904 with 106 homers and 105 HBPs. He finished the 1893 season with 96 HBPs and 94 homers but by the end of 1894, he had 103 homers and 101 HBPs. But, day by day stats are lacking for those years so it's impossible to say exactly when the two stats last matched for him.
Labels: homers
