George Bell, BMF
It’s finally here! Hot dogs, sunny days, and seas of green grass stretching from coast-to-coast, the 2015 MLB campaign is back 5-months after Madison Baumgarner sealed the deal for San Francisco’s Giants. For me, it’s like Christmas Day. I spend the prior evening tossing and turning in my bed, unable to sleep, thinking about the coming year’s possibilities. And then it happens! That first crack of the bat, that first look at the day’s match ups promulgating in my MLB.TV queue; it’s baseball overload and I’m absolutely ready for it.
I woke up this morning with a burning question: How many opening day home runs shall we witness on this glorious yearly occasion? Better yet, who holds the record for most HRs in a single game on opening day? Well, I had to find out so I headed over to baseball-referance.com and found the following:
| Name | Date | Team | Opp | W/L | AB | HR |
| Dmitri Young | 04/04/2005 | DET | KCR | W 11-2 | 4 | 3 |
| Tuffy Rhodes | 04/04/1994 | CHC | NYM | L 8-12 | 4 | 3 |
| George Bell | 04/04/1988 | TOR | KCR | W 5-3 | 4 | 3 |
Wow! Three players hitting 3-HRs in a single game on opening day. Indeed impressive. But discovering such turgid stats only presented more questions, and I needed to look deeper. I wanted to know which player(s) had the most total HRs on opening day, and the answer made me smile from ear-to-ear.
Opening Day Home Run Kings
Frank Robinson, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Adam Dunn hit eight opening day homers each. Robinson did it five times in the American League and three times in the National League, Dunn split his dingers between both leagues as well.
Griffey, however, holds the American League record (8), while Eddie Matthews and “The Say Hey Kid,” Willy Mays, own the National League record for opening day HRs with seven a piece.
Now I’m satisfied, and the world is at ease…
Play ball!
