Having been a Dodger fan for six decades I have been blessed to have personally witnessed some remarkable, even historic Dodger moments. Thanks to a father who often took my brothers and me to Dodgers games – first at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and then to Dodger Stadium – I was able to actually see Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton pitch and guys like Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Maury Wills, Jim Gilliam, Tommy and Willie Davis and many other Dodger greats play behind them. I got to personally witness Drysdale throw a 1-0 three-hit complete-game shutout of the New York Yankees in game-3 of the 1963 World Series – a game that is still to this day considered one of the best World Series games ever played.

But even being a Dodger fan since Eisenhower was president, I am here to tell you that what we are witnessing right here, right now, this season, before our very eyes in Joc Pederson and Alex Guerrero is every bit as historic as anything that I have seen in my 60-plus years as a Dodger fan.

With the 2015 season now one-third complete (as of tonight), the home run numbers that Joc Pederson and Alex Guerrero are putting up are absolutely mind-boggling. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As a veteran of many baseball seasons and countless heartbreaks, I have learned to take what the so-called baseball experts and analysts say with an enormous grain of salt. I acknowledge that analytics and sabermetrics are now an integral part of the game – especially when it comes to acquiring free agents or making trades. But I also know that just because Joc Pederson has hit 17 home runs through the Dodgers first 53 games and thereby technically on pace to hit 51.9 home runs this season (which would break Mark McGwire’s rookie home run record of 49 set in 1987), the likelihood of him actually doing so is a bit of a reach. That being said, there is certainly nothing to suggest that he won’t do it either; and when you think about it, that’s pretty exciting – especially for us veteran (old) Dodger fans.

Backing away from McGwire’s seemingly unreachable rookie home run record for a moment, the Dodgers all-time rookie home run record is 35 hit by soon-to-be Hall of Famer Mike Piazza in 1993 – a record that even the biggest skeptics have to acknowledge is actually doable for the 23-year-old Palo Alto native. And while even this is prognostication at its best, the fact that Pederson is almost halfway there after only 53 games (with 109 to go), you’ve got to like the kid’s chances of breaking Piazza’s 22 year old record.

For you “on pace for” types (which is always fun), Pederson has had 220 plate appearances (180 at-bats) thus far this season. This calculates out to 672.45 plate appearances (550.18 at-bats) over the full 162-game 2015 regular season. It also (according to Baseball-Reference.com) gives him a 162-game average of 37 home runs, not 51.9; however, this 162-game average is a little skewed because it also figures in Pederson’s 38 plate appearances (28 at-bats) from his September 2014 call-up which, as we all know, did not go well for @yungjoc650. Obviously the on pace for 51.9 thing comes from extending out his 17 home runs through 53 games – which is a logical projection – but it doesn’t take into consideration any extra days off that Mattingly may give his young center fielder nor any games missed due to (Heaven forbid) injuries.

With regards to Alex Guerrero, he too is on pace for breaking not only a Dodgers record but an MLB record: most pinch-hit home runs in a single season by a rookie or otherwise. The current Dodgers (and MLB) record for pinch hit home runs in a single season is seven set by Dave Hansen in 2000. Through 53 games Guerrero has a total of 10 home runs, of which four have been pinch hit home runs – none bigger than his game-winning grand slam off of Colorado Rockies right-hander Rafael Betancourt with two outs in the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday night at Coors Field.

At the time the Dodgers trailed the Rockies by a score of 8-5 in game-2 of a day-night doubleheader, having already lost the first game 6-3. Not only were the Dodgers down to their final out, Guerrero was down to his final strike with a 1-2 count. For reasons that only he can explain, Betancourt threw four consecutive four-seem fastballs to the hot-hitting Guerrero which, as Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully would say, “Is like trying to throw a pork chop past a hungry wolf.” Guerrero hit that 1-2 pork chop to dead center and it just made it over the wall 423 feet away – and when I say just made it, I mean just made it. In fact, for a few breathless seconds, everyone in the ballpark – including the players themselves – were uncertain if Rockies center fielder Charlie Blackmon had caught the ball or if it had gone out. It indeed went out, giving Guerrero his first career grand slam, his 10th home run of the season and his fourth pinch hit home run of the season.

“The ball touched my glove. I was pretty close,” Blackmon told reporters after the game. “It was never in the glove, but I touched it. Off the bat, I didn’t think he got it. It carried farther than I thought it would.”

Pederson and Guerrero matched one Dodgers rookie home run milestone on Tuesday night – they became the first Dodgers rookie teammates to hit double-digit home runs since Andre Ethier (11) and Russell Martin (10) did so in 2006. Additionally, Pederson is the first rookie to have multiple 4-game home run streaks since Minnesota Twins outfielder Jimmie Hall did so in 1963. With his home run on Wednesday night, Pederson became the first Dodger rookie in franchise history to hit a home run in five consecutive games and only the fourth Dodger ever to do so, joining Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella (1950), Shawn Green (2001) and Matt Kemp (2010).

And if that doesn’t get you excited this certainly should. Pederson’s monster home run in the third inning of game-2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader traveled 480 feet – the longest home run of 2015 per ESPN’s Home Run Tracker. Additionally, he now owns two of the 10 longest home runs hit this season including the 467-footer that he hit in game-1 of the Tuesday’s doubleheader. Many feel that it is just a matter of time before Pederson hits a home run completely out of Dodger Stadium – something that only four players in the 53-year history of baseball’s most beautiful ballpark have ever done – Willie Stargell (twice), Mike Piazza, Mark McGwire and Giancarlo Stanton. (Stanton did so this season).

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Pederson’s home run on Wednesday night was the 74th home run of the season for the Dodgers – tops in the MLB; this from a team that Mattingly has repeatedly said is not a home run-hitting team.

Perhaps Donnie Baseball should rethink his assessment of his history-making team.