It is a phrase that everyone has heard at least once in their respective lives, probably more. But its actual meaning and origin may be unknown (or forgotten since high school History class), which, of course, makes it a popular Google search. The phrase is: “The shot heard round the world,” and here’s how Google (via Wikipedia) defines it:

“The shot heard round the world” is a phrase that refers to the opening shot of the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, which began the American Revolutionary War and led to the creation of the United States of America, and was an early event in the first wave of the Atlantic Revolutions, an 18th and 19th century revolutionary wave in the Atlantic World which includes the unrelated French Revolution. The phrase has subsequently also been applied to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, a catalyst event for World War I, as well as hyperbolically applied to feats in sports, etc.

It’s that very last line that has kept this historic phrase both famous and contemporary:

“…as well as hyperbolically applied to feats in sports, etc.”

On Tuesday night, 25-year-old Dodgers minor league outfielder Drew Avans, who had been called up from Minor League camp for this, his second Major League game of the Spring (he singled in his first), delivered “The shot heard round the world,” when he crushed a grand slam home run off of former Dodgers 2014 first-round draft pick right-hander Grant Holmes in the bottom of the seventh inning, turning a 4-2 deficit to the Oakland Athletics into an eventual 6-4 Dodgers win.

“For Drew to hit a home run tonight, a grand slam, something he’s going to remember forever,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame. “That’s something that, you know, Spring Training is where you try to get a big league club ready, but having young guys come up and show out is pretty good.”

Prior to his Tuesday night heroics, Avans, a 33-round draft pick by the Dodgers in 2018 out of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA, owned an impressive six-year Minor League slash-line of .288/.400/.451/.850 with 43 home runs and 234 RBI. With the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers in 2021, he slashed .275/.389/.438/.826 with five home runs and 32 RBI in his 279 plate appearances. For good measure, the left-handed hitting and throwing Alabaster, AL native also tossed one scoreless inning of relief in 2019 while with the Dodgers Double-A Tulsa Drillers.

Well done, Drew. We heard you.

…Loud and Clear.

Play Ball!

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