If you are among the nearly 200,000 who follow the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Twitter (@baseballhall), you are well aware that their most popular feature is their ‘On This Day’ (#OTD)  in history feature, in which they share baseball trivia from among their current 323 inductees made up of 226 former Major Leaguers, 35 Negro league baseball players and executives, 22 managers, 10 umpires, and 30 pioneers, executives, and organizers.

This past Tuesday morning, @baseballhall posted a tweet about former major leaguers Willie Stargell and Keith Hernandez who, on November 13, 1979, were named as co-MVPs of the National League. The tweet also mentioned that Stargell, affectionately known as “Pops,” was the MVP of the 1979 World Series champion ‘We are Family’ Pittsburgh Pirates that also included guys named Dave Parker, Kent Tekulve, John Candelaria, Manny Sanguillen, Lee Lacy, Phil Garner, and Frank Taveras, to name only a few.

Upon seeing the tweet and accompanying photograph of Stargell (and as a lifelong Dodger fan), I was immediately reminded of the fact that in addition to Pops being one of only four major leaguers to hit a home run completely out of (soon-to-be) 57-year-old Dodger Stadium, he is the only guy to have done it twice. And when you stop and think about the fact that there have been 4,021 regular season games played at Dodger Stadium since it opened on April 10, 1962, that is remarkable by any standard.

Chronologically, here are the five home runs hit completely out of Dodger Stadium:

• August 6, 1969 – Willie Stargell off of Dodgers right-hander Alan Foster
• May 8, 1973 – Willie Stargell off of Dodgers right-hander Andy Messersmith
• September 21, 1997 – Mike Piazza off of Colorado Rockies right-hander Frank Castillo
• May 22, 1999 – Mark McGwire off of Dodgers right-hander Jamie Arnold
• May 12, 2015 – Giancarlo Stanton off of Dodgers right-hander Mike Bolsinger

Distance wise, you’ve got:

• 507 feet – Stargell
• 483 feet – McGwire
• 478 feet – Stanton
• 470 feet – Stargell
• 420 feet – Piazza

The most recent home run to be hit out of Dodger Stadium was this 478-footer by (then) Miami Marlins slugger and Southern California native Giancarlo Stanton on May 12, 2015 off of Dodgers right-hander Mike Bolsinger.
(Video capture courtesy of MLB.com – Click on image to view video)

Ironically, of the four who have “hit one out of the park” (as they say), Stargell is the only left-handed batter to do so … for now.  On June 2, 2015, Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson hit a 477-foot home run at (wait for it…) Coors Field in Colorado that most certainly would have cleared the roof of the Right Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium. And then on August 6, 2017, Dodgers first baseman / outfielder Cody Bellinger hit a 447-footer at Citi Field in New York that may have as well.

According to @DingerTracker, which uses MLB Statcast, Bellinger’s home run off of Mets left-hander Josh Smoker at Citi Field on August 6, 2017 traveled 447 feet. Had he hit it at Dodger Stadium, it may have cleared the Right Field Pavilion roof. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In fact, since making his MLB debut on April 25, 2017, @DingerTracker lists Bellinger with 22 home runs over 400 feet, including six that traveled farther than Piazza’s 420-footer. In other words, it’s only a matter of time before Belly, Joc, or left-handed slugger Max Muncy hits one over the roof of the All-You-Can-Eat Right Field Pavilion at Blue Heaven on Earth.

Stay tuned…