May 1, 2021

By Neil Munro

Canadian Baseball Network

On Friday night, Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) blasted his 300th home run and joined Hall of Famer, Larry Walker (Maple Ridge, B.C.) as the only other Canadian to reach this milestone.

Votto’s two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning helped the Reds to an 8-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs. For good measure, Votto also banged out two doubles in the contest.

The following is a list of the significant home run exploits by Canadian sluggers:

-The Canadian record for career home runs hit by a Montreal Expo: Larry Walker 99

-The Canadian record for career home runs hit by a Toronto Blue Jay: Russell Martin (Montreal, Que.) 66

-Rob Ducey (Cambridge, Ont.) is the only Canadian to homer for both franchises. He had two with the Expos and two with the Blue Jays. Matt Stairs (Fredericton, N.B.) also saw action with both franchises but failed to connect for a home run with Montreal (in 38 at bats). He collected 32 dingers over two seasons with the Jays.

-Stairs still holds the major league career record for pinch hit home runs, with 23. He accomplished this while playing for 13 different ball clubs, but actually just hit pinch-hit homers with nine of those teams. Among his 23 pinch-hit round trippers, one came in post-season play, as he delivered a game-winning blast playing with the Phillies in the 2008 NLCS against the Dodgers. The runner-up is Cliff Johnson, who had 20 pinch-hit home runs. Three of those came while Johnson was playing with the Blue Jays.

-The record for the most home runs hit by a Canadian in their rookie season remains the 26 round-trippers garnered by Jason Bay (Trail, B.C.) in 2004 (with Pittsburgh). Bay was named as the N.L. Rookie of the Year for 2004, and he is still the lone Canadian to be bestowed with this honour.

-The single season record for home runs hit by a Canadian is the 49 off the bat of Larry Walker in his MVP season with Colorado in 1997. Walker also batted .366 that year and led the league in a number of batting categories. The full list of Canadians who have hit at least 30 home runs in a season is shown in the table below.

It may well be that Montreal-born Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s name will be added to this list before the end of the 2021 baseball season.

-To find the only other Canadian to have led his league in home runs, we mist go all the back to the 1887 season. Playing for the St. Louis Browns of the American Association that season, Tip O’Neill not only led the league with 14 home runs, but won the triple crown, batting .435 and collecting 123 RBI. For good measure, O’Neill also led the American Association in runs scores (167), base hits (225), doubles (52), triples (19), on-base percentage (.490) and slugging percentage (.691).

-While it is a pretty safe bet to predict that many of those records will stand for a very long before another Canadian batter has even a chance to surpass them, but I have a different candidate for a Canadian home run record that is virtually sure to stand as long as the game is played. Fergie Jenkins record of 13 home runs hit by a Canuck pitcher is absolutely untouchable, particularly with the advent of the DH. The Canadian career leaders (through April 30, 2021) are shown in the next table.

-The leading Canadians in home runs hit at each position is given below. Of course, these batters had more than the number of home runs shown here, but the figures represent the homers hit only while they played at the position indicated.

Catcher – Russell Martin 188

First base – Joey Votto 293

Second base – Brett Lawrie 19

Third base – Corey Koskie 118

Shortstop – Pop Smith 12

Left field – Jason Bay 210

Center field – Michael Saunders 26

Right field – Larry Walker 338

Pitcher – Ferguson Jenkins 13

DH – Justin Morneau 30

Pop Smith’s career best for a shortstop has lasted for more than 130 years now, and his primary position was actually at second base.