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Originally Published: June 30, 2003

Going deep with home run information

The longball edition of the Useless Information Department, where home run knowledge is power.

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By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
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No, the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR home-run historian, David Vincent, didn't take the week off from his customary useless-information duties. There just have been so many astounding home run feats lately, we gave him his own expanded Sultan's Corner edition of the Useless Information Department.

Useless Homer-Gap Information
Until Roger Clemens and Damian Rolls ran into each other in Tampa Bay last week, Rolls owned two career homers and Clemens owned 305 career gopher balls. Rolls then hit two home runs off Clemens in one game (more on that later).

	Rolls

	Clemens

So loyal reader David Hallstrom wondered if that approached the biggest gap ever in career home runs between the hitter who had the multihomer game and the pitcher who was the victim of the multihomer game. The Sultan then tracked down all of the two-homer games by players with fewer than 10 career homers vs. pitchers who had served up 300. And Clemens, obviously, just hasn't given up enough home runs:

(* -- career home runs going into game)

Useless Rocket Information
But Damian Rolls deserves a salute from the Sultan for other reasons, too -- because those two-homer games against Clemens don't come around too often. Here are all the guys who have ever had one, courtesy of the Sultan. And you'll see Rolls finds himself on a very cool list:

Robin Yount, June 2, 1984 *
Eddie Murray, June 27, 1986
Carlton Fisk, Aug. 26, 1987 *
Fred McGriff, June 28, 1990
Ivan Rodriguez, July 13, 1995
Manny Ramirez, April 21, 1996
Ken Griffey Jr., April 25, 1997
Albert Belle, April 15, 1999
Jim Thome, June 2, 2001
Josh Phelps, Aug. 29, 2002
Damian Rolls, June 23, 2003 *

(* -- consecutive at-bats)

Useless Birthday Information
Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas were born on the same day (May 27, 1968). At one point in June, they also had exactly the same number of home runs (392). So the Sultan rummaged through his voluminous birthday data and came up with the top birthday twosomes of all time.

	Bagwell

	Thomas

First, the birthday boys who have at least 100 homers each:

May 27, 1968 -- 787 (Frank Thomas 393, Jeff Bagwell 394)
Oct. 31, 1963 -- 624 (Fred McGriff 488, Matt Nokes 136)
Dec. 20, 1949 -- 441 (Cecil Cooper 241, Oscar Gamble 200)
Sept. 16, 1960 -- 379 (Mel Hall 134, Mickey Tettleton 245)
Nov. 20, 1945 -- 343 (Jay Johnstone 102, Rick Monday 241)
June 7, 1947 -- 289 (Don Money 176, Thurman Munson 113)

And now the most by any two guys born on the same day, as long as both of them homered at least once:

May 27, 1968 -- 787 (Frank Thomas 393, Jeff Bagwell 394)
Oct. 31, 1963 -- 624 (Fred McGriff 488, Matt Nokes 136)
Aug. 30, 1918 -- 582 (Ted Williams 521, Billy Johnson 61)
Sept. 24, 1964 -- 564 (Rafael Palmeiro 509, Jim Neidlinger 55)
Nov. 12, 1968 -- 533 Sammy Sosa 509, Randy Knorr 24)
July 2, 1964 -- 466 (Jose Canseco 462, Joe Magrane 4)
Sept. 19, 1926 -- 462 (Duke Snider 407, Murray Wall 55)
Oct. 27, 1992 -- 448 (Ralph Kiner 369, Del Rice 79)
June 18, 1961 -- 447 (Andres Galarraga 392, Tom McCarthy 55)

Useless Good-Wood Information
The Cubs did something last week that didn't get anywhere near enough acclaim: They hit back-to-back-to-back homers -- and the first leg of that trifecta came from a pitcher (Kerry Wood).

It was only the fourth time in history, according to the Sultan, in which a pitcher got mixed up in back-to-back-to-back homers -- at least on the end which involved the pitcher actually doing the trotting. But it was the first time a pitcher ever started the fun.

Here are the other three back-to-back-to-backers which included a homer by a pitcher:

Date		Team		Pitcher
Aug. 13, 1939	Giants		Bill Lohrman *
Sept. 4, 1953	Giants		Al Corwin *
Sept. 7, 1959	Red Sox		Jerry Casale *

(* Hit middle homer in back-to-back-to-backers.)

Useless Tag-Team Information
Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell just homered in the same game for the 37th time as teammates. Not surprisingly, they lead all active players in that department. Here's the top five, courtesy of the Sultan:

	Biggio

Craig Biggio-Jeff Bagwell 37
Chipper Jones-Andruw Jones 35
Barry Bonds-Rich Aurilia 33
Larry Walker-Todd Helton 33
Rafael Palmeiro-Alex Rodriguez 30

And just for fun, the Sultan calculated where Bagwell and Biggio rank compared to all active players, whether they're still teammates or not. And they still trail four now-divorced combos:

Jim Thome-Manny Ramirez 48
Ken Griffey-Edgar Martinez 44
Robin Ventura-Frank Thomas 42
Barry Bonds-Jeff Kent 40
Craig Biggio-Jeff Bagwell 37

Useless Miguel Cabrera Information
In the first big-league game he ever played in, Miguel Cabrera hit a game-ending, game-winning home run for the Marlins on June 20. And the Sultan reports he was only the third player ever to do that. Here's the list:

Sept. 9, 1971 -- Billy Parker, Angels (2 HR rest of career)
Aug. 23, 2002 -- Josh Bard, Indians (5 HR since)
June 20, 2003 -- Miguel Cabrera, Marlins (0 HR since)

Useless Late-Inning Information
Finally, Jim Thome and Tino Martinez both did something last week that had been done only five previous times in the history of baseball. They each hit two game-tying home runs in the same game, after the seventh inning.

Thome did it June 21 against the Red Sox. Martinez did it three days later against the Reds. Here are the only other players ever to do that, according to the Sultan:

Roberto Alomar, May 10, 1991 (9th & 11th)
Ron Fairly, Aug. 20, 1973 (8th & 10th)
Ryne Sandberg, June 23, 1984 (9th & 10th)
Ron Santo, June 27, 1973 (9th & 13th)
Art Shamsky, Aug. 12, 1966 (10th & 11th) *

(* -- Shamsky also homered in the 8th to put his team ahead.)

Almost making this list (but not qualifying) was Dale Long, who hit ninth-inning, game-tying home runs on both ends of a doubleheader, on Aug. 6 1961.

And that's all for this week, from our man, the amazing Sultan of Swat Stats.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Send your Useless Information to: uselessinfodept@yahoo.com