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Puerto Rico's Francisco Lindor joins an exclusive home run fraternity
It most likely would have set a season-high for crowd noise, if only MLB’s Statcast service could track such a statistic.
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Born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, Lindor attended high school in the United States, but in his homeland he is still known as Paquito. The fans let him know it Tuesday, cheering his nickname until he came out for the type of curtain call typically reserved for a moment bigger than a player’s giving his team a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning of a game in mid-April.
It was a key moment for the Indians in the team’s eventual 6-1 victory, but it was, understandably, a far bigger moment for baseball-obsessed Puerto Rico as the U.S. territory continues its recovery from the devastating effects of last year’s hurricanes.
It was the second home run of the year for Lindor, who has not been playing to his usual standards so far this season, and it gave him a spot in the exclusive club of players who have hit a home run in their native land while playing outside of the 50 U.S. states and Canada.
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The list of previous players to accomplish a similar feat is rather brief, largely as a result of Major League Baseball’s having held so few regular season games outside of its typical parks.
Hiram Bithorn Stadium
San Juan, Puerto Rico
As to be expected, the list is dominated by Puerto Ricans, with each of the territory’s previous instances coming during the 43 games played by the Montreal Expos at Hiram Bithorn during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Jose Vidro, a second baseman for the Expos, leads all Puerto Rican players with three home runs at Hiram Bithorn, while Javy Lopez, a catcher for the Atlanta Braves, has the second-most with two — both of which came in a Braves victory on April 17, 2003. Bengie Molina, Felipe Lopez, Juan Gonzalez and Ramon Castro each hit one.
Tokyo Dome
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Tokyo
The New York Yankees’ trip to Tokyo in 2004 is known mostly for subsequent complaints about how the trip affected the team afterward, but in the second of the two games the Yankees played there, the fans at Tokyo Dome were treated to Japan’s Hideki Matsui hitting a two-run blast to right-center that nearly matched Lindor’s homer as far as crowd noise. Matsui’s moment had the added bonus of having come in the stadium which served as his home base during 10 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants.
Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey
Monterrey, Mexico
There were three major league games played in Monterrey in 1996, and one played in 1999, and while no Mexican players homered, Vinny Castilla of Oaxaca went 4 for 5 in the Colorado Rockies’ win over the San Diego Padres on April 4, 1999.
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Christian Villanueva, a 27-year-old infielder for the San Diego Padres, will get a chance to be the first Mexican major leaguer to hit a home run in Mexico when his team travels to Monterrey for three games in May. Considering Villanueva has six home runs in just 45 at-bats so far this season, he seems like a fairly promising candidate.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
BENJAMIN HOFFMAN © 2018 The New York Times
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