BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…May 28, 1956:
Pittsburgh first baseman Dale Long sets a major league record by hitting a home run in his eighth straight game in the Pirates’ 3-2 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers at Forbes Field. Long went into the streak with 25 homers in 201 career games. He hit one dinger in each game during the record run, including both ends of a doubleheader eight days earlier. Long used the streak to raise his batting average from .384 to .411 and knock in 17 runs. He parlayed it into an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and a raise in his salary from $13,500 to $15,700.
Long would go on to be selected as the National League's starting first baseman in the 1956 All-Star Game, a huge honor at the time, and would log a career-high 27 home runs in 1956. He hit 132 homers over 10 seasons with six different MLB teams. Long’s career path was interesting. He didn’t make his major league debut until 1951 at the age of 25—then he spent 3½ more seasons in the minors before getting a second chance with the Pirates in 1955 (at age 29).
Long was also gained fame as MLB’s first left-handed catcher since 1901 when he caught 1 2/3 innings in two different games for the Chicago Cubs in 1958. Wearing his first baseman’s glove, Long recorded one assist without an error and allowed one passed ball. There wasn't another southpaw catcher in the big leagues until Benny Distefano caught three games for the Pirates in 1989. And there hasn’t been one since.
Long’s eight-game home run streak would be matched by Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees in 1987 and Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners in 1993. Mattingly’s streak was especially remarkable. He hit 10 homers during that stretch, and two were grand slams (in a season that saw him club an MLB record six of them). Griffey’s streak ended when 45,607 fans amassed at the Kingdome on July 29, 1993, to see him break it—30,220 of them bought tickets on game day. So to drill it down, Mattingly and Griffey share the American League mark, and Long’s streak remains the NL record to this day.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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