Davidson’s dingers
The best all-around players in baseball are said to have five tools. These players can run, field, throw, hit, and hit for power. Perhaps the greatest of the five-tool players is Willie May. Or it could be Oscar Charleston. It is not Matt Davidson. Matt Davidson has one tool. He can hit for power. He used that tool to launch three home runs on Opening Day.
Davidson hit his three home runs off three different pitchers. His teammates added three more to help the White Sox tie the 1988 New York Mets for the Opening Day record of six home runs by one team. It’s an excellent start for Davidson, but don’t hand him the AL MVP trophy just yet. He’s projected to have a .270 OBP and .397 slugging percentage this season.
Before Matt Davidson, there was Dmitri Young, who hit three homers on Opening Day in 2005. He’s the Opening Day legend for the Millennial generation. Not only did Young hit three home runs, but he also reached base in his two other plate appearances by hitting a single and getting hit by a pitch. He scored four times and had five RBI.
The Baby Boomers have two Opening Day heroes, George Bell and the immortal Tuffy Rhodes. On April 4, 1988, Bell launched three taters off Kansas City Royals ace Bret Saberhagen. He followed that up with a five-for-five performance in the second game of the season, making him eight-for-nine with six runs scored and five RBI through the Blue Jays’ first two games. That was the high point of his season. In his remaining games, he hit .260/.296/.421.
Tuffy Rhodes became a Cubs legend when he launched three big flies off Dwight Gooden on Opening Day in 1994. This wasn’t vintage Gooden, of course. By this time, Gooden was a nearly a decade removed from his incredible 24-4, 1.53 ERA season in 1985. Still, Dwight Gooden is Dwight Gooden and Rhodes’ big game has lived on in Cubs fans’ memories to this day.
After hitting three home runs on Opening Day, Rhodes would hit just five more over the rest of the year and be out of MLB after the 1995 season. He went over to Japan and found success, including four straight seasons in which he hit 55, 46, 51, and 45 home runs. That 55-homer season tied the all-time record held by Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh. In 2013, Wladimir Belentien would smash the record with a 60-homer season.