Some friends and I were talking baseball history and this topic came up: Players who hit a home-run in their first major league AB. Looking at baseball-almanac.com, I saw that the Marlins have one player who did this: Mitch Lyden. Having never heard of him, my curiousity was piqued. Looking at the player page, I saw that he only had 10 major league at-bats and hit .300, which seems quite respectable to me. This got me wondering why his major-league career was only a few months long. Does anyone remember anything about this player?

 

Mitch Lyden Stats on baseball-almanac.com

didnt Redmond hit a homer in his first AB?

 

anyway, i have no clue about Lyden

Reminds me of another Marlin who had a very nice yet short stint with the club and fell out of MLB.

 

Matt Turner

Lyden .... uh?

Didn't CJ hit a homer in his first two major league at bats or something?

 

And Red's wasn't firt major league at bat Ramp, it just happened to be that his first career homer was inside the park (if I remember correctly).

Yeah, I remember Mitch Lyden. I think someone got hurt and they called him up for a week or whatever. It was probably Steve Decker that got hurt, I can't remember.

 

I think that homerun was in Wrigley Field, if I remember correctly.

didnt Redmond hit a homer in his first AB?

Nope, it was a single. But he was 3 for 3 in his first game, with a home run (not in the park). Juanky, you were thinking Kevin Millar - his first homer was an inside the parker.

 

As for Charles Johnson, he was 2 for 3 with a homerun against Curt Shilling in his debut - the homer coming in his second at bat.

Yeah - Millar went ITP against the Cubs - Sosa hit his little head on the brick/ivy in right as KM circled the bases.

Reminds me of another Marlin who had a very nice yet short stint with the club and fell out of MLB.

 

Matt Turner

When my first son was born in 1994 I wanted to give him the first and middle name of Matthew Turner....the very first Florida Marlins player in their history if I remember correctly.

 

I didn't win...but son # 2 is named Matthew at least.

As for Charles Johnson, he was 2 for 3 with a homerun against Curt Shilling in his debut - the homer coming in his second at bat.

Wasn't his first at bat a pinch hit homer? Something along those lines.

Reminds me of another Marlin who had a very nice yet short stint with the club and fell out of MLB.

 

Matt Turner

When my first son was born in 1994 I wanted to give him the first and middle name of Matthew Turner....the very first Florida Marlins player in their history if I remember correctly.

 

I didn't win...but son # 2 is named Matthew at least. Wasn't Nigel Wilson technically the first Marlin?

Reminds me of another Marlin who had a very nice yet short stint with the club and fell out of MLB.

 

Matt Turner

When my first son was born in 1994 I wanted to give him the first and middle name of Matthew Turner....the very first Florida Marlins player in their history if I remember correctly.

 

I didn't win...but son # 2 is named Matthew at least. Wasn't Nigel Wilson technically the first Marlin? If I remember corectly Matt Turner was the first Marlins player ever signed. Nigel Wilson was the first Marlin taken in te expansion draft, but by that time we have players in the farm system too.

If you wanna get REAL technical, here's the Marlins first player signed, according to the official site:

 

"December 16, 1991: Clemente Nu?ez, a 16-year-old right-handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic, is signed to a minor league contract by scout Edmundo Borrome. The Marlins first player is assigned to the Gulf Coast rookie league."

If you wanna get REAL technical, here's the Marlins first player signed, according to the official site:

 

"December 16, 1991: Clemente Nu?ez, a 16-year-old right-handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic, is signed to a minor league contract by scout Edmundo Borrome. The Marlins first player is assigned to the Gulf Coast rookie league."

Well, Clemente Nunez would have been an odd first/middle name for a Jewish baby born in Boca

Mitch Lyden actually has a baseball card with the Marlins its a 1993 Topps Update. Lyden was signed as a minoe league Free Agent in Dec. 1992 and called up on JUne 2 93 and returned to AAA on the June 25. As for Matt Turner shortly after the Marlins traded him to the Indians for Jeremy Hernandez developed some sort of Cancer. The Indians in a did Turner a tremendous favor when they released him shortly before the STRIKE of 1994. Favor you ask? If he had been on strike he wouldn't have been eligible for medical treatment or pay but because they released him they had to cover his costs. The Indians did this on purpose so that he would be taken care of.

Thank you for that story.

If you wanna get REAL technical, here's the Marlins first player signed, according to the official site:

 

"December 16, 1991: Clemente Nu?ez, a 16-year-old right-handed pitcher from the Dominican Republic, is signed to a minor league contract by scout Edmundo Borrome. The Marlins first player is assigned to the Gulf Coast rookie league."

Well, Clemente Nunez would have been an odd first/middle name for a Jewish baby born in Boca LMFAO it sure would! :lol

Mitch Lyden actually has a baseball card with the Marlins its a 1993 Topps Update. Lyden was signed as a minoe league Free Agent in Dec. 1992 and called up on JUne 2 93 and returned to AAA on the June 25. As for Matt Turner shortly after the Marlins traded him to the Indians for Jeremy Hernandez developed some sort of Cancer. The Indians in a did Turner a tremendous favor when they released him shortly before the STRIKE of 1994. Favor you ask? If he had been on strike he wouldn't have been eligible for medical treatment or pay but because they released him they had to cover his costs. The Indians did this on purpose so that he would be taken care of.

World Class on the part of the Indians