Eighteen-Year-Old Mel Ott Hits His First Major League Home Run

On July 27, 1927, Mel Ott of the New York Giants hit the first home run of his major league career, an inside-the-park round-tripper. He was 18 years old. It would be the only inside-the-park home run among the 511 he hit over 22 seasons, all of them spent with the Giants.

Ott had arrived in New York as a 16-year-old from Gretna, Louisiana, in 1926 after Giants owner Charles Stoneham and manager John McGraw saw the teenager during a tryout. McGraw recognized something unusual in the left-handed hitter's swing and refused to send him to the minor leagues, fearing that a minor league manager would try to change his unorthodox batting stance. Ott stood at the plate and lifted his front foot high before striding into the pitch, a distinctive leg kick that became his signature.

McGraw kept Ott on the big league bench for two years, letting him learn by watching and taking occasional at-bats as a pinch hitter. The patience paid off. By 1928, Ott was a regular outfielder. By 1929, at age 20, he hit 42 home runs and drove in 151 runs, establishing himself as one of the most dangerous hitters in the National League.

The short right-field porch at the Polo Grounds, just 258 feet down the line, was perfectly suited to Ott's left-handed pull swing. He led the National League in home runs six times and drove in more than 100 runs nine times. He was a 12-time All-Star and won the National League home run title in 1932, 1934, 1936, 1937, 1938, and 1942.

Ott retired as a player after the 1947 season with 511 career home runs, the National League record at the time. He held that mark until Willie Mays passed him in 1967. Ott also managed the Giants from 1942 through 1948, compiling a 464-530 record before being replaced by the man who had once said nice guys like Ott finish last, Leo Durocher.

He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951. The kid from Louisiana who lifted his leg and launched an inside-the-park homer on a July day in 1927 had grown into one of the greatest sluggers the National League has ever produced.