100 Homers Brothers

On Friday August 3, 2012 an amazing feat/coincidence took place in baseball as the Upton brothers “B.J.” of the Tampa Bay Rays and Justin of the Arizona Diamondbacks each hit their 100th career home run. On July 20th, the 43 year anniversary of humans walking on the moon, both Uptons sent balls “in flight” that eventually landed as their 99th career home run.

They are the 6th pair of brothers to each reach the 100 home run mark. The other 5 pairs all had some affiliation with the New York Yankees.

The other brother pairs are “Irish” and Bob Meusel, the latter with the Yankees (see our Credits, characters and coincidences July 23rd post). “Irish” Meusel and the New York Giants won 2 of 3 World Series vs the Yankees from (1921-1923.)

Another pair of 100 plus homers, brothers faced each other in the 1964 World Series. Ken Boyer’s Cardinals beating Clete Boyer’s Yankees in 7 games. Both Boyer brothers hit home runs in the 7th game.

The Boone brothers, Brett and Aaron are on the list. Aaron Boone “made like” Hank Aaron and hit an ALCS winning home run in 2003. Hank Aaron also hit a pennant clinching home run. Aaron’s homer clinched the 1957 National League Pennant for the Milwaukee Braves, who went on to beat the Yankees in 7 games in the World Series. After clinching the pennant on Aaron Boone’s homer in 2003, the Yankees lost in 6 games to the Florida Marlins.

Joe and Vince DiMaggio are on the list but another brother Dom DiMaggio, who was a truly fine player, hit only 87 homers. Finally we are stretching the Yankees’ connection a bit with the Alomar brothers, Hall of Famer, Roberto and Sandy Alomar Jr. Their father Sandy Sr. played for the Yankees in the 1970’s.