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Whompin' Wilmer Flores is now up to 11 dingers on the year, on pace for 20 or so, and at 164 for his career, he is tied with…
Hank Bauer, who won many a World Series for the Yanks and one managing the O's
Eduardo Escobar, who gave us a cycle and a PotM for September '22
Chick Hafey, a Hall of Famer despite being so near-sighted he "couldn't read the signs in the train station without his glasses"
Jim Lemon, who snuck more than a few out of the park when pitchers facing the SenaTwins were tired of dealing with Killer and Bob Allison
Miguel Sanó, who got off to a hot start (a 40+ season early on, IIRC)
Andy Seminick, catcher for the Whiz Kids
B.J. Upton, former #2 overall pick, the 2nd best hitter ever actually named "Melvin", and big brother of Justin, who sent the Mets to their historic choke in the "God Cries for Wilmer Flores" game that was #2 of the Five Days in Flushing.
Andy Van Slyke, who beat the Mets a good amount of time, as both Cardinal and Bucco
And Claudell Washington, who had a 3-homer game with the Mets in 1980 (at Dodger Stadium) and who was on the other bench when the Mets had their famous July 4th Marathon in Atlanta, 40 years ago.
(Yes, I forgot to mark the anniversary on Friday. Sorry!)
More importantly, Wilmer is now only one dinger behind the other story of the Five Days, Yoenis "Man on Horseback" Cespedes!
(And only two behind Josh Gibson, who despite hundreds of stories of hundreds of possibly-apocryphal home runs, apparently only ever hit 166 HRs in official Negro National League games. Huh.)
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