It’s always fun listening to popular radio and television baseball announcer Duane Kuiper on the game broadcasts for San Francisco Giants.
Kuiper was doing the TV broadcast when Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run in 2007, which is a bit ironic since the former second baseman only hit one long ball in his big league career. He called it quite well, but just not from his baseball career experience.
In 12 seasons with the Cleveland Indians (1974-81) and the Giants (1982-85), Kuiper established a major league record with with the most plate appearances (3,754) and just one home run.
That solo home run came for Cleveland in 1977 off future Cy Young Award winner Steve Stone of the Chicago White Sox as the Indians won 9-2.
After Stone retired the leadoff batter Paul Dade, Kuiper drilled his shot to right and the Indians were on their way to the victory.
While Kuiper may have lacked power, he is one of three players to accomplish the unique feat of hitting a pair bases loaded triples in a game on July 27, 1978.
There were a lot of runs scored during a Thursday afternoon doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.
New York blasted Cleveland 11-0 during the make up affair in the opener, while Kuiper led the charge in the second contest won by the Indians 17-5.
The Indians scored nine times in the first inning as Catfish Hunter started for the Yankees facing six hitters. He gave up three hits and three walks as all six would eventually score.
The eighth batter in the lineup for the Indians, Kuiper smacked a triple with the bases loaded off Bob Kammeyer to give his team a 7-0 advantage.
With Kammeyer still on the mound in the fifth, Kuiper hit another triple that produced three runs as the Indians then led 15-0.
Kuiper added a single in the eighth off Sparky Lyle for his third hit of the contest.
In an Associated Press story in the Akron Beacon Journal the next day, Kuiper discussed knocking in six runs.
“I don’t think I ever drove in that many runs in a game in Little League,” he said. “I don’t ever expect to lead the league in total bases, so a day like this is kind of special to me.”
The Others
Kuiper was able share the glory with Elmer Valo and Bill Bruton, who preceded him in the act.
An interesting fact about the trio was the each had more career triples that homers and that all three games occurred as part of a doubleheader.
It was easy for Kuiper as he surpassed his homer total in one game, but overall he had 29 triples and a .271 career batting average.
Valo was with the Philadelphia A’s when led his team to a 15-9 win in the first game of a twinbill against the Washington Senators on May 1, 1949. He added a single in the second game as the A’s won 7-3.
The left fielder picked up his first triple off Joe Haynes in the third inning. In the seventh, Valo’s three-run shot against Dick Welteroth tied the game at 8-8. With his fourth hit of the game, he added a RBI single off Ed Klieman as part of a rally in the eighth as the A’s put the game away.
Valo played in the majors for 21 seasons from 1940-61 mostly for the A’s in Philadelphia and Kansas City.
In addition to the A’s, he also spent time with two other franchises that moved while he was on the team in the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins. He rounded out his big league career with the Philadelphia Phillies, Indians and Yankees.
Overall, Valo had 73 triples and 58 homers and a .282 batting average. He had a career-high 12 triples in 1949.
Bruton was the most successful of the group as he was in the big leagues for 12 years with the Milwaukee Braves (1953-60) and Detroit Tigers (1961-64).
The outfielder topped the National League in triples in 1956 with 15 and 1960 with 13. He also led the NL in stolen bases from 1953-55 with totals of 26, 34 and 25. The Braves also won the World Series in 1957.
In 1959, Bruton became the second player to hit a pair of bases loaded triples in one game as the Braves beat St. Louis 11-5 on Aug. 2. Milwaukee won the opener 4-3 as Bruton had a RBI single.
A left handed batter, Bruton tagged Vinegar Bend Mizell and Dean Stone who were both lefties. He got Mizell in the first inning after Hank Aaron‘s RBI single, which put the Braves on top 4-0.
His second three-bagger came in the sixth against Stone as the Braves broke the game open.
One difference in Bruton’s feat and those of Valo and Kuiper was that the same three runners scored both times for the Braves. Aaron, Joe Adcock and Andy Pafko were each on base for Bruton’s hits.
In his career, Bruton had 102 triples and 94 homers with a lifetime average of .273.