Remember your 1st homer? Phils take trip down memory lane

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Kyle Schwarber will never forget Danny Salazar, just like Justin Crawford will never forget Jimmy Herget.

Schwarber mentioned that to Crawford on Friday night following the Phillies’ 9-7 loss to the Rockies in 11 innings at Citizens Bank Park. Crawford hit the first home run of his MLB career in the eighth inning. He hit a 1-0 sweeper from Herget just over the right-center-field fence for a game-tying two-out, two-run home run.

“You always remember the name, you always remember the situation,” Schwarber said. “You always remember the pitch. Because you only get so many firsts in the game. You get your first hit. You get your first homer. And then after that, everything just piles on. I even remember my first punchout. You remember all the firsts.”

Crawford got the ball after the game. He exchanged a signed bat and a couple pictures for it.

We’ve asked a few Phillies what they remembered about their first big league home run:

Bryce Harper
Nationals: May 14, 2012, vs. Padres in Washington (solo homer in 3rd inning vs. Tim Stauffer)

“At home on the berm. I was pretty pumped. My first big league homer, my first standing ovation. That was pretty cool. That was one thing when I got there: I was so thankful to have a fanbase that really wanted me. I was thankful for my first standing ‘O’ in my home stadium. Just really cool to share that after the game with my parents and my family who were at the game.”

Don Mattingly
Yankees: June 24, 1983, vs. Red Sox in Boston (solo homer in 3rd inning vs. John Tudor)

“Off a lefty. John Tudor. He tried to run a heater in there, and I just wrapped him around that little [Pesky] Pole out there in right field. It was like a line drive. And it bounced back on the field, so I had to run. I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t 100 percent sure. I thought it was a homer. I don’t know [if I still have the ball]. If I do, it’s in storage somewhere in New Mexico. Not in Indiana. What was that [TV show] -- ‘Storage Wars?’ I can hear that guy going, ‘Yep!’ getting into my storage unit and going, ‘Oh, I hit the jackpot.’”

J.T. Realmuto
Marlins: May 18, 2015, vs. D-backs in Miami (two-run homer in 7th inning vs. Rubby De La Rosa)

“I have the ball at my house. I don’t know where it’s at. My wife makes fun of me because any award I have is stuffed away in a closet in our laundry room. I just don’t want people walking in my house and seeing a shrine of myself. I don’t want that. Because I’d be like, ‘Oh, this guy really likes himself.’ Some of my stuff I gave to my dad or my grandpa. They put it in their house. Anything that’s at my house, it’s put away in a closet. Yeah, I’m not going to put my Gold Glove on my fireplace so everybody sees it. You know, it's just not for me.”

Kyle Schwarber
Cubs: June 18, 2015, vs. Indians in Cleveland (two-run homer in 5th inning vs. Danny Salazar)

“It was my second start, a 3-2 count, a fastball away. It’s funny because I think I had only one opposite-field homer in the Minor Leagues. I remember I hit it and I was like, ‘Ooh.’ I was like, ‘Hit the wall, please. Hit the wall.’ I was not thinking by any means that it would go out. I thought it was going to be caught, so like, hit the wall somehow. I’m sprinting, and all of a sudden, I heard my first-base coach go, ‘Yeah!’ I look up and I just kind of see everyone standing around the wall. So I was like, ‘Oh, it must be a homer.’ I shocked myself a little bit. Talk about unexpected. I didn’t think I was going to go opposite field, especially in Cleveland with that big, high wall.”

Bryson Stott
Phillies: June 3, 2022, vs. Angels in Philadelphia (three-run homer in 2nd inning vs. Chase Silseth)

“First-pitch curveball. I never thought I was going to hit a home run. I think my first foul ball was a home run to right in my debut, and I didn’t sniff another one for 70 at-bats. [Silseth] went to CSN, the College of Southern Nevada. Bryce and I were talking about that, and then I hit a home run off him. I think it was the first game after the [manager Joe Girardi] firing. So running the bases, I didn’t know if I was going to get the silent treatment or if they were going to go crazy. So I just wanted to get back to the dugout. I told Crawford that [Herget] was the guy I hit my first walk-off homer off of [on June 5, 2022].”