With walk-off homer, Giants’ Mike Yastrzemski joins his grandfather in exclusive club
The Giants' Mike Yastrzemski is one of only a handful of players whose grandfather also played in the major leagues.
Mike Yastrzemski not only boosted the Giants on Sunday with a walk-off home run — his first as a major leaguer — but he may have inspired a Final Jeopardy! clue.
Q: On July 21, 2019, Mike Yastrzemski hit a walk-off home run to lift the Giants over the Mets. Carl Yastrzemski, Mike’s grandfather, hit four walk-offs in his Hall of Fame career. Are these the only grandfather and grandson to both hit major league walk-offs?
Player 1: “Yes.”
Alex: “That is incorrect, and you lose everything.”
Player 2: “Yes.”
Alex: (exhales dramatically). “That, too, is wrong, and you lose everything.”
Player 3: “No. They were the third three-generational duo to both hit a walk-off home run in the major leagues.
Alex: “You cheated. There’s no way you could know this.”
Player 3: “Ray Boone and his grandsons Bret and Aaron combined for 13 walk-off home runs. One of Aaron’s won Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS for the Yankees. Dick Schofield and grandson Jayson Werth combined for three. The Yastrzemskis have teamed for five.”
Cue the Jeopardy! outro. Let’s take this discussion down to the Trivial Pursuit level.
* According to baseball-reference.com, there have been 19,598 (and counting) players in major league history. According to baseball-almanac, 237 sons of major league players played themselves. Those are 1-in 82.3 odds of making the show..
* Those 237 sons of big leaguers produced nine big leaguers. So those are 1-in-26.3 odds of making the show.
* Only one three-generational MLB family was comprised of pitchers: Joe Coleman, Joe Coleman, and Casey Coleman.
* Gus Bell was the patriarch of the MLB Bell cluster. His final career walk-off, in 1956, was also his final career home run.
* Ray Boone and his grandson Bret both homered on July 23 — 42 years apart.