Eutaw Street Chronicles
April 24, 2013
Brady Anderson's first Eutaw Street home run in 1996 came amidst a career year for power in which he hit 50 home runs, twice as many as any other season, and posted his best totals for RBI (110), slugging percentage (.637) and OPS (1.034) for the wild card Orioles. Two years later, it was a different story.
If you've watched an Orioles broadcast, you know how difficult it can be to determine where a Camden Yards home run will land once it sails off in the direction of the out-of-town scoreboard. A safe phrase to use, some version of which has been employed regularly by the home broadcast team, is "that one might reach Eutaw Street."
Toronto\'s Eric Thames hit the 58th Eutaw Street home run Tuesday night, a third-inning blast off Orioles right-hander Tommy Hunter that one-hopped the Warehouse. Thames is the first player to reach Eutaw Street since the Yankees\' Nick Swisher did so, also against Hunter, on Aug. 26, 2011.
Thames is the third Blue Jay to reach Eutaw Street - Carlos Delgado was the first on June 21, 1998, followed by Eric Hinske on Aug. 22, 2004.
Carlos Santana of the Cleveland Indians has yet to play 162 games in his two-year career.
Lance Berkman hit the longest Eutaw Street home run in Camden Yards history on Thursday night. Berkman's seventh-inning blast off Alfredo Simon traveled an estimated 444 feet. Henry Rodriguez's 443-foot homer on June 17, 1997, was the previous long.
Luke Scott has tied Rafael Palmeiro for the most Eutaw Street home runs in Camden Yards history with five.
Scott's 426-foot blast off Josh Beckett in the fourth inning on Wednesday was his longest Eutaw Street homer, beating his previous best of 420 feet against the Tiger's Freddy Dolsi on July 19, 2008. In an interview after Wednesday's game, Scott estimated that his longest Eutaw Street homer was against Fausto Carmona. That shot, on Sept. 8, 2008, was actually his third-longest at 415 feet.
It is the longest Eutaw Street home run and the only one to have been hit by a player for a team that no longer exists. On June 17, 1997, Henry Rodriguez of the Montreal Expos drove a Scott Kamienicki offering 443 feet to right field and hit the canopy over Boog's Barbecue. The long solo shot was part of a fourth-inning rally that tied the game at 3, but the Orioles ultimately won 5-4 to end a 10-game Expos winning streak in the inaugural season of Interleague play.
Rafael Palmeiro’s five Eutaw Street home runs are the most in the history of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He got two of them in the same game on April 11, 1997. Palmeiro sent the baseballs a combined 819 feet, pushing the Orioles to a 9-3 victory over the Texas Rangers in the early stages of what became a wire-to-wire run for the Birds in the American League East.