Joshua Baez entered the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field yesterday as a rookie looking for his first big league hit, but he left as a piece of baseball history. The newest addition to the St. Louis Cardinals lineup didn’t just make an impression in his debut against the Chicago Cubs; he dismantled them. In a performance that has left statisticians scrambling, Baez homered in each of his first three plate appearances, marking the first time in Major League Baseball history since 1876 that a player has started their career with such a prolific display of power.
The onslaught began in the very first inning when Baez took the first pitch he ever saw from lefty Matthew Boyd and launched it 449 feet toward center field, nearly clearing the stadium entirely. He wasn’t done yet, adding another blast into the left field bleachers during a full count in the third and completing the hat trick with a towering shot to right in the sixth. By the time the final out was recorded in the Cardinals’ 8-4 victory, Baez had finished 3-for-4 with five RBIs, instantly vaulting himself onto the all-time career home run list alongside figures like Stump Wiedeman.
For Baez, who is 23 years old, this sudden explosion of power is something of a revelation even to those close to him. Throughout five seasons in the minors leading up to this year, he had never surpassed sixteen home runs in a single season. However, things clicked during his tenure with the Triple-A Memphis Red Birds earlier this year, where he smashed 34 homers across 103 games. That surge caught the attention of management and earned him the call-up that led to yesterday’s historic afternoon.
Beyond the statistics, there was a deep emotional current running through Baez’s debut. Surrounded by roughly thirty family members in the stands, he dedicated every swing to his late father, Jose Manuel Baez. Speaking after the game, Baez revealed that playing in the majors had been his father’s lifelong dream and that reaching this level was a promise kept between them. As he prepares for his second career game today, Baez isn’t just fighting for a spot in the lineup; he is chasing historical milestones and honoring a legacy one swing at a time.
