So I recently got in an Andrew McCutchen 2021 Stadium Club Members Only card which has an estimated print run of 30 copies.
The design this year follows expectations for what you'd expect from Stadium Club. Full bleed photos ✔
Players name in small print ✔
Team name or city in smaller print ✔
The back follows the model that we have come to expect from Stadium Club as well.
It gives a brief look at the player (birth date, bats/throws, height/weight, and how they became a member of the team)
It also has the standard "counting stats" for both the most recent year and career stats.
What I found most interesting was the writeup on the back.
With a HR on Sept 26, 2020 Cutch joined only 7 other National League players IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME to have double digit homerun totals in each year since they debuted. The list of players to play in the National League to begin their careers and be thought of as power hitters is an impressive bunch.
Hall of Famers like Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson, Chipper Jones, Willie Stargell all came to mind first.
I immediately wanted to know who the other 7 players were.
It would have to be someone to play a long time in the National League and they would have to begin their career in the NL.
Let's start with the NL East
Braves
The Braves have had a lot of power hitters over their cross country travels from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta.
The most notable of course is the former HR King
Hank Aaron ✔
Hammerin' Hank began his career with 21 straight seasons in the National League hitting 10+ HR in a season
Aaron's long time protection at the plate was Eddie Matthew's who clubbed 493 homers for the Braves to begin his career over 15 seasons.
Eddie Matthews ✔
So here we are on the first team and already have 2 of the 7 established just by thinking of Braves All Time Greats.
Speaking of All Time Greats, how about Dale Murphy? Well he unfortunately fell short in collecting 12 seasons to begin his career with 10+HR as he came up as a catcher and smacked only 2 homers in 37 games as a backstop.
Many people forget that before Chipper Jones was the runner up for Rookie of Year in 1995 he made his debut in 1993 before an ACL tear ruined his next 2 seasons.
Andruw Jones, who broke into the majors as a 19 year old only played in less than a quarter season which didn't lend him to enough at bats to start his career with 10+ HR per season.
Marlins
The Marlins aren't known for keeping their players for 12+ years, but they certainly have had some notable power sluggers play in their franchise history. Gary Sheffield and Giancarlo Stanton both stand out and both failed to 1)even play 12 consecutive seasons for a National League team to start their career and 2)collect 10+HR in each season to begin their career
Mets
Darry Strawberry and David Wright only had 9 seasons of 10+HR to begin their careers before substance abuse and injuries derailed their careers.
Mike Piazza, another famous Mets slugger, debuted in 1992 with only 1 HR in 21 games. He would win Rookie of Year award the following season as a member of the Dodgers.
Phillies
Michael Jack Schmidt, Ryan Howard, Dick Allen all went on to have impressive power numbers over their careers, but none of them hit 10+HR in their debut season.
Nationals
Ryan Zimmerman was the Nationals first draft pick, but didn't hit his first homerun until his second season. He rattled off 8 consecutive seasons beginning in his sophmore season.
Bryce Harper, another famous player for the Nationals and current teammate of Cutch, has only played for 10 seasons thus far.
So off the top of my head for the NL East I have
Hank Aaron ✔
Eddie Matthews ✔
Moving to the current NL Central teams
Brewers
The Brewers used to be an American League team so I am only looking at the NL versions of the franchise. There were 2 guys that hit a lot of HR for the team in the mid 2000s. Prince Fielder I knew left for an American League team (Tigers) following his free agency so I'd not have to waste time researching him. The other guy came up around the same time as Prince and won Rookie of Year and MVP votes his first season, Ryan Braun. I knew Braun got caught up in the Biogenesis scandal, but wasn't sure if he collected enough HR in 2013 before being suspended the remainder of the season. He didn't. Braun hit only 9 HR before serving a suspension for the rest of the year. That left him with only a stretch of 6 straight seasons to start a career of 10+HR.
Cubs
Billy Williams played in only 30 games over his first two seasons collecting only 2 HR
Ernie Banks collected only 2HR in his 10 game "cup of coffee" stint in 1953.
Ron Santo got close in his debut season by clubbing 9 HRs and would continue 10+HR the rest of his career, but it was his 95 game debut season that prevented him from double digit homers.
Don't forget that before Ryne Sandberg became a "lifelong" Cub, he was actually a member of the Phillies and got only 6 plate appearances in the 1981 season. It would be difficult to get 10HR in 6 at bats.
Reds
The Reds were a powerhouse in the 70s and were known as the Big Red Machine.
Tony Perez and Johnny Bench didn't become regulars until their fourth and second seasons respectively.
Frank Robinson collected 11 National League seasons of 10+HR, but they weren't in consecutive years as Frank had gone from the Reds to the American League's Orioles before rejoining the National League with the Dodgers.
The more recent Reds teams like Joey Votto and Jay Bruce also failed to collect 12 straight seasons of 10 or more homeruns.
Cardinals
Can you believe that Albert Pujols spent nearly the same amount of time in LA as he did in St. Louis? The 3 time MVP did hit 445 career homeruns in the Arch City, but that was only over 11 seasons, not 12.
Johnny Mize spent 3 years of his prime serving the military, but was still able to collect 12 straight seasons playing in the NL from his MLB debut of 10+HR.
Mize ✔
Stan Musial hit a lot of homeruns, but not in his first season.
Jack Clark was the big bopper of the "Whitey ball era", but his career didn't start off with 12 National League seasons of 10+ HR.
Matt Holliday began his MLB career in Colorado and collected a surprising 11 straight seasons of 10+ HR before an All Star campaign in 2015 cut him short for the rest of the season and ending his streak.
Pirates
Willie Stargell, the franchise leader in HR didnt get his 1st homer until his second season after a 10 game debut season
Dave Parker, much like Stargell didn't get started in the power department until his sophomore season.
Ralph Kiner who was one of the premier power hitters in the late 40s and won SEVEN STRAIGHT Homerun titles, unfortunately retired after only 10 seasons in the league.
We know that Andrew McCutchen made the list and stayed in the National League after his trade from the Pirates to the Giants, but what about another guy who left the Steel City to the bay?
The Home Run King * makes the list too.
Barry Bonds ✔
Ok so off the top of my head I have only 4 of the 7
Hank Aaron
Eddie Matthews
Barry Bonds
Johnny Mize
Who are the other 3? They must be known for their time in the NL West.
Let's take a look at the NL West
Diamondbacks
Paul Goldschmidt, Luis Gonzalez, and Justin Upton are all guys that are most often thought of as the pop in Arizona's playoff teams, but all of them didn't begin their careers with 10+HR from their debut seasons.
Dodgers
As discussed Piazza didnt collect 10+HR in his debut season. Eric Karros who won the Rookie of Year the Year after Piazza suffered the "cup of coffee" problem too.
Steve Garvey didn't get 10 on the board until his 5th season.
What about some other guys to collect a lot of homeruns over their Dodgers career? Were any of these incredible athletes able to hit 10 or more HR to begin their career in the National League?
Duke Snider 👎
Matt Kemp 👎
Jackie Robinson 👎
Ron Cey 👎
Gil Hodges 👎
No no no!
Padres
When I think of power hitters in San Diego, there are only a few names that come to mind: Ken Caminiti (who I know struggled early in his career), Adrian Gonzalez (who made his debut as a Ranger), Gary Sheffield (who debuted in the American League as a Brewer, Dave Winfield (who I know didn't play in the NL long enough to qualify), and Willie McCovey who is more well known for his time in San Francisco.
A quick search proves that McCovey did in fact begin his career with enough HR in 12+ consecutive National League seasons to qualify.
Giants
We already know of two names
Willie McCovey ✔
Barry Bonds ✔
Willie Mays began his career with 20HR then connected for only 4 in 1952 before serving the military the following year.
Will Clark began his career with 8 seasons in San Francisco before heading to an American League team, thus ending the streak.
Orlando Cepeda began his career with a hot streak, but ultimately in 1965 only played in 33 games, collecting only 1 HR ending his 7 year stretch.
Rockies
Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki are the first guys to come to mind. Helton didn't get more than 5 HR until his second season and only had 10 consecutive years. Troy didn't play 12 years in the National League, much to my surprise.
So that makes 5 of the 7 and we went through all of the current National League teams, but have their been National League teams in the past that are no longer associated with a current franchise of the same name?
The forgotten NL Teams
Following up from the Rockies, Larry Walker also was unable to collect 10+HR to begin his career in a NL uniform as a member of the Expos.
Andre Dawson didn't collect his first HR until his second season following his debut.
Astros
Before multiple seasons of tanking and trash banging, the Astros had a few power hitters in their franchise. Jeff Bagwell is the only one to make the list of 12 seasons of 10 or more homeruns to begin their career in the National League. Lance Berkman, Hunter Pence, and Ken Caminiti all fell short.
So here is the list I came up with
Barry Bonds
Hank Aaron
Eddie Matthews
Johnny Mize
Jeff Bagwell
Willie McCovey
That is only 6 players and according to the back of this Stadium Club card there are 7 players to begin their careers in the National League and have 10+ HR in a season for 12 consecutive years. All six of them would go on to have several more seasons of 10+ HR in their careers and with the exception of a * all are Hall of Famers and All Time Greats.
I began looking at the leaderboards of All Time HR leaders, clicking on ANYONE that may have began their career in the National League. It wasn't until the player that is 164th All Time that I came across a name I never heard of, Del Ennis.
Del Ennis began his career playing for his hometown Philadelphia Phillies in 1946. As a 21 year old rookie, Ennis connected for 17HR while batting .313. He made the All Star team and finished the season with an OPS+ of 144, meaning he was better than 44% of the league. He played for the Phillies for 11 seasons collecting 259 round trippers. In the 1957 season, Ennis joined the St. Louis Cardinals and hit 24 balls out of the park, marking 12 straight consecutive seasons. In 1958, Ennis would fail to hit double digit homers for the first time in his career and would retire following the 1959 season.
Ennis failed to reach 13 seasons of 10+HR in the National League to begin a career.
With Cutch already having collected 15 HR in this half season, he has kept pace with the afformentioned Hall of Famers* as he now has 13 seasons of double digit homers.
