On this day in 1998 a new era in Brewer baseball kicked off in front of just 14,832 people on a Friday night at 3Com Park in San Francisco. The Brewers beat the Giants 7-5 to improve to 15-6 on the young season that night, and 23-year-old rookie outfielder Geoff Jenkins went 2-for-4 with a home run in his major league debut.
The Brewers had drafted Jenkins with the #9 overall pick three years earlier, and Baseball America listed him as the 95th best prospect in all of baseball before the 1998 season. Jenkins dominated the AAA level that year, hitting .330/.381/.512 for Louisville. He's still the only Brewer ever to homer in his major league debut, and the fifth inning solo shot scored the game-winning run for the Crew.
Jenkins went on to hit nine home runs for the Brewers that season, and 203 more over the nine years that followed to move into second on the Brewer all time list. He's still third on that list, behind only Robin Yount (251) and Prince Fielder (230).
With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:
- 2001 Brewer Will Cunnane, who turns 38.
- 1989-90 Brewer Bill Krueger, who turns 54.
Today is also the 25th anniversary of Teddy Higuera setting a Brewer franchise record by picking up the win in his first four appearances of the 1987 season. We covered that event in this space last year.
It's also the eighth anniversary of the only major league appearance of Chris Saenz. I don't think anyone has ever covered that moment better than Fatter than Joey.