Brew Crew Blasts: Hart Attacks

I apologize for the headline. I figure this week is my last chance to get all the Hart puns in.

With Corey Hart leaving for Seattle this week, I wanted to take a moment to remember some of his most memorable homers as a Brewer. Hart went deep 154 times in his 945 games for Milwaukee, the eleventh most in franchise history.

Starting out

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find video of Hart's first career home run, a blast off Jason Standridge of the Reds in his first appearance of the season on August 14, 2005. Hart hit two homers in the majors that year, then was back in the big leagues for 87 more games and nine home runs in 2006. Here's a link to his first one from that season, a pinch hit blast in a 10-5 Brewers win over the Diamondbacks.

The biggest day

Hart opened the season on the shelf in 2011 and when he came back his power was down, causing him to go homerless in his first 21 games. He rebounded in a big way on May 23, though, going deep three times against the Nationals in an 11-3 Brewers win. You can see all three homers here:

Leading off

It seems like a long time ago now, but Hart was the Brewers' leadoff hitter for much of the 2011 season. He started 62 games batting first that year, and led off a pair of games with home runs. The first one was an absolute bomb, going 443 feet to left center against Barry Enright and the Diamondbacks on July 19.

Going Deep

Hart's longest homer as a Brewer came last year, on May 20, 2012 against the Twins. Hart opened the floodgates for a 16-4 rout with this first inning blast, which traveled 449 feet:

Hart also hit a ball 446 feet against the Reds on May 29, 2009. The 443 foot blast off Barry Enright listed above was his third longest.

Walking off

Hart had four walkoff hits during his Brewers career, tying him for 16th place on the franchise's all-time list. Three of them were homers, meaning Hart has hit almost 4% of the walkoff home runs in franchise history by himself.

Two of them came during Hart's career year in 2010. The first is almost certainly the most notable, as he homered off Ryota Igarashi to break a scoreless tie in a pitching duel between Yovani Gallardo and Johan Santana of the Mets on May 28. Here's the highlight:

Hart had 21 homers at the All Star break that season, and the 21st was also a big one as he walked off with a come-from-behind victory on July 11:

Finally, in what turned out to be Hart's final month as an active Brewer in 2012, he hit his final Brewer walkoff. The Pirates were the victim again this time on September 1:

The last ones

We didn't know it at the time, but Corey Hart's final and second-to-last Brewer home runs came on the same day. On September 29, 2012 he took Dallas Keuchel deep twice for career homers #153 and 154, helping the Brewers to a 9-5 win over the Astros.