On September 8, 1998, the Philadelphia Phillies hosted the New York Mets at Veterans Stadium in a game that had no business staying entertaining past the third inning. Philadelphia won 16-4, and along the way the Phillies set a single game franchise record with seven home runs. Buried inside that record setting outburst was a smaller, more personal piece of history. A rookie named Marlon Anderson stepped in to pinch-hit in the seventh inning and drove the first pitch he saw in the major leagues over the fence.

A Blowout From the Start

The game drew 18,661 fans on a Tuesday night and took just under three hours to play. It did not take long to turn lopsided. The Phillies scored three runs in the first inning, then broke it open with five more in the third. New York starter Hideo Nomo, who had been traded to the Mets from Milwaukee less than two weeks earlier, took the loss and fell to 6-12 on the season. Paul Byrd worked into the later innings for Philadelphia and picked up the win, improving to 3-2. By the time the final line score was tallied, the Phillies had piled up 17 hits and 16 runs against a Mets team that managed 11 hits and 4 runs of its own, two of them courtesy of a pair of home runs from outfielder Jermaine Allensworth. Between both teams, nine home runs left the yard that night, a number that would have been remarkable on its own even without what Philadelphia did to the record book.

First baseman Rico Brogna hit two of the Phillies’ seven home runs. Brogna was in the middle of a career year in 1998, finishing with 20 home runs and 104 RBI, the first 100 RBI season by a Phillies first baseman since Bill White managed the feat in 1966. His two homers against the Mets were part of a much larger story about a player who had quietly become one of the more productive run producers in the National League that summer.

Utility man Kevin Sefcik also hit two home runs that night, which is notable mostly because of how unlike him it was. Sefcik spent parts of seven major league seasons, all but a handful of games with the Phillies, and finished his career with just six home runs total. A third of his career power output came in this single game against the Mets, a fact that made his contribution to the record setting night almost as improbable as Anderson’s debut.

Backup catcher Bobby Estalella provided the third pair of home runs. Estalella was a streaky, low average hitter who batted just .188 in 47 games for the Phillies in 1998, but he had legitimate raw power and a flair for headline making performances. A year earlier, in September 1997, he had hit three home runs in a game in just his tenth career appearance, at the time the fastest any player had ever reached a three homer game to begin a career. His two homers against the Mets fit a pattern for a hitter who rarely did anything with the bat quietly.

Marlon Anderson’s Storybook First At Bat

The seventh Phillies home run belonged to Anderson, and it came under circumstances no scout could have scripted. Called on to pinch-hit in the bottom of the seventh, Anderson faced Mets reliever Mel Rojas and hit a two run homer on the very first pitch he saw as a major leaguer. It made him just the 14th player in major league history, and only the sixth in the National League, to homer in his first career at-bat as a pinch hitter. No Phillie had done it since Ed Sanicki managed the trick on September 14, 1949, nearly half a century earlier.

Anderson arrived in the majors with a strong pedigree inside the organization, even if he was not a nationally famous prospect. The Phillies had drafted him in the second round, 42nd overall, out of the University of South Alabama in 1995. He spent 1998 with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate, and had one of the best seasons in the International League that year. Anderson hit .306 with 32 doubles, 14 triples, 16 home runs, 86 RBI, and 24 stolen bases in 136 games, leading the league in both hits and triples with 62 total extra base hits. He was named International League Rookie of the Year for his effort.

Scouts at the time described him as a hitter with good bat to ball skills and speed, though his defense at second base was considered a little stiff and his plate discipline needed work for a player projected to hit near the top of a lineup. None of that mattered for one swing in September. He simply turned on a first pitch fastball and gave Philadelphia its seventh home run of the night.

A Record Night and What Came After

The seven home run outburst stood as the Phillies’ single game record for years afterward, a testament to how unusual it was for four different hitters, none of them a traditional middle of the order slugger except Brogna, to all leave the yard on the same night. For Anderson, the debut was the beginning of a major league career that stretched over parts of twelve seasons.

Anderson went on to play for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets after his years in Philadelphia, finishing with a .265 career batting average and 371 RBI. He never quite matched the drama of that first swing again, but he did not need to. On a night when the Phillies were setting franchise history with their bats, an unknown rookie wrote his own chapter with a single pitch.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for September 8

  • September 8, 1916 – Catcher/outfielder Wally Schang became the first switch-hitter in major league history to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game, going deep right-handed off Allen Russell and left-handed off Slim Love as the A’s beat the Yankees 8-2 at Shibe Park in front of a tiny crowd (attendance 25).
  • September 8, 1921 – The Braves’ Joe Oeschger struck out the side on nine pitches in the fourth inning, fanning Bevo LeBourveau, Cy Williams, and Ed Konetchy. The Phillies got the last laugh, though, scoring eight runs in the ninth for an 8-6 win.
  • September 8, 1926 – With the game tied and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Cy Williams hit a walk-off grand slam for an 8-4 win over Brooklyn — the third two-out, game-ending slam of his career, a major-league record at the time.
  • September 8, 1954 – Richie Ashburn fouled off 14 straight pitches against Cincinnati’s Corky Valentine, all after working a 3-2 count.
  • September 8, 1963 – Warren Spahn beat the Phillies to collect his 13th 20-win season, setting a record for the oldest pitcher (age 42) to do so.
  • September 8, 1977 – Lost Bill Nahorodny on waivers to Chicago (AL).
  • September 8, 1987 – Juan Samuel led off against New York with a home run off Sid Fernandez, his 7th career leadoff homer, a team record.
  • September 8, 1993 – Sent Doug Lindsey to Chicago (AL) to complete the September 1, 1993 trade for Donn Pall.
  • September 8, 1996 – Calvin Maduro made his major-league debut, becoming the first native of Aruba to pitch in the majors.
  • September 8, 2004 – Released Paul Abbott.
  • September 8, 2009 – The Phillies beat Washington 5-3 with every run coming via solo home run, setting a team mark for most runs scored solely on solo shots.
  • [Phillies] September 8, 2013 – Cole Hamels allowed just two hits over eight innings, both homers to Atlanta’s Evan Gattis — one traveling a Citizens Bank Park-record 486 feet — but the Phillies won 3-2.

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for September 8

  • Deke White (born 1872) – A left-handed pitcher who made his entire three-game major-league career with the Phillies in September 1895, going 1-0.
  • Al Demaree (born 1884) – “Steamer Al” pitched for the Phillies in 1915-1916 after a trade from the Giants, winning 14 games in 1915 and 19 in 1916; he later gained fame as a baseball cartoonist.
  • Johnny Schulte (born 1896) – A backup catcher who played for the Phillies in 1928 before going on to a long coaching career, most notably as a New York Yankees coach under Joe McCarthy from 1934-1948.
  • Len Gabrielson (born 1915) – A first baseman who appeared in five games for the Phillies in 1939; his son, also named Len Gabrielson, went on to a nine-year MLB outfield career.
  • Al Pardo (born 1962) – A backup catcher who closed out his MLB career with the Phillies in 1988-1989 after beginning it with the Orioles.
  • Nick Williams (born 1993) – An outfielder who played for the Phillies from 2017-2019, hitting .288 with 12 home runs as a rookie in 2017 and setting a franchise mark for RBI in a player’s first 20 games.

Please scroll down to comment on this story or to give it a rating. We appreciate your feedback!

PBN Logo

Disclaimer: Some of the products featured or linked on this website may generate income for Philly Baseball News through affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or direct sales. We only promote items we believe in, but please assume that PBN may earn a cut from qualifying purchases that you make using a link on this site.

Privacy Policy | Contact us

© 2026 LV Sports Media. All rights reserved.