Forty-nine years ago, Dave McKay became the first Canadian to homer in their first MLB at bat

August 22, 2024

By Kevin Glew

Cooperstowners in Canada

After Dave McKay was told he was being called up by the Minnesota Twins from the triple-A Tacoma Twins in August 1975, Tacoma player-coach Rick Renick, who had belted a home run in his first big league at bat, jokingly told McKay that he expected him to do the same.

And McKay didn’t disappoint.

On August 22, 1975 – 49 years ago today – McKay walked to the plate in the third inning promptly knocked the second pitch he saw from Detroit Tigers right-hander Vern Ruhle over the left-field wall at Metropolitan Stadium.

With that, McKay became the 42nd player in major league history to homer in their first at bat – and the first – and still only Canadian – to accomplish the feat.

“I didn’t think it would go out,” McKay told The Minneapolis Star about the homer after the game. “The wind was blowing in from left field and I thought the ball would drop and hit the fence for a double. Then, as I rounded first, I saw the umpire signal home run, and I thought of Renick.”

When McKay returned to the dugout, he got the silent treatment from his teammates.

“At first, I was surprised,” McKay told the Minneapolis Star about the silent treatment. “But I knew what was going on because I’ve seen it before in the minors. It was my initiation.”

McKay managed to retrieve the home run ball, and when he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys, Ont., in 2001, he donated it to their collection.

Signed as an amateur free agent by the Twins in 1971, McKay would play parts of two seasons with them before being selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1976 MLB Expansion Draft.

On April 7, 1977, McKay started at third base for the Blue Jays in their first regular season game to become the first Canadian to suit up for the Blue Jays. He went 2-for-4 and had the game-winning RBI in the Blue Jays’ 9-5 win over the Chicago White Sox on that snowy day at Exhibition Stadium.

After spending parts of three seasons with the Blue Jays, McKay finished his big-league playing career with three campaigns in Oakland before accepting a coaching position with the A’s. When Tony La Russa was named the A’s manager in 1986, McKay was retained as a coach.

McKay worked on La Russa’s staff for more than two decades and moved with the Hall of Fame skipper to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1996. One of the game’s hardest working coaches, McKay owns three World Series rings, securing one in 1989 with Oakland and two with St. Louis (2006, 2011).

After La Russa retired, McKay served as the first base coach with the Chicago Cubs in 2012 and 2013 and was named to the same post with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014. He continues in that role today.

Combining his time as a coach and a player, McKay is in his 54th season in professional baseball.