Baseball may no longer have its place as America's favorite sport thanks to football, but the first smells of grass, pops of the glove, and cracks of the bat remain a gala occasion on Major League Baseball's Opening Day. The first week of NFL football can't even compare.
The longest season in North American sports is set to begin March 26 and will run through late October. And while it's fun to look ahead to the fall and make predictions on which teams will play for the World Series, we're going to focus on the front end: Opening Day.
March 26, 2026, will mark the beginning of the 150th year of MLB action. It's a long, illustrious and, yes, occasionally shameful history. It's appropriately American. Over those 150 years of Opening Days, we've witnessed some iconic performances. Here's a look at some of the most memorable when it comes to baseball's favorite play: the home run.
These are the players who have hit the most Opening Day home runs in those 149 previous years.
Carl Yastrzemski (6)
There may be 15 players on this list who have hit six or more home runs on Opening Day in Major League history. That number drops to six players, though, when counting those who did it in three different decades. The man they called "Yaz" made the trip around the bases in 1963, 1968, 1973, 1974, and 1980. If you're counting and see only five, it's because in ‘68 he hit two in the same game, one of which was an inside-the-park job.
Dave Winfield (6)
It didn't take long to see Yaz's mate on the Three Different Decades list as Winfield went yard on Opening Day in 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1993, and 1994. The dingers came with three different teams as Winfield broke into the Bigs in the 1970s with the San Diego Padres before joining the New York Yankees from 1981 to 1990 and finishing his homer-happy-opening days during his only two seasons with the Minnesota Twins.
Scott Rolen (6)
Make it there in a row for the Three Different Decades club as Rolen, like Winfield, did it with three different teams. He went yard with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1999, the St. Louis Cardinals in 2002, and the Cincinnati Reds in 2010. In all, three came with the Phils, two with the Cards, and one in Cincinnati. It's nice symmetry with the Hall of Famers' time in each city, as he played seven years in Philly, six in St. Louis, and four in Cincy.
Brooks Robinson (6)
Robinson, like Rolen, is considered one of the best defensive third basemen ever to play the game. Most, even, list Robinson as the absolute best to do it at the hot corner. He wasn't an elite home-run hitter, but 268 isn't a small number, either, especially considering he hit just 47 combined in the first five years and last six years of his career. Robinson's first Opening Day homer came in 1964, the year he won American League Most Valuable Player, while his final came in 1973, his penultimate All-Star season.
Tyler O'Neill (6)
Perhaps the most unexpected name on this list - though the next player here carries an argument, too - O'Neill might also be one of the most famous right now. The Canadian outfielder is in the midst of a six-year stretch of Opening Day home runs, having hit his first with the Cardinals in 2020. O'Neill already holds the record for most consecutive homers on the first day of the season and could make it seven as he's expected to be the Baltimore Orioles' primary right fielder this season.
Richie Hebner (6)
Hebner played 18 seasons in the Bigs and made zero All-Star games, but he was a solid corner infielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1969 to 1976 before playing with five other teams before returning in 1985. Hebner's 1.542 on-base-plus-slugging percentage on Opening Day ranks as the highest in MLB history. He hit his first two Opening Day home runs in 1974 and hit his last in 1981 with the Detroit Tigers.
Bryce Harper (6)
Harper joins O'Neill as the only two active players on this list. He snapped a seven-season streak without an Opening Day home run last year when he went deep for the Phillies against his old team, the Washington Nationals. With the Nats, Harper hit homers for three straight seasons from 2015 to 2017, but hadn't since. He'll get a chance to make it seven on March 26 against the Texas Rangers.
Gary Carter (6)
From here on out, it's all Hall of Famers, save one. The list starts with Carter, though we're going to start with his last one. In 1985, Carter went yard against the St. Louis Cardinals in walk-off fashion. The Cardinals went on to win the World Series that year and the Mets did it the next season. Before that, the top catcher on this list went deep in four straight years, from 1977 to 1980, all of which came on the road while Carter played for the Montreal Expos.
Barry Bonds (6)
With normal players, a 1.209 Opening Day OPS would be something at which to marvel. And while it's impressive, consider it was just slightly above average for Bonds, who retired after the 2007 season with a 1.051 mark over the course of his career. Bonds' most memorable Opening Day home run came in 2001 against the San Diego Padres. Later that year, the San Francisco Giants outfielder set the MLB single-season home-run record with 73.
Babe Ruth (7)
Ruth isn't a surprise here, huh? Nor are you likely surprised he's a member of the Three-Decade club. The question is whether you can name the non-New York Yankees or non-Boston Red Sox team with which Ruth went deep on Opening Day. Kudos if you knew it was the Boston Braves without looking it up. Ruth finished his career with the Braves in 1935. He played in just 28 games.
Willie Mays (7)
The most fun Opening Day fact about Mays is that the Giants went 7-0 in games where the greatest franchise player in club history went yard. He hit his first in 1954 and his last in 1971. His biggest day was in 1964 - making Mays another member of the Three-Decade club - when he hit two home runs against the San Diego Padres.
Eddie Mathews (7)
Mathews was the anti-Mays early as the Braves' corner infielder's first two games were two-homer games his team lost in 1954 and 1958. But Mathews went yard again in 1959, 1961, and 1965, his last year with the Milwaukee Braves, which, at the time, tied Ruth for the most in baseball history.
Frank Robinson (8)
Robinson was the first to break Ruth's and Mathews' record as he went deep at age 39 in 1975, his second-to-last season in the Bigs. Before that, Robinson hit three with the Reds, three with the Orioles, and one with the California Angels before capping things as a player-manager with the then-Cleveland Indians in ‘75.
Ken Griffey Jr. (8)
Griffey is the last Hall of Famer on the list and he came so close to becoming the only player on the list to hit all his Opening Day home runs in the same decade. His eighth came with Seattle Mariners in 2009. Griffey also joins only Mathews, Mays, Yaz, and Brooks Robinson to hit five or more Opening Day home runs all with the same team. Griffey first did it as a 19-year-old in 1990 and finished the decade with three straight seasons of going deep in the opener.
Adam Dunn (8)
Dunn joined the eight-homer club in 2012 at the start of the final All-Star season of his career with the Chicago White Sox. Five of Dunn's eight Opening Day home runs came when he played for the Reds and in the band-box that is Great American Ball Park. He hit two two-homer games: 2005 and 2007, and hit another Opening Day shot in 2006.
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