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What is an Inside-The-Park Home Run?

Dan Cavallari
Dan Cavallari

In recent years, much emphasis has been placed on the home run in professional baseball, both as a spectacle for fans and for record-chasing athletes. Indeed, as one -the more exciting facets of the game, the home run has found favor with fans and players alike, but one of the less common types of home runs has become rarer and rarer as the game has evolved: the inside the park home run is a home run in which the batter does not actually hit the ball out of play, but rather manages to run around the bases and score before the fielders can tag him out.

The inside the park home run was far more common during baseball’s dead-ball era, or the time period between 1900 and 1920, right around the time Babe Ruth began power-hitting. The dead-ball era featured lower scoring games and fewer home runs, but the inside the park home run was more common – partly because stadiums were much larger and had more area to their outfields, allowing batters to capitalize when fielders had to run great distances to field the ball. A batter would have to touch every base, just like a single, double, or triple, and reach home plate in order to score an inside the park home run.

An inside the park homerun involves a batter advancing through the bases and back to home without hitting the ball out of the playing area.
An inside the park homerun involves a batter advancing through the bases and back to home without hitting the ball out of the playing area.

While less common today, inside the park home runs do still happen. An odd bounce off an outfield fence might lead to such a home run; more common, however, is a situation in which two outfielders try to field the same fly ball and end up either colliding or allowing the ball to drop and roll past them, allowing the batter time to round the bases. An inside the park home run is also possible if a fielder misplays a ball and it wanders into a part of the field unattended by any player. Because ballparks are typically smaller today than they have been historically, the occurrence of inside the park home runs has dwindled significantly.

Ty Cobb holds the American League record for most inside the park home runs in a career with 46.
Ty Cobb holds the American League record for most inside the park home runs in a career with 46.

Ty Cobb holds the American League record for career inside the park home runs with 46, and he led the league in home runs in 1909 – all nine were inside the park. He was the first and only player in the modern era to lead the league in home runs without actually hitting a ball out of the park. An inside the park grand slam home run is even rarer; Honus Wagner holds the career record for inside the park grand slam home runs with five.

Discussion Comments

umbra21

@croydon - Baseball is still pretty popular though. That's probably one of the reasons the field is smaller now, because they want the audience to get closer to the action and they want to be able to pack more of them into the stadium.

I don't think the inside the park home run record will ever be broken now, but at least it would give the players something else to aim for.

It seems like they are waiting on a different player to break a different record almost every week.

croydon

An in side the park home run must be much more exciting to fans than an out of the park home run though, so it's a shame that the ball parks are smaller now.

If you are watching a game and someone hits the ball out of the park it might be exciting or make you happy or angry depending on who hit it. But, the player running around the plates would have no urgency.

Now with a ball inside the park, that requires urgency. The hitter doesn't know when the ball is going to be retrieved, and every stride counts.

Maybe that's why baseball was more popular back then?

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    • An inside the park homerun involves a batter advancing through the bases and back to home without hitting the ball out of the playing area.
      By: Actionpics
      An inside the park homerun involves a batter advancing through the bases and back to home without hitting the ball out of the playing area.
    • Ty Cobb holds the American League record for most inside the park home runs in a career with 46.
      Ty Cobb holds the American League record for most inside the park home runs in a career with 46.
    • An inside-the-park home run is one of the most exciting plays in baseball, and usually ends with a player sliding into home plate.
      By: steven hendricks
      An inside-the-park home run is one of the most exciting plays in baseball, and usually ends with a player sliding into home plate.