Baines slugs his way to Oakland total bases record

The Oakland Coliseum was known as one of the toughest hitters’ parks in baseball history.

But Harold Baines proved to be one of the game’s best hitters when he set a new Oakland Athletics record for total bases.

On May 7, 1991, Baines had a double and three home runs in Oakland’s 11-3 win over Baltimore at what was then called the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The 14 total bases were the most in Oakland A’s history and trailed only Jimmie Foxx’s 16 – set in 1932 when the team was located in Philadelphia – in franchise annals.

“It was just one of those days,” the always understated Baines told the Oakland Tribune. “I don’t consider myself a home run hitter. I’m a line drive hitter. I try to hit the ball to left-center and right center.”

The lefty-swinging Baines began his barrage with a two-run homer to left field off Baltimore starter Ben McDonald in the first inning. He followed that with an RBI double in the third inning, then hit a three-run homer just inside the left field foul pole off reliever Dave Johnson in the fifth. Baines’ two-run blast to center in the sixth inning off Jeff Robinson gave him 14 total bases and made him only the second player – after Reggie Jackson in 1969 – to hit three home runs in a game at the Coliseum.

Baines had a chance to join the elite list of players with four home runs in one game in the eighth but walked on four straight pitches from Bob Milacki.

“If any of (the pitches) would have been strikes, I would have swung at them,” Baines told the Tribune.

Jackson, who worked the game as an announcer for SportsChannel, marveled at Baines’ performance.

“Somebody asked me, when we were doing TV tonight, whether it meant something that Harold hit three homers against three different pitchers,” Jackson told the Tribune. “The way he was swinging, he would have hit three homers against anybody tonight.”

Baines’ seven RBI on the night set a career high, a mark he tied a year later in a June 23 game against the Mariners. Baines finished the 1991 season with 20 homers and 90 RBI.

He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019 following a 22-year career where he totaled 384 home runs and 1,628 RBI.

“You have to take your hat off to him,” Orioles manager Frank Robinson, another Hall of Fame slugger, would say about Baines after his three-homer game. “He’s swinging the bat excellent, and this is what happens when you’re in a groove.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum