100 Home Runs With Three Teams

Yesterday Jim Thome hit his 100^th home run in a Phillies uniform. He became the 24th player in franchise history to hit that many. South Side fans will fondly recall the 134 home runs he hit for the White Sox, which puts him 13^th in team history. And of course, Thome is the Indians all time home run leader, with 337. In addition to being beloved by fans in every city he’s played for, Thome is one of just eight players with 600+ career home runs. In hitting that 100^th blast for Philadelphia, he also joined an even smaller (if somewhat less prestigious) club, becoming just the 4^th player in history to hit at least 100 home runs with three different teams.

Reggie Jackson became the first player to accomplish this feat when he hit his 100^th home run with the Angels in 1985. Jackson retired with 123 home runs with the Angels, good for 10^th place on their all time list. Jackson began his career with the Athletics, where he hit 269 home runs, which puts him 3^rd on the franchise list. Perhaps most famously, Jackson hit 144 home runs with the Yankees. That only puts him 30^th on the team’s all time list, because of course that’s a team that’s hit a lot of home runs over the years.

Two years after Jackson founded the club, Darrell Evans, a criminally underrated player, became the second player to join. Evans began and finished his career with the Braves, for whom he hit 131 home runs, ranking him 16^th in franchise history. Evans went from Atlanta to San Francisco and hit 142 balls out of the park for the Giants, enough to place 17^th on the team’s all time list. A month before his 37^th birthday, Evans joined the Tigers. He still had enough gas in the tank to hit 141 home runs for them (his 100^th came in 1987), putting him 21^st in team history.

Alex Rodriguez was the third player to do it; his 100^th home run with the Yankees came in 2006. A-Rod is now up to 294 and counting for the Yankees, good for 6^th in team history. Rodriguez came to New York from Texas; he still stands in 7^th place for the Rangers with 156 blasts for them. Rodriguez began his career with the Mariners, where as a young superstar he blasted 189 home runs, still enough to put him in 4^th place on the franchise list. Rodriguez and Fred McGriff are the only players in the top ten in home runs for three different teams (McGriff has the advantage of having played for the Rays and Padres, for whom it takes less than 100 home runs to make the top ten).

Here is the complete 3 x 100 Home Runs Club:

Member Since

Athletics269Yankees144Angels123

1985

Giants142Tigers141Braves131

1987

Yankees294*Mariners189Rangers156

2006

Indians337White Sox134Phillies100*

2012

*currently with team