On May 10th, 1967, Hank Aaron hit the only inside the park homer of his career. In the 8th inning with Jim Bunning pitching, Aaron hit a drive to deep centerfield and beat the relay home. So for those scoring at home, of his 755 home runs, only this one did not clear the fence.

The inside the park homer is the most exciting play in baseball. It is also the rarest. In fact, it is possible for a fan to go to Major League games their whole life and never see one in person.

A lot of things have to happen to make an inside the park home run happen. Chief among the factors though has to be the speed of the hitter as a baserunner. Chances are that Kyle Schwarber and Aaron Judge are not going to hit an inside the park home run.

But speed is not enough. Rickey Henderson, the anti-Schwarber, only had one inside the park homer in his career.

There also needs to be degree of luck.

On October 4th, 1986, former Minnesota Twins shortstop Greg Gagne actually hit two inside the park home runs in the same game! Gagne had the kind of base running speed needed. That day he also had the good fortune of playing in Old Comiskey Park, a park built in 1910.

Inside the park home runs were common before 1920. In 1901, Sam Crawford hit 12. In. 1909, Ty Cobb hit 9 (he hit 46 in his career). Once Babe Ruth showed that fans liked to see baseballs hit over fences, ballparks got smaller and inside the park home runs declined, dramatically.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we started building bigger ballparks where it would he harder to hit a ball over the fence. There would be more doubles and triples and more base running. Lumbering defensive outfielders like Aaron Judge would need to become first baseman. It would be a different game. Maybe a better game.