Baltimore Orioles star Gunnar Henderson won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2023. It seems like the Orioles shortstop is in pursuit of a lot more in his second year in the big leagues.
Henderson has been a home-run hitting machine this year. The slugging shortstop has posted double-digit home runs already as we enter the month of June.
Henderson decided to excite Orioles fans again on Sunday with yet another mammoth home run. The homer also put him in some historic company.
The Orioles shortstop belted his nineteenth home run of the 2024 MLB season. Henderson’s home run came in leadoff fashion, which helped give the O’s a jolt right from the word “Go.”
Gunnar Henderson leads it off with his 19th homer of the year! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/DJRPLgldna
— MLB (@MLB) June 2, 2024
What’s more is that Henderson made history with the home run. Henderson joined a list of names that have hit the most home runs in their team’s first 57 games at 22 or younger. That group includes Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Eddie Mathews, and potential future Hall of Famer Bryce Harper.
most HR in team’s first 57 games of a season at age 22 or younger:
1998 Alex Rodriguez: 21
1959 Harmon Killebrew: 20
1953 Eddie Mathews: 20
2024 Gunnar Henderson: 19
2015 Bryce Harper: 19 https://t.co/1k0KwAMJzA— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 2, 2024
We imagine that Gunnar Henderson will continue making MLB history like this. And hopefully it’s done in just as impressive a fashion.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022