Giants Player's First Career Splash Home Run Into McCovey Cove Landed in Kayaker's Lap
Does a splash hit, the nickname San Francisco Giants fans affectionately coined for home runs that land in the bay just beyond the right-field wall at Oracle Park, still count if it doesn't splash when it hits the water?
It sounds like a trick question, but it's the exact scenario that occurred during San Francisco's 7-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday, as Giants catcher Patrick Bailey belted the first McCovey Cove home run of his career, a ball that, instead of splashing into the water, landed directly into a kayaker's lap.
Here's footage of the improbable dinger, courtesy of Cut4's account on X (formerly Twitter).
What a moment for the woman in the kayak, who happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch the 407-foot home run. And what a day it was for Bailey, who went 4-for-4 and finished a triple short of the cycle on a day when 15,000 fans received his bobblehead.
When told that his splash home run landed in the kayak and not the water, Bailey, with a laugh, said: "That's cool. Does that still count I guess?"