Tuesday night, I was listening to the Nationals-Yankees game when Ryan Zimmerman took Andrew Miller deep to win the game in the 10th inning.
I was listening to the Nationals' radio feed, actually. As you might guess, they got pretty excited, shouting something about MR. WALKOFF.
I suppose I don't listen to enough Nationals games, but this was a new one for me. Mr. Walkoff?
Well, yeah:
With another walk-off HR, Ryan Zimmerman put himself on a list with some pretty good names. pic.twitter.com/6jNic37k4x
— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) May 20, 2015
What that tweet showed in real life but doesn't here is that Zimmerman's now one of only six players in National League history with at least 10 walk-off home runs. Stan Musial's got 12, Tony Peréz 11, and then it's Mike Schmidt, Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Zimmerman with 10.
So this is impressive enough on its face. But when you consider opportunities?
Zimmerman - 189 HR / 4796 AB
Perez - 339 / 8691
Pujols - 445 / 6312
Musial - 479 / 10572
Schmidt - 548 / 8352
Bonds - 762 / 9847
So Zimmerman's hit substantially fewer home runs, and has substantially fewer at-bats, than every other guy with as many walk-off home runs in the National League.
Let's be clear about that last part: We're talking about just the National League here. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Babe Ruth hit 12 walk-offs in his career. Also according to B-R.com, Jimmie Foxx hit a dozen, too. Albert Pujols has 11, counting his American League action.
American League or no American League, the point is that Ryan Zimmerman really has earned his nickname. And he figures to get another few thousand at-bats to earn it even more.
p.s. If you'd like to see all 10 walk-offs, here's the place.
