The drought is over

This didn't happen last night...probably. Photo from this site.

The big news from the Red Sox’ 8-3 win over the Blue Jays Wednesday occurred in the fifth inning, when David Ortiz crushed a Brett Cecil pitch over the center field wall for his first regular season homer since George Bush—the younger, not the elder—was president. Ortiz’ drought lasted 150 at-bats, the longest such streak of his career and, as I wrote last week, a particularly troubling one given he’s on the wrong side of 30.

Below is the raw data from the linked post—the longest home run droughts of the top 18 active home run hitters, along with the player’s age at the time of the power outage:

Ken Griffey Jr. (615 homers): 98 at-bats, 1990 (20 years old)
Alex Rodriguez (558 homers): 101 at-bats, 1994-95 (18/19 years old)
Jim Thome (548 homers): 85 at-bats, 1991 (21 years old)
Manny Ramirez (533 homers): 84 at-bats, 1997 (25 years old)
Gary Sheffield (501 homers): 260 at-bats, 1989 (20 years old)
Carlos Delgado (473 homers): 116 at-bats, 2006-07 (34 years old)
Chipper Jones (412 homers): 106 at-bats, 1997 (25 years old)
Jason Giambi (399 homers): 162 at-bats, 1996-97 (25/26 years old)
Vladimir Guerrero (393 homers): 124 at-bats, 2007 (32 years old)
Andruw Jones (375 homers): 101 at-bats, 2004 (27 years old)
Albert Pujols (332 homers): 73 at-bats, 2007 (27 years old)
Todd Helton (314 homers): 130 at-bats, 1997-98 (24 years old)
Jermaine Dye (308 homers): 119 at-bats, 1999 (25 years old)
Paul Konerko (304 homers): 95 at-bats, 2003 (27 years old)
Troy Glaus (304 homers): 114 at-bats, 2008-09 (32 years old)
Ivan Rodriguez (300 homers): 289 at-bats, 1992-93 (20/21 years old)
Lance Berkman (296 homers): 111 at-bats, 2009 (32 years old)
David Ortiz (290 homers): 148 at-bats, 2008-09 (32/33 years old)
Adam Dunn (290 homers): 79 at-bats, 2002 (22 years old)

Email Jerry at jbeach73@gmail.com.