Project 84: Paul Householder
Plus, the Luis Guillorme home run chain
The back of outfielder Paul Householder’s 1984 Topps card tells us that his inside-the-park homer helped the Reds beat the Giants (in Cincinnati - no idea how Giants left fielder Chris Smith played it into a homer at Riverfront), 15-5, on June 30, 1983. We also learn that Householder was 3-for-4 with a homer on June 12, and that he was 3-for-4 with a triple on May 21 in Chicago.
That game at Wrigley was an 8-4 loss for the Reds, and Householder had one other three-hit game that year, on August 31, in a 6-4 home win over the Cubs. It kind of makes you wonder about when Topps went to press with these little facts about a player’s season, because 1983 also included the only walk-off hit in Householder’s eight-year major league career, a single against Steve Howe on August 9 to drive in Dave Concepción for a 5-4 victory over the Dodgers.
Then there was September 17, a special night in Cincinnati as the Reds honored Johnny Bench, reaching the end of his Hall of Fame career. The WLW broadcast showed a clip of the Bench ceremony right before Householder’s at-bat to start the bottom of the third inning. For his part, Householder looped a single into left field, then scored on the final home run of Bench’s career, number 389 to be exact.
Householder lost his starting job in right field in Cincinnati when the Reds signed Dave Parker as a free agent after the 1983 season, and in 1984 he was traded to St. Louis for John Stuper. As the universe would have it, Householder was drafted out of high school in North Haven, Connecticut, in 1976, and Stuper has been in south central Connecticut since 1992 as the head baseball coach at Yale. Which means that you can partly blame him for the rise of Ron DeSantis, former Elis first baseman.
It’s unclear if, but not unlikely that, Householder was tangentially connected to the origin stories of any other 21st century American fascists during his extremely brief time as a Cardinal. They traded him to the Brewers on October 2, 1984, after having acquired him on September 9. It was not exactly a trade that was helpful to building the 1985 National League champions, Householder and Jim Adduci to Milwaukee for three players who never appeared in the major leagues.
Householder hit a career-high 11 homers for the 1985 Brewers, which might be why you best know him as a Brewer. Or that could be his 1986 Topps card, with sexy hair and a dope jacket, that was in every third pack of 1986 Topps. Who can say?
Either way, Householder’s card was a lot more prominent in 1986 than he was, because the Brewers traded for Rob Deer, and put him in right field, once again costing Householder his spot after an ascendant season. Not that it was a bad move by the Brewers, as Deer hit 33 home runs and the entire rest of the team hit 96, led by Cecil Cooper’s 12. Householder hit one in 90 plate appearances, and he was sent down to Triple-A Vancouver.
Householder got one more crack in the majors with the Astros in 1987, but he was just 1-for-14, and wound up spending most of the year with Triple-A Tucson. He is the only player to appear for the Reds, Cardinals, Brewers, and Astros in that order.
Editor’s note: We Can Pod It Out will return next week. But we do have a home run chain today. It wasn’t a homer yesterday, but dang it if we’re not gonna celebrate Luis Guillorme coming through to save the Mets from being swept with a walk-off single.
Luis Guillorme hit his first home run off Fernando Rodney, 8/10/19
Fernando Rodney gave up his first home run to Troy Glaus, 5/8/02
Troy Glaus hit his first home run off Chris Carpenter, 8/16/98
Chris Carpenter gave up his first home run to Matt Williams, 5/18/97
Matt Williams hit his first home run off Jeff Dedmon, 4/19/87
Jeff Dedmon gave up his first home run to Ken Landreaux, 9/23/83
Ken Landreaux hit his first home run off Dennis Eckersley, 6/4/78
Dennis Eckersley gave up his first home run to Jeff Burroughs, 6/6/75
Jeff Burroughs hit his first home run off Ron Perranoski, 8/2/71
Ron Perranoski gave up his first home run to Ron Santo, 5/13/61
Ron Santo hit his first home run off Jim O’Toole, 7/3/60
Jim O’Toole gave up his first home run to Eddie Mathews, 4/24/59
Eddie Mathews hit his first home run off Ken Heintzelman, 4/19/52
Ken Heintzelman gave up his first home run to Wally Berger, 4/23/39
Wally Berger hit his first home run off Watson Clark, 4/20/30
Watson Clark gave up his first home run to Travis Jackson, 8/13/27
Travis Jackson hit his first home run off Clarence Mitchell, 7/2/23
Clarence Mitchell gave up his first home run to Doc Gessler, 6/2/11
Doc Gessler hit his first home run off Bob Ewing, 7/20/04
Bob Ewing gave up his first home run to Tom McCreery, 6/4/02
Tom McCreery hit his first home run off Bert Inks, 5/14/96
Bert Inks gave up his first home run to Harry Staley, 9/21/91
Harry Staley hit his first home run off Ed Crane, 8/25/90
Ed Crane gave up his first home run to Henry Boyle, 9/24/84
Henry Boyle hit his first home run off Joseph Dorsey, 7/9/84
That was the only home run allowed by Joseph Dorsey.
