Photo Credit: Robert Sabo of New York Daily News
Mike Jacobs made his major league debut on August 21, 2005. In his first major league at-bat, he hit a three-run home run off Esteban Loaiza of the Washington Nationals, in a game the Mets would lose 7-4.
Jacobs did not stop there. hitting a total of four home runs in his first four games, including two in the Mets game on August 24 against Arizona. Jacobs helped propel the Mets to a five-game winning streak, that saw them crawl to within a half game of the wild card lead in the National League (though they would get no closer that year). You can see his first at-bat home run in the video below.
Overall in 2005, Jacobs played in 30 games, logging 100 official at-bats. He belted 11 home runs, drove in 23 runs, and slashed .310/.375..710 for an OPS of 1.085 and a stellar OPS+ of 180.
After the 2005 season, the Mets traded Jacobs to the Florida Marlins as part of a deal that brought Carlos Delgado to New York. Delgado was a highly productive Met, hitting 104 home runs over four years with the team. He had an OPS of .867 and an OPS+ of 122 as a Met.
Prior to the 2010 season, Jacobs signed as a free agent with the Mets for a return engagement in Flushing. He played in just seven games for the Mets that season, and his contract was sold to the Toronto Blue Jays in July. He did not play in a game for the Blue Jays. After missing the 2011 season, Jacobs played briefly with the Diamondbacks in 2012. For his career spanning seven seasons, Jacobs hit 100 home runs and slashed .253/.313/.473.
Jacobs was one of four Mets to homer in their first at-bat with the club. The others are Benny Ayala (1974), Mike Fitzgerald (1983), Kazuo Matsui (2004).
While Mike Jacobs will not go down in history as a great Met, he certainly made quite an impression in his rookie season with New York. It’s interesting how the other three Mets to hit home runs in their first at-bats also had relatively short and modest tenures with the team.
