Marshall McDougall Is a Forgotten Legend
There’s plenty of baseball players who have a single statistic so inextricably linked to them that all you need is a number to name the player and what they accomplished. 73. 714. 56. Well, here’s another number you can add to your schema: Six.
The MLB record for home runs in a single game is four. This feat has been accomplished 18 times, most recently in 2017. That season, both the Cincinnati Reds’ Scooter Gennett and Arizona Diamondbacks’ J.D. Martinez managed to slug four roundtrippers in one of their respective team’s contests. On May 9, 1999, Florida State second baseman Marshall McDougall surpassed the long-established MLB record when he hit SIX home runs in one game against the Maryland Terrapins.
In case it was in doubt, Florida State defeated Maryland 26-2. McDougall finished his career day 7-7 with 16 RBI and 25 total bases. FSU’s slugger also achieved the home run cycle with his grand slam in the eighth inning. He still holds the NCAA single-game records for home runs, RBI, and total bases.
Marshall McDougall was a First-Team All-American that season, finishing with a .419 batting average to go with 28 home runs and 106 RBI. He paced the ACC in each of those categories to win the Triple Crown and the ACC Player of the Year award. The Seminoles finished that season as the national runners-up after falling to Miami in the College World Series, a tournament in which McDougall was named Most Outstanding Player.
Despite being a college standout, Marshall McDougall had a fairly uneventful MLB career, failing to stick with a few organizations before going to play overseas. However, he’ll always have that six-homer day, and it’s unlikely anyone else will ever be able to say that.
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