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Going deep in three countries

Albert Pujols skies one at Anaheim Stadium, Aug. 7, 2014

When Tom Brady threw his first touchdown pass against the Raiders in a game in November 2017, CBS put up a graphic showing that he’s connected for a score in three countries: the United States, England and Mexico, where Oakland and New England were playing. That prompted this research.

How many players have homered in three countries? Have any homered in four? I dove into Baseball Reference’s Play Index, searching for home runs at the three international arenas (not including Canada) where MLB has played official regular-season games: Estadio Monterrey in Mexico, Tokyo Dome in Japan and Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia. For any players who homered in these ballparks, I checked their career splits to see if they homered in the United States (all of them had) and Canada (all but one). So nearly three dozen different players have gone deep in the U.S., Canada and either Mexico, Japan or Australia. No one has homered in four countries, though two players have gone deep in those three and Puerto Rico, which of course is a commonwealth of the United States.

Tony Clark on deck at Tiger Stadium, 1999. He hit 65 home runs at the corner of Michigan & Trumbull.

The first who stands out among this group is Tony Clark. Of his 251 career homers, he hit 238 in the United States (with one of those in Puerto Rico), 12 in Canada (at SkyDome) and one in Japan. On May 4, 2019, he was joined by the Astros’ Michael Brantley when he went deep at Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey. In that same game, the list below got a new leader for most career homers when Albert Pujols connected for No. 638, entering the list ahead of Manny Ramirez.

One other note to this: Pitcher Joey Hamilton, who hit four home runs in his career with the Padres, Blue Jays and Reds, hit two of them at Dodger Stadium, one at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and one in Monterrey. Here is the list, as best I can tell, of the 32 players who have homered in three countries, in order of most career home runs (in parentheses). Active players are denoted with an asterisk (with career home run totals as of the date posted).

{Note: Post updated on May 7, 2019.}

Albert Pujols* (638): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Manny Ramirez (555): U.S., Canada, Japan
Jason Giambi (440): U.S., Canada, Japan
Mike Piazza (427): U.S., Canada, Japan
Greg Vaughn (355): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Tino Martinez (339): U.S., Canada, Japan
Steve Finley (304): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Matt Kemp* (281): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Jorge Posada (275): U.S., Canada, Japan
Dante Bichette (274): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Tony Clark (251): U.S. (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Japan
Ken Caminiti (239): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Jose Cruz (204): U.S., Canada, Japan
Mark Trumbo* (218): U.S., Canada, Australia
Khris Davis* (203): U.S., Canada, Japan
Hideki Matsui (175): U.S., Canada, Japan
Mark Grace (173): U.S., Canada, Japan
Brandon Moss (160): U.S., Canada, Japan
Eric Hosmer* (150): U.S., Canada, Japan
George Springer* (132): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Mark Ellis (105): U.S., Canada, Japan
Michael Brantley* (94): U.S. (including Puerto Rico), Canada, Mexico
Carlos Correa* (89): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Shane Andrews (86): U.S., Canada, Japan
John Flaherty (80): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Alex Bregman* (67): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Emil Brown (59): U.S., Canada, Japan
Tim Beckham* (55): U.S., Canada, Japan
Matt Chapman* (47): U.S., Canada, Japan
Benny Agbayani (39): U.S., Canada, Japan
Yuli Gurriel* (36): U.S., Canada, Mexico
Jack Hannahan (29): U.S., Canada, Japan

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