Though Major League Baseball has seen plenty of fast starts in its long history, there hasn’t been anything quite like Trevor Story.
When he hit his seventh home run of the season against the Padres on Sunday, he passed Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt and Larry Walker for the most home runs through six games in MLB history — that’s some pretty nice company. Even more impressive, he’s the first rookie to ever hit seven home runs in a six-game span, no matter the time of year.
Story accounts for almost half of his Rockies’ home runs and has twice as many as any of his teammates — remember, Nolan Arenado led the NL last season. Want more? Well, he has more home runs than 16 MLB teams and as many as the Mets, Marlins, Pirates and Angels combined.
With success, though, has come the comparisons. FanGraphs.com compared Story’s hitting style to J. D. Martinez and MLB.com went so far as to make a video comparing his swing with that of former Colorado Rockies star Troy Tulowitzki. Others have tried to compare Story’s first six games to those of the game’s most historic players, but the fact is that no one has done what he’s done.
The records are already astounding.
Not only is he the fastest rookie to reach seven home runs, but he did it in half the time as the nearest guy. He’s the first player in history to celebrate an Opening Day Major League debut with two home runs, and he’s the only player since 1889 to hit a homerun in his second game after a two-homer debut. He’s also one of only two players in over a century with three home runs in his first two career games.
Story leads the MLB in home runs, with nearly double the amount of the next closest player, and RBIs. No one expected this kind of hitting from Story and no matter how hard analysts search, it’s impossible to find anyone quite like him.
When he slows down — and all logic says he has to — it’ll be easier for everyone to see what kind of player he really is. Until then, Story has no comparisons.