What's More Improbable Than Willie Bloomquist Getting 1000 Career Major League At-Bats? Bloomquist Himself Provided the Answer.

Willie Bloomquist's first at-bat in last night's game against the Red Sox was the 1000th of his career, and the result was rather fitting. After all, what could be more improbable than Willie Bloomquist--a below-average defender and terrible hitter--getting 1000 career at-bats? The selfsame player hitting a home run, of course.

The homer, a second-inning line drive over the leftfield wall, just to the right of the out-of-town scoreboard, was just the sixth in Bloomquist's career. To put that in perspective, Ken Griffey, Jr. had 34 home runs in his first 1000 at bats, Alex Rodriguez had 48.

But, lest you think that Bloomquist is the least powerful hitter in team history, I dug through Baseball-Reference to find the four Mariners who took even longer than Bloomquist to reach six homers.

Omar Vizquel had four homers after 1000 at-bats as a Mariner, and didn't hit his sixth until his 1878th at-bat, in 1993, off of Mark Clark, in an 8-7 win over Cleveland.

Julio Cruz had three homers after 1000 at-bats as a Mariner, and didn't hit his sixth until his 1605th at-bat, in 1981, off of Jerry Koosman, in a 5-4 loss to the Twins.

Harold Reynolds had two homers after 1000 at-bats as a Mariner, and didn't hit his sixth until his 1735th at-bat, in 1988, off Kevin Brown (yes, that one), in an 11-6 loss to Texas.

Jack Perconte had 1 homer after 1000 at-bats as a Mariner, and ended up only hitting two in his 1097-at-bat Mariner career.

In case you were wondering, Cruz is the only one of the four for whom--as is the case with Bloomquist--an inside-the-park home run was one of his first six.

Bloomquist is hitting .367 in June with two homers. The M's play at 1:35 today.

You can buy that 1990 Topps Omar Vizquel card for ten cents at CheckOutMyCards.com