On This Day in Sports: May 28, 1956
On May 28, 1956, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Dale Long homered for the eighth consecutive game, setting a major-league record. Facing the Brooklyn Dodgers at Forbes Field, Long drove a Carl Erskine pitch over the right-field wall in the fourth inning. The crowd’s sustained applause reflected how quickly an overlooked player’s hot streak had become a national baseball story. The public record fixes the central details with unusual clarity: Long homered in eight consecutive games. The record-setting shot came off Carl Erskine. Together, those facts explain why May 28, 1956 stands apart from the ordinary flow of a season and deserves to be remembered as a distinct historical moment.
The run began on May 19 and continued against different clubs and pitchers as Long found a home-run swing every day. His seventh straight game had already broken the existing record. By the eighth, television programs were calling and reporters crowded around him. Long later said the attention became exhausting, but in the batter’s box he again delivered the one outcome everyone had arrived expecting. Two further details help reconstruct how the achievement unfolded: The game was played at Forbes Field. The streak began on May 19. They move the story beyond a headline by showing the pressure, setting and competitive choices that shaped the decisive action in real time.
Long was not a conventional superstar. He had spent years moving through the minor leagues before establishing himself in Pittsburgh at age twenty-nine. The streak gave him a lasting place in the record book, while his 1956 season produced 27 home runs and an All-Star selection. It was a reminder that baseball history can briefly center on a player far outside the sport’s established hierarchy. The wider context is equally important. Long hit 27 home runs in 1956. Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr. later tied the record. Those points connect one day’s performance to a longer career, institution or rivalry and clarify why the event continued to matter after the immediate celebration had ended.
Don Mattingly tied the eight-game mark in 1987, and Ken Griffey Jr. matched it in 1993; no one has extended the streak to nine. That shared record has kept Long’s name alive far beyond his era. Every new home-run run leads back to Forbes Field and the left-handed first baseman who, for eight consecutive games, made the most difficult offensive result feel scheduled. Seen from today, the milestone remains compelling because it joins a measurable result with the uncertainty of live competition. Nothing about the outcome was guaranteed beforehand. That combination of preparation, opportunity and execution is what transformed the date from another entry on the schedule into lasting sports history.
Long homered in eight consecutive games.
The record-setting shot came off Carl Erskine.
The game was played at Forbes Field.
The streak began on May 19.
Long hit 27 home runs in 1956.
Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr. later tied the record.
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