To say that Kyle Schwarber was struggling at the plate going into last night’s game against Philadelphia would have been a complete understatement. The Cubs new lead-off hitter was hitting below .200 and hadn’t hit a home run since April 18th and was beginning to show signs of frustration at the plate.
Last night, he took some of that frustration out on a baseball and my God was it a thing of beauty.
"Somebody's gotta pay!" #WarBear #Cubs pic.twitter.com/G1oq7FN0vU
— Adam Nissen (@nissen54) May 3, 2017
With that three-run bomb in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kyle Schwarber not only murdered a baseball but he also set a little bit of Cubs history at the same time. He became the fastest player in Cubs history to reach 20 career home runs in only his 97th career game.
When I heard that statistic, I thought, “Holy shit. 97 games?! Took you long enough” but then I started to look at some other players in Cubs history to see how long it took them to reach 20 career home runs and Schwarber’s 97 games is pretty damn impressive.
I chose nine Cubs sluggers throughout history and looked up how many games it took them to reach 20 career home runs (I also looked at Babe Ruth since everyone wants to compare the War Bear to the Great Bambino.)
One note: These are total regular season games to begin the players career NOT their first 20 bombs as a Chicago Cub.
| Player | Career Games To 20 HRs |
| Kyle Schwarber | 97 |
| Kris Bryant | 114 |
| Billy Williams | 122 |
| Ernie Banks | 132 |
| Anthony Rizzo | 150 |
| Andre Dawson | 170 |
| Ron Santo | 195 |
| Hack Wilson | 198 |
| Babe Ruth | 210 |
| Sammy Sosa | 212 |
| Ryne Sandberg | 374 |
If you’re curious, the overall record for fastest to 20 home runs is a tie between 1930’s slugger Wally Berger and current Yankee phenom Gary Sanchez who both only needed 50 games to reach that milestone according to ESPN Stats and Info.
The Yankees visit Wrigley Field this weekend and the team hopes Sanchez will join them as he finishes up a rehab assignment. Safe to say there’s a great chance some baseballs will be traveling into the bleachers from the bats of both he and Schwarber.
