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Baseball 2012: The game's best off-beat, under-the-radar statistics and trivia

Fascinating baseball firsts and notable statistics can easily be missed in the playing of more than 2,000 big-league games each year. Here are the most intriguing developments that possibly escaped your notice.

7. Bash brothers

  • By Ross Atkin Staff writer

Brothers Justin and B.J. Upton hit their 100th career home runs about an hour apart to become the first siblings to reach that milestone on the same day.

Backstory: Justin Upton, the younger brother by three years, clouted his 100th homer for Arizona at 7:21 p.m. in Philadelphia on Aug. 3. At 8:16 p.m. at Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field, B.J. of the Rays followed suit against Baltimore. They also hit their 99th career homers on the same day, July 20.

While the Uptons are the only brothers to reach the 100-home run milestone on the same day, five other pairs of brothers have each hit 100 career homers: Bob and Irish Meusel; Joe and Vince DiMaggio; Clete and Ken Boyer; Roberto and Sandy Alomar; and Aaron and Bret Boone.

The DiMaggios nearly had a third brother, Dom, join them. Dom hit 87 career homes runs during an 11-year career spent entirely with the Boston Red Sox and probably would have reached 100 had he not missed three full seasons during World War II while serving in the military.

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Mark Sappenfield
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