Above: Kevin Mench was a two-time All-American at the University of Delaware. Photo courtesy DSHOF.
By Chuck Durante
University of Delaware’s greatest hitter became a record-setting Major League slugger in 2006, when Kevin Mench homered in seven consecutive games for the Texas Rangers.
Mench became the first right-handed hitter in the 130 years of big league ball to homer in seven straight games — only after learning that he was wearing the wrong shoes.
After launching 51 home runs over two seasons and incinerating spring-training pitching, Mench’s stroke sputtered in early 2006, going two weeks without an extra-base hit. Physicians examined his sprained toe and they determined that the size 12 he had worn since ninth grade was a half-size small.
“I hadn’t had my feet measured since I was 15,” Mench said.
Properly re-shod, Mench became the league’s hottest 6-hole hitter. After breaking up a scoreless game with a two-run double atop the wall in Seattle, he launched a grand slam during a nine-RBI three-game feast on the Devil Rays, then solo shots against Joe Blanton and Barry Zito. His streak continued with a grand slam against the league-leading Oakland A’s, followed by a shot in a slugfest in Cleveland.
“It was being relaxed more than anything else,” Mench recalled in 2014. “You don’t think about it until it’s over.” Only Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr. have homered in eight straight games.
The younger brother of all-state Newark High players Chris and Dave Mench, Kevin was a two-time All-American at University of Delaware, where he led the nation’s collegians with 33 home runs in 1998. That year he was named Delaware Athlete of the Year by the state’s sportswriters and broadcasters. Two years earlier at St. Mark’s High School in 1996, he was named Delaware player of the year by USA Today.
— Founded in 1976, the Delaware Sports Museum and Hall of Fame is located on the Wilmington Riverfront at 801 Shipyard Drive on the first base side of Frawley Stadium. Sports fans can tour the museum for free each Saturday from 10am to 1pm and for two hours before every Blue Rocks home game.
