Athletics' Boog Powell's 1st career HR lands near namesake's BBQ stand

It's been a long time since Baltimore Orioles fans got to watch Boog Powell go yard.

The last time it happened, of course, things were very different. The year was 1974, the Orioles played at old Memorial Stadium, and it was a different Boog Powell who was hitting home runs - the 1970 American League MVP and Baltimore legend who now runs a barbecue stand at Camden Yards, not the Oakland Athletics rookie outfielder who somehow ended up with the same nickname.

So it was quite fitting, then, that Oakland's rookie named Boog Powell - aka Herschel Mack Powell - launched his first career home run on his first trip to John Wesley "Boog" Powell's hometown Monday night with an eighth-inning blast off Orioles reliever Brad Brach.

And in an even stranger coincidence, the younger Boog's homer went out to right field and landed very close to "Boog's BBQ" - perhaps the most well-known food vendor at Camden Yards, operated by none other than former Orioles first baseman Boog Powell.

The two Boog Powells are not related, stand six inches apart in height, and even play different styles of game (Baltimore's Boog, a hulking first baseman, smashed 303 homers for the Orioles; Oakland's rookie Boog has hit just 15 in six minor-league seasons). But they already have a unique connection, and thanks to that famous nickname the Boogs will finally be introduced and share some BBQ before Tuesday's game.

"It will be interesting to meet the real ... the older one, because he's so big and I'm so small," 24-year-old Boog Powell said Monday afternoon about meeting his 76-year-old namesake, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I've always told myself I'd meet him here," the younger Boog continued. "It's not really fazing me yet, but it'll hit me tomorrow."

If all that excitement wasn't enough, the younger Boog had his night made even more special postgame when the fan who caught his homer stopped by the A's clubhouse to return the ball.

With one homer now to his name, Oakland's Boog is now just 338 home runs shy of tying the major-league record for most long balls hit by persons named Boog Powell.