Long before Barry Bonds made home run history in a San Francisco Giants uniform, and even before Willie Mays cracked his first homer on the West Coast, there was Daryl Spencer.

Spencer, a middle infielder and underrated power hitter who smacked the first home run in San Francisco Giants history, died on Monday, according to the Wichita Eagle. He was 88.

Spencer, whose 10-year career began in 1952 as a 24-year-old with the New York Giants, was one of the original players on the San Francisco roster when the team moved west.

Not only did Spencer hit the first home run in the inaugural game at Seals Stadium on April 15, 1958, but the shot off Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Don Drysdale was the first home run hit by a major league player in the Pacific time zone.

The feat might be more celebrated had it been accomplished by a Hall of Famer such as Willie Mays or the Dodgers’ Duke Snider. But Spencer was no light-hitting shortstop. He hit at least 11 home runs in each of his first seven seasons.

Spencer played in 1952-53 for the New York Giants but was not a part of the franchise’s World Series season in 1954; he missed two seasons because of active military service. But he was part the Giants’ inaugural lineup when they moved west, hitting sixth and starting at shortstop. Spencer also started at shortstop for the first game at Candlestick Park in 1960, but it was as a member of the visiting St. Louis Cardinals; the Giants had traded him prior to that season.

Spencer also played for the Dodgers and Reds while finishing with a .244 average and 105 home runs. He hit many more over seven years with the Hankyu Braves of the Japanese Pacific League, topping 30 home runs in three of his first four seasons there.

A Kansas native who played at the University of Wichita, Spencer returned home after his playing career and managed the Coors of Kansas NBC World Series team there. He is an inductee into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame as well as the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.

Upon receiving the latter honor in 2004, Spencer said he lived out a dream the first day he arrived in the major leagues at New York’s Polo Grounds.

“The rest of the guys I was with looked around for a minute and then went to the clubhouse,” Spencer said. “I stood there for maybe five minutes and got tears in my eyes. And I thought even if I never played a game, I was here, where I dreamed of being.”