Mark Reynolds joined rare company as he broke his bat and homered anyway

Rockies veteran Mark Reynolds has hit over 250 homers during his Major League career, so he's no stranger to the long ball. However, the slugger had never clubbed a dinger quite like the one he hit during the Rockies' 7-6 victory over the D-backs on Saturday.
On the first pitch of the sixth inning, Reynolds connected with an offering from Zack Greinke. Although his bat stayed mostly intact, the TV broadcast picked up the audible noise of it breaking upon contact. Normally, that would mean the ball went for a grounder, or a lazy popup -- maybe a fly ball, at best.

Instead the ball kept going. And going. And going. It finally landed over Chase Field's left-center-field fence for a solo homer. It was one of three RBIs in a big game for Reynolds, but this hit stood out.
Reynolds pulled off the elusive broken-bat home run, joining a rare club. The "Modern Splendid Splinters" include somewhat surprising names like Glenallen Hill and George Kottaras, but also mashers like Barry Bonds, Nelson Cruz, Mark Teixeira, and Chris Davis. The first to popularize it in the modern era, though, was a relatively obscure Angels outfielder named Jack Howell on Sept. 5, 1987, at the old Yankee Stadium. Even the incomparable Vin Scully was stunned.

On another night at Chase Field in 2011, Justin Upton made his own entrance into the club during his D-backs days. Only the handle remained in his hands, but the ball ended up in almost the exact same spot as the one Reynolds hit six years later.

It takes an impressive hitter to make good enough contact with a ball to drive it over the wall despite the broken bat. Reynolds certainly qualifies, and thanks to his efforts, the Rockies came back to win the game. They happily took the sacrifice of one bat in exchange for a run.
Colorado obviously had all the breaks going its way.