Tell me an interesting baseball fact that most people don’t know
 

I saw this on another board and thought it would be fun.

Here are some of the responses (hoping these are true)

- Stan Musial has one of the coolest stats in the history of the game.
1,815 hits at home
1,815 hits on the road.
Remarkable!

- Ted Williams hit better during DiMaggios 56 games than DiMaggio did.

- The last player ever drafted by the Montreal Expos was Tom Brady.

- Jim Palmer never gave up a grand slam in his entire career.

- Jim Kaat pitched to both Julio Franco and Ted Williams.

What is yours?

In 2008, C.C. Sabathia led both the AL and the NL in shutouts

Jamie Moyer played in 50 different MLB stadiums over the course of his career.

Cy Young threw a Complete Game in 92% of his starts

Only 1 of Craig Biggio’s 3,060 hits came with a 3-0 count.

Gary Hargis is an MLB World Champion. He never pitched, batted, managed, coached or even scouted in the MLB. In his only MLB appearance, he pinch ran for the 1979 Pirates, who went on to win the World Series.

To this day, every MLB baseball is rubbed with mud discovered by Lena Blackburne from a secret New Jersey location to help pitchers grip it.

Jim Palmer is the only pitcher to win World Series games in three different decades, 1966, 1970-71 and 1983.

Useless trivia
 

Bill Dickeys paper boy was…..

Brooks Robinson!!!

Didn't realize Nolan Ryan had a lifetime ERA lower than Randy Johnson, but what is more impressive:
https://i.postimg.cc/8zw0QPd0/598880...95611639-n.jpg

Inspired by this, I played city league softball in 5 decades.

But back on track....

Warren Sphan has 363 career wins -- 356 for the Braves, four for the Mets, and three for the Giants.

He also has 363 career hits (as a batter) -- 356 for the Braves, four for the Mets, and three for the Giants.

I don't know how common this is, but I heard a story about Clark Griffith and Joe Cronin. Griffith, I believe, had a former teammate, Joe Engel, that became a scout for the Senators. Engel went to see Joe Cronin play and reported back to Griffith about picking up his contract for $7500. Griffith shot back by saying "You paid $7500 for that bum?" and told Engel to keep Cronin for himself.

Cronin wound up marrying Griffith's niece. Imagine the awkward family get togethers :)

May 21, 1952

19 Brooklyn Dodgers in a row reached base safely against the Cincinnati Reds. (ETA: in the first inning)

Nineteen in a row. That wasn't a typo.

They sent 21 batters to the plate. The first and last batters were retired. One base runner was thrown out when the score was 3-0. So, they scored 12 runs with two outs in the inning. That's almost as amazing as the 19 straight base runners.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/b...95205210.shtml

In 1971 Larry Yount was 21 years old and brought into a late September game to make his MLB debut. He then hurt himself warming up and never appeared in another major league game again. He is the only pitcher to have registered a pitching appearance but not thrown a single pitch in his career.

Now that's an interesting stat. So are the others.

Rob Manfred is actually a zombie, hence his love for the zombie runner.

On April 28, 1989 Mitch Williams got a save for the Cubs without throwing a pitch. He picked off Padres’ runner on 2nd base. It’s the only “pitchless” save in history.

I was watching the game

The famous Rickey Henderson story is about when the Oakland A's gave him a $1 million signing bonus, but instead of cashing it, he framed the check and hung it on his wall as a trophy to celebrate becoming a millionaire, baffling the team's accounting department until they called him and he explained he was "staring at it right now," eventually cashing it after they suggested getting a photocopy for the frame

4000+ Professional Hits
 

When you take into account all professional Baseball league play (Majors, Minors, Independent, PCL, Winter, Foreign, etc,) here are the players with more than 4,000 career hits:

Héctor Espino 4758
Pete Rose 4748
Ichiro Suzuki 4523
Minnie Miñoso 4440
Ty Cobb 4355
Julio Franco 4287
Hank Aaron 4225
Jigger Statz 4093
Jesús Sommers 4077
César Tovar 4021
Derek Jeter 4019
Stan Musial 4001

And a card of the All-Time Professional League hit leader from my PC

I'm sure most know, but I'm fascinated by the longest game ever played, which featured Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs — 33 innings, played over 3 days in 1981/April 18-19, June 23: Pawtucket 3, Rochester 2, in 8 hrs., 25 min.

Ripken tied with 3 others for most at-bats in one game with 15 (officially went 2-13; Boggs 4-12).

Nolan Ryan does not rank in the top 10 all-time for K's per 9 by a starting pitcher. :eek:

Ron Guidry went 25-3 in 1978 and all three of his losses were to opposing pitchers with the first name of Mike:

Mike Caldwell
Mike Flanagan
Mike Willis

In the 1956 Offseason, Mickey Mantle asked for a raise after his triple crown season. George Weiss, the GM of the Yankees practically blackmailed Mantle, and threatened to trade him to the Indians for Herb Score and Rocky Colavito

In 1937, dictator of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo had his hands in forming a baseball team. Named the Dragones de Ciudad Trujillo, was one of the greatest assemblies of Negro League and Dominican League talent. It included Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell and Pedro Cepeda. The team aptly won the Domincan League title, but were always fearful that if they didn't, the armed guards that followed them would execute them.

Drew Great Thread

In 1996 Vinny Castilla of the Rockies
Hit .304 w/ 40 Home Runs & 113 RBI

In 1997 he also
hit .304 w/ 40 Home Runs & 113 RBI

This is discussed in various places in some of Mantle's books. Just goes to show you what a crazy different world it was back then before free agency. Mantle got what he wanted for 1957; I believe it was $65 K - from Dan Topping, one of the team's owners at the time. He had to sidestep Weiss, who by all accounts was a bit of an ass.

That's insane! I looked it up...he walked 356 times (63 intentional) and didn't strike out in 363 3-0 counts.

My bit of trivia is a little less impressive: Eddie Murray was so consistent that he put up these identical slash lines fifteen years apart (1978 & 1993)

610 ABs 174 Hs and 27 HRs

Paul Schreiber pitched in 10 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers over two seasons in 1922 and 1923.

In 1945, he miraculously appeared in two more games and pitched 4.1 total innings for the New York Yankees' war depleted roster.

He holds the MLB record for time between appearances as an active player at 22 years.

Let's stick with Eddie Murray. He's the only player in history to lead the Major leagues in batting and yet not win a batting title.

In Game 4 of the 1929 World Series, the Chicago Cubs had a commanding 8-0 lead over the Philadelphia Athletics but lost 10-8 after the A's scored 10 runs in the bottom of the seventh inning in a famous comeback known as the "Mack Attack," featuring Hack Wilson losing a ball in the sun for a fluke inside-the-park home run.

The most epic single-game MLB comeback of all-time is widely considered to be the Cleveland Indians' 12 run comeback against the Seattle Mariners on August 21, 2001. They trailed 14-2 in the seventh inning and won 15-14 in extra innings, marking the largest comeback ever in a regular season game.

Fact
 

Both Ken Griffey, Jr. and Stan Musial were born in the same small town of fewer than 5,000 residents: Donora, PA.

both November 21st.

Hector Espino
 

Amazing card of Hector Espino! Thanks for sharing!

Prince and Cecil Fielder -319 HRs
 

I like that Cecil Fielder and son Prince Fielder ended their MLB careers with the exact same number of home runs - 319.

Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron started and finished their careers in the same city but for different teams.