Smallest Cup of Coffee

[GeoPoto]

Archibald Graham famously appeared in one MLB game for one inning without touching a ball in play and never getting any closer to the plate than the on-deck circle. If that puts Moonlight alone in the top spot for the "Smallest Cup of Coffee", then today's hero, Jim Banning, ties for second. Banning appeared in three MLB games across two seasons catching a total of six innings but got to the plate as a batter only once. He made an out.

By the way, when Moonlight Graham entered his game on June 29th, 1905, the player he replaced in right field was George Browne.

[theshowandme]

Jon Ratliff is a big name back home in Syracuse

He grew up there and was a first round pick from local LeMoyne College

He made his MLB debut at 28, threw a single inning, and that was it

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...atlijo01.shtml

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Post-war, but Dick Wantz also pitched a total of one inning. He complained of a headache. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor and passed away exactly one month later.

[philliesfan]

Jim Marquis played 2 games in 1925 over 3 days. Pitched 7.1 innings. He was teammates with Ruth and Gehrig and pitched against Cobb.
Jim Marquis Autographed Index Card.jpg

[Zach Wheat]

Kind of exceptional circumstances, but when Cobb was suspended during the Leuker incident (known as the Suspension Game),

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroi...enter%20field.

Cobb's replacement player for the game on May 18, 1912, Willaim Leinhauser made 4 appearances at the plate, striking out 3 times. Per SABR, "...when Leinhauser's wife found that he had the audacity to replace the great Ty Cobb, she hit him with a skillet."

[packs]

Harry Barton played 29 games for the 1905 Athletics as a 30 year old rookie. He did manage 10 career hits and though he didn't appear on a baseball card, he was lucky enough to be photographed by Carl Horner:

[Vintagecatcher]

There have been 94 players who have finished their career with a 1.000 batting average with 83 of them finishing at 1-for-1, according to The Elias Sports Bureau.

One of those players is catcher George Yantz, who went 1 for 1 for the Cubs in 1912.

Here are his 1910 T210-3 cards (Red and Orange borders)

https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...antzge01.shtml

Patrick

[nolemmings]

Danny Musser played the last 2 1/2 innings of one game on September 18, 1932-- that's it for his MLB career. Here's an 8x10 George Burke photo of the one-time (literally) Washington Senator.

BTW, he did get a hit-- he was 1 for 2.

[doug.goodman]

Not the smallest, but he did slug 2.000 for his career.

[ALBB]

will have to research it but -

1980s/90s guy..Seattle Mariners...kid from NJ..became a dentist ?, something like had an AB..but game rained out..then got hurt and sent down..never made it back ??

[packs]

I think Larry Yount's career is still the saddest in MLB lore. Just three years removed from graduating high school, 21 year old Larry Yount, brother to Robin, was called up and put into a game by Houston in 1971. He hurt himself warming up and never threw a pitch. He played three more years in the minors and retired for good.

He is credited with an MLB appearance though.

[paul]

I think the guy with the brain tumor, Dick Wantz, beats out Larry Yount for saddest baseball story.

[packs]

On a personal level, sure. But we're talking about baseball careers. Wantz got to throw a pitch.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

It's all a matter of perspective, I suppose. If you were to ask Larry Yount, who is still very much with us, I'm guessing I'd know what his answer would be. But yes, we were talking baseball and not philosophy!

[packs]

No doubt. I just think that's a different discussion. There's a lot of tragedy in baseball. I thought we were talking about short careers. Even Moonlight Graham played an inning. Yount did not. He merely stood on the mound between innings.

[Rhotchkiss]

Here is Moonlight. This, and two other Moonlight items, are in Memory Lane’s Summer Auction. His stuff is super scarce, as you would expect from a guy who played 1/2 inning.

Cool thread

[byrone]

Harry O’Neill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_O%27Neill_(catcher)

Fred Marolewski

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Marolewski

[z28jd]

I recently wrote a book about Pittsburgh Pirates players who played one game in their career. Should be out later this month. In it I talked about Moonlight Graham as an inspiration for the book, but I noted that he actually played two innings in the field without a play. He played the bottom of the eighth and the bottom of the ninth according to all of the game reports. There are guys I mentioned who played less. One is Cy Neighbors, who actually did play one inning on defense in the outfield without a play for the 1908 Pirates. He replaced Hall of Famer Fred Clarke.

[Lobo Aullando]

There's Ron Wright, who didn't so much have a cup of coffee as have the person at the drive-through window spill it all over him. Strikeout, triple play, double play, and back to the minors.

The Show is The Show, though.

[ALBB]

MLB outfielder Tom Pachorick's...brother.... I think - 1 game ... bunch of hits... lifetime .800 avg. ?? .never played again

[ldrunner27]

Adam Greenberg got hit in the face in his first plate appearance. Got his first and only at bat a few years later.

[ALBB]

Jim Paciork

[packs]

Looks like it was John Paciorek. Hell of a game too. 3 for 3 with 4 runs and 3 RBIs at 18 years old.

[mortimer brewster]

Joe Cleary probably wished he had Larry Yount's career MLB line.

He made his lone pitching appearance in a MLB game for the Washington Senators in 1945. He faced 9 batters and 7 of them scored. The only out he recorded was a K against the opposing pitcher.

He holds the distinction of having the highest career ERA(189.00) of any MLB pitcher who recorded an out

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by ALBB

MLB outfielder Tom Pachorick's...brother.... I think - 1 game ... bunch of hits... lifetime .800 avg. ?? .never played again

1.000 lifetime!

[cdn_collector]

Mel Kerr is probably worth an honourable mention.

He appeared in one MLB game (in 1925) as a pinch runner. I’m not sure the details anymore, but he did score.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Kerr


Richard.

[scooter729]

Former neighbor of mine was a minor league pitcher named Lloyd Gladden

Minor league stats

Had a very good AAA season in 1972 at 15-9 and made the Brewers roster out of spring training in 1973. Traveled with the team to their first series, never got into a game, then got sent back down to the minors and never made it back to the show.

[mortimer brewster]

17 year old Jay Dahl made his lone appearance as the starting pitcher in the Colt 45's All rookie lineup against the Mets in September of 1962.

Never appeared in another major league game passing away in an auto accident the following June

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by packs

I think Larry Yount's career is still the saddest in MLB lore. Just three years removed from graduating high school, 21 year old Larry Yount, brother to Robin, was called up and put into a game by Houston in 1971. He hurt himself warming up and never threw a pitch. He played three more years in the minors and retired for good.

He is credited with an MLB appearance though.

Just saw this thread and immediately thought of Larry Yount. He gets my vote.

[drmiraculous]

My man Ryan Brett got into five games in 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rays, which I know isn't as low a total as some others, or nearly as far back. But what impressed me was how Ryan managed just MLB two hits and a walk before getting injured diving back into first base on a pickoff play.

So he spent the rest of the season on the Tampa Injured List making bigleague money instead of being shipped back to Triple-A when their regular infielder he was filling in for returned. It was the best career move of his life, earnings wise, as he bounced around the minors a few years but never got back to the majors.

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by drmiraculous

My man Ryan Brett got into five games in 2015 with the Tampa Bay Rays, which I know isn't as low a total as some others, or nearly as far back. But what impressed me was how Ryan managed just MLB two hits and a walk before getting injured diving back into first base on a pickoff play.

So he spent the rest of the season on the Tampa Injured List making bigleague money instead of being shipped back to Triple-A when their regular infielder he was filling in for returned. It was the best career move of his life, earnings wise, as he bounced around the minors a few years but never got back to the majors.

He actually has a rough story with the timing. He got hurt four days after being called up on April 17th and went on the disabled list on April 22nd. He was sent on a quick rehab and then optioned to Triple-A on May 28th. That means he collected big league pay for 41 days. You need a minimum of 43 days for a pension, so he missed that by two days. He received $120,973 in big league salary that year, plus a little more than half that much in minor league salary, which was raised once he made the majors.

They sped up his rehab, letting it go four days total with two different teams, which kept him from getting a pension. He got a nice signing bonus out of HS though ($341,000)

[WillowGrove]

Spring training 2011 I'm sitting next to a man with a jugs gun and we get to talking. He tells me his story...his name is John Sanders and he was with the 1965 KC A's. Second game of the season, bottom of the 7th one out, he goes in to pinch run at first base. Next two batters make out.

And that was his major league career.

He gave me his business card and years later I was able to send him a souvenir ruler from the 1965 A's with his photo on it. (See pic)

John had a long career as head baseball coach at University of Nebraska, where he helped develop Darin Erstad.

Nice man.

[drmiraculous]

Originally Posted by z28jd

He actually has a rough story with the timing. He got hurt four days after being called up on April 17th and went on the disabled list on April 22nd. He was sent on a quick rehab and then optioned to Triple-A on May 28th. That means he collected big league pay for 41 days. You need a minimum of 43 days for a pension, so he missed that by two days. He received $120,973 in big league salary that year, plus a little more than half that much in minor league salary, which was raised once he made the majors.

They sped up his rehab, letting it go four days total with two different teams, which kept him from getting a pension. He got a nice signing bonus out of HS though ($341,000)

Yeah thats the guy! He was ticketed back to triple-A and would likely never have stuck for anywhere near long enough to sniff a pension were it not for the injury time. He had a recurring shoulder injury, it popped out of socket sometimes and must have been very painful, hopefully the club helped him have it fixed.

[jakebeckleyoldeagleeye]

A fellow I knew Eddie Phillips was up with the Cardinals in September of 1953 and pinch ran in 9 games and scored 4 runs. Eddie Stanky never let him bat one time. Thanks Stanky.

[Spike]

E.T. (Ernie/Elmer) Cox garnered a pair of prewar cards, five years apart, on the back of one career inning for Chicago on May 5, 1922. Lots of digital ink was spilled on that inning, if you include my #5 type post, the Birmingham History Center's story, and previous Net54 threads trying to work out which Cox we were looking at. #phrasing

https://www.number5typecollection.co...-5-et-cox.html

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

The above post beats out what was always head scratcher for me: Steve Larkin, who pitched a total of 6 innings over 2 games for the 1934 Tigers (0-0 with a career 1.50 ERA!), managed to find himself on a '34 Goudey card. I never researched Larkin's pre-MLB prospects, but have to imagine that people foresaw a much brighter future ahead for him if Goudey decided to give him a card in a relatively small set.

If you want a one-gamer with an absolutely beautiful nickname, you need not look farther than Larkin's 1934 Tiger teammate, Icehouse Wilson. I have loved that name since I first read it on the back of a TCMA card as a kid. I've never learned the origins of the nickname.

Another great name that just rolls off the tongue is Kewpie Pennington, who pitched a lone inning for the 1917 Browns. Or how about Pembroke Finlayson, who pitched 7.1 innings over two games/seasons with Brooklyn? He is recorded in his debut game as having pitched 0.1 innings! Can somebody please break down that statistic for me? How many actual pitches add up to 0.1 innings?

[Mark]

This is a terrific topic. In one respect, it's sad that these guys played in the majors for a only a few minutes, but at least they got there. Better to have pitched one inning than to never have pitched at all.

Red Lutz caught 1 inning and had 1 at bat. To his credit, it was a double. After that event, he returned to his role as bullpen catcher and never played in the majors again. I don't believe there is a card, but there is at least one bat:




with Lou Fonseca side writing.

[Brick442]

How about Harry Saferight, 79 Pirates? Was called up and on deck three times, however the final out was made each time and he never got an AB or appearance in the majors. Was that close to appearing in the book. Never called back up in subsequent seasons.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Brick442

How about Harry Saferight, 79 Pirates? Was called up and on deck three times, however the final out was made each time and he never got an AB or appearance in the majors. Was that close to appearing in the book. Never called back up in subsequent seasons.

here is a picture:

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by Brick442

How about Harry Saferight, 79 Pirates? Was called up and on deck three times, however the final out was made each time and he never got an AB or appearance in the majors. Was that close to appearing in the book. Never called back up in subsequent seasons.

Saferight is the cover player for my book about players who were with the Pirates during the regular season, but never got to play in a game

[commishbob]

Originally Posted by packs

Looks like it was John Paciorek. Hell of a game too. 3 for 3 with 4 runs and 3 RBIs at 18 years old.

He also walked twice so he reached in all five times up. Like me, Paciorek went on to get his education degree from the University of Houston and was a teacher/coach for many years. Back problems derailed his short time as a pro. MLB had a nice article about him (linked below). His brother, Tom, led the Cougars to their only CWS appearance.

https://www.mlb.com/news/john-pacior...aseball-career

[Piratedogcardshows]

Richmond Virginia has our very own Moonlight Graham, Reddy Foster. Born and died tragically in Richmond after being a local base stealing talent and made a similar 1 game appearance to Mr Graham. No official AB. I have been working on a article piece of his that even led me to discover his gravesite long lost to time! I’ll finish it up soon and post here on the forum. God I love this stuff!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddy_Foster Not a nice man by many accounts. Baseball was a rough game back then.

[jerseygary]

And then there is Jesse "Tiny" Baker. He played shortstop for Washington in the September 14, 1919 game against Detroit. In the top of the second the 5'-4" shortstop was spiked by Ty Cobb and was taken out of the game. He never got to bat and never played in the majors again. You can read about him HERE

Screen Shot 2024-08-04 at 8.37.11 AM.jpg

[Hankphenom]

Great thread!

[frohme]

Many fall in this category, including a T207 set collector's nemesis: Irving Lewis



Keith Olbermann's SABR article on Lewis provides his minimal contribution to the game as:

...

When Lewis finally appeared in a Braves’ game, it was not behind the plate, but as a pitcher. On April 28, 1912, he defeated the Paterson team of the Inter-State League in a Sunday exhibition game played in New Jersey. Lewis struck out four, walked five and gave up nine hits in the 4-3 triumph. His pitching opponent that day was Paterson’s player-manager, Andy Coakley, a veteran of Connie Mack’s pitching staffs in Philadelphia.

That exhibition game victory and those four spring training at-bats were the extent of Irving Lewis’ major league career, such as it was

...

[ldrunner27]

Can't forget Eddie Gaedel

[BuzzD]

In 1905, Charles Fallon appeared as a pinch runner for Deacon McGuire in a NYAL game. Never got an at bat and never played in majors again.

[JackR]

https://www.google.com/search?q=yout...E_6rRHmd0,st:0

[Mungo Hungo]

Bob Hegman played one-half of an inning for the Royals in 1985 as a defensive replacement. No plate appearances, no defensive chances, etc.

But it sounds like Larry Yount one ups (bottoms?) them all. I'm curious as to how it was that he was counted as playing in a game when he never actually played.