Here are the wackiest, weirdest, wildest plays of the 2025 Minor League season 

Crooked Numbers is a monthly column dedicated to Minor League Baseball on-field oddities and absurdities. Throughout the season it highlighted over 50 examples of bizarre plays and head-scratching stats, exemplifying the truism that "you never know what you'll see when you go to a baseball game."

Now, for your reading pleasure, this massive body of work has been condensed into a handy "best of" list. Without further ado, here are the nine "crookedest" moments of the 2025 Minor League season, presented in chronological order.

If this round-up results in the urge for more, then check out all of this season's Crooked Numbers columns here: April | May | June | July | Aug. | Sept.

The bases-clearing walk
April 15: El Paso Chihuahuas (Triple-A SD) at Albuquerque Isotopes (COL)
A bases-loaded walk always results in one run, but perhaps never before had it resulted in three. In the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and two outs, Albuquerque's Ryan Ritter worked a full count against El Paso's Omar Cruz. The runners took off on Cruz's next pitch, which was high and away for ball four. Austin Nola scored by default. Aaron Schunk, behind Nola on the basepaths, never stopped running and was credited with a steal of home after catcher Luis Campusano threw the ball back to a distracted Cruz. Jordan Beck, who was on first when the play begin, then raced for third and scored after Cruz threw the ball down the left-field line. Make sense? Maybe? Just watch it:

You're seeing double, eh? No, you're seeing Double-A
April 18: Portland Sea Dogs (Double-A BOS) at Hartford Yard Goats (COL)
MLB.com's Josh Jackson summed this one up best: "[This] game between the Portland Sea Dogs and Hartford Yard Goats produced a glitch-in-the-matrix moment so surreal you won't believe it until you see it."

Two 5-6-3 putouts occurred in both halves of the fourth inning, with the ball deflecting from the third baseman's glove to the shortstop. What's more, both of these anomalous putouts came with one out on an 0-1 count, on a pitch that was thrown at 83 miles an hour.

The odds of this happening are astronomical. Perhaps incalculable. But this really happened:

Holy cats!
April 23: Columbus Clingstones (Double-A ATL) at Chattanooga Lookouts (CIN)
In the top of the fifth inning, Chandler Seagle recorded a broken-bat single in which the bat hit the ball twice. Seagle got jammed on an inside pitch and hit a slow roller toward shortstop. A chunk of his bat travelled toward shortstop as well, with the ball ricocheting off it before Chattanooga's Dominic Pitelli could field it.

"I have never, ever seen that in my 45 years of calling baseball," said Lookouts broadcaster Larry Ward. "Holy cats!" The play -- and Ward's call -- went viral. Get your "Holy Cats!" T-shirt now.

Aces wild
May 21: Albuquerque Isotopes (Triple-A COL) at Reno Aces (ARI)
The Aces advertised their May 21 game against the Isotopes as "Wild Wednesday." It more than lived up to its name, with the Aces winning via one of the most bizarre walk-offs of all time. Down 4-3 with one out in the ninth, Reno's Connor Kaiser laced a one-out bases-loaded double that seemed destined to end the game. And it did ... eventually. Cristian Pache, representing the winning run, ran into his prematurely celebrating teammate Ildemaro Vargas after rounding third and was ruled out for interference. Amid the resulting confusion, Andy Weber, who had started the play on first base, came around to score the winning run.

Maximum efficiency
June 15: Asheville Tourists (High-A HOU) at Brooklyn Cyclones (NYM)
The Cyclones did the seemingly impossible, recording five outs over the span of two batters! It began in the top of the ninth, when Asheville's Drew Vogel grounded into a 4-3-5 triple play.

The Cyclones, buoyed by their triplet killing, scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to knot the score, 4-4, and send the game into extras. Vogel started the 10th inning at second base as an automatic runner, and Oliver Carrillo led off the frame with a fly out to left in which Vogel was thrown out attempting to advance to third. A 7-5 double play!

To recap: Two batters, five outs, with Vogel both forced out (in the ninth) and tagged out (in the 10th). The Tourists didn't score in their half of the 10th, and the Cyclones won it in the bottom of the frame on Boston Baro's bases-loaded single.

Thunder clap!
July 8: Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Triple-A MIA) at Norfolk Tides (BAL)
Norfolk pitcher Roansy Contreras balked in a run in the first inning, but at least he had a good excuse. As Contreras began to deliver a pitch to Jacksonville's Graham Pauley, a cacophonous rumble emanating from the heavens caused him to cease his motion. And thus a new baseball term was born: The thunder balk.

Contreras' quite understandable miscue put Jacksonville on the board, but no matter. He, having overcome nature's momentary wrath, went on to be the game's winning pitcher.

The thunder balk was perhaps the most memorable weather-aided balk in the Minor Leagues since May 6, 2017, when a formidable gust of wind blew Salt Lake Bees pitcher Troy Scribner off the mound.

Rich Hill's Exalted Company
July 13: Toledo Mud Hens (Triple-A DET) at Omaha Storm Chasers (KC)
So long as Rich Hill is still putting on a uniform somewhere -- and we hope he does so forever -- he'll find his way into Crooked Numbers. When Hill made his ninth and penultimate start for the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers, prior to his callup for a short-lived stint with the Kansas City Royals, he struck out 10 batters over five innings of work. In the process he became the oldest pitcher to record double-digit strikeouts in a professional game since Nolan Ryan did it for the Texas Rangers on Aug. 6, 1992. (Hill was 45 years, 4 months and 2 days old when he accomplished the feat. Ryan was 45 years, 6 months and six days old.)

Excuse me?!
Aug. 12: Lynchburg Hillcats (Single-A CLE) at Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (CWS)
George Wolkow of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers went viral on Aug. 12 when, batting during the first inning, he tried to call a timeout before the first pitch of his at-bat against Augusta's Ethan Bagwell. Time wasn't granted, but Wolkow took a listless one-handed swing anyway. This swing, improbably, resulted in an infield RBI single.

The viral video doesn't tell the full story, but fortunately Ben Weinrib got to the bottom of this strange affair. Turns out that the field umpire had called a balk on Bagwell, so Wolkow had carte blanche to get creative.

"I was always taught like, 'Hey, if it's a balk and he throws it, it's a free swing, swing out of your shoes,'" Wolkow said. "But I only had one hand on the bat, so I was like, 'All right, free swinging.'"

Home plate disadvantage
Sept. 28: Las Vegas Aviators (Triple-A ATH) at Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (MIA)
We'll end this wrap-up with what was literally the final moment of the 2025 Minor League Baseball season, when the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp and Las Vegas Aviators faced off in the Triple-A National Championship Game at Las Vegas Ballpark. The Aviators came to bat in the ninth inning trailing by a score of 6-2 but then launched a furious five-run rally capped by Bryan Lavastida's three-run homer.

A thrilling walk-off win, right?

Wrong. Las Vegas was the preselected site for the Triple-A National Championship Game, and Jacksonville was the "home" team by virtue of having a better regular-season record. In the bottom of the ninth, Jacob Berry hit a walk-off two-run homer to give the Jumbo Shrimp an 8-7 victory. The home team went wild. The crowd, not so much.