The stories behind 7 incredible MLB single-game feats that may never be matched
There are some baseball records so steeped in history, so central to the mythology of the game, that the numbers themselves are iconic: 56; 511; 73; 4,256. But we're not here to talk about those today.
This is the story of the other guys -- the odd, the obscure, the bits and pieces filling the margins of baseball history. Here are seven of the very strangest MLB feats, because the weird side of baseball deserves its place in history too.
The White Stockings score 18 runs ... in one inning
On Sept. 6, 1883, Cap Anson and the three-time defending National League champion Chicago White Stockings hosted the Detroit Tigers. Heading into the bottom of the seventh, Chicago led 8-3 with the bottom half of the order coming up. And then this happened:
Double, double, single, double, single, single, triple, single, reached on error, single, home run, double, double, flyout (hey!), groundout (hey!), single (sigh), single, single, double, single, reached on error, pop out. For those keeping score at home (and if you are, bless you), that adds up to the following, all of which are still Major League records: 22 at-bats, 18 hits, six players with multiple hits, 29 total bases, 18 runs. (For context, the Indians spent the better part of an hour banging out 14 runs in one inning against the Yankees back in 2009 ... and still came in four runs short.)
When Chicago took the field for the top of the eighth, Anson decided to bring in third baseman Ed Williamson to pitch, which ... did not go over so well, according to the Chicago Inter-Ocean:
This part of the work was very funny, but it is decidedly disrespectful to the visiting club and should not be allowed. It is bad enough to beat the Detroits without turning them into ridicule.
You're entitled to your opinion, but Jonny Gomes begs to differ.
Andre Dawson gets intentionally walked five times in one game
The 35-year-old Dawson was nearing the end of his peak in 1990, but was still dangerous enough to slash .310/.358/.535 that season. Heading into play on May 22 against the Reds, he led the National League in both homers and RBIs. But Cincinnati manager Lou Piniella had a foolproof plan to deal with Dawson: Just keep intentionally walking him.
Cincinnati gave Dawson a free pass twice over the first nine innings -- once with two outs and a man on second in the bottom of the first, and again with the score tied at 0 in the eighth -- and in both instances, the Reds got out of the jam. Then things went to extra innings, and Piniella started really playing with fire.
After Dawson batted in the 11th (Hawk somehow still finished 1-for-3 on the day), he came up again in the 12th, with runners on first and second and two outs. Piniella decided he'd rather load the bases than pitch to the All-Star, and he was right: Lloyd McClendon grounded out to end the threat. Then came the 14th -- another Dawson at-bat, another runner on second, another free pass. This time, Dave Clark struck out. Then came the 16th, and finally, someone ended the madness: Piniella again walked Dawson to load the bases, but this time, Clark came through with the game-winning single.
After the game, Piniella didn't even realize what he'd done. "How many times did we do it?" he asked. "Five? Oh, my God." In the years since, Dawson's record has only been sniffed by one man: The king of walks himself, Barry Bonds. Bonds has been intentionally walked four times in a nine-inning game not once, but twice in the same year -- on May 1 and Sep. 22. Look on the bright side, Lou: At least you never had to intentionally walk in a run.
The Philadelphia A's pull off a triple steal -- twice
You've heard of the steal. You've heard of the double steal. You've heard of
They started early. With the bases loaded in the first inning, future AL batting champ Al Simmons decided to jump-start the scoring himself -- he bolted for home, making it safely just before the tag, while teammates/probable film noir antagonists Bing Miller and Dib Williams took third and second behind him.
Mickey Cochrane liked Simmons' idea so much, he decided to take it for himself. In the fourth inning, he broke for home, beating the pitch and allowing Simmons and Jimmie Foxx to advance. The triple steal has remained a baserunning unicorn in the years since. The last team to pull it off? The Indians, back on May 27, 2008.
Bill Mueller hits a grand slam from each side of the plate
Coming into 2003, Red Sox third baseman and switch-hitter Bill Mueller had hit just 48 homers in his seven big league seasons. On July 29 in Texas, he would crush three -- including two grand slams, one as a righty and one as a lefty.
Having already taken Rangers starter
And then, just one inning later, Mueller put his name in the history books:
If only we had had Papa Slams back in 2003.
Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger pitch 26-inning complete games
The show put on by Brooklyn Dodgers starter Leon Cadore and Boston Braves starter Joe Oeschger on May 1, 1920, sounds like the cautionary tale your grandpa gives you while watching a ballgame. "Back in my day, starters went the whole game! 26 innings, if they had to!" Except, while you roll your eyes, here's the thing: Cadore and Oeschger actually did it -- and, because the Baseball Gods are not without a sense of humor, they were both awarded a no-decision when the game got called for darkness.
First, some numbers: Cadore faced 96 batters over his 26 innings of work, while Oeschger faced 90. Put a conservative estimate at, say, three pitches per at-bat, and both starters were most likely pushing 300 pitches by the end of the day. Still, neither pitcher wanted out -- according to a New York Times story on the game, there were no hits allowed over the final six innings, and Cadore later said, "If [Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson] had tried to make out of the game, I think I would have strangled him."
The game started at around 3 p.m., and as the clock neared seven, the umpire finally made the decision to call it -- despite protests from players, who wanted to be able to say they had played three whole games in one. Obviously, anything even close to Cadore and Oeschger's achievement has become increasingly rare -- pitchers throwing more than nine innings has plummeted from 289 instances in the '80s to just four in the '00s. The last man to do it? Cliff Lee, who threw 10 innings and lost back in 2012.
Red Barrett throws a complete game in just 58 pitches
Back in 2014, when
The above isn't a typo -- on Aug. 10, 1944, Barrett recorded all 27 outs against the Reds in just 58 pitches. How? By taking "pitching to contact" to its logical extreme: Barrett didn't strike out or walk a single batter, gave up just two singles, faced 29 batters and averaged exactly two pitches per plate appearance. The outs broke down like this: 13 groundouts, five fly balls, seven popouts and two line drives. Barrett's Braves won the game, 2-0, in just an hour and 15 minutes.
Ricky Gutierrez works a 20-pitch at-bat
Everything started out so well for then-Cleveland starter
Well then. Gutierrez would eventually work the count full, while fouling off 14 (!) pitches -- until, on Colon's 20th offering of the AB, he finally struck out swinging. In the meantime, you could have checked off the following activities:
- Relive the seventh inning of Game 5 of last year's ALDS between the Blue Jays and Rangers
- Listen to "Her Majesty" eight times
- Run nearly a full mile, if you happen to be Hicham el Guerrouj of Morocco
Just over a decade ago, Alex Cora came awfully close to matching Gutierrez -- he took Matt Clement 18 pitches before eventually launching a home run. But even that is just the longest at-bat in recorded baseball history. Pitch-by-pitch records have only been recorded since 1940, and there are all kinds of stories about preposterous at-bats before then: Like Luke Appling fouling off 24 pitches from Red Ruffing and finally drawing a walk, simply because "he could hardly lift his arm."
