Quiz – “Great baffling box scores, Batman!” (solved)

26 Replies

In the game-searchable era (since 1916), there is something that has happened during a major league game only 4 times, specifically in the games below.

What is it?

1923-06-06 – White Sox 4, Yankees 1, Red Faber homered off of Herb Pennock

1929-06-24 – Tigers 13, White Sox 4, Red Faber homered off of Emil Yde

1948-09-20 – Phillies 5, Pirates 2, Bob Chesnes homered off of Robin Roberts

1962-05-05 – Athletics 18, Indians 6, Jerry Walker homered off of Pedro Ramos

Happy sleuthing!

Congratulations to Stuart! He correctly identified the above games as the only contests since 1916 to feature a home run hit by a switch-hitting pitcher off of another switch-hitting pitcher who also homered in his career. Thanks to Baseball-Reference.com for the home runs logs.

As the most prolific active power-hitting pitcher, Carlos Zambrano (assuming he finds a suitor for 2013) presumably stands the best chance to join this group. These are the active switch-hitting pitchers who played in 2012.

Rk	Player	Age	Tm
1	Dylan Bundy	19	BAL
2	Lendy Castillo	23	CHC
3	Justin De Fratus	24	PHI
4	Eric Hacker	29	SFG
5	Lucas Harrell	27	HOU
6	Chris Hatcher	27	MIA
7	Derek Holland	25	TEX
8	David Huff	27	CLE
9	Kenley Jansen	24	LAD
10	Mike MacDougal	35	LAD
11	Nick Maronde	22	LAA
12	Kris Medlen	26	ATL
13	Pat Neshek	31	OAK
14	Adam Ottavino	26	COL
15	Troy Patton	26	BAL
16	J.C. Romero	36	TOT
17	Bryan Shaw	24	ARI
18	Drew Storen	24	WSN
19	Carlos Zambrano	31	MIA

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/4/2013.

Here are the switch-hitting pitchers with the most PAs without ever getting a hit (at least, not yet).

Rk	Player	PA	From	To	Age	G	BB	IBB	Pos	Tm
1	Carl Bouldin	23	1961	1964	21-24	29	2	0	/*1	WSA
2	Charlie Whitehouse	22	1914	1919	20-25	25	2		/*1	IND-NEW-WSH
3	Bill Denehy	18	1967	1971	21-25	49	4	0	/*1	NYM-WSA-DET
4	Marv Rotblatt	18	1948	1951	20-23	35	1		/*1	CHW
5	Jack DiLauro	14	1969	1970	26-27	66	0	0	/*1	NYM-HOU
6	Chris Hatcher	9	2010	2012	25-27	28	2	1	/*12	FLA-MIA
7	Fred Beene	9	1968	1975	25-32	115	0	0	*1	BAL-NYY-TOT-CLE
8	Derek Holland	8	2009	2012	22-25	108	0	0	*1	TEX
9	Keith Brown	8	1988	1992	24-28	25	0	0	/*1	CIN
10	Rich Beck	8	1965	1965	25-25	3	1	0	/*1	NYY
11	Jack Richardson	8	1915	1916	22-23	4	0		/*1	PHA
12	Guy Cooper	8	1914	1915	21-22	12	0		/*1	TOT-BOS

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/4/2013.

That IBB by Chris Hatcher came in a game that he played as catcher. Hatcher is one of just 3 players with a career with more IBB than hits.

Rk	Player	PA	IBB	From	To	Age	G	BB	SO	Pos	Tm
1	Neil Wilson	11	1	1960	1960	25-25	6	1	2	/*2	SFG
2	Rex Johnston	10	1	1964	1964	26-26	14	3	0	/*78	PIT
3	Chris Hatcher	9	1	2010	2012	25-27	28	2	6	/*12	FLA-MIA

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/4/2013.

Hatcher has also put just one ball into play in his career, yet debuted as a pinch-hitter, striking out for Emilio Bonifacio. Hey Chris, just havin’ some fun. We love you. Really. Just know you’re gonna knock one out the next time you’re up (probably off the Z-man).

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11 years ago

They all have a home run by a pitcher. So that’s probably part of it.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

That is correct, Ed.

But, there’s something special about the 4 pitchers’ home runs in these games.

Insert Name Here

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

They all appear to have been hit off of a HOFer or All-Star, except for Faber’s ’29 HR, hit off of Emil Yde, who obviously is no HOFer and played his entire career before All Star games, although his rookie season certainly would be an All-Star year today!

Stuart

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Is it that all of the home runs were hit by switch-hitting pitchers off of pitchers who were also switch-hitters?

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Stuart

Bingo. Way to go Stuart.

David

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Was the post title supposed to be a clue leading us to *Robin* Roberts?

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Excellent stumper as usual, Doug. I got absolutely nowhere on this one.

Too bad there aren’t more (any) switch-pitching pitchers.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Yes, David.

Was trying to think of a title for this post, and when I was checking Roberts’ HR log, it came to me.

mosc

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

JA, there is a switch pitching pitcher in Yankees AAA. He was rule 5 eligible for 2012 but was not drafted. He is also not on the yankees 40 man roster despite pitching 2.77 ERA (though only got in 13 IP) in Scranton 2012. Still, his career minor league ERA is 2.30. He had a torn labrum injury that cut short a promising AAA stint but he should be back and pitching soon. The Yankees have some bullpen depth but it does seem possible he will see MLB time in 2013 or if healthy a real spring training shot at… Read more »

mosc

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=vendit001pat

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

#9/John A. above –

switch-pitching pitchers – Greg Harris actually WAS one –

from B-R:
“Position:
Pitcher
Throws: Right
Harris alternated arms during one game”

Apparently Harris had acquired a special glove that would allow him to throw both lefty and righty in the same appearance, but Red Sox GM Lou Gorman forbid him from doing that with the Red Sox.

Harris finally fulfilled his ambition of pitching from both sides in his next-to-last game of his career, on Sept. 28th, 1995, with the Expos.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

This is not the answer, just a delicious observation: In the 1962 game, Jerry Walker hit Pedro Ramos with a pitch in the top of the 7th, then hit a home run off Ramos leading off the bottom of the 7th.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Take that..and that, too.

Quite the outing by Ramos: 2 HR and 5 singles in 1+ IP, and he gets to come back to pitch another inning! Gene Garber had a very similar outing in this game, except the game wasn’t out of reach when he was sent back out for another inning.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197506160.shtml

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Hatcher’s minor league hitting stats:

.210 .290 .364 .654

And pitching:

95 IP
1.32 era

He made his debut as a pitcher, pitching a perfect inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in a 13-3 win, less than a year after making his major league debut as a position player. The last player to make a similar quick transition from the backstop to the mound was Art Doll, with the 1936 Boston Bees

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

I’ll go you one better, Voomo. In 1941, Bill Harman made his debut as a position player catching for the Phils against the Reds, in the first game of a double-header. He then pitched in the 2nd game. Harman continued to alternate between pitcher, catcher and pinch-hitter the rest of that season, the only one of his career. Final totals: 5 games catching, 5 pitching, and 4 pinch-hitting. Mike Ryba (1935-46) was a pitcher who, very occasionally, also caught. Final totals: 240 games pitched and 10 caught. Fred Mitchell was a pitcher who was occasionally used at other positions (but… Read more »

Seth

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Harman fascinated me in the years before the internet. He had a XB card in a 1941 APBA season set I ordered years ago. The MacMillian Encyclopedia line for him was so bizarre looking.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Seth

Wow, Seth.

APBA in 1941. You and Richard Chester will have to compare notes as our HHS commenters with memories of 1940s MLB.

Seth

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

It wasn’t from the 40’s, it was just a single season set. I only feel that old.

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Harman’s Phillies lost all 15 games in which he appeared.
(43-111 on the season)

The manager was Doc Prothro, who has the worst career winning % of any manager in history (min 320 games).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/prothdo01.shtml

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Speaking of position players who first pitched late in their MLB careers: there’s Granny Hammer. Well into his career for the Phillies as a four-time All Star/six-time MVP vote-getter as a SS and second baseman, he developed a pretty good knuckleball and pitched three games in 1956, twelve years after his MLB debut, and finishing a game in 1957. In 1961/1962 he was a player/manager at single-A in the KC Athletics system, mostly relieving in ’61, but mostly starting in 1962. He pitched well enough in 1962 (10-4/2.03 ERA in 146 IP) to be brought up in late July and… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Hal Jeffcost is another example of a player who first pitched late in his career.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Doug: Is there a quick way to track down switch-hitting pitcher HR against switch-hitting pitchers? I know one way to do it but it would take quite a while. There have been 321 switch-hitting pitchers and 54 of them have homered. You then would check those 54 HR logs individually and look for matching pitchers.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

I just copied the HR logs into Excel and searched the list of switch-hitting pitchers who had homered. Don’t know how else to do it.

Now that I think of it, I’ll have to amend the answer to the search. Those 4 games are the only times a switch-hitting pitcher homered off of another switch-hitting pitcher who had also homered in his career.

Tim Pea

11 years ago

Darren Oliver throws left and hits right. I don’t remember him ever hitting from the left side in the majors. Carlos Zambrano homered off Darren Oliver and Darren Oliver has a HR, so close.

Tim Pea

11 years ago

Reply to Tim Pea

Speaking of Oliver, he was a decent hitter over his career. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but usually natural left handed pitchers stick to hitting left handed because the throwing arm is protected. Not to mention you pick up the natural advantage of the Coriolis force from the left side of the plate.

deal

11 years ago

He is not listed in his bio info as one but Vincente Padilla is a switch hitter check his batting splits:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=padilvi01&year=Career&t=b

Althought there never seemed to be any rhyme or reason as to when he decided to switch hit.

He was active in 2012, but I think I heard he is headed to Japan for 2013.

My favorite Padilla PA is in the Bud Selig All-Star gm. He had to bat RH that day because he didn’t bring a batting helmet and he needed to borrow Scott Rolen’s helmet.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NLS/NLS200207090.shtml