Baseball trivia

That can’t be true

The longer I’m around baseball, the more I’m fascinated by some of the strange occurrences that happen in the game. I’m going to start with the old-timers and work my way forward. Next week, I’ll do a piece on Kansas City baseball oddities.

Let’s start with Ray Caldwell, who was a generational talent when he first came up in 1910 before a drinking problem derailed his career. After being released by the Red Sox (where he roomed with another party animal named Babe Ruth) the Indians, and their manager Tris Speaker, threw Caldwell a lifeline, signing him in 1919.

During the ninth inning of his Cleveland debut at League Park on August 24, 1919, a storm quickly rolled in off Lake Erie. Caldwell, after having recorded the first two outs in the ninth, was struck by lightning and knocked unconscious.

After the bolt struck Caldwell, teammates crowded around his prone body. The first player to touch Caldwell was shocked by the electricity still pulsing through his body. Caldwell’s chest smoldered from the strike. Everyone was terrified of touching him, for fear of being shocked themselves. Most players and fans think Caldwell is dead. Caldwell lets out a groan, rolls to his knees and rises. Instead of going to the hospital, he asks for the ball and for his teammates to point him towards home plate. He insists on finishing the game and records the final out of a complete game win.

Seventeen days later, on September 10, he pitched a no-hitter against his former team, the New York Yankees. He later went on to win 20 games for the 1920 World Champion Indians.

After Caldwell drinks himself out of the majors, he bounces around the minor leagues for 12 more years including a stint with the Kansas City Blues. His last stop, at the age of 43, is with Keokuk (Iowa) of the Mississippi Valley League.

Try to guess who the all-time home run leaders are of the five oldest ballparks. I’ll put the answer at the bottom of the story.

The five oldest parks are: Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, Angels Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.

The 1970s were a decade when it seemed that everyone cut loose and released all their pent-up anger from the ’60s. Case in point: Cubs and Cardinals, September 22, 1974. The Cardinals had retired Dizzy Dean’s number 17 before the game and Dean had several family members in the crowd, including his widow. The two rivals were locked in a 5-5 game, going into the top of ninth.

Bill Madlock was at the plate with Al Hrabosky on the mound. Madlock was irritated by Hrabosky’s psych up routine, so every time Hrabosky got set, the Cubs prized rookie would step out of the box. Umpire Shag Crawford was not amused with the delay. Madlock strolled to the on-deck circle to get a towel. Crawford chased after Madlock, issued a warning then strode back to the plate, put on his mask,, and motioned Hrabosky to pitch, invoking rule 6.02(c). Cubs’ manager Jim Marshall and on-deck hitter Jose Cardenal argued with Crawford all the way to the plate.

Chaos ensued. Hrabosky fired a pitch, which looked high, but none the less was called a strike by Crawford (Rule 6.02c). Marshall and Cardenal muscled their way into the batter’s box, Marshall from the left side, without a bat, and Cardenal from the right, followed by Madlock, who squeezed in front of Cardenal. Hrabosky’s second pitch was high and tight, nearly hitting Madlock. Crawford called that a strike as well. Madlock ducked the pitch, then got into catcher Ted Simmons’ grill about what was going on.

Simmons responded with the glorious comeback, “What are you looking at?” Madlock responded with a phrase that rhymes with “duck you”. Simmons dropped his glove and started swinging. Benches emptied; haymakers were thrown. Andre Thornton of the Cubs came full speed from the dugout and extinguished Simmons with a crushing tackle from behind. It was a madhouse and one of the most entertaining baseball brawls of all time. When order was restored, Marshall was the only participant to receive an ejection. Madlock stepped back into the box and struck out. Cardenal hit a foul popup to Simmons. Hrabosky struck out pitcher Dave LaRoche to end the inning.

Amazingly, Hrabosky led off the bottom of the ninthand the Cubs did not throw at him. He hit a flyball to right for the first out. Lou Brock stroked a single to left and with two outs moved to second on a Reggie Smith walk. Simmons ended the drama with a sharp single to center, scoring the fleet Brock with the game-winner. It was Simmon’s fourth RBI of the game and a bit amazing that he was able to play after getting steamrolled by Thornton.

Madlock wasn’t alone in his disdain for Hrabosky’s act. Many players felt that way. Hrabosky and Madlock would hook up in another fight when Madlock played for the Pirates. God, I miss the ’70s.

Two of the wildest nights ever in major league history happened in the 1970s and if you were alive then, you remember them.

On June 12th, 1979, Mike Veeck (son of Bill) and the head of promotions for the Chicago White Sox had the great idea of putting an end to the disco era. If a fan brought a disco record to Comiskey Park, you could get in for 98 cents. The plan was for Chicago shock jock Steve Dahl to blow up all of the records in between games of the doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. Veeck and company were hoping for 20,000 fans, which would have been a nice bump from their average of around 5,000. Instead over 50,000 fans descended on Comisky, many climbing over fences and gates to enter the stadium. Boxes set out to collect the records overflowed. When Game one ended, Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and a helmet, drove around the outfield in a jeep while the crowd chanted “Disco sucks”.

Dahl set off the explosives underneath a box of records, which not only destroyed the records but tore a huge hole in the outfield grass. Then it got interesting. Fans who tried to leave found that nearly all gates had been locked by White Sox personnel to prevent gate hoppers from coming in! Fans stormed the field while players locked themselves in their locker rooms for safety. Fans marauded around the field while a small bonfire burned in centerfield. Bill Veeck took to a microphone and implored fans to return to their seats, which only made things worse. Finally, Chicago’s finest arrived, in riot gear, and order was restored. The field was so badly damaged that Tiger manager Sparky Anderson demanded, and got, a forfeit of the second game. The best quote came from White Sox pitcher Rich Wortham, who said, “this wouldn’t have happened if they had a country and western night.”

My all-time favorite 1970s promotion happened on June 4, 1974; a promotion known as “Ten cent beer night”. The setting was Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium in a game featuring the Indians and Rangers. Just a few days before, these two teams had engaged in a wild brawl, so emotions were high.

The promotion, like any promotion, was designed to get more fans to the game. The Indians were hoping to draw 10,000. They got 25,134. Fans were able to buy up to six beers at a time for a dime apiece, compared to the regular price of 65 cents. When fans overwhelmed the concession stands, the Indians brass directed fans to line up behind the outfield fence, where they were able to refill their cups directly from Stroh’s delivery trucks.

Things got out of hand early. A woman ran onto the field, flashed her breasts then tried to kiss third base umpire Nestor Chylak. A short time later, a naked man sprinted onto the field and slid into second base. This was followed by a father-son tandem who ran onto the field and mooned the crowd. Fans started setting off firecrackers then began pelting players with hot dogs and other flying objects.

The Indians had rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth when a fan ran onto the field and tried to steal Jeff Burrough’s hat. Texas Manager Billy Martin, no stranger to brawls, ordered his team to help Burroughs and armed with bats, faced off against drunken fans armed with knives, chains and clubs. Indians manager Ken Aspromonte ordered his team onto the field to help the Rangers players. Players and fans brawled with both teams having to fight their way to the safety of their locker rooms. The mayhem lasted more than 20 minutes while Cleveland announcers Joe Tait and Herb Score called the riot live on the radio. The Cleveland police department finally showed up and started cracking heads. Amazingly, only nine fans were arrested. American League President Lee McPhail awarded a forfeit to the Rangers in what remains one of the most dangerous baseball riots of all time.

Rusty Torres had the misfortune of witnessing both events. He was a member of the Indians for ten cent beer night and played for the White Sox during Disco Demolition. Did I say that I miss the ‘70s?

There’s only one player in baseball history to hit a walk-off, inside-the park grand slam and it was Roberto Clemente.

Nolan Ryan holds 51 major league pitching records but never won a Cy Young award. Ryan is also the only pitcher in MLB history to face the last three single-season home run record holders: Roger Maris, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds. The trio was 5-for-28 against Ryan with no home runs. Ryan of course holds the major league record for strikeouts with 5,714. To put that into perspective, if a pitcher today struck out 250 batters for 22 consecutive seasons, he’d still be 214 strikeouts short of Ryan’s record. I think it’s safe to say that the strikeout record will never be broken.

As starting pitching continues to evolve (or devolve, depending on how you see it) let’s take a look back at Bob Gibson’s 1968 season. Gibson, a phenomenal athlete who went by the wonderful nickname Hoot, started 34 games that season. He completed 28 of them. If that weren’t enough, he went 22-9 with an astounding 1.12 ERA over almost 305 innings of work. Oh, and he also pitched 13 shutouts. He only allowed 11 home runs all season and you can bet he remembered every one of them. Naturally, he won the Cy Young, as well as the National League MVP and a Gold Glove.

The closest any pitcher in recent history has come to replicating Gibson’s amazing season was probably Pedro Martinez’s 2000 season where he went 18-6 with a 1.74 ERA. Martinez also won the Cy Young that summer, but he only pitched 217 innings with 7 complete games and “only” four shutouts. In our day and age where teams are happy with a starter who gives them five or six quality innings, Gibson’s season looks even more amazing. We’ll never see it happen again.

Moving on to more modern times, the Minnesota Twins became the only team in major league history to pull off two triples plays in the same game. This happened on July 17, 1990, against the Red Sox.

The first occurred in the fourth inning. With the bases full, former Twin star Tom Brunansky grounded into a 6-4-3 triple play. In the bottom of the eighth , with Tim Naehring on second and Wade Boggs on first, Jody Reed grounded into a 6-4-3 triple play. Despite that, the Sox still won the game by a score of 1-0. The third baseman who started both triple plays was Gary Gaetti, who later played for the Royals. Baseball.

While playing for the Yankees in 1997, David Wells bought a game-used Babe Ruth cap for $35,000. He asked if he could wear it in a game, was told no and wore it anyway, which infuriated his manager, Joe Torre. The Yankees fined him $2,500, which he paid in ones. He sold the cap in 2012 for $537,238. Wells is an absolute freaking legend.

In high school, Joey Gallo once threw a no-hitter then that evening took Greg Maddux’s daughter to prom.

Who were the last five players to spend more than 20 years with the same franchise? One of my initial guesses was George Brett. Surprisingly, he wasn’t in the top five. Those were:

Robin Yount with the Brewers from 1974 to 1993.

Cal Ripken Jr. with the Orioles from 1981 to 2001

Tony Gwynn with the Padres from 1982 to 2001

Craig Biggio with the Astros from 1988 to 2007

Derek Jeter with the Yankees from 1995 to 2014

Brett fell just outside the cutoff as his time with the Royals spanned from 1973 to 1993.

I haven’t forgotten about the all-time home run leaders in the oldest parks. They are:

Oakland Coliseum - Mark McGwire with 160

Angels Stadium– Tim Salmon with 160

Dodger Stadium – Eric Karros with 130

Wrigley Field – Sammy Sosa with 293

Fenway Park – Ted Williams with 248