Baseball has been around long enough to produce a history book full of moments that seem impossible, ridiculous, or both.
That is part of the game’s enduring appeal. A baseball game can move along quietly for innings and then suddenly produce something nobody in the ballpark has ever seen before. Some records require extraordinary talent. Others require bizarre timing, unusual circumstances, or a player willing to run the bases backward.
Here are 15 pieces of baseball history that prove the sport has always had a strange side.
1. Jimmy Piersall Ran the Bases Backward After His 100th Home Run
Jimmy Piersall was never known for being predictable.
His life and struggles with mental illness became the subject of the book and movie Fear Strikes Out, but his baseball career also included an assortment of unusual antics. He wore a Beatles wig to the plate, talked to the Babe Ruth monument at Yankee Stadium and once climbed onto a grandstand roof while heckling an umpire.
Then came his 100th career home run. Playing for the New York Mets against the Philadelphia Phillies in 1963, Piersall reached the milestone and celebrated by circling the bases while facing backward. He still touched the bases in the proper order. He simply decided not to look where he was going.
Mets manager Casey Stengel wasn’t particularly impressed. Piersall’s stint with the Mets ended shortly afterward.
2. Don Baylor Reached Three Straight World Series With Three Different Teams
Don Baylor had an impressive playing career, including the 1979 American League MVP award and three Silver Slugger Awards.
But one of the strangest stretches of his career came near the end. Baylor appeared in the World Series in three consecutive seasons, and every trip came with a different club. He went with the Boston Red Sox in 1986, the Minnesota Twins in 1987 and the Oakland Athletics in 1988. Only the middle trip ended with Baylor receiving a championship ring. Minnesota defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in 1987.
Three years. Three teams. Three World Series.
3. Bobby Richardson Won World Series MVP Even Though the Yankees Lost
The 1960 World Series is remembered primarily for Bill Mazeroski’s legendary Game 7 home run that gave the Pittsburgh Pirates the championship over the New York Yankees.
But Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson walked away with an unusual piece of history. Richardson hit .367 during the series, drove in 12 runs and blasted a grand slam. His performance was enough to earn him World Series MVP honors despite Pittsburgh winning the championship.
He remains the only player to win the World Series MVP award while playing for the losing team.
4. Gaylord Perry Homered Just After Man Walked on the Moon
This one sounds as if somebody wrote the punchline first.
San Francisco Giants manager Alvin Dark reportedly joked about pitcher Gaylord Perry’s hitting ability by saying, “They’ll put a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run.”
Then came July 20, 1969. Apollo 11 reached the moon, and Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on its surface. That same day, Perry stepped to the plate and hit the first home run of his major-league career.
Baseball occasionally has impeccable timing.
5. Ken Ash Won a Game After Throwing One Pitch
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ken Ash entered a game against the Chicago Cubs on July 27, 1930, in a situation most relievers would rather avoid.
There were two runners aboard and nobody out. Ash threw one pitch.
The Cubs put it into play and somehow turned their opportunity into a triple play, ending the inning immediately. Ash was then removed for a pinch hitter when Cincinnati came to bat. The Reds rallied and eventually won 6-5, making Ash the winning pitcher.
His day’s work on the mound consisted of exactly one pitch.
When Baseball Gets Really Weird
6. Brothers Bob and Mike Garbark Had the Same Batting Average
Bob and Mike Garbark didn’t become household baseball names, but the brothers produced an unusual statistical coincidence in 1944.
Mike played for the New York Yankees while Bob played for the Philadelphia Athletics. Their playing time was considerably different, yet both brothers finished the season with exactly the same batting average: .261. Both were also American League catchers. Even stranger, over their careers each threw out approximately 39 percent of runners attempting to steal.
Apparently sibling rivalry can get extremely specific.
7. Clarence Blethen Was Injured by His Own False Teeth
Baseball injuries can be strange.
Clarence Blethen’s might belong in a category by itself. Blethen pitched for the Boston Red Sox and wore false teeth. According to baseball lore, he believed removing them while pitching made him appear more intimidating, so he would put the teeth in his back pocket. There was one obvious flaw in this arrangement. While running the bases, Blethen reportedly forgot the teeth were still there. When he slid, the dentures bit into him through his pocket. Plenty of players have been bitten during their lives.
Very few can say they were bitten by themselves.
8. Bill Voiselle Wore No. 96 Because of His Hometown
Pitcher Bill Voiselle spent nine seasons in the majors with the New York Giants, Boston Braves and Chicago Cubs.
Late in his career, he wore an unusually high uniform number for the era: 96. There was a reason. Voiselle came from Ninety Six, South Carolina, an actual town whose unusual name gave him the perfect opportunity to turn his uniform into a hometown tribute.
For Voiselle, No. 96 wasn’t just a roster number. It was an address of sorts.
9. Jack McCarthy Threw Out Three Runners at Home in One Inning
An outfielder throwing out one runner at home can change an inning.
Jack McCarthy threw out three. Playing for the Chicago Cubs in 1905, McCarthy recorded all three outs of an inning by throwing runners out at home plate. Think about what had to happen for that to be possible. Three different runners had to attempt to score on balls hit to the outfield, and McCarthy had to successfully cut down every one of them.
Since a team only gets three outs per inning, nobody can surpass the feat under the game’s traditional rules.
10. The 1968 All-Star Game Ended 1-0 Without a Single RBI
The 1968 All-Star Game at the Astrodome wasn’t exactly an offensive showcase.
Willie Mays reached base for the National League and eventually made it to third. Willie McCovey then hit into a double play, allowing Mays to score. That was it. The National League won 1-0. Because of the scoring circumstances surrounding the run, nobody was credited with an RBI.
Mays, who scored the game’s only run, was named MVP.
Trades and Statistics That Defied the Odds
11. The Dodgers and Cubs Once Swapped Entire Minor-League Rosters
Forget trading one prospect for another.
In 1957, the Dodgers and Cubs were involved in a transaction on a completely different scale, exchanging the rosters of their affiliated minor-league clubs. The deal involved 25 players moving in each direction.
Player trades are routinely analyzed one name at a time. This one practically required a moving company.
12. Joel Youngblood Got Hits for Two Teams in Two Cities on the Same Day
On August 4, 1982, Joel Youngblood started his day as a New York Met in Chicago.
He recorded a hit against the Cubs. Then he learned he had been traded to the Montreal Expos. Youngblood left the Mets, traveled to Philadelphia, where Montreal was playing the Phillies, and entered that game as well. He promptly collected another hit.
That gave Youngblood hits for two different major-league teams in two different cities on the same day, one of the more unusual travel days any ballplayer has experienced.
13. Warren Spahn Finished With 363 Wins and 363 Hits
Warren Spahn was one of baseball’s great pitchers.
The Hall of Fame left-hander won 363 games, recorded 13 seasons with at least 20 victories and won the 1957 Cy Young Award. He could also handle a bat better than many pitchers. Spahn finished his major-league career with 35 home runs, 189 RBI and a .194 batting average. Then there is the numerical coincidence.
His career victory total was 363.
His career hit total was also 363.
For a pitcher who spent more than two decades in the majors, that is one wonderfully tidy stat line.
Two Final Entries in Baseball’s Strange Record Book
14. Al Woods Homered in His First At-Bat in Blue Jays History
The Toronto Blue Jays played the first game in franchise history on April 7, 1977.
Al Woods was making a debut of his own. In his first major-league plate appearance, Woods came to bat in the fifth inning with Toronto leading 5-4. He hit a two-run home run. Toronto went on to defeat the Chicago White Sox 9-5.
A player homering in his first major-league at-bat is rare enough. Woods managed to do it while playing in the first game his franchise had ever played.
15. The Minnesota Twins Turned Two Triple Plays and Still Lost
On July 17, 1990, the Minnesota Twins did something that should have given them an enormous advantage against the Boston Red Sox.
They turned a triple play. Then they did it again.
Both triple plays went around the horn from third base to second base to first base. Minnesota became the first major-league team to turn two triple plays in the same game. And somehow, the Twins still lost. Boston won 1-0.
For Minnesota, it was a nearly perfect demonstration of baseball’s ability to produce a historic achievement without providing the result anyone would expect. Two triple plays went into the record book.
The victory did not.
