Trivializing Baseball

How about a few obscure statistics to drop on your friends at the next game? You’ll stun them I’m certain.

What is the percentage of MLB players born outside the US?
29.2%. The 30 clubs include 242 foreign born players on their 25 man rosters. The Washington Nationals have the most with 16 from 6 different countries. The Dominican Republic has the most players in MLB with 91, followed by Venezuela (45), and Puerto Rico (34). The foreign born players are from 15 countries.

Which active player has hit the most doubles?
With 600 doubles ranked 13th all-time, Craig Biggio stands a good chance of surpassing Hank Aaron (9th) and Carl Yastrimski (7th) on the all-time list, but probably doesn’t have enough seasons left as an athlete to catch Tris Speaker who hit 792 over his career.

What about that rarest of hits: the triple?
Base thinks that no active player (or those to come) will ever approach the all-time record, and very few will even break into the top 100 list. Steve Finley has 112, and Kenny Lofton has 97 and are the two highest among active players. Sam Crawford played from 1899-1917 and hit 309 triples. Second is Ty Cobb with 297. The only active player of note with the possibility of penetrating the top 100, is Johnny Damon, but only if he hits well for a really long time.

HBP
This is an odd category. Is it really an accomplishment to be repeatedly be hit by a pitch? Hughie Jennings who played from 1891-1918 holds the record (287 times). Craig Biggio is closing in, on track to pass this record after being plunked 272 times over 18 years. This dubious record has not gone unnoticed by umpires, and sometimes he is not awarded 1st base after being hit, so his black and blue career total is actually higher. If in the judgment of the umpire a batter makes no attempt to avoid a pitched ball and gets struck by it, the umpire will call it a ball or strike as usual. Biggio ranks 29th all-time for plate appearances (at bats): 9735.

As usual, writers focus on offensive statistics mostly, but half the game is always played in defensive positions. Baseball is the only ball sport where the offense never gets to touch the ball (except with wood). So, how about some obscure defensive statistics?

The Unassisted Triple Play
There have been 7 in all the seasons of baseball (MLB). Two 1st basemen, two 2nd basemen, and three shortstops have executed this feat. The circumstances are always the same. Base runners are on 1st and 2nd with no outs and an infielder catches a line drive. The order beyond this changes a little, but involves tagging one runner between bases and stepping on a base before the other runner returns. Randy Velardi performed the last one 5/29/00. Just plain regular triple plays are less infrequent. There were 9 in 1925, 7 in 1991. There are usually a few every year, but none in 1961. There have been 659 triple plays in MLB since 1876. In ’90 the Minnesota Twins converted two of these in a single game against the Red Sox, and lost 1-0.

The Perfect Game
The modern definition pf a perfect game is one in which no batter reaches base. It requires 27 consecutive outs. It’s happened 15 times, first by Cy Young and the most recent in 2004 by Randy Johnson. Something your fountain of statistics didn’t realize is that Kenny Rogers pitched one in 1994. How the mighty have fallen!

On June 23,1917 Babe Ruth was pitching and walked the fist batter. Ruth was so enraged he went after the umpire, trying to strike him. After he was ejected Ernie Shore came on to replace Ruth. The runner was picked off trying to steal, and Shore retired the next 26 batsmen.

In 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game through 12 innings, losing the game in the 13th. There are many sad stories like this, but as we all know, “there’s no crying in baseball.”

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