Baseball oddities

2drfischer@gmail.c · Post by **2drfischer@gmail.c** » Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:52 am

7F59584F59493A0 wrote: Sixty years into the "expansion era," all fourteen expansion franchises still have all-time losing records.

That's amazing. And what makes it even stranger is that, except for the Brewers and Mariners, all of the expansion teams have been to at least one World Series, so it's not like they've all been bad throughout their histories. They crawled out of the netherworld and had success.

I know you hate the Brewers but they did lose a World Series back when Robin Yount played.

Oops, you're right. I'd forgotten about that. That was a pretty good team, with Yount and Molitor.

easy mistake though, especially if you were in kindergarten at the time like me.

I wish I could use that as an excuse. I was already married and we had a child.

iwatch · Post by **iwatch** » Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:56 am

Max Flack once started a day in RF for the Cubs against the Cards and ended the day in RF for the Cards against the Cubs.

Bobster21 · Post by **Bobster21** » Thu Jan 06, 2022 1:19 pm

Hank Foiles traded himself. On June 1, 1960 the Pirates reacquired Foiles from KC for Danny Kravitz and informed Foiles he would be assigned to AAA. Foiles told Joe Brown he would refuse the AAA assignment. Brown told Foiles that if he wanted out of the Pirate organization he could call around to other teams and work out a trade that would be acceptable to the Pirates. But Brown was not going to do it for him. The next day Foiles worked out a trade with Cleveland sending himself there in exchange for Johnny Powers. Brown found the deal acceptable and Foiles was traded to Cleveland on June 2.

ArnoldRothstein · Post by **ArnoldRothstein** » Thu Jan 06, 2022 2:23 pm

Hank Foiles traded himself. On June 1, 1960 the Pirates reacquired Foiles from KC for Danny Kravitz

Another oddity: the Pirates had been carrying four catchers since the start of the season, and Kravitz had only caught one inning at the time of the trade.

Powers was also a reacquisition. He waa 30, but assigned to Triple A Columbus. Never made it back to the majors, but played the next five years in Triple A, mostly at Columbus.

Bobster21 · Post by **Bobster21** » Thu Jan 06, 2022 3:17 pm

1D2E323330380E3328342F283935325C0 wrote: Hank Foiles traded himself. On June 1, 1960 the Pirates reacquired Foiles from KC for Danny Kravitz

Another oddity: the Pirates had been carrying four catchers since the start of the season, and Kravitz had only caught one inning at the time of the trade.

Powers was also a reacquisition. He was 30, but assigned to Triple A Columbus. Never made it back to the majors, but played the next five years in Triple A, mostly at Columbus.
Yes, they intended to trade Kravitz all along. Foiles was good defensively and a veteran with a lot of experience to share and I believe they felt he would be good to work with the AAA pitchers. Kravitz lacked Foiles' experience and defensive skills so sending him to AAA wasn't an attractive option. For the first 30 days of the season, teams were allowed to carry 28 players. So carrying 4 catchers wasn't a problem until they had to cut down on May 12. So for about the next 3 weeks Kravitz took up space on the roster as a PHer and emergency catcher before the Pirates could work out a trade. During that time they carried only 4 OFers. Trading Kravitz cleared a roster space to recall Joe Christopher who had been optioned on May 12 at the roster cut down date. Going ahead with the Foiles for Powers trade the next day didn't create a roster problem because Powers was immediately optioned. And Christopher was with the team the entire season with the exception of May 12-31.

BellevueBuc · Post by **BellevueBuc** » Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:00 pm

233D2B3E29224A0 wrote: Max Flack once started a day in RF for the Cubs against the Cards and ended the day in RF for the Cards against the Cubs.

The player he was traded for, Cliff Heathcote, also started both games, however he played CF for the Cards, and RF for the Cubs.

BellevueBuc · Post by **BellevueBuc** » Fri Jan 07, 2022 8:02 pm

694449585F4E59191A2B0 wrote: Hank Foiles traded himself. On June 1, 1960 the Pirates reacquired Foiles from KC for Danny Kravitz and informed Foiles he would be assigned to AAA. Foiles told Joe Brown he would refuse the AAA assignment. Brown told Foiles that if he wanted out of the Pirate organization he could call around to other teams and work out a trade that would be acceptable to the Pirates. But Brown was not going to do it for him. The next day Foiles worked out a trade with Cleveland sending himself there in exchange for Johnny Powers. Brown found the deal acceptable and Foiles was traded to Cleveland on June 2.

First player to wear contact lenses.

2drfischer@gmail.c · Post by **2drfischer@gmail.c** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 12:30 pm

Perusing mlb.com this morning, another oddity was listed at the top of the page: both Cecil and Prince Fielder ended their careers with 319 HRs.

Also, they posted an article listing who the author thought was each franchise's best player. Some selections were fairly cut and dry while others could be debated. Honus Wagner was chosen as the top Pirate.

Bobster21 · Post by **Bobster21** » Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:23 pm

A pair of HOFers came from the small town of Donora, PA (population approx 4,600).

Stan Musial was born on November 21, 1920.

Ken Griffey Jr was born on November 21, 1969.

BellevueBuc · Post by **BellevueBuc** » Mon Jan 10, 2022 2:09 pm

Babe Ruth hit 54 HRs in 1920, which was more than every team in the AL. Only the Phillies, with 64, had more.

Somewhat related, Joe Sewell struck out only 114 times in 8329 PAs (a little over 1%). Striking out 114 times in a season today would be considered average for a regular.