In these days of malignant Trumpishness, it is good to take an occasional break from the hate and ugliness and turn to something a bit lighter. An rare event occurred in major league baseball a couple of days ago, a very rare event indeed.
Brandon Crawford, the shortstop for the San Francisco Giants had seven hits in a game on August 8, 2016 in Miami against the Marlins. He was the seventh player in Major League Baseball ever to accomplish this. (One of these seven players, Johnny Burnett of the Cleveland Indians, went nine for eleven in a game, back in 1932. No one else has ever even had eight.) The last person to hit seven was Rennie Stennett of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who did so in 1975. Stennett lives near Miami, and came to the stadium. The San Francisco Chronicle published a photo of the two men together after the game. They do not allow their photos to be used on other websites. If you want to see it this will take you to it.
I used a photo taken about five seconds after the end of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Why? Because I always liked it. Also I do say a few things about perfect games below.
I have been a Dodger fan for a long time. In the early 60's I spent many happy summer afternoons lying on my back on the grass, reading a book or sometimes just watching the clouds go by, and listening on a small transistor radio to the incomparable Vin Scully call the game. Like most Dodger fans, I have come to regard the San Francisco Giants as “the Hated Ones” and I am quite sure they regards us heathens in Southern California similarly. Still I must congratulate Crawford. For the record, no Dodger has had more than 6 hits in a game.
Crawford’s achievement is an exceedingly rare event. To show just how rare how this achievement is, lets look at other rare events in baseball. Grand slams and shutouts are very common. There are quite a few of these every year. Here are some rarer ones. I got the first two from Wikipedia, which may not be entirely up to date. However, I haven’t heard of either one occurring lately. To give an idea of just how rare these events are, consider that there have been more than 210,000 baseball games played since modern rules were adopted in 1893.
Hitting For The Cycle - 309 times
This means getting a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game. This has happened 309 times. A much rarer event is called hitting for the natural cycle (where the hits are made in order from single to homer.) This has occurred just 14 of those 309 times, the last time being in 2006, by Gary Matthews of the Texas Rangers.
No-Hitter - 295 times
Where a single pitcher pitches an entire game (9 or more innings) without giving up a hit. This has been done 295 times. Interestingly, pitching a no-hitter doesn’t guarantee a win. The opposing team can still get men on base through walks or errors, and once on base they can score.
Now we get into really rare territory.
Perfect Game - 23 times
Where a single pitcher pitches an entire game and faces the minimum number of hitters, 27, and gets them all out, either by strikeout or by a defensive play behind him. There can be no walks or errors. All perfect games are also both shutouts and no-hitters. The most recent two perfect games were both pitched in 2012, by Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox and Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. There has been only one perfect game in post-season play, in 1956, by New York Yankee Don Larsen in the fifth game of the World Series — thus the photo above.
The Dodgers have had one perfect game pitched in 1965 by Sandy Koufax. Sometimes a pitcher will pitch well enough to get a perfect game, but will lose it because of a defensive error. This happened to Dodger ace Clayton Kershaw a couple of years ago. In the eighth inning a batter got on base through an fielder’s error. The next hitter hit into a double-play, so Kershaw did face the minimum 27 players, but was credited only with a no-hitter.
Unassisted Triple Play - 15 times
This play can only occur if there are two or three men on base with no outs. A typical example would go like this. There are men on first and second. The batter hits a hard line drive toward left field. The runners, thinking that the ball will not be caught, come off their bases and start to advance. The shortstop unexpectedly catches the ball. First out. The base runners stop and try to get back to their bases. The shortstop touches second base ahead of the returning base runner (second out) and tags the base runner returning to first (third out.) No other player touches the ball. The last unassisted triple play was in 2009 by Eric Bruntlett of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Dodgers have never had one.
And getting seven hits in a game is rarer than all of these. Congratulations again, Brandon!
Now we can go back to our usual programming. Go get ‘em Hillary!