Lucky Seven’s For Backstops
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 18, 2007
Here's one to try on your friends, via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Batting Gamelog Finder: Name the three catchers, since 1957, to reach base via an error three times in a game. The answer:
Cnt Player Date Tm Opp GmReslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BOr Positions+----+-----------------+-------------+---+----+-------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+---+--+---+--+--+---+---+--+--+---+---------+ 1 Kenji Johjima 2006-08-29 SEA LAA W 6-4 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 7th C 2 Joe Girardi 1992-08-18 CHC @SFG W 4-1 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 7th C 3 Jerry Grote 1975-09-05 NYM STL W 5-2 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 7th C
What's even cooler, beyond the fact that it's only happened 3 times since 1957 for catchers, is that each time it happened, the catcher was batting 7th in the line-up that day.
Now, if you really want to get your baseball buddies, ask them to name the only A.L. catcher to do it since 1957. Kenji stands alone on that one.