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Everybody hits! (plus introducing Readers Research)

Posted by Andy on March 26, 2010

I did a little digging to find the game where the most different players from one team got a hit in the same game, provided that every single player on the team who got a plate appearance got at least one hit.

First, here are the games with the most players getting a hit for one team:

Rk Tm Opp Date #Matching
1 STL NYM 1979-09-28 (2) 15
2 ATL FLA 1999-10-03 15
3 SFG SDP 1986-06-23 14
4 NYY KCR 1972-08-27 (2) 14
5 FLA ATL 1996-09-24 14
6 CHC CIN 1977-07-28 14
7 CHC COL 1995-08-18 14
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 3/25/2010.

If you click through to the box scores, only the Giants in 1986 had every one of their players who appeared at the plate get at least one hit. That included pitcher Mike LaCoss and pinch-hitters Harry Spilman and Joel Youngblood. It even included 3 different players who came in as defensive substitutions.

As a reminder, this type of box score search includes 1920-1939 and 1952-present.

I went to look for the record for both teams achieving the feat in the same game. Here is the leaderboard for most players by both teams getting a hit in the same game. The record for the years covered is 24 players. However I searched all the way down through games featuring 21 players and in no cases did every player with a plate appearance get a hit. Way down the list is this game, which is the closest I could find. Every single player for both teams who got a plate appearance also got a hit, with the lone exception of Kevin Romine, who entered as a pinch-hitter for Pat Dodson and then moved to right field.

So, I'd like to introduce a new segment called "Readers Research" to help with issues that either cannot be researched by the PI or require a prohibitive amount of time to research. Who knows the answer to the game featuring the most players to get a hit where every player with a PA got a hit? You might want to look even further down the leaderboard I linked above or perhaps you know another source for the answer? One caveat: should this info be available on another website, please be sure to provide a link to your source.

3 Responses to “Everybody hits! (plus introducing Readers Research)”

  1. OscarAzocar Says:

    I don't know the record, but in 2009, there was one such game. It only involved 18 players.
    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR200908180.shtml

  2. Sean Forman Says:

    Great Stuff

  3. Djibouti Says:

    One the 20 hit games at the bottom of the list qualifies

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA198906280.shtml

    2 PRs in that game, neither had a PA