One-game careers in 2010
Posted by Andy on October 6, 2010
How many major-league baseball players can you name? Probably a lot. But for all the guys who star in the big leagues, there are many more who never make it or who appear in just a handful of games.
Check out the list of 2010 debuts in MLB right here.
Of all those players, here are the non-pitchers to appear in only one game:
| Yrs | G ▴ | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | Debut | Age | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Hill | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .333 | .333 | 1.333 | 1.667 | Aug 15 | 25.154 |
| J. C. Boscan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | Oct 1 | 30.279 | |||
| Jay Sborz | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Jun 22 | 25.149 | ||||
| Totals | 178 | 4771 | 12201 | 10967 | 1372 | 2732 | 582 | 70 | 239 | 1172 | 952 | 2675 | .249 | .313 | .380 | .693 |
(Whoops, Sborz is a pitcher...I'm not going to bother fixing that table.)
And here are the pitchers to appear in only one game:
| Rk | Yrs | W | L | G ▴ | GS | GF | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | ER | HR | BB | SO | Debut | Age | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rob Delaney | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Sep 4 | 25.361 |
| 2 | Jeff Marquez | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18.00 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Jul 9 | 25.333 |
| 3 | James Houser | 1 | 0 | 0 | 20.25 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jun 24 | 25.191 |
| 4 | Jay Sborz | 1 | 0 | 0 | 67.50 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Jun 22 | 25.149 |
| Totals | 105 | 155 | 180 | 4.38 | 1893 | 283 | 476 | 1 | 0 | 35 | 3279.2 | 3364 | 1595 | 372 | 1356 | 2565 |
If my math is right, there were a total of 203 players making their major league debuts this season, and of the 6 guys appearing in just one game, there's a decent chance that some of them will never appear in the majors again. Since 1990, there have been 19 non-pitchers (including the 2 above) to have careers lasting exactly 1 game. (Although, however, at least 3 of those guys--Noce, Davis, and Jackson--appeared in additional games before 1990.) Pitchers are a little tougher to figure since the list of pitchers to appear in just 1 game includes tons of position players.
Oh, you didn't think I'd let Steve Hill pass by without further comment, did you? He homered in his only game this season. He is currently the only guy since 1901 to appear in exactly one career game and have a home run. That even includes pitchers who may have appeared in other games as pitchers but only 1 as a hitter.
Thanks to reader Erik G for emailing in the post idea.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Didn't you miss Matt Fox for the Twins there?
October 6th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Fox had 1 game with the Twins and then 3 games with the Red Sox later in 2010.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:53 am
The list of 19 non-pitchers with one-career games includes poor Adam "Moonlight" Greenberg -- one plate appearance, one pitch, one fastball to the back of the head, one concussion.
October 6th, 2010 at 11:57 am
I think what will determine if the come back is how they do in the minor leagues. If Yadier Molina goes down, and the Cardinals need a catcher, if Hill has the best minor league stats, he may just be the one coming back up, if someone else is doing better, they will call that guy up. Its sad how sometimes players are based of numbers in the minors, and not the majors. Look at Murton! He was a good MLer, but he got sent to the minors, and didnt perform well, so they figured he was done.
October 6th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I saw Greenberg get hit that night, I always felt bad for the guy. I really wished he would make it back to the majors, but I dont think he will.
October 6th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Boscan's game was on MLB Network, and I remember Dick Enberg pointing out that it was his debut after X years in the minors. So I looked at his stats - hope I don't have the wrong guy - and he had been in the minors because he, frankly, was a terrible hitter. Enberg said he was a real-life Crash Davis, but Crash Davis could hit! This guy was at like .227 for his minor-league career.
Of course, he's a catcher, so that gave him some cache (heh).
October 6th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
His minor league numbers are available on this site:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=boscan001jea
Yeah, .227 minor-league BA.
October 6th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Don't ask me -- I'm still waiting for McGraw to give Moonlight Graham an AB. About to give up, though.
October 6th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I remember Tom Paciorek's brother playing 1 game for Houston, I think, in 1963, I think. He had quite a day and was never heard from again!
October 6th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Why did Hill play only one game?
October 6th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Eorns...that's a hell of a nice suggestion you sent me by email. I am going to post on it in the next couple of days. I had actually noticed that myself but had forgotten about it. (The rest of you will just have to wait and see what it is...)
October 6th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
@9- You're right, Larry- John Paciorek went 3-for-3 with 3 RBI on the last day of the 1963 season. I believe it was a game where the Colts started an all-rookie lineup averaging about 19 years of age...
October 6th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Ron Wright was the John Paaciorek opposite, playing in only 1 career game going 0-3 with a K, GIDP...and a GITP. 3 at bats, 6 outs, career over.
October 6th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
the John Paciorek game has to be one of the major league's great anamolies. Here is the boxscore:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU196309290.shtml.
He was an 18 year old outfielder who played at Modesto that year and hit .219, with a little bit of pop. Who knows why the Colt .45s (yes, the Colts ,45s) brought him up, but he got a start the last day of the season against the Mets, was 3 for 3 with 2 BBs and scored 4 times. the next year he went back to A ball, and never mad it above AA before finishing his minor league career with a .209(!) BA in 1969.
There's a br in the town where I live that calls itself the Home of the White Sox - interesting since we're in Montana. Anyway, for years (waaaaaaaayyyy before we could find this stuff on the internet), the back wall was covered with enlarged copies of box scores or random games. There was never any reason given for why the box scores were there so a person could spend a long time (and a lot of $ on beer) puzzling over their significance. I don't know if I remember the specific games of any of the other box scores, but I remember this one.
October 6th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
@14
LJF, you would probably Jim Caple's feature, "CSI: Box Score," that he runs in his ESPN column.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/101006_MLB_playoffs&sportCat=mlb
October 6th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
One of my favorite short-career guys is Keith McDonald:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcdonke01.shtml.
11 PAs, 9 AB, 3 hits, all HRs, 2 walks, 2 Ks. Fewest PA of any player with at least 3 career HRs.
McDonald homered as a pinch-hitter in his first time up, July 4, 2000. Homered again in his next trip, during the only start of his career. Three games later, he homered again as a PH.
Then there's Charlton Jimerson: 9 AB, 4 hits, 2 HRs, 4 SB, 0 CS.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jimerch01.shtml.
Jimerson has played 10 years in the minors, but has played just 31 MLB games, mostly as a pinch runner.
On Sept. 3, 2006, Jimerson pinch-hit for Roger Clemens with Houston trailing 1-0, and hit a HR in his first time up. He went 2 for 6 that year, but was released the following spring and signed with Seattle. With the Mariners in 2007, he went 2 for 2 with a HR.
(And of course, he's one of 2 MLB players ever with the first name Charlton; the other was, believe it or not, Charlton Atlee Hammaker, who started the 1983 All-Star game (and surrendered Fred Lynn's grand slam).
October 6th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
John Paciorek shares the debut records (in the B-R game-searchable era) with 4 runs and 5 times on base.
Paciorek also holds the 1-game-career records of 4 runs and 3 RBI (shared with 2 others), but *not* hits. That mark is held by Ray Jansen of the 1910 Browns, who had 4 singles in 5 trips; unfortunately, he also made 3 errors.
Then there's Aubrey "Yo-Yo" Epps, who went 3 for 4 with a triple, 3 RBI and a run for Pittsburgh in the last game of the 1935 season, at the age of 23. He played several more years in the minors, but never made it back. (He's one of 3 MLB players ever with the first name Aubrey.)
October 6th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
. . . and Gatewood makes three.
October 6th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
i think it's pretty amazing how many of these "one game" guys have 1.000 OBPs.
October 6th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Wow... Not to derail, but: I did a search for players whose one career plate appearance was a HBP, and one of the seven was Charles Victor Faust, the Giants mascot mentioned in E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime, one of my favorite books.
October 6th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
[...] One-game careers in 2010 » Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive [...]
October 6th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Another familiar name in the expanded position player list is Stephen Larkin, Barry's brother. I guess that Mike Glavine, who had a very brief major league career with his brother's team (the Mets, not the Braves) around the same time that Stephen Larkin did, appeared in multiple games.
October 6th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Kahuna, thanks for picking up the Aubrey thread!
Aubrey Gatewood had a CG, 4-hit, 4-1 win in his MLB debut in 1963.
He pitched well in 1964 and was average in '65, but then wasn't seen again until his 1970 swan-song.
If you look at his minor-league stats, you'll wonder why he ever made it to the bigs at all; if he hadn't been with the expansion-era Angels, he probably never would have gotten a look.
But he did, and he posted a 122 ERA+ in 178 career IP.
October 6th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I'm surprised to find that there have been 10 MLB players with the last name Larkin.
A number of them had very brief careers:
-- Stephen Larkin, 1 game, 1 for 3.
-- Ed Larkin, 2 games, 1 for 6.
-- Steve Larkin, 2 games, 6 IP.
-- Pat Larkin, 5 games, 10 IP.
-- ??? Larkin, 17 games in 1884.
Gene Larkin is remembered for just 1 game -- his PH/GWRBI in 1991 WS game 7, the 1-0 Morris-Smoltz game.
Andy Larkin's career probably should have been briefer than it was; he posted an 8.86 ERA in 106 IP over parts of 3 seasons. That 8.86 ERA, and his 49 ERA+, are the worst ever for a pitcher with 100+ IP. (Coincidentally, he gave up the first of Keith McDonald's 3 HRs.)
October 6th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
John Autin, thanks for the link. I looked at the boxscoreI knew it was Robin Yount's brother and somehow I knew he had only pitched in one game and had no innings, but I didn;t know the story about why. Man, it's scary what little tidbits of information are running around in our brains.
October 6th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Steve Hill homered in his only game, on August 15th against Chicago, but still had a game WPA of -.143, mostly because he struck out with the tying run on second base to end the game. Had Hill gotten a hit there, the Cardinals would've tied up a game that they were at one point trailing 8-1. It would've been one of their biggest comebacks of the year, and who knows, Steve Hill might've stuck around awhile.
October 6th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
In reference to Steve Hill (Who only got his call-up thanks to Johnny Cueto's kung fu kick to the head of Jason LaRue), he was back up with the Cardinals late in the season, but even with Molina out for the year, Tony LaRussa's insistence on playing only Matt Pagnozzi and Bryan Anderson down the stretch seems to cast a dim light on Hill's chances of getting another shot.... though he is just 25. You never know...
My favorite almost one-game wonder was Lino Urdaneta, who pitched one game for the Tigers in 2004 and gave up 6 earned runs without recording an out. That would have been his career line had he not resurfaced with the Mets for 2 games in 2007. He finally recorded an out (3 of them in fact), though gave up one more run to "retire" with a 63.00 career ERA in 1 IP in 3 games.....
October 7th, 2010 at 12:27 am
For a couple of years, Esteban Yan was the only player since 1901 to appear in exactly one game as a hitter and have a home run. Now he has appeared in two games as a hitter, and is 2-for-2.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Usually a 14 year minor leaguer has seen a pretty hefty slice of America, but it looks like Boscans entire MiLB career has taken place east of the Mississippi. Well he did play those 2 games in the PCL for Nashville, perhaps those were road game
October 7th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
I've always been fascinated with the one career game players. Thanks for the post.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
On the flip side of these guys - the 2010 debuts who appeared in the most games - were Austin Jackson (151 games) for position players, Jonny Venters (79 games) for all pitchers, and Mike Leake (22 starts, out of 24 appearances) for starting pitchers.
October 7th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Also, in looking over the full list, I see that Texas' 2004 first round pick, Thomas Diamond, finally made it to the majors this year with the Cubs. He is the first-ever player named Diamond to play on the diamond. Also, he is the only player with a last name other than Diaz to appear in the Dia section of the Player Index here.
I remember that he was drafted either just before or just after Neil Walker, then a catcher, was picked by Pittsburgh. Walker, now an infielder, finally made it to the Pirates in the past couple of years. At the time they were drafted, I thought that the Red Sox should eventually get both of these guys to make up a "Sweet Caroline" battery.