11 One & Done Batters
Posted by Steve Lombardi on December 30, 2010
Nothing earth-breaking about this list - but, it's one of my favorite sorts. Non-pitchers who appeared in exactly one game, only, in their big league career - and who got only one PA in that game, and, who got a hit in their only major league plate appearance. Here's the list:
| Rk | PA | H | G | From | To | Age | AB | R | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | GDP | SB | CS | Pos | Tm | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Yantz | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1912 | 1912 | 25-25 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*2 | CHC | |
| 2 | Allie Watt | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1920 | 1920 | 20-20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | 3.000 | /*4 | WSH | |
| 3 | Matt Tupman | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2008 | 2008 | 28-28 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*2 | KCR | |
| 4 | Ty Pickup | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1918 | 1918 | 20-20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*9 | PHI | |
| 5 | Bill Peterman | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1942 | 1942 | 21-21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*2 | PHI | |
| 6 | Ralph Onis | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1935 | 1935 | 26-26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*2 | BRO | |
| 7 | Heinie Odom | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1925 | 1925 | 24-24 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*5 | NYY | |
| 8 | Red Lutz | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1922 | 1922 | 23-23 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | 3.000 | /*2 | CIN | |
| 9 | Dave Liddell | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1990 | 1990 | 24-24 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*2 | NYM | |
| 10 | Jackie Gallagher | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1923 | 1923 | 21-21 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*7 | CLE | |
| 11 | Carlos Corporan | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2009 | 2009 | 25-25 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | /*2 | MIL |
.
Raise your hand if you knew more than one of the names on this list.
December 30th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Don't know any, but Mr. Pickup has an enviable name for a country music singer.
December 30th, 2010 at 10:47 am
Hey, where's Roe Skidmore?
December 30th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Roe Skidmore doesn't have a position attached to his record so maybe the sort doesn't pick him up?
December 30th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Yeah, that's it. In the career finder, when you specify positions (non-pitchers), you drop pitchers AND the other 4 guys who didn't play in the field or have a position attached.
Jeff Bannister
Roe Skidmore
Steve Kuczek
C.B. Burns
December 30th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Corporan has signed with the Astros organization for 2011, so I'm sure he'd love to lose his 'perfect' status and fall off of this list.
December 30th, 2010 at 11:15 am
I get 20 using the following criteria:
Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1901 to 2010, (requiring PA=1, H=1 and G=1), sorted by earliest date
December 30th, 2010 at 11:19 am
But five are listed as pitchers and four have no position listed, as Zack obviously noted while I was typing.
December 30th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
This list tells us Abbott and Costello were right...Watt's on second.
December 30th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
Not precisely related, but seeing guys who got a hit (i.e., succeeded) and then never appeared again -- it reminds me of something I wonder if anyone here has noticed.
I spend a lot of time on B-R, just kind of surfing through players and going wherever it leads me. And one thing I've noticed is, back in the old days -- pre-WWII and even into the '50s -- there were a fair number of players who had pretty decent final seasons in their early to mid 30s, and then retired. Just hung them up after a solid (not spectacular) year that would appear to indicate they still had some gas in the tank.
That rarely seems to happen any more. My speculation is that the money is so big now that guys are going to hang on for every penny they can get. In earlier days, it may have been that a 34-year-old player know that his days were numbered, he would need a post-baseball career and he might as well get started.
I'd have to do some research to find a few names, which I don't really have the time to do right at the moment (I'm at work). But trust me, it's something I've consistently noticed.
Has anyone else ever noticed this?
I've also noticed that the converse seems true: in the old days, there were a lot of players whose performance just dropped off the cliff suddenly. They're 32, 33 and putting up decent numbers and then bang -- one awful year and their career is over. I wonder if that has to do with either subpar conditioning catching up to them, or to injuries that in those days had no effective treatment.
December 30th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
First person I thought of was Jeff Banister. And there is no position attached...
December 30th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
What about Eddie Gadell?
December 30th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Never mind on Eddie Gadell. I read the top part too fast
December 30th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Steve, I'm guessing you'll like this list of eleven also.
December 30th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
The best 1 game and done for a batter was probably John Paciorek
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/paciojo01.shtml
John was 1 of 3 ball playing brothers (Jim and Tom):
John played in 1 game for the Houston Astros:
He had 5 plate appearances in his 1 game and had 3 hits and 2 walks.
He was a late season call up in 1963, got in his 1 game, then injured his back in the off season, and never made it back to the majors.
December 30th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Sorry about saying John Paciorek playing for the Astros.
The Houston team in 1963 was known as the Houston Colt .45's
1963 was the pre - Astrodome days.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paciorek
December 30th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I watched Corporan's hit on TV. It came off of Paul Janish of the Reds, who is normally an infielder.
I also have Dave Liddell's 1990 Topps Major League Debut card, and it obviously shows him right after his hit. He's leading off of first with a big smile on his face.
December 30th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
John @9, Back then many players may have continued to play in the minors. Especially in the PCL the salaries may have been close to the majors. Also, some became minor league managers and some minor league investors/owners.
December 30th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I see that the list appears in reverse alphabetical order, although at first glance, it appears to be from earliest to most recent, because that's who the guys at the top and bottom of the list happen to be.
I once worked with a woman named Jackie Gallagher! I also knew a woman with the last name of Pickup, and in the early days of online bulletin board systems (what some people used before the widespread availability of the Internet and email), she was rejected from at least one site because registrants were required to use their real names, not handles. The sysop (a webmaster equivalent) of the board did not believe it was her real name at first.
I decided to try the Oracle of Baseball Chain of Teammates on George Yantz and Carlos Corporan. After rejecting the first one because it contained Minnie Minoso's 1980 comeback year, I found:
George Yantz played with Cy Williams for the 1912 Chicago Cubs
Cy Williams played with Chuck Klein for the 1929 Philadelphia Phillies
Chuck Klein played with Bob Elliott for the 1939 Pittsburgh Pirates
Bob Elliott played with Hoyt Wilhelm for the 1952 New York Giants
Hoyt Wilhelm played with Charlie Hough for the 1971 Los Angeles Dodgers
Charlie Hough played with David Weathers for the 1994 Florida Marlins
David Weathers played with Carlos Corporan for the 2009 Milwaukee Brewers
In case you were wondering, David Weathers played in the same game in which Corporan played - but for the opposing team, Cincinnati! He didn't join the Brewers until more than three months later. And as someone else already mentioned, Corporan's hit came off of a different "pitcher".
Although there are a couple of long-tenured knuckleballers on the above list, their long careers were continuous.
John Paciorek and his brother Jim only appeared during one season each. Another brother, Tom, had a fairly long career. John's and Jim's seasons were 24 years apart (1963 and 1987). Tom Paciorek's playing career ended in 1987, too.
Here is the Oracle for John and Jim Paciorek:
John Paciorek played with Rusty Staub for the 1963 Houston Colt .45's
Rusty Staub played with John Henry Johnson for the 1980 Texas Rangers
John Henry Johnson played with Jim Paciorek for the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers
Staub is a good match for the 1963 Colt .45's because he played in the game in which John Paciorek appeared.
December 30th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
@9
another thing might be that there are more 'jobs' available to players that 'fall off a cliff' one year. Ex. would Derrek Lee still be able to find a job next season if there were 14 less teams? It's not a great example because Lee didn't really drop off a cliff... but I think the point comes through.
December 30th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
@8 re: "Watt's on second" --
The Athletics weren't so Hasty in removing their starting pitcher that day, leaving Bob in to complete a tidy little 15-hit, 8-6 victory over Watt's Senators. Bob Hasty himself had 2 RBI and a double, his club's only extra-base hit of the game. The A's collected just 7 safeties, but drew 6 walks to 1 for the Senators. The win on the season's final day improved the Athletics' record to 48-106.
Watt's pinch-hit double came in place of rookie Bucky Harris, whose 4-for-4 day lifted his average from .295 to an even .300 -- the only .300 season among his 9 full playing campaigns.
It was Hasty's first major-league win after 5 losses; he would finish his career with a record of 29-53, the 19th-worst W% in modern history for a pitcher with 80+ decisions.
The loser for Washington was Clair Lee Shirey (better known as Duke; please don't call him Shirley, for obvious reasons), in his only career start and decision. Shirey was relieved by Clarence Fisher and Gus Bono; the game would be the last in the very short careers of all 3 pitchers.
The game was also the last in the managing career of the legendary Clark Griffith, who had that year taken over controlling ownership of the club. As manager, Griffith went 1,491-1,367 in 20 seasons. I'll close with a couple of nuggets from Griffith's BR Bullpen page:
(1) "He was the greatest humanitarian who ever lived and the greastest pillar of honesty baseball ever had. I never played for a better man, on the field or off." - Bobo Newsom
(This may help explain the Senators' extraordinary continuity in the 1920s and '30s, as well as the fact that many players who did leave the club returned to Washington later on -- including Newsom on several occasions.)
(2) Returning to the theme of "one & done":
"Trivia: In 1912, Griffith became the first man in baseball history to face one and only one batter in a season, and give up a home run to that batter. The feat was later matched by Milwaukee's Dave Koslo in 1955."
December 30th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
John from Minny @9: Your observation about final seasons provoked this search:
From PI, the top 6 WAR seasons by non-pitchers (from 1900 on) in their final season in the majors:
1. Joe Jackson -- banned/Black Sox
2. Happy Felsch -- banned/Black Sox
3. Jackie Robinson -- fascinating that he had the best final season ever by a guy who wasn't thrown out of baseball. Worn out from fighting the good fight? Too famous to need to keep playing? Declining health?
4. Roberto Clemente -- died in a plane crash
5. Roy Cullenbine -- doesn't seem to have been able to find a job, one of the great strike zone eyes ever, his propensity for walks may not have been sufficiently valued at the time
6. Will Clark -- retired himself right out of the Hall of Fame?
December 30th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
@21, Birtelcom -- re: Jackie Robinson retiring after a pretty good 1956 season:
Jackie was traded to the Giants in December '56. He chose to retire rather than play for his long-time NL rivals.
P.S. There was an item of some historical interest about Robinson on the N.Y. Times website last week, titled "Archive Shows Robinson As Moderator on Morality": http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/sports/baseball/25robinson.html
There's also some good material on Jackie in Howard Bryant's recent biography of Henry Aaron, "The Last Hero." (And to others who've read that book: Were you as appalled as I was by the poor editing of that book? I thought the book was pretty good overall, but severely marred by an apparent lack of editing and proofreading.)
December 30th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
I agree with the general surmise of John from Minneapolis @8. I'm sure there are other factors as well, but I think the "middle-class" pay scale of big-league ball before free agency led a lot of non-star players to hang up the spikes when they were still able to play at a decent level. That was especially true for those with some education and/or other financial prospects outside the game, as well as those who were raising a family.
December 30th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
More to my note on the Aaron bio:
FWIW, I posted a review on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1RQ5CT23OS93N/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R1R
Q5CT23OS93N
December 30th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Allie Watt is the only (modern) player with both an extra-base hit and an RBI in his only PA.
Here's a list of those who had an XBH and an RBI in their only MLB game:
(if I can pull off my latest attempt at table sharing)
Rk
Player
Year
G
RBI
From
Age
PA
AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
BB
SO
SH
OPS
Pos
Tm
1
Charlie Lindstrom
1958
1
1
1958
21-21
2
1
1
1
0
1
0
1
0
0
4.000
/*2
CHW
2
Aubrey Epps
1935
1
3
1935
23-23
4
4
1
3
0
1
0
0
0
0
2.000
/*2
PIT
3
Steamboat Struss
1934
1
2
1934
25-25
3
3
0
1
1
0
0
0
2
0
1.000
/*1
PIT
4
Allie Watt
1920
1
1
1920
20-20
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
3.000
/*4
WSH
5
Fletcher Low
1915
1
1
1915
22-22
4
4
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
1.000
/*5
BSN
6
Fred Klobedanz
1902
1
1
1902
31-31
4
2
0
1
1
0
0
1
0
1
1.667
/*1
BSN
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool UsedGenerated 12/30/2010.
December 30th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
(Curses! Foiled again.)
December 31st, 2010 at 12:38 am
John Kull played one game for the Philadelphia A's. He was a lefthanded pitcher whose one plate appearance was a double, which drove in two runs.
He planed in the last three innings of the game, which gave him a GF. He was also the winning pitcher. I don't know if any of these playeers who got a hit in their game also was the winning pitcher.
December 31st, 2010 at 8:14 pm
I noticed the majority of players were catchers. Any theories on why?
January 1st, 2011 at 7:41 am
In 1910, Ray Jansen, had an amazing one-and-done baseball career for the St. Louis Browns. Here's his line, and I followed up with a querry on a message board, and received one heck of an interesting reply.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jansera01.shtml
4-5 with three errors in his only game as a pro.
Here's the thread that deals with Ray Jansen.
January 1st, 2011 at 7:42 am
The link ti the thread didn't attach. I'll try again.
http://www.baseball-fever.com/showthread.php?47876-Ray-Jansen...
January 1st, 2011 at 2:19 pm
John Autin @22 re Jackie Robinson's retirement. According to Arnold Rampersad's biography of Robinson, Jackie had already reached an agreement with the progressive, integrated, prominent company "Chock Full O' Nuts" to retire to become their head of personnel even before the Dodgers traded him to the Giants. He had not told the Dodgers of his intentions because he had a long-standing contract with Look magazine for an exclusive announcement of his retirement. He had just signed his contract with "Chock Full" and let Look know of his retirement when he found out he'd been traded.
January 1st, 2011 at 3:55 pm
@30 Birtelcom ,
Yup!!! IIRC, he also was going to be paid more by Chock Full Of Nuts than the Giants/Dodgers would have paid him.
The story of Robinson refusing to play for a rival is a myth. In fact, Maglie, Snider, Stankey, Loes, and Higbe are all teammates who played for both franchises.
January 2nd, 2011 at 2:56 am
@31, Birtelcom -- Thanks for the info on Robinson's retirement. I need to read that bio. The line about him not wanting to play for the Giants has been floating around for decades, and I just grabbed it without checking.
@32, Soundbounder -- I accept that Robinson did not retire for the reason I said, but I don't see the point in listing teammates who did play for both teams.
Many people were surprised that Jackie Robinson supported Richard Nixon for President in 1960 and maintained a relationship with him for several years afterwards, even writing to encourage Nixon to stay in politics after his bitter disappointment at losing the race for California governor. But in every context, Jackie was his own man. So the notion that he might have retired rather than play for the Giants, though I no longer believe it, still seems plausible to me, no matter what Maglie or Snider did.
BTW, I never meant to imply that not wanting to play for the Giants was the main reason that he retired, nor do I think that the corporate job was the main reason. Obviously, Robinson's last 2 seasons were not up to his own standards (hitting .256 and .275 while averaging 112 games), even if he was still an above-average player, and I presume that his own performance was the first factor in his retirement decision. I could imagine Jackie thinking: "I'm not close to the player I was; I'll be 38 this year; I've played for Brooklyn my whole career -- I just can't see myself playing for the Giants." If he was still playing at the level he'd established from 1949-54, though, I can't imagine either the thought of playing across town or the job offer from Chock Full O' Nuts being enough to make him quit the game.
January 2nd, 2011 at 3:05 am
@29/30, Matt -- Enjoyed the Jansen thread. Just in case you didn't know, most minor-league stats are available through the "Minors" link on the B-R player pages.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jansera01.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=jansen001ray
January 2nd, 2011 at 6:03 am
@32 John Autin,
The point behind listing some Dodgers from that era who also played for the Giants, is to debunk the idea that the rivalry was so fierce, none of them would even consider playing for the other team. That argument gets tossed around quite a bit, especially when comparing the FA players of today to other eras.
I didn't list the names to make an argument that Robinson was not his own man.
January 3rd, 2011 at 2:02 pm
I only knew one of the names on the list... Tupman.
January 4th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
@11 and 12: It was Eddie GAEDEL.
I remember Dave Liddell - I didn't remember that the Mets traded Ed Lynch, an underrated member of their great 1980s teams, for him.