trivial occurrences 2020

i hope to never be drunk like that, but i hope one thing we can all try to remember in such a state is that, no matter how much you think it makes sense to overrule the pilot and take over the craft, you are definitely wrong about that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVw8MJzY08

The Rays must have been bad for longer than I remember--I would have guessed their numbers would be much better.

Rays and D-Backs team stats since joining MLB as expansion teams in 1998, via @JayCuda: pic.twitter.com/9fiHnyozsM

— The Game Day MLB (@TheGameDayMLB) February 22, 2023

they were terrible for a while before they started their whole... i don't know what to call it. the thing they do.

Wow, just wow.

I should clarify--by "I would have guessed their numbers would be much better," I meant better than the D-backs. Except for the three or four years in and around their WS win, I don't remember Arizona as ever being anything special, whereas it feels like the Rays have been good for a long time now.

From '99-02, the D-backs were 102 games over .500 (.579); the rest of the time, they're 1,537-1,761 (.466).

most starts on the second day of the season, all-time: a three-way tie between ron darling, andy pettitte and tom glavine with eight

Did you know this guy is now married to Tomi Lahren?! He keeps pictures of her of Twitter but they’re all over his Instagram

JP Arencibia dating Tomi Lahren is a level of hell I wasn't expecting. What other 2010s Blue Jays are dating alt-right figureheads? Is Aaron Hill going steady with Lauren Southern, is Ryan Goins an item with Kent State Gun Girl? https://t.co/n1VUFLjlLy

— ℳatt (@matttomic) February 14, 2021

the other day adam duvall became the first-ever player who, needing a single to complete the cycle, hit a walk-off homer instead

oops

Sandy Alcantara missed a Maddux by one pitch tonight, but it feels more like he had a super-Maddux: CG shutout, 100 pitches, game time of 1:57.

actually got this, although it took me two minutes plus

Quick, name the only player in MLB history whose first and last names are state capitals. You have one minute...

— Andrew Baggarly (@extrabaggs) April 25, 2023

i can't figure it out. i keep getting stuck on Montgomery

Albany Bismarck

I got it but it was a guessed combo, didn't remember the guy specifically.

An absolute goldmine in the Athletic’s article about media guide trivia, including!

The Rockies reliever who is a published author. Tbf pitching for the Rockies has to be the worst. The Amazon reviews are great, though. Fair play.

Or ask the writer: children’s book author and Rockies reliever Brent Suter, who wrote “Binky Bandit” after he was inspired by his dog, Wally, a miniature goldendoodle. You can find the book, which has been translated into multiple languages, at your local library.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brent Suter is a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. He led Major League Baseball with twelve relief wins in the 2021 season. Outside of baseball, Brent is a graduate of Harvard University, with a degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy, and is an outspoken advocate for conservation efforts with Players for the Planet, an organization of professional athletes who aim to make positive environmental change. He resides in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife Erin, his son Liam, and of course, Wally, the inspiration for this book. The Binky Bandit is his first published book.

Ji Man Choi sees dead people. Choi says he is terrified of ghosts and believes he’s had many encounters with them, including receiving invisible hugs and hearing whispers. Choi’s first ghostly encounter came while he was recovering from back surgery in 2011, when he felt a “spirit” on his chest and awoke as he felt the bed slump. He also had an encounter at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, where a number of major leaguers have claimed to experience the paranormal.

"I was scared at first," Choi said, "so I didn't want to open my eyes. I dealt with that a lot more times after that."

Those other times include once when Choi was laying on his side and felt a spirit crawl up behind him to hug him, and another whispered into his ear.

Reliever Andrew Chafin tried selling his truck while mic’d up by FOX Sports Arizona during BP in 2017: “If anybody’s interested in a truck, I’ve got a 2012 GMC Sierra 3500HD Denali with a fully built twin turbo. With a fully built Allison transmission for sale. Just shoot me a tweet if you are interested. … Please put that on there for me. I’m really trying to sell this truck.”

Inspired the Miguel Cabrera thread revival I went down a baseball reference rabbithole and just found out there are only four active players, with enough career PAs to qualify for the career batting average leaderboard, who are hitting over .300 for their career. I'm giving away one here, if anyone wants to guess the other three go for it.

Besides Cabrera, I would guess Goldschmidt, Freeman, and Trout. But that seems too obvious, so I'm sure at least one is wrong.

Only got one of three. One of the other two I should have had one for sure; the other guy, I wouldn't have thought of.

in case you were wondering

Blake Sabol of the @SFGiants is the first rookie catcher in MLB history to hit a walkoff HR when behind in the count with his team down to its last out. pic.twitter.com/CqYdsqamPL

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) April 26, 2023

finally, been waiting for a long time, taking bets on when that was going to happen

of course we are all already familiar with the storied list of rookie catchers to hit walkoff HRs when down to their last out when *ahead* in the count

don't forget the legendary 1 ball and 1 strike walkoffs

those were crazy because the count was even, and then boom, the hitter went WAY ahead with a major league home run

yes each one totally unforgettable, kennedy assassination level

Clemenza, I'd have guessed one of the other two and the one of the three you picked correctly. It's definitely interesting that there are so few guys whose career BA hits that mark. I didn't dig deep so I don't know if there are any guys who are about to become eligible who will enter that club, but I really would have thought there'd be more players on the list. But I guess it makes sense

If Cano can get signed again somewhere he'll also join that list (but he's at .3008 so if he plays too much he'll probably fall off of it)

Luis Arráez, 26, is sitting at .321 right now, but not even 1,500 career AB. What is the threshold of eligibility?

i've literally only seen arráez play against the mets in their opening series this year, but . . . he is awesome

even keith hernandez was all like, that kid can [fuckin] hit

The cutoff for BR at least is 3000 plate appearances.

Votto finished the 2021 season at .302; last year's .205 pulled him under.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mipc-JxrhRk

sorry, i'm not really a music video pun/ref guy but dream theater is mandatory

Would love to see a list of Votto's favourite songs. If ever a player were destined to have, I don't know, Hasil Adkins or Camper Van Beethoven on there, he's the guy.

number of home runs by planet in the solar system since 1950*

* regular season only pic.twitter.com/VDfGCupgj4

— Jay Cuda (@JayCuda) May 8, 2023

Spencer Strider is surely the most ILM pitcher out there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD3x5o1tji0

With two on and one out in the second inning, [Kutter Crawford] unleashed a full-count cutter to Max Kepler that elicited a tapper just in front of the plate. Conner Wong sprung to the ball to initiate a rare, inning-ending, 2-6-3 double play, the only recorded instance of such a twin killing in available play-by-play data, which dates to 1988.

Put it on glovework you cowards!

Beautiful play, Connor “🥰🥰🥰” Wong has such a great arm on him

What a double play by the Sox pic.twitter.com/qkN6bMwf0Q

— The Pesky Report (39-35) (@PeskyReport) June 21, 2023

Tonight is the 6th time this season the White Sox pitching staff has recorded 15+ strikeouts (17 tonight).

They are 0-6 in those games.

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) June 24, 2023

I watched Lance Lynn strike out maybe 17(?) Mariners and still lose. Initially I was like, eh that’s not saying a huge amount cos my beloved Mariners are the 4th highest as a team in strikeouts and the offence has been pretty bad for weeks now, BUT it was genuine Tungsten Arm shit.

Giolito got most of his strikeouts against just three Red Sox; Adam Duvall & Connor Wong both were 0-3 on strikeouts against him, and each struck out a fourth time against the relievers. Christian Arroyo went 0-4 with 3ks as well. So hat fully tipped cos that is not a team that strikes out a lot, especially in the same game.

Also, the Red Sox had 4 hits to the White Sox 8.

Credit to @StrangedeBill1:

4 pitchers, and 4 pitchers only, have played in the majors after attending Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton CA, and now all 4 have thrown an MLB no-hitter. This is a simply incredible baseball fact—most amazing ever. pic.twitter.com/96VdAjCvj4

— High Heat Stats (@HighHeatStats) August 10, 2023

but how hot is he in person

Dominic Leone has pitched at Citi Field for the:

Mets (7/29)
Angels (8/26)
Mariners (Sun)

that 37-day span is the 3rd-shortest since 1900 for a player to play at a venue for 3 diff teams, behind only:

Mike Piazza at Sun Life Stadium, '98: 17
Bobby Rhawn at Shibe Park, '49: 26

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 3, 2023

don't know why i went down the Joe Magrane rabbithole today but even in the context of the changing game, it's wild to see that he threw 10 shutouts in his brief-ish career (all from 1987-1990) and meanwhile Scherzer has thrown 5, and Verlander has thrown 9.

"I went down the Joe Magrane rabbithole today"--words never before uttered throughout the entirety of human history.

He used to be the cardinals best pitcher when I was first following them, and I’d stare at his cards all the time. On the whole, pitchers are kind of strange creatures. Somehow I feel like becoming familiar with magrane partly introduced me to that

Lucas Giolito is the first pitcher to allow 8+ runs in a game for 3 different MLB teams in the same season since Bill Magee did so in 1899 for the Louisville Colonels, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Senators.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) September 5, 2023

Correction: the Baltimore Orioles tonight became the first American MLB team in history to beat every other team at least once in a single season. The Toronto Blue Jays accomplished this back on September 1.

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 12, 2023

Amazing that it never happened before, but I guess the interleague scheduling used to be very different, so it wasn't always possible in past years.

However, that bit of trivia calls for CodifyBaseball variations:

In 2022, Aaron Judge became the first Yankee MLB player in history to hit more than 61 HR in a season.

In 2010, Joey Votto became the first non-West Coast born Canadian MLB player in history to win an MVP.

In 2022, the Houston Astros became the first MLB team in history to win a World Series while being managed by Dusty Baker.

etc.