280. Steve Olin and Tim Crews tragedy
Spring Training is filled with so much hope as it is a harbinger of spring and the start of the regular season. As Opening Day nears, the baseball world brims with more and more anticipation as each day passes. With a little over a week left before the start of the 1993 season, that hope turned quickly to sorrow as it was learned that Olin and Crews of the Cleveland Indians were killed in a boating accident. Bobby Ojeda was also seriously injured in the accident. The tragedy marked the first deaths of active baseball players since Thurman Munson’s plane crash in 1979.
279. Jose Bautista’s bat flip
On October 15, the Toronto Blue Jays historic 2015 season was perilously close to ending. The Texas Rangers won the first two games of the ALDS and the Jays needed to pull off three straight wins if they wanted to continue on to the ALCS. It was a tough task, but with the Jays powerful lineup, anything was possible. Toronto won games three and four, setting the stage for a high-energy Game 5 in front of a raucous crowd at the Rogers Center. The Rangers were up 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh, but the Jays rallied. They tied the game on a Josh Donaldson fielder’s choice, setting the stage for Bautista, one of the game’s most feared sluggers. Bautista, who never gets cheated on a swing, absolutely blasted a shot deep into the left field seats for a three-run homer, setting off a wild celebration in Toronto. Bautista put his stamp on the moment by heaving his bat high into the sky, in one of the most epic bat flips you’ll see. Roberto Osuna closed out the game with a five-out save, becoming the youngest AL pitcher to record a save in the postseason at 20 years old.
278. Cincinnati Reds fans stuff the 1957 All-Star Game ballots
From the very first All-Star Game, fans around the country enjoyed the privilege of voting for their favorite stars to start in the game. Things went swimmingly for decades until fans in Cincinnati banded together to try to vote their entire starting lineup into the game in 1957. When the votes were tallied, “immortals” like Johnny Temple, Don Hoak and Roy McMillan were named as starters while Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks were on the outside looking in. In total, seven of the eight position players voted in were Reds, with Stan Musial representing the only other team. Thankfully Commissioner Ford Frick stepped in and named Mays and Aaron to the starting lineups and voting was taken away from fans for 13 years.
277. Tom Gamboa attacked during a game
Even with heightened security, there really is little to do if a deranged fans want to do damage at the ballpark. One of the scariest incidents in recent memory came on September 19, 2002 when two fans jumped out of the stands and attacked Kansas City Royals first base coach Gamboa. The father-son lunatic team bounded from the stands and knocked Gamboa to the ground, pounding him multiple times. A pocket knife was recovered at the scene afterwards, which thankfully wasn’t used. Gamboa returned to coaching, but suffered permanent hearing loss from the attack.
276. MLB Statcast debuts
In 2015, the MLB Network gave fans an expanded way to quantify just how good its superstars are. Anyone can see with their own eyes how hard Giancarlo Stanton hits a ball or how much ground Andrew McCutchen covers in the outfield, but when MLB Statcast was introduced, we had specific numbers. Phrases like “exit velocity” and “route efficiency” are now used alongside of home runs and strikeouts as fans can now know that a single by Stanton on May 12 was the hardest hit ball of the 2015 season at 120.304 MPH.
275. Frankie Frisch traded for Rogers Hornsby
In the early years of the modern era, players typically spent their entire careers with one team. That was especially true of the superstar players of the day, Babe Ruth notwithstanding. However, mitigating circumstances led to the trade of two of the best and most popular players in the game as legends Hornsby and Frisch were traded for each other in December of 1926. Hornsby is considered by many as the greatest right-handed hitter of all time and was in the prime of his immortal career. Frisch wasn’t far behind as he was building a superstar career with the New York Giants. However, the ornery Hornsby became too much to take for management in St. Louis. At the same time, Frisch had enough of manager John McGraw’s hard-driving ways and defected from the team. The two teams swapped “headaches” and all parties went on their merry ways, terrorizing the rest of the National League.
274. The curious case of Sidd Finch
Imagine the New York Mets’ luck when their scouts stumbled upon a righty pitching prospect who could throw 168 MPH. Sure, he had an affinity for the French horn, pitched with one boot on for balance and learned yoga in Tibet, but they were willing to look past that all because of that superhuman fastball. At least that was the story pitched in the April 1, 1985 edition of Sports Illustrated. The case of Finch, the eclectic righty, was the brainchild of writer George Plimpton and published as an April Fool’s joke in the magazine. News stories followed fans started buying that Finch was the real deal. One week later, SI published a quick announcement that Finch had retired, but that did little to quell the debate of whether or not the claims about Finch were actually true. It took until the following week when SI formally announced that the Finch story was indeed an April Fool’s hoax, crushing the dreams of Mets fans who inexplicably hung on to the idea that he really could be their savior.
273. Lefty Grove wins his 300th game
One of the great pitchers of the early 20th century, it’s hard to believe Grove sputtered to 300 wins while contemporaries he often bested blew past the mark. However, Grove was stuck in the International League until he was 25 because his club refused to relinquish his rights to the majors. When he finally was dealt to the Philadelphia A’s, Grove pitched well, but that didn’t translate to wins right away. Going into his age 27 season, Grove’s career record stood at just 23-25. However, over the next seven years, he went 172-54 and was well on his way to one of the winningest careers of all time. Grove needed just seven wins going into the 1941 season to reach 300. Then 41 years old, Grove started just 20 games that year and notched win number 300 on July 25. He made six starts the remainder of the year and didn’t win a single one. He retired at the end of the season with a 300-141 record, one of the best winning percentages of all time.
272. Jimmie Foxx hits 60* home runs in 1932
When Roger Maris belted his 61st home run in 1961, it ended a stressful race to pass the legendary Babe Ruth in a home run chase for the ages. That race could have been a lot different if Maris was chasing two immortals who were tied at 60 home runs. In 1932, Foxx had the best season of his incredible career when he batted .364 with 58 home runs and 169 RBIs. Those video game numbers would have looked even better if two of his games weren’t rained out before they became official. Foxx homered in both of those games, but not in the makeups, thus robbing him of the chance to join Maris and Ruth as the only players to top 60 homers in the pre-steroid era.
271. Kevin Mench homers in three straight innings
Mench was one of those power hitters who had the potential to hit a ball to Mars every single at bat when he was hot. He once hit a home run in seven straight games, falling one game shy of the Major League record. However, one of his more impressive feats came on July 1, 2005 when he homered in three straight innings. He was just one of two players to accomplish the feat, doing so in an 18-5 Rangers win over the California Angels.
Coming tomorrow: Top 300 Moments the Shaped Major League Baseball 280-271.
Follow Rocco Constantino and send your arguments about this list on Twitter @mlb100years #MLB300
For a more in depth look at some of these moments, as well as interviews with 50 former Major League players, you can read Constantino’s book 50 Moments that Defined Major League Baseball.
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