The Hardball Times -- Chris Jaffe

20,000 days since Herb Score’s injury

Chris Jaffe — 2012-02-08T08:34:15+00:00

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20,000 days since Hank Aaron’s worst game

Chris Jaffe — 2012-02-07T06:29:15+00:00

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10 things I didn’t know about one-hitters

Chris Jaffe — 2012-02-06T09:28:15+00:00

My last column here at THT was on the men least likely to break up a full-length (nine innings pitched or more) no-hitter by getting their team’s sole hit of the day. In all, I looked up nearly 1,000 games from 1919 onward to produce that list.

It was fun, but in the process I learned a whole bunch of other things about no-hitters. Rather than just sitting on them, I thought I’d share some of the most interesting items I came across about one-hitters. Ripping off the format Boss-man Studes pioneered for THT, allow me to present “10 things I didn’t know about one-hitters.”

1. Players who did it multiple times

In all, I have on hand 968 different one-hitters that lasted at least nine innings. Exactly 801 different players accounted for those hits.

663 guys did it only once in their careers. 114 did it twice. 21 did it three times. Only one guy, Don Blasingame, did it four times. And two guys—Cesar Tovar and Eddie Milner—did it five times.

Many players provided the game’s only hit for two different teams, but only two players have ever done it for three squads. Rico Brogna did it with the Mets, Phillies, and Red Sox. Jerry Hairston, Jr. did it with the Orioles, Cubs, and Reds.

(On a side note, Hairston is part of the one of the two father-son combos ever to score his team’s only hit, as Jerry Hairston, Sr. did it once in his career. So did Bob and Bret Boone). Ken Griffey, Jr. never did it, though his dad is one of the only men to do it three times. Speaking of family relations, two pairs of brothers have done it: Felipe and Matty Alou, and Vince and Joe DiMaggio).

Jerry Hairston, Jr.: well-traveled player with the knack for the well-timed hit.

Some of the guys who did it multiple times are among the greatest players of all time. Hall of Famers Enos Slaughter, Tony Gwynn, and Rickey Henderson each did it three times. Barry Bonds, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, and Robin Yount are among the guys who did it twice.

Still, some of these guys are pretty obscure. The guy with the fewest career hits to break up a no-hitter multiple times is Neil Walker, with 296 hits. Well, that hardly counts because he’s still an active player for Pittsburgh who promises to bop plenty more hits.

Aside from Walker, here are the fewest career hits by any of the 138 guys with the only hit in multiple one-hitters.

Name	          H
Duffy Dyer	441
Skeeter Webb	498
Ronny Cedeno	522
Jamie Quirk	544
Goody Rosen	557
Mike Aldrete	565
Nelson Liriano	576
Gene Baker	590
Juan Castro	601
Sam Bohne 	605

Like Walker, Ronny Cedeno’s career isn’t over. Rather interestingly, they’re teammates on Pittsburgh. In fact, they are the team’s middle infielders, with Cedeno manning shortstop and Walker serving at second base.

Cedeno and Walker: 818 combined hits, yet four no-hitterss broken up

2. Eddie Milner and Cesar Tovar

Let’s look at the two men to do it five times each. First, here are the games they did it in:

Player	       Team	Dat.
Cesar Tovar	MIN	4/30/1967
Cesar Tovar	MIN	5/15/1969
Cesar Tovar	MIN	8/10/1969
Cesar Tovar	MIN	8/13/1970
Cesar Tovar	TEX	5/31/1975
Eddie Milner	CIN	4/28/1982
Eddie Milner	CIN	6/11/1982
Eddie Milner	CIN	8/24/1983
Eddie Milner	CIN	6/14/1984
Eddie Milner	CIN	8/2/1986

The incredible one here is Milner. He provided the only hit in five different games despite only 607 career hits. If you ignore still-active players Walker and Cedeno, Milner has the 10th-fewest career hits among anyone with multiple one-hitter hits to his credit. The nine guys ahead of him all did it twice, yet Milner did it five times.

(If you’re curious, among guys who got the only hit in a one-hitter three times, the man with the fewest career hits is Dan Pasqua with 638 hits. As long as I’m mentioning Pasqua, he and Milner are the only ones to do it three consecutive seasons, 1991-93 for Pasqua).

There is no reason at all for Milner to be atop this list. He’s a career .253 hitter who appeared in 804 games. He played in the early 1980s, which was not a historically bad period for batting average. Yeah, he normally batted near the top of the order, which would help him a little, but that doesn’t explain why he did it five times. The ten men who are most like him according to Similarity Scores combined for one hit in one of these games. (Jim Delsing, Milner’s second-most similar player, did it once).

Two games are especially notable in Milner’s case. In the 1983 game, his hit came with two outs in the ninth, depriving a Cubs pitcher of a would-be no-hitter at the most heartbreaking of moments. At the other extreme, his June 11, 1982, hit came leading off the first against LA’s Jerry Reuss. After that, Reuss retired 27 consecutive batters, so it would’ve been a perfect game if not for Milner’s opening swing.

Tovar makes more sense than Milner atop the list. He had one 200-hit season and narrowly missed it another time in his 1,488-game career. Like Milner, one of Tovar’s games came leading off the first (against Washington’s Dick Bosman in 1970). Unlike Milner, Tovar twice saved his hit for the ninth inning. Both came in 1969, each against the Orioles (Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar, respectively).

3. Two in one year

Both Milner and Tovar did it twice in one year. They are among a select group of 23 players to do that since 1919. Here’s the full list of such players, and the year they did it.

Player	        Year
Jimmie Foxx	1934
Bob Johnson	1937
Goody Rosen	1938
Ralph Kiner	1951
Stan Musial	1959
Don Blasingame	1963
Ed Bailey	1964
Jim Hickman	1965
Woodie Held	1965
Glenn Beckert	1968
Jim Northrup	1968
Cesar Tovar	1969
Ollie Brown	1971
George Scott	1975
RickeyHenderson	1979
John Mayberry	1980
Eddie Milner	1982
Tony Gwynn	1988
Nelson Liriano	1989
Jay Bell	1990
Rafael Palmeiro	1993
Brad Hawpe	2008
Michael Young	2009

No one ever did it three times in one campaign, but Jim Northup did it three times in 353 days from 1968-69. Jim Hickman wins the award for worst batting average, with a lowly .236 mark in 1965.

4. Smallest and biggest gaps

Of the 23 guys who did it in one year, a few did it in one week. The record-holder is Stan Musial. After doing it on April 18, 1959, he did it again just three days—and two games—later. Those were the only times he did it in his 20-plus year career.

That narrowly beats Nelson Liriano and Rickey Henderson, each of whom broke up no-hitters five days apart. Actually, Henderson is a strange one. After doing it twice in his rookie year, he waited a decade before doing it again for his third and final time. That ten-year gap is one of the longest ever.

But it’s not the longest. That title belongs to Ben Oglivie. As a young ’un with the Red Sox, he did it on Aug. 23, 1972, with an eighth-inning line-drive single against Kansas City. Almost 13 years later, on Aug. 2, 1985, an aging Oglivie bopped a fifth-inning homer for Milwaukee for what turned out to be their only hit against Frank Tanana and the Tigers.

5. Leading off the game

I can’t say exactly how many of the sole hits in one-hitters led off the game. Box scores aren’t available until 1950 (and not for all games until the early 1970s), but from 1950 onward, I found 27. The most recent example came from Emilio Bonifacio of the Marlins last year on June 28.

Among the more notable ones, Pittsburgh’s Pete Castiglione led off a game with a triple against Sal Maglie on May 4, 1951, but that was it for the Pirates. Two players had leadoff homers in a one-hitter: Paul Molitor on July 14, 1991, and Bobby Adams on May 13, 1954.

The Adams homer came off Hall of Famer Robin Roberts. Three fellow Hall of Famers also allowed leadoff hits to spoil what was otherwise a no-hitter: Don Drysdale (May 25, 1965), Steve Carlton (April 25, 1972), and Nolan Ryan (June 3, 1989). The Drysdale game was the first one-hitter to have a leadoff hit in a decade.

6. Pinch hitters

There have been (at least) 21 pinch hitters who got the sole hit for their teams. The most recent example was the White Sox’s Juan Pierre, who got a line-drive single to start the bottom of the ninth against Ted Lilly of the Cubs on June 13, 2010.

Here’s a list of when they happened, including the inning the pinch hit occurred.

Guy	       Team	Date	     Inning	Pitcher
Bobby Veach	WSH	9/19/1925	???	Ted Lyons
Lew Riggs	BRO	5/12/1942	6th	Junior Thompson
Bobby Avila	CLE	5/11/1951	8th	Joe Dobson
George Crowe	MLN	5/21/1955	9th	Warren Hacker
Chuck Harmon	CIN	7/23/1955	9th	Jim Hearn
Ed Fitz Gerald	WSH	6/27/1958	9th	Billy Pierce
Stan Musial	STL	4/18/1959	7th	Jack Sanford
Julio Becquer	WSH	7/4/1959	9th	Bob Turley
Walt Moryn	CHC	4/16/1960	8th	Sam Jones
Cleon Jones	NYM	9/11/1965	5th	Tony Cloninger
Charlie Moore	MIL	9/2/1977	8th	Paul Splittorff
Terry Puhl	HOU	4/16/1983	8th	Charlie Lea
Jerry Hairston	CHW	4/15/1983	9th	Milt Wilcox
Jim Traber	BAL	9/30/1988	9th	Dave Stieb
Ken Phelps	OAK	4/20/1990	9th	Brian Holman
Bill Bean	SDP	9/29/1993	9th	Tim Pugh
Dave Hansen	CHC	4/10/1997	9th	Alex Fernandez
Bobby Higginson	DET	9/27/1998	9th	Ray Halladay
Carl Everett	BOS	9/2/2001	9th	Mike Mussina
Mike Sweeney	KCR	8/31/2007	9th	Scott Baker
Juan Pierre	CHW	6/13/2010	9th	Ted Lilly

Ken Phelps had the most dramatic one, a pinch-hit home run with the pitch just one out from a perfect game. The Veach game was a 17-0 loss where the victorious White Sox rapped out 24 hits.

Juan Pierre: the man who ruined things for Ted Lilly in the Chicago Crosstown Classic.

7. Hall of Famers vs. Hall of Famers

Here’s another angle to take: How often has a one-hitter had a Hall of Famer get a hit off another Hall of Famer? To date, it’s happened 13 times.

Date	        Hitter	        Pitcher
5/23/1924	Harry Hooper	Walter Johnson
5/26/1929	CharlieGehringr	Red Faber
8/5/1934	Jimmie Foxx	Lefty Gomez
5/21/1939	Bobby Doerr	Bob Feller
6/27/1939	Earl Averill	Bob Feller
9/26/1941	Rick Ferrell	Bob Feller
7/31/1946	Bobby Doerr	Bob Feller
9/8/1949	Lou Boudreau	Hal Newhouser
5/12/1953	Early Wynn	Whitey Ford
8/1/1953	Richie Ashburn	Warren Spahn
9/5/1969	Tony Perez	Phil Niekro
7/9/1972	CarlYastrzemski	Nolan Ryan
7/13/1979	Reggie Jackson	Nolan Ryan

Feller is the king of this category, and the Doerr-Feller combination is the only one I can find that happened more than once. In more recent times, the most impressive combination is Jeff Bagwell getting the only hit against Greg Maddux on May 28, 1995. Both could make Cooperstown. If Tim Hudson keeps pitching well, there might be another addition, as Frank Thomas got the sole hit off him on Aug. 28, 2000.

The Lou Boudreau hit off Hal Newhouser in 1949 belongs to an even more select group: player-managers who broke up no-hitters. Only that Boudreau game and a Jimmie Dykes hit on Aug. 3, 1934, are in that club.

8. By franchise

What franchise has been one-hit the most since 1919? It’s the Phillies with 61. That’s not too surprising as they’re the club with the most overall losses. The next-fewest by any pre-expansion franchise is the Indians with 31. That’s fewer than the Rangers (36) or Mets (33), who both have been around for only about 50 years. Heck, the Padres have been one-hit 27 times, and they’ve only existed since 1969.

Flipping it around, the Dodgers have thrown the most one-hitters of at least nine innings in length: 63. That narrowly beats out the Cubs, who have 60.

The Mets lead expansion franchises with 31. That must be a point of pride and frustration for the franchise. Pride because it’s so many—even more than the Pirates (29) who have been around forever. Frustration because, rather (in)famously, the Mets have yet to throw an actual, honest-to-goodness, officially sanctioned no-hitter.

Here’s a weird bit: The Rockies have been one-hit 18 times but have thrown only one full one-hitter. Four times they’ve been one-hit at Coors Field.

9. By date

There’s been a one-hitter on every single day from April 5 to Oct. 5—every day except one, that is. From 1919 onward, there are no one-hitters on Aug. 7. If anyone is curious, Vic Willis threw a no-hitter on that date back in 1899.

April 26 has by far the most one-hitters with 16. Second place in June 26 with a dozen. Bob Turley threw two one-hitters on April 26, the first in 1955 and the second in 1958. April 26, 2002, had two just on that day. There are about 40 times two teams threw one-hitters on the exact same day.

The all-time day is Aug. 29, 2000, when three teams threw one-hitters. All three were distinctive in their own way.

In one game, a John Flaherty single ruined what otherwise would have been a 13-strikeout Pedro Martinez no-hitter. If that game had a great pitcher, the second game saw a great hitter get the hit. Barry Bonds laced a first-inning single against Kris Benson in a Giants-Pirates contest. Finally, Milwaukee got two runs on one hit when James Mouton hit a two-run shot off LA’s Chan Ho Park (who fanned 14 batters in eight innings).

10. Long Yankee and Cub streaks without being no-hit

On June 11, 2003, the Houston Astros no-hit the Yankees, an impressive performance for several reasons, but for our purposes it was notable because it ended a then-record stretch of 45 years without the Yankees being no-hit. They went from a Hoyt Wilhelm no-hitter in September 20, 1958, until the 2003 interleague game without it happening.

How often had they just avoided being no-hit in between? Well, looking it up, in that era of no times no-hit, the Yankees were one-hit 23 times. In many of those games, the hits came early, including four times in the first inning. However, three times the Yankees waited until the ninth to finally get their hit.

On July 2, 1970, Horace Clarke got a single with one away in the ninth. Nearly a decade later, on July 13, 1969, Reggie Jackson also singled with one out in the ninth to get the only Yankee hit of the game.

But the real prize came back on April 14, 1967. In this game, the Yankees came one out from a no-hitter while facing a pitcher making his big-league debut. Boston’s Billy Rohr would win only three games in his career, but he sure had a memorable start, coming just an Elston Howard single away from a debut no-hitter.

Oh, but there's one great moment that must be mentioned. One of the times the Yankees were one-hit came in their last home game in 1968 when Mickey Mantle got their sole hit. That was Mantle's last game in Yankee Stadium. The hit itself wasn't dramatic—it was a first inning single—but it's still pretty cool that he got the team's only hit in his last home game.

That said, the Yankee mark of 45 years without getting no-hit has since been topped by the Cubs, who haven’t been no-hit since Sandy Koufax’s perfect game on Sept. 9, 1965. That’s 46 years and change without one. In that period they’ve been one-hit 21 times.

Twice they waited until the ninth to get their only hit. One is a fairly famous game. Tom Seaver took a perfect game into the ninth inning against the Cubs on July 9, 1969, only to see Jim Qualls make sports trivia history by getting a one-out single (one of only 31 career hits for him).

The second game was the closest the Cubs came to being no-hit in the post-Koufax world, though. Against the Marlins on April 10, 1997, they also got their only hit with one out in the ninth, but on this occasion it was an infield grounder back to the pitcher by pinch-hitter Dave Hansen. A ninth-inning infield single is an odd way to avoid the no-hitter. It must’ve rattled Florida, as they followed it up with back-to-back errors but held on to win, 1-0.

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10,000 days: 500th homer for Mr. October

Chris Jaffe — 2012-02-03T06:34:15+00:00

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10,000 days since Carlton becomes Phillies win leader

Chris Jaffe — 2012-01-31T05:58:15+00:00

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30th anniversary: The Ryne Sandberg trade

Chris Jaffe — 2012-01-27T06:40:15+00:00

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40th anniversary: Dave Winfield and the NCAA basket-brawl

Chris Jaffe — 2012-01-25T08:56:15+00:00

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20,000 days since the Phillies integrate

Chris Jaffe — 2012-01-24T06:23:15+00:00

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Career highlights: Orlando Cabrera

Chris Jaffe — 2012-01-23T09:49:15+00:00

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Ten least-likely guys to break up a no-hitter

Chris Jaffe — 2012-01-23T09:28:15+00:00

So close.

Not that it matters, but so close.

It’s happened many times in baseball history. A team pitches for nine full innings (or more) and walks away having surrendered just one hit. One hit allowed is almost always enough to win the game, but it’s always enough to keep a pitcher from making a bit of history.

All pitchers would like to throw no-hitters, but it rarely happens. A one-hitter sure beats a loss, but it’s got to be a bit frustrating. If only that one pitch had been a bit different, the game might have been something more than a simple victory.

Oh well. Oftentimes, the guy getting the hit is a star, perhaps even a Hall of Famer. More often he’s at least a solid player. Yeah, but then there are other times. There are times the guy isn’t a star or a role player. He’s someone who, well, sucks. Sometimes the player getting the hit is a guy who has no business whatsoever getting the hit. Yet he did anyway.

Let’s look them up. Who are the least likely batters to be that guy, the only batter standing between the pitcher and a no-hitter?

Since 1919, there have been 958 times in the regular season a team pitched at least nine innings and allowed exactly one hit. There are all also 10 such postseason games on record. So we’re looking for the least likely out of that bunch.

Please note one key qualifier: The team has to throw nine full innings, which does throw out a few games. For example, on Sept. 9, 1965, in one of the most famous pitching duels of all time, Chicago Cubs pitcher Bob Hendley threw a complete-game one-hitter but only went eight innings. The opposing Dodgers turned that hit into a run, and with Sandy Koufax pitching a perfect game, that’s all they needed for a 1-0 win.

It was a great game, but eight innings isn’t nine. We’re looking at the 968 times a team went at least nine innings.

To make the list, we’ll look at a few things. Most importantly is hits per plate appearance (H/PA), as that tells us how likely a guy is to get a hit. Let’s also look at good old-fashioned batting average. Also, let’s note guys who didn’t play much at all, either that season or in their career. If they were so good (and thus deserving to break up a no-hitter), they would’ve played more.

There’s no magic formula for putting this list together, but those are the key factors at work. In general, H/PA means the most.

Okay, with that said, here’s the list:

10. Only three games? Sept. 29, 2007: Florida Marlins’ Paul Hoover (season numbers: 3 H, 8 AB, 8 PA, .375 AVG, .375 H/PA).

The elusive Paul Hoover

There are several fun factors for Paul Hoover. First, he played in only three games in 2007. That’s the fewest by any of the 968 one-hit hitters.

Second, his three hits in 2007 weren’t an aberration for him. Though he played in parts of seven seasons, he only has 25 career hits in 40 games. Weird. He keeps making the majors but never gets any playing time.

And here’s a nice added bonus: He wasn’t even supposed to play in this game. Florida’s starting catcher in that day’s game against the Mets was Miguel Olivo.

However, in the fifth inning, Olivo was ejected for throwing a punch at Jose Reyes. (Strangely, Olivo and Reyes were supposedly friends, too).

And Hoover’s hit wasn’t even much of a hit. It was an infield grounder that dribbled so weakly even a backup catcher could beat it out.

One final note, by getting that hit, he prevented John Maine from pitching the first no-hitter in franchise history. A half-century of baseball and the Mets franchise still doesn’t have a no-hitter.

And Paul Hoover, of all people, is one reason why that’s the case.

9. Worst pinch hitter comes through: Sept. 11, 1965: Mets’ Cleon Jones (season numbers: 11 H, 74 AB, 76 PA, .149 AVG, .145 H/PA).

Cleon Jones turned into a nice hitter, but he wasn’t one in 1965. His .149 batting average is the third-lowest for any position player that accounted for his team’s only hit. His OPS+ on the year was seven. That’s right, it was in single digits. His H/PA is “only” sixth-worst among position players, which is why he ranks back here.

Jones wasn’t even supposed to play that day. However, the Mets had pitching problems, and in the fifth inning they needed a pinch hitter for the night’s second reliever. That pinch hitter was Jones, and his single was the only hit Atlanta’s Tony Cloninger allowed all night long.

8. Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson: May 25, 1957: Indians’ Eddie Robinson (season numbers: 6 H, 39 AB, 46 PA, .154 AVG, .130 H/PA)

Eddie Robinson was a nice player for a number of years, but those years were all but over, as 1957 proved to be his final season, and it went out with a whimper. Not only did he get a total of six hits all year (spread out over three teams), but his single on May 25 was his first hit of the year.

To be fair, he hadn’t played much—zero starts and only 14 PA—but it was May 25, and he didn’t have any hits yet. In this game, he got a second-inning double off Chicago’s Dick Donovan for Cleveland’s only hit.

Robinson got three more hits in a doubleheader the next day, and then a pinch-hit homer on May 28. Then he went 1-for-16 in 19 PA to end his career.

7. How could a hitter this bad get so many PA? April 26, 1975: A’s Ray Fosse (season numbers: 19 H, 136 AB, 147 PA, .140 AVG, .129 H/PA)

A few years ago, I wrote an article for The 2011 Hardball Times Baseball Annual on the best and worst benches in baseball history. The 20th century’s worst bench, adjusted for era and park, belonged to the 1975 A’s. Ray Fosse is a big part of the reason that was the case.

His batting average and H/PA are both among the worst ever for a guy who got the only hit. He didn’t just lack hits, he lacked everything. He had five extra-base hits in 82 games played. He walked eight times and stole no bases.

Yet despite playing in a lineup stocked with talent on April 26, Fosse was the guy who laced a single against California’s Frank Tanana. Billy Williams, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace, Bert Campaneris, Claudell Washington, Phil Garner and Sal Bando all went hitless, as did the lineup’s only never-All-Star, Angel Mangual.

6. Good timing for your only hit of the year. April 21, 1956: White Sox’s Earl Battey (season numbers: 1 H, 4 AB, 5 PA, .250 AVG, .200 H/PA).

Earl Battey was a pretty good player, but for purposes of this list, he has one resounding claim to fame: He’s the only guy to get exactly one hit in a season and have that one hit be the only hit in a one-hitter.

Like Paul Hoover, Battey wasn’t supposed to play this day. Sherm Lollar was Chicago’s starting catcher. But then the White Sox allowed 13 runs in the second inning to the Kansas City A’s, and the team decided to give old Sherm a breather. Battey singled against KC’s Art Ditmar in the fourth inning, and that was all Chicago could do on the day.

5. 26 up, 26 down. April 20, 1990: A’s Ken Phelps (season numbers: 18 H, 120 AB, 143 PA, .150 AVG, .126 H/PA).

Ken Phelps was a Moneyball player before there was Moneyball. He was a masher who drew a ton of walks but was widely ignored because his batting average was never that good.

After a nice run with the Mainers in the 1980s, Phelps was playing out the string by 1990. It was his last season, and he split it with the A’s and Indians, but he had one nice moment of revenge for himself.

On April 20, 1990, Seattle pitcher Brian Holman was one out from throwing a perfect game against the A’s. Manager Tony LaRussa decided to call on Phelps as a pinch hitter, and he responded by bashing a home run.

Phelps wouldn’t get a hit for another week, going 0-for-12 with a walk. He wouldn’t hit another home run ever.

4. (TIE) The Tom Seaver duo: April 15, 1970: Phillies’ Mike Compton (season numbers: 18 H, 110 AB, 121 PA, .164 AVG, .149 H/PA. July 9, 1969: Cubs’ Jim Qualls (season numbers: 30 H, 120 AB, 124 PA, .250 AVG, .242 H/PA).

The Jim Qualls game is more famous, but it’s the Mike Compton game that causes this duo to make the list. Qualls is just piggybacking here.

In the Qualls game, Tom Seaver flirted with perfection. He retired the first 25 batters he faced, fanning 11 along the way. Then came Qualls, the No. 8 hitter in the order, playing in just his 18th major league game. Of course, he singled, becoming the Cubs' only baserunner in the game. Qualls went on to a short career, in which he got exactly 31 lifetime hits, but that includes one some still remember.

Thirty-one lifetime hits is one of the lowest totals ever for a position player that broke up a no-hitter but, improbably, it’s not the lowest by anyone that broke up a Tom Seaver no-hitter.

The year after Qualls, Seaver again got burned by a No. 8 hitter, in this case Phillies catcher Compton. Playing in just his 12th game, he laced out his seventh career hit. Compton ended the season, and his big-league career, with just 18 hits. That’s the fewest career hits by any non-pitcher who got the only hit in a one-hitter.

3. The worst position player ever. Sept. 9, 1993: Padres’ Luis Lopez (season numbers: 5 H, 43 AB, 44 PA, .116 AVG, .114 H/PA).

Yes, it’s only a sample size of 44 PA, but it’s an impressively horrible sample size. Luis Lopez wins the award for worst batting average for a position player who got the only hit. He also has the lowest H/PA. Oh, and his OPS+ of –33 (yes, negative 33) is nearly the worst for anyone, including pitchers.

Oh, and there’s another distinctive feature for Lopez: This was his first career hit. He’s the only position player whose first career hit was the only hit for his team in the entire game. It came off Atlanta reliever Mark Wohlers in the eighth inning. The team had taken out starting pitcher Kent Mercker for a pinch hitter because the game was tied, 0-0. Atlanta won in 10 frames, 1-0.

2. (TIE). Opposing starting pitchers. (Too many to name right here).

Question: How many times has the only hit in a full game come from the bat of the opposing pitcher? Answer: 17 times.

That’s more than I would’ve guessed, but there you go. There’s no sense in discussing them all, so this list will have to suffice. It lists the date, team of the hitting pitcher, his offensive stats on the year and his name. Here they are, in chronological order:

Date	       Team	 H	AB	 PA	  Avg	 H/PA	Guy
6/8/1919	CHW	10	54	 63	0.185	0.159	Red Faber
8/27/1925	WSH	42	97	107	0.433	0.393	Walter Johnson
6/9/1947	CHC	 7	56	 59	0.125	0.119	Hank Borowy
8/30/1948	DET	19	92	108	0.207	0.176	Hal Newhouser
9/13/1951	STL	 5	46	 46	0.109	0.109	Al Brazle
5/12/1953	CLE	25	91	104	0.275	0.240	Early Wynn
8/22/1958	WSH	11	69	 73	0.159	0.151	Russ Kemmerer
5/23/1960	PIT	 3	16	 16	0.188	0.188	Bennie Daniels
7/15/1963	BAL	16	79	 92	0.203	0.174	Robin Roberts
4/13/1964	WSA	14	90	103	0.156	0.136	Claude Osteen
5/4/1966	STL	14	41	 45	0.341	0.311	Ray Sadecki
6/29/1974	STL	10	63	 73	0.159	0.137	John Curtis
9/21/1986	HOU	 9	91	 95	0.099	0.095	Bob Knepper
6/8/1992	NYM	 3	27	 30	0.111	0.100	Anthony Young
8/18/2003	COL	 2	13	 15	0.154	0.133	Chin-hui Tsao
5/1/2006	COL	 8	62	 75	0.129	0.107	Jason Jennings
8/13/2010	PHI	10	67	 72	0.149	0.139	Cole Hamels

Hamels: The most recent pitcher to ruin a fellow hurler's no-hitter.

Some of these guys were good hitters. Walter Johnson could always hit, and Ray Sadecki had a great season.

Bob Knepper has the lowest batting average, and his game was especially fun because he hit a triple—the only thing preventing San Diego pitcher Jimmy Jones from throwing a perfect game. Weird.

Speaking of opposing pitchers, some of these hits came against Hall of Famers. Bennie Daniels' came against a young Koufax.

Al Brazle’s hit came against Warren Spahn. That’s impressive, especially given that Brazle has the worst OPS+ of them all: -41. Eventually, Spahn would throw a no-hitter, but it took him nine more years.

Whitey Ford had no such luck. He won 236 games in his career but never threw a no-hitter. The closest he ever came was May 12, 1953, when an Early Wynn single got in his way. Ouch.

Yes, Wynn was a good hitter for a pitcher, but that “for a pitcher” is a heck of a qualifier. Also, Wynn’s single was an infield single. Ford lost his no-hitter on an infield single by the opposing pitcher. Ouch, indeed.

Finally, Tsao only had two hits in his entire career, but one of them prevented Steve Trachsel from throwing a no-hitter. I’m not sure which is more embarrassing, having the opposing pitcher ruin your no-hitter or being a team nearly no-hit by Steve Trachsel.

1. (TIE). Relief pitchers. April 28, 1935: Phillies' Orville Jorgens: (season numbers: 6 H, 62 AB, 68 PA, .097 AVG, .088 H/PA. June 28, 1935: Pirates' Mace Brown (season numbers: 4 H, 24 AB, 27 PA, .167 AVG, .148 H/PA

It’s bad enough to lose a no-hitter because the opposing starting pitcher got a hit off of you, but to lose it when a reliever sneaks out a hit? Aw man, that’s as low as it gets.

It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened twice. Incredibly, the two times were exactly two months apart.

On April 28, 1935, something happened to Phillies starting pitcher Euel Moore, and he had to leave the game after facing just three batters. In relief came rookie Orville Jorgens, making just his fifth career appearance. 0-for-2 previously in his career, he managed to lash out a single against Giants pitcher Hal Schumacher.

Jorgens and Luis Lopez are the only guys whose first career hit was the only hit their teams got in a game. Strangely, both ended up having really horrible seasons at the plate.

Two months later, on June 28, 1935, another rookie got his unlikely chance at offensive glory. On that day, Pirate starting pitcher Jim Weaver didn’t have it, nor did initial reliever Ralph Birkofer. That pair allowed eight runs while only recording five outs.

In came pitcher Mace Brown. Like Jorgens, it was just the fifth game for Brown. Unlike Jorgens, he’d previously gotten a hit—one hit, to be exact. On this day, he got his second hit. He also prevented the Cubs from scoring any more runs, but that didn’t matter. Between their 8-0 lead and Roy Henshaw’s near no-hit pitching, the game was already over.

But Henshaw must’ve been bugged that it was only a near no-hitter. If he could have just gotten the reliever out, it would’ve been a no-hitter. He and Hal Schumacher suffered the most annoying way to blow a no-hitter, losing it to a pitcher who wasn’t even supposed to be in the game.

Aside from that, there are plenty of other odd nuggets I discovered about one-hitters while researching this piece. But I’ll save those for another time.

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