Snake Wiltse Forgets He Is a Pitcher

Snake Wiltse Forgets He Is a Pitcher (1901)

Connie Mack bought Lewis "Snake" Wiltse for cash to shore up his pitching staff. Wiltse instead put together two doubles and two triples, ten total bases, a major league record for a pitcher, as Philadelphia buried Washington 13 to 0. Senators pitcher Dale Gear gave up an American League record 41 total bases that day. Some records are earned. Some are survived.

The Only One That Ever Happened (1951)

Veracruz led San Luis 8 to 1 in the eighth in Mexico City, bases loaded, one out, slugger René González stepping in. From his private box, owner Jorge Pasquel sent a coach onto the field with an order: walk him. Behind the plate, catching only because both real catchers were hurt, was Ramón Bragaña, the finest pitcher the club ever had. He kept looking up at the box. The sign was real. A run walked in, and the Mexican League has never recorded another bases-loaded intentional walk.

Sixteen Men and a Library (1971)

Bob Davids wrote to forty people he called "statistorians" and asked if they wanted to organize. Sixteen showed up in the National Baseball Library at Cooperstown on a warm Tuesday, elected officers, set dues at ten dollars, and wrote objectives that are still SABR's mission. The sport ignored them. Fifty-five years on, membership tops 7,500, and almost everything you read in this series exists because those sixteen decided somebody ought to write it down right.

Furcal Keeps the Ball (2003)

Tony La Russa called a hit-and-run with runners on first and second. Woody Williams lined it softly toward left, and Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal leapt and caught it. Marcus Giles yelled for the ball. Furcal never considered it. He stepped on second, ran down Orlando Palmeiro, and had three outs by himself, no throws. The first unassisted triple play in the majors since 2000. Three innings later the Cardinals hit back-to-back homers and won anyway.