The Game That Would Not Break

The Game That Would Not Break (1910)

Pittsburgh and Brooklyn played to an 8-8 tie at Washington Park. Ordinary enough. Then somebody read the box score. Both clubs finished with 13 hits, 38 at bats, five strikeouts, three walks, one hit batter and one passed ball. Retrosheet has never found another pair since 1901 that matched so completely. The sun went down before anything could break the pattern.

Willard Brown's Only Home Run (1947)

Brown was among the first Black players in the American League, hitting under .200 and riding the bench. Teammate Jeff Heath gave him a discarded bat with the knob snapped off. Brown taped the end; the umpire made him strip it. He swung at Hal Newhouser's first pitch, drove it 426 feet to dead center, and ran it out inside the park to tie the game. First home run by a Black player in AL history. Back in the dugout, Heath smashed the bat, and people have argued about why ever since. Brown was released before the month was out and never hit another. Cooperstown called in 2006.

Billy Martin Reaches Into a Hat (1972)

Detroit had dropped four straight and fallen out of first. So Martin wrote his players' names on slips of paper and drew the order at random. Norm Cash, slow as a barge, led off. Eddie Brinkman, hitting barely .200, hit cleanup. Then Brinkman doubled home the winner against Gaylord Perry, who would take the Cy Young that fall. Detroit won 3-2 and finished a half game up on Boston.

Rickey Henderson Buys His Number Back (1993)

Toronto got him at the deadline, but No. 24 belonged to Turner Ward. Henderson wore 14, went 8 for 35, and decided the number was the problem. Ward handed over 24 and took 16. The price has been reported for thirty years as $25,000, though Ward would only say he got merchandise and joked his locker was next. The number did not fix the bat. It did not have to: he stole 20 more bases and was on base when Joe Carter ended the World Series.