What was TRULY unique about this game?

I’ll bet you Cleveland fans will get this right.

(Congrats to Bill DeeCee, who got it almost immediately.)

8 thoughts on “Baseball trivia

  1. The answer can be found in this line in the box score:

    HR: Duane Kuiper

    The modern pitching distance was adopted in 1893, and since that time there has been only one man in history to get more than 3000 at bats while failing to hit at least two homers.

    It was Duane Kuiper, who hit only one – off Steve Stone in this game.

    And Stone was no schmuck. He averaged 16 wins per year from 1977-1980 (mostly because of a miraculous 25 one year in one of the more surprising Cy Young seasons). There was a silver lining for Stone. Having surrendered a homer to Kuiper made for some good laughs during rain delays when he entered the broadcast booth.

    1. Here’s another, similar game.

      Sandy Koufax started that game against the St. Louis Cardinals, but his Dodgers lost the game in extra innings. Koufax surrendered a home run to his fellow Hall of Famer, Bob Uecker. Uke, of couse, is not in the Hall of Fame for his playing abilities. Koufax was in his prime and won 26 games that year on his way to the Cy Young award, not to mention the MVP trophy in the World Series, but the weak-sticking Uecker had his number. Uke batted .400 against Koufax that year (6 for 15), including the crucial homer in the game linked above.

        1. Yes. It happened later in that same game where he went deep. With two outs and a runner on second, Koufax walked the right-handed Uecker to get to pitcher Ray Sadecki, a lefty batter.

          It was part of two of his best one-liners.

          1.
          When asked his career highlights, he said “I had two. I got an intentional walk from Sandy Koufax, and I got out of a run-down against the Mets.”

          2.

          Imagine what went through the mind of the next batter. “They walked Uecker to get to me. Maybe I should think about some extra BP.” Actually Sadecki was just as good a hitter as Uecker. In 1966, for example, Sadecki batted .341 with power. But Sadecki batted left-handed, so Koufax had two good reasons to issue the walk: (1) Get the platoon advantage; (2) Get the force at any base.

          Oh, let’s face it, Koufax was just plain yellow. Just two innings earlier he had seen what Uecker could do and he wanted no part of that!

          (Joking aside – the ploy worked. Koufax fanned Sadecki.)

    1. Yes.

      The only possible explanation is that the wind must have been blowing out at about 90 MPH.

      1. A hell of a lot better broadcaster than a hitter. Kruk & Kuip, Jon Miller and Dave Flemming are one hell of a group of game callers (although not quite as good as Jerry Doggett and his partner were in LA). My Giants fanatic girlfriend in Holland often gets up at four in the morning weekends during the baseball season to catch San Francisco home games live (7:00p.m. in San Fran). She’s still recovering from the playoff with the Dodgers.

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