Weirdest MLB Career (pitchers, stance, umpire, ball)
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Looking back on some of the oddball careers that have been out there.. I came up with a few.. Wondering if there are any more that I'm not remembering or never heard of..
Rick Ankiel. Hotshot pitcher for the Cardinals who just completely derailed in the 3rd inning of the 2000 postseason. Throwing 5 wild pitches in an inning. Returned about 6 years later as an outfielder with a decent career.
Josh Hamilton.. Noted drug problems that nearly derailed his career.. Returned as a successful outfielder, though has has several relapses
Matt Bush.. Former #1 pick with massive substance abuse problems.. Wound up being sent to prison for DUI currently pitching for the Rangers on a zero tolerance policy.
I guess we can put Steve Howe on the list.. Banned for life.. really rough, but pretty successful career.
All but Ankiel drugs played a big part.. I'm purposefully not including Ferguson Jenkins.. He never missed any time though was temporarily suspended for life..
Maybe put Dock Ellis.. That really wasn't an odd career.. More an odd game. Well.. He was odd, gotta give him that.
Denny McLain....baseball's last 30 game winner (1968)...won back to back Cy Youngs and an MVP award. Made appearances on tv, including Ed Sullivan Show, playing the Hammond organ. Bought an airplane and learned to fly. He was on top of the world at the end of 1969.
Then....in 1970 Sports Illustrated reported on McLain's involvement with bookmakers and cited sources which claimed the broken foot he suffered in 1967 had been a result of loan shark muscle. Then he was caught trying to set up his own bookmaking ring along with a representative from Pepsi who was handling his endorsement deal with them. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended McLain for the first three months of the 1970 season, and when he came back he was 3-5, 4.63 and also served a seven day club suspension for dousing two sportswriters with a bucket of water.
The Tigers traded him to the Senators where McClain went 10-22, 4.28. The Senators dumped him and he divided 1972 between Atlanta and Oakland, going a combined 4-7, 6.37.
From his debut at 19 through his age 25 season, McClain had been 100-28, a .781 winning percentage. In his final three seasons he was 17-34, a .333 winning percentage. Appropriately enough the last batter he ever faced was fellow gambling enthusiast, Pete Rose.
Out of baseball, McClain gained an immense amount of weight, inflating to 330 pounds. He fell in with organized crime and wound up arrested and imprisoned for drug trafficking, embezzlement, and racketeering with Anthony Spilotro and later John Gotti Jr. Since getting out he has declared bankruptcy three different times.
Maybe put Dock Ellis.. That really wasn't an odd career.. More an odd game. Well.. He was odd, gotta give him that.
When the news came out about Ellis tripping during his no-hit game, Bill Mazerowski, who had made a great play to preserve the no-hitter, was asked about it.
Mazerowski replied, "I thought Ellis was ALWAYS pretty weird."
Then there is the career of Ron Wright. He was called up from the minors by the Mariners in April of 2002. Penciled in as the DH on April 14th against the Rangers, Wright had three plate appearances in which he:
1) Struck out
2. Hit into a double play
3. Hit into a triple play.
He was sent back down immediately after the game and never returned to the majors.
Therefore his ML career consists of three plate appearances in which he accounted for six outs. He is a member of the one and done game club which includes Moonlight Graham and Eddie Gaedel.
Then there is the career of Ron Wright. He was called up from the minors by the Mariners in April of 2002. Penciled in as the DH on April 14th against the Rangers, Wright had three plate appearances in which he:
1) Struck out
2. Hit into a double play
3. Hit into a triple play.
He was sent back down immediately after the game and never returned to the majors.
Therefore his ML career consists of three plate appearances in which he accounted for six outs. He is a member of the one and done game club which includes Moonlight Graham and Eddie Gaedel.
Today Wright is a pharmacist living in Idaho.
Ah.. Yes, that's a good one.. I had forgotten about that.
Wasn't there another one where the guy was beaned in his debut plate appearance and just recently made his way back to the majors?
Beaned by the first pitch he faced in his first MLB at bat on July 7, 2005.. Didn't make it back to the majors until October 2, 2012 on a one-day contract with the Marlins.
Last edited by Labonte18; 03-01-2017 at 02:16 PM..
Mark Fidrych. One lights out year, talked to the ball and played with the dirt on the mound.
I remember him well. In 2000 ESPN did a one hour bio on Fidrych in their "Sports Century" series, which BTW won an Emmy for best television documentary. Everyone interviewed smiled as they recalled stories about Mark. I remember Rod Carew telling a story about how Mark would have been just happy pumping gas at a gas station if he couldn't make it as an MLB pitcher. And how he just really enjoyed hanging around gas service stations. Carew surmised that Mark was crazy, but crazy in a nice way.
In that bio there was video footage of a packed house at Tiger Stadium with Fidrych pitching against the Yankees (I think) in the 1976 season. And I remember the game being televised on ABC, with Keith Jackson doing play by play and Howard Cosell on commentary. It was one of the very few times that I recall that Cosell was actually not snarky at all and was caught up in the Fidrych craze.
It was a packed house and as the game was winding down the more Fidrych was going into his routine regarding talking to his ball glove, the ball, and his ball cap, and manicuring the pitchers mound, the crazier the fans were. And of course the fans were aware that this was a nationally televised game. After he got the last out he jumped up and down off the pitchers mound, threw his fist in the air, and shook hands with everyone, including groundskeepers and the home plate umpire! IIRC he stood on top of the Tiger dugout shaking hands with the fans!
In the mid 1970's the nation was in a nasty recession and it hit Detroit hard as the price of gas because of the oil embargo was the issue here. Fidrych was indeed a breath of fresh air for the Tiger organization. The Tigers were a franchise that won the World Series in 1968 but by 1975 they had hit bottom, losing 102 games. The Motor City was for sure a troubled city at that point in time but Fidrych put smiles on the fans faces, if only for a short while.
John Paciorek made his MLB debut for the Colt .45's against the Mets on September 29, 1963. He went 3-for-3 with a pair of walks, drove in 3 runs, and scored 4. He never appeared in an MLB game again.
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