Category: Sports

Original headline: Joshua Báez becomes the FIRST PLAYER EVER to hit THREE HOME RUNS in his MLB debut!

They’ve been playing major league baseball more than 150 years, and nobody had ever done this before. The kid hit a 449-foot homer to center on his first MLB pitch – and he was just getting started. He didn’t merely hit three homers in the game; he did it in his first three plate appearances!

UPDATE: Baez is now 6-for-41 (.146). He has only had three hits since that first game, so he has batted .081 (3-for-37) in that stretch, with one additional homer. Several of you guys suggested that his first game was the ultimate flash-in-a-pan, a case of a guy who just happened to get hot at exactly the right moment. It seems that you guys were correct. Will that game be his entire highlight reel, ala Keith McDonald (see below). I guess we have to stay tuned to find out.

Two previous players had homered in their first two at-bats. One was a solid ballplayer, but the other was a career minor leaguer whose first two major league at-bats were little short of miraculous.

* Bob Nieman stayed in the majors 12 years after he accomplished the feat in 1951. He was a good hitter (.295 lifetime with an OPS+ of 132), but he never made the all-star team, and never reached as many as 75 RBI in a season.

* An obscure catcher, Keith McDonald, did it in 2000. His entire major league career consisted of only 9 at-bats, although he did add one more homer before he headed back down to Memphis. Three homers in nine at-bats gave him a lifetime slugging average well over 1.000! That performance was a total fluke. He kicked around the minor leagues for 13 years and averaged only six homers per year! In fact, he hit more homers in his 9 major league at-bats than he did in an entire season in the Florida State League in 1996, when he had 410 at-bats!

Only one man in history ever struck out 27 men in a nine-inning professional game. No major leaguer ever topped 20. Even the legendary Steve Dalkowski maxxed out at 24 in the minors. (Dalkowski once threw a 24-strikeout no-hitter … and lost the game!)

The man with the 27 was Ron Necciai (NETCH-eye). He performed that feat in a D-league game on May 13, 1952, when he was a 19-year-old rookie. It took some luck to get 27 strikeouts. Two of his opponents put the ball in play to the shortstop and another hit a routine pop-up to the catcher, but lady luck must have wanted Necciai to get that 27. In the third inning one of his opponents grounded a ball to Necciai’s shortstop, but the fielder flubbed it, so Necciai was still able to get three K’s that inning. In the ninth inning his catcher dropped an easy foul pop-up, allowing Necciai to strike the batter out instead.

But there was another problem. In the second inning the shortstop fielded a ball cleanly and threw the batter out at first, so Necciai only got two K’s that inning. So how did he reach 27? He prepared to face the last batter with only 25 K’s in his pocket, and he fanned him to chalk up number 26. The game should have ended right there, but the catcher dropped the third strike, which meant that the batter was free to try for first, and he succeeded. Necciai therefore got one more opportunity, and he capitalized on it, fanning the final batter to finish with 4 K’s in the ninth inning and 27 for the game.

Catcher Harry Dunlop always denied that he intentionally flubbed those two balls in the ninth inning (the pop-up and the dropped third strike), but the team’s first baseman told another story. Either way, the 27 is writ in stone. What many people don’t know is that Necciai struck out 24 more in his next start. Only 24? Heck, that was just business as usual for Necciai in his brief stay with class-D Bristol. He was undefeated and averaged 22.8 strikeouts per 9 innings.

The Pirates even gave him a major league shot later that year. Again, lady luck watched over Necciai. A few great games in D-ball does not ordinarily vault a player to the majors, but the 1952 Pirates were one of the worst teams in history. Their 42 wins were only two more than the famously inept 1962 Mets. The Pirates were stronger on future TV stars (Joe Garagiola and John Berardino) than they were on ballplayers. Dick Groat was a raw rookie, while Clemente and Mazeroski were still a few years in the future. Moreover, the team drew fewer than 700,000 fans. That team was so bad and so desperate to fill the seats that they had nothing to lose by giving their wonder boy a few starts to pack the seats. Necciai pulled in 17,000 fans in his debut, the Pirates’ largest crowd of the year. Necciai didn’t win that day, but he did win one game later on in the season, and he had one terrific relief outing in which he pitched three hitless innings with five K’s. Unfortunately he also lost six games and finished with an ERA above 7.00.

Thereby achieving complete parity with the rest of the Buccos’ roster.

1952 was pretty much his whole career. A stint in the army, plus various maladies and injuries, curtailed his remaining career to a few minor league games here and there over the next three years, and he never played in the majors again.

But he was never forgotten.

And he is still with us, more than 74 years after his famous game.

Baseball fans are more than a little nuts, and the game keeps meticulous records to remind those fans of unusual achievements, so the 94-year-old Necciai still receives a ton of fan mail because of one low-level game he pitched in front of a mere 1,100 people more than 70 years ago. To be honest, I think he deserves those fans. He’s a modest man who’s grateful for his tiny bit of fame. Here is the story of a decent guy who lived an ordinary life except that he pulled off an amazing achievement while still in his teens.

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Here is a nice article about Necciai, written by a fan who, as an eleven year old, wrote Necciai fan letters. (Ever the nice guy, Necciai wrote back thoughtful letters in longhand.)

It’s not a secret that the big Cuban galoot can hit. He has already had several excellent seasons, and his lifetime OPS is .977 – the same as Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle. But this year, he’s reached a new level, and is running away from the rest of the American League. (Aaron Judge’s injury kind of cleared the path for him.)

1) He’s leading the AL in all three triple crown categories.

2) He’s leading the league in OBP by 40 points

3) He’s leading the league in slugging average by more than 70 points.

There has been only one triple crown winner since 1967. (Miggy Cabrera, 2012) It would be even more impressive if Alvarez were doing it in the the National League, where the last Triple Crown was in 1937! (Ducky Medwick)

The triple crown pretty much punches a ticket to Cooperstown. Every man to win the triple crown in the lively ball era (1920-present) is in the Hall of Fame if eligible. It’s an impressive list:

2012 AL Miguel Cabrera DET .330, 44 HR, 139 RBI
1967 AL Yaz BOS .326, 44 HR, 121 RBI
1966 AL Frank Robinson BAL .316, 49 HR, 122 RBI
1956 AL Mickey Mantle NYY .353, 52 HR, 130 RBI
1947 AL Ted Williams BOS .343, 32 HR, 114 RBI
1942 AL Ted Williams BOS .356, 36 HR, 137 RBI
1937 NL Joe Medwick STL .374, 31 HR, 154 RBI
1934 AL Lou Gehrig NYY .363, 49 HR, 166 RBI
1933 AL Jimmie Foxx PHA .356, 48 HR, 163 RBI
1933 NL Chuck Klein PHI .368, 28 HR, 120 RBI
1925 NL Rogers Hornsby STL .403, 39 HR, 143 RBI
1922 NL Rogers Hornsby STL .401, 42 HR, 152 RBI

Notes:

Miggy Cabrera is not yet eligible to be in the Hall, but I assume he’s a first-ballot shoo-in, given back-to-back MVPs, 3000 hits, 500 homers, almost 1900 RBI.)

Chuck Klein probably doesn’t belong in the Hall with a lifetime WAR of 47. He was voted in when people didn’t study stats the way they do today. He played in a very silly home park, the Baker Bowl, where his lifetime average was .395 (not a typo; three-nine-five). On the road he was a .286 hitter with 20 homers per 650 plate appearance – a good hitter, about equivalent to Fred Lynn (.283 lifetime, with 25 homers per 650 plate appearances, a comparable number of plate appearances to Klein, and a WAR of 50). That’s good, but not really at Hall of Fame level. But Klein is in, so the triple crown list is at 100%.

Medwick was an unlikely triple crown winner. Don’t get me wrong; he was a helluva good hitter. He had no trouble with the batting average portion of the feat, since he had topped .350 multiple times and had a career average of .324. And he had no trouble with the RBI section because he was a great hitter in the middle of the high-scoring Gas House line-up, and thus led the league in RBI several times. The surprise was his home run lead, because (1) 31 homers is a low total for a league leader; and (2) he was a line drive hitter who never hit more than 23 homers in any other season. With all the great, powerful hitters that have passed through the NL in the past 90 seasons, it’s surprising that the only triple crown winner was not a slugger on the level of Mays or Bonds or Aaron or Pujols, but Ducky Medwick, who hit only 205 homers in 17 seasons.

Look at that season Gehrig had in 1934! It shows how quickly and unexpectedly ALS can strike, and how fragile our lives are. He was an absolute titan in 1934. By 1939 he struggled to walk. By 1941 he was dead, age 37.

When serious baseball analysts debate the greatest hitter in history, it always comes down to Ruth, Williams and Bonds-with-an-asterisk. Gehrig is relegated to the near misses.

I think there is a good case to make that Lou Gehrig was a greater hitter than Ted Williams, or at least just as good, because Williams’ numbers were wildly inflated by Fenway Park.

Here are their lifetime records on the road.

Gehrig .351 .455 .645 1.100

Williams .328 .466 .615 1.081

There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between them.

If you take both Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park out of the calculation, Gehrig batted .351 in all other parks, while Williams batted .330, but their OPS’s are nearly identical.

Williams hit slightly better in three of their four common road parks. (They did not play at the same time, so some parks changed.) But Gehrig made up for that at Comiskey, where he terrorized the White Sox with a .380 average and an 1.164 OPS, while Williams struggled there with a .296 mark and a .954 OPS.

Who?

Frank had a minor role in an infamous baseball incident.

Baseball team owner Bill Veeck was known for crazy promotions and grand, offbeat gestures. With a true love of the game and a wicked sense of humor, Veeck was one of the few executives who realized that baseball was supposed to be fun. Perhaps his most infamous scheme involved signing Eddie Gaedel, a 3’7″ man, to a 1951 contract.

No, not as a mascot or a good luck charm. As a player.

What does this have to do with Frank Saucier? Give me time, I’ll get there.

Veeck wanted to pull his stunt in a home game, of course, to take advantage of the hype. Since the home team always has to take the field first and the diminutive would-be slugger could not play the field, an expendable player would start the game and be listed as the lead-off hitter. When it was time for the home team to bat, the manager would announce that Mr. Expendable was being lifted for a pinch batsman, although I’m not sure that “lifted” is the right word here, given that the pinch hitter was Mr. Gaedel.

And Frank Saucier?

He was Mr. Expendable, the only man in major league history to be replaced by a little person.

The rest of his major league career consisted of 14 at bats and an .071 batting average.

So you think I’m making fun of the guy? You could not be more wrong. I came to praise Caesar, not to bury him. Frank Saucier was an amazing man. He was a naval officer at age 18. He was a genius student. He was a successful entrepreneur, and later a CEO. He was the kind of guy they name things after.

So you think he was good at everything but baseball? Wrong again. He was good at baseball. Really, really good. He once made the cover of The Sporting News, and had a lifetime minor league batting average of .380. (That’s not a typo. Three-fucking-eighty!)

What happened to all that potential? Long story. I covered the rest of the Frank Saucier story, including biographical info and all the inside details of the Gaedel incident, in an article at Uncle Scoopy’s Ballpark.

Here is his official obituary.

Germany entered the match as -700 favorites to advance. According to BetMGM sportsbook insights, 99% of the money wagered was on Germany to qualify! I’ve never seen a betting situation like that – all the money placed on a bet that would have paid next to nothing.

They lost to Paraguay, a team that the USA beat 4-1.

The USA team has so far managed to recover from their embarrassing loss to Turkey. (Turkey lost all of their other games, scoring no goals.)

Thanks to a red card, the USA had to play a man short for the final 25 minutes against Bosnia, but still managed to advance to the round of 16 for the first time since 2002. They are not expected to advance farther because the red card also means that star player will not be eligible to play the next game against Belgium.

Was there any tennis player in history who finished their career without a losing record against any opponent they played more than once?

Apparently not. Some researchers found that Steffi Graf had a losing record against Jo Durie (3-4) and Wendy Turnbull (1-2). She tied Navatilova, 9-9.

Bjorn Borg also game close. He was 1-2 against Paul Gerken and 2-3 against John Newcombe. He tied McEnroe, 7-7.

It’s a difficult achievement because players lose matches if they are too young at the beginning of their careers (like Borg), and they lose matches if they keep playing when they are fading.

Miller struck out 19 of the first 24 batters he faced. (Video)

This feat may not seem that impressive you until you realize the previous record for “fastest to 19 strikeouts” was 37 batters!! Even more impressive, he doesn’t mess around with throwing balls. He just whips them over the plate and dares any batter to catch up to his heater (topping out above 103 MPH), his 96 MPH change, or his 88 MPH slider. He threw only 20 balls to those 24 batters. He has allowed only two base-runners, and has an ERA of zero.

He has so much stuff that it isn’t even fair. If you watch the video, you’ll see that he throws pitches that break to his right, or to his left, or drop off the table. Miller is considered the fastest pitcher in MLB today. He threw the fastest seven pitches in the 2025 season. His average fastball (101 MPH) is faster than the fastest pitch Nolan Ryan ever threw (100.9). His average change-up (95.5) is approximately as fast as Nolan Ryan’s average fastball.

I was watching the Pirates yesterday because I was curious about their new and highly-touted teenage shortstop, Konnor Griffin. Man, shortstops are no longer the wimpy little guys who played there in my boyhood. This dude is a big boy. The announcers reported that Griffin became the youngest Pirate to get a hit in his first game since Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski did it about 70 years ago, on July 7, 1956.

And then I realized that I missed Maz’s death in late February.

Many people have maligned his HoF credentials, arguing that he’s there just because he hit one of the most dramatic homers in baseball history. Playing for the Pirates, he became the man who made Mickey Mantle cry when he defeated the mighty Yankees with a single blow. He cleared the left field wall in old Forbes Field in the bottom of the ninth in game seven of the 1960 World Series. It remains to this day the only game 7 walk-off homer in baseball history.

But that’s not why Mazeroski should be in the Hall of Fame. He was better at turning a double play than any other second baseman in baseball history.

People are well aware of dominating performances in pitching and batting. Any good fan knows that Babe Ruth hit 54 homers in his first year with the Yankees, when nobody else in the league could even reach 20. Every good baseball nut knows that Pedro Martinez posted a 1.74 ERA in the height of the steroid era, when the league’s second-place guy was at 3.70. But only a tiny fraction of baseball fans know that Maz put up defensive stats just as impressive as that.

• In 1966, Maz turned 161 double plays. The NL’s second-place guy turned 89.
• That’s the best season in history, but was no fluke – Maz also has two others in the top six.
• Among all second basemen in history, he has the highest lifetime defensive WAR.
• Over the course of a career, he turned a double play every 10.7 innings, making him the best of all time, and one of only two men below 12.

By the way, Maz’s record of 161 double plays is unassailable. The record in this century is 136, and the numbers are on a downward spiral. Nobody even reached 100 in 2024 or 2025, even with all the teams now in the majors. The current baseball strategy is based on “three true outcomes,” which means that the number of ground balls is declining. Because there are so many strike-outs now, and because players try to hit the ball in the air when not whiffing, there are 15%-20% fewer ground balls than in Maz’s era, so even if Maz could come back to life with his 1966 skill level and got paired with the game’s best SS, he could not approach his own record.

Was Maz the greatest second baseman of all time? Of course not. Batting is important, and he stunk as a hitter. There is a baseball stat, called OPS+, which measures the total value of a player at the plate, with 100 representing average production for a major league hitter. In 17 seasons in the majors, Maz never even reached 100. He was always decidedly below average. He wasn’t even the best second baseman of the 50s and 60s. Nellie Fox and Red Schoendienst, near contemporaries, were almost as good defensively, and were consistent .300 hitters.

Was Maz a great player? Sadly, no. His lifetime WAR was 37, with most of it coming from defense, far lower than an average Hall of Famer.

But what is the Hall of Fame designed to honor? Is being the greatest defensive player at one important position not sufficient? I think the Hall is designed to honor special lifetime achievements, and that seems pretty special to me. That got Ozzie Smith (.262 lifetime) and Brooks Robinson (.267) in. Brooks was an average offensive player, and Ozzie was below average, so they are in because they were the best defenders at their positions. Granted, those two men were better overall players than Maz, but there’s no good reason why comparable skills shouldn’t have gotten Maz in as well. I concede that he’s a marginal HOFer, but I would probably have voted for him because “best defense of all time at a key position” swings emotional weight with me.

That’s an odd story to begin with, but what makes it really strange to me is that it is my high school.

It’s quite a story. When I was in that school with my fellow early baby boomers, there were about 2,000 students and it was just a typical Catholic prep school. Today the average graduating class is between 50 and 60 kids, yet they have managed to survive and retain the immense old facility.

How could that happen? Well, they expanded to a “high and middle” school, with grades 6-12, and they charge a fortune to go there, but that still only got them to 315 total students, not enough to pay the bills. Then they had a brainstorm. They saw the high schools in Florida that are basically training programs for elite athletes and realized that there was nothing comparable for (of all things) women’s hockey. They converted some apartments, where the nuns and brothers used to live, into dorms, and created a hockey boarding school. (It’s still a regular high school as well. The hockey players attend regular classes with all the commuter kids.) It was really a radical idea, and not many people thought it would have broad enough appeal to succeed. I never would have thought of it. But it turned out to be genius. That high school is still in business, while our identical sister school, faced with an identical situation and lacking a creative solution, has been closed for decades, as have so many high schools in an era of declining birth rates and increased home schooling.

So, it turns out that I went to a hockey factory, and have never even skated in my life. As ol’ Casey Stengel used to say, “Amazin’!”