OT: Perhaps the Greatest Single Game Feat in the History of Baseball

[RegisteredUconn]

Didn't see this posted...could be wrong...

In 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched perhaps the best game ever — and lost

 

[cohenzone]

I was a kid, but remember it. Aside from how amazing that was, it would probably never happen the same way today. The chances that a starting pitcher would go 12 innings is next to zero.

 

[JordyG]

I was a kid, but remember it. Aside from how amazing that was, it would probably never happen the same way today. The chances that a starting pitcher would go 12 innings is next to zero.

A pitcher goes 8 innings today and announcers are shocked he's still in there.

 

[j66kicker]

I was a kid, but remember it. Aside from how amazing that was, it would probably never happen the same way today. The chances that a starting pitcher would go 12 innings is next to zero.

Even today, nobody takes out a pitcher who has a perfect game going. Plus, if you have a perfect game going, your pitch count is likely to be lower than normal for the innings pitched.

 

[HoopsFan21]

I think a bigger feat is a pitcher getting a win for a team he doesn't play for. Don't think that'll happen again for a while. That happened for Joel Hanrahan a few years back. Got the win for the Nationals while he was playing for the Pirates. Without reading the link below, can anyone think of a way that is possible?
Hanrahan gets Nats win while playing for Pirates

 

[cohenzone]

Even today, nobody takes out a pitcher who has a perfect game going. Plus, if you have a perfect game going, your pitch count is likely to be lower than normal for the innings pitched.

12 innings? Yankees took out a rookie who had a perfect 6 innings 2,weeks ago. The reason was he’d been a reliever and they had him on a pitch count (he’s been lousy since then).

Harvey Haddix I think was not a very big guy. These days, players are considered investments and are really protected. I kind of doubt we’ll see anything like Haddix’s game, but I’d be surprised to see a guy go more than 10. The pitch count would have to be not much over 100.

 

[Sonny44]

A pitcher goes 8 innings today and announcers are shocked he's still in there.

Yes Jordy, and in those days pitchers started every three days, not five like today.

 

[j66kicker]

12 innings? Yankees took out a rookie who had a perfect 6 innings 2,weeks ago. The reason was he’d been a reliever and they had him on a pitch count (he’s been lousy since then).

Harvey Haddix I think was not a very big guy. These days, players are considered investments and are really protected. I kind of doubt we’ll see anything like Haddix’s game, but I’d be surprised to see a guy go more than 10. The pitch count would have to be not much over 100.

Yeah I watched that Yankee game a couple weeks ago. Domingo German pitched 6 no-hit innings in his first ever major league start. Boone let him exceed his target pitch count, but German admitted he was overthrowing at the end of the stint. In any case, he had walked two batters - no potential perfect game when he came out.

 

[bantamlaker]

A pitcher goes 8 innings today and announcers are shocked he's still in there.

And a complete game is headline news. Think of what Bob Gibson did in 1968 - 28 complete games out of 34 starts! He won the MVP that year.

 

[lne001]

My nominee would be Tony Cloninger, who on July 33, 1966 pitched Atlanta to a complete game victory, while driving in 9 rbi's via 2 grand slams.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Yes Jordy, and in those days pitchers started every three days, not five like today.

Every four games. Every team had four starting pitchers, although on very rare occasions a pitcher might start once on only two days rest.

 

[JordyG]

And a complete game is headline news. Think of what Bob Gibson did in 1968 - 28 complete games out of 34 starts! He won the MVP that year.

Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.

 

[stamfordhusky]

I was a kid, but remember it. Aside from how amazing that was, it would probably never happen the same way today. The chances that a starting pitcher would go 12 innings is next to zero.

Haddix threw 115 pitches in the 13 innings. At the time I was a little kid living in Pittsburgh, listening to the game. Other than Haddix's pitching, there is one play that still bothers me. Early in the game, reserve outfielder Roman Mejias - getting a rare start - attempted to go from first to third on an infield hit and was thrown out easily. The next Pirates hitter delivered a single that easily would have scored Mejias. Had Haddix pitched the same, the Bucs would have won it in nine and Haddix would have had a win and a perfect game.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Spahn and Sain and pray for rain.

That was a nice little poem, but did not reflect reality. The Braves had two other SP's who started 33+ games that year. In fact, the two forgotten pitchers had better ERA's than did Spahn.

 

[JordyG]

That was a nice little poem, but did not reflect reality. The Braves had two other SP's who started 33+ games that year. In fact, the two forgotten pitchers had better ERA's than did Spahn.

Yeah. But neither won 300 games in their careers. Spahn wasn't the best of his era, but he was a consistent workhorse.

 

[JordyG]

Haddix threw 115 pitches in the 13 innings. At the time I was a little kid living in Pittsburgh, listening to the game. Other than Haddix's pitching, there is one play that still bothers me. Early in the game, reserve outfielder Roman Mejias - getting a rare start - attempted to go from first to third on an infield hit and was thrown out easily. The next Pirates hitter delivered a single that easily would have scored Mejias. Had Haddix pitched the same, the Bucs would have won it in nine and Haddix would have had a win and a perfect game.

Nowadays the coach would have clocked his pitches and pulled him around 100. The truth is today's hitters are free swingers who strike out a lot, and strikeouts require a lot of pitches. Consequently, a pitcher usually reaches 100 pitches around the 6th or 7th.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Yeah. But neither won 300 games in their careers. Spahn wasn't the best of his era, but he was a consistent workhorse.

Spahn was a great pitcher - but he wasn't that year (1948). In fact, that was the worst he pitched in any season until Age 39. Spahn ended up winning 363 games despite losing three seasons to WW2.

 

[Boreifs]

I think a bigger feat is a pitcher getting a win for a team he doesn't play for. Don't think that'll happen again for a while. That happened for Joel Hanrahan a few years back. Got the win for the Nationals while he was playing for the Pirates. Without reading the link below, can anyone think of a way that is possible?
Hanrahan gets Nats win while playing for Pirates

Easy answer. The game is suspended after the top half of an inning that he pitched. He is trade to the visiting team; home team goes ahead in the bottom of the inning and keeps the lead. Any true baseball fan would know that answer without even thinking about it.

 

[stamfordhusky]

Nowadays the coach would have clocked his pitches and pulled him around 100. The truth is today's hitters are free swingers who strike out a lot, and strikeouts require a lot of pitches. Consequently, a pitcher usually reaches 100 pitches around the 6th or 7th.

True, pitchers generally get to 100 pitches before the 7th inning is done. Having said that, there is no way that a veteran pitcher working on a perfect game would be pulled with 115 pitches. One example of that philosophy was the Mets leaving in Johan Santana for 135 pitches (stupidly) to get his no-hitter. And Santana had endured a major shoulder injury and a risky surgery, unlike Haddix who had been generally healthy his entire career.

 

[cohenzone]

Watching Yankees.vs. Angels. Two young starters pulled in 7th inning of a 1-1 game (Severino actually didn’t start the 7th) with under 100 pitches.

These days, teams like Yankees and Bosux often force pitchers to throw a lot of pitches. Probably other teams do the same. Of course the AL uses the DH, so even more pressure on AL pitchers to keep the pitch count low.


LOL. Only in the BY. I’m typing in the abbreviation for designated hitter but when I post, it spells out Dan Hurley.

 

[Bigboote]

Jim Maloney pitched two ten-inning no-hitters in one season. He lost one in the 11th, so it's not officially a no-hitter any more. (Since he pitched 9 no-hit innings, it was still considered a no-hitter till maybe 20 years ago.) In the one he won, he threw 190 pitches. I guess that's why he only lasted about ten years.

I think one reason pitchers are babied these days is that there's such an emphasis on speed. Something like 60% of pitchers average more than 95 mph on their fastballs. There have been a few pitchers who could throw 300 innings a year like that and last a few years (Nolan Ryan comes to mind), but they're unusual. Greg Maddux is the last real finesse pitcher that I remember, although I don't watch much baseball any more.

The other thing that fries my tuchus is the use of relievers -- there aren't any more long or even middle relievers. The starter goes five innings, you're just about guaranteed four more pitchers before the end of the game.

 

[Bigboote]

LOL. Only in the BY. I’m typing in the abbreviation for designated hitter but when I post, it spells out Dan Hurley.

Gotta love mods with a sense of humor. I was on a board many years ago in which the mods replaced the word "sex" with "lichen." It was quite humorous when the occasional spam made it past the filters.

 

[Monte]

ONE DAY--2 GAMES:
On September 6, in 1950, Don Newcomb of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitched a complete game shutout in game 1 of a doubleheader. Being a good hitter, he also hit a triple and walked.
After a 20 minute break, Newcomb also was the starting pitcher in game 2. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 2 runs........so, he threw 16 innings that day. After Newcomb left the game, the Dodgers rallied to win the 2nd game also.

 

[FridaFriend]

Another great game between pitchers was on July 2, 1963. Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal pitched sixteen innings until Willie Mays hit a home run off Spahn in the 16th for a 1-0 win.

 

[RegisteredUconn]

A couple of things...

My post wasn't (necessarily) meant to compare how the game is played today vs. the past, and how Haddix's performance will never be duplicated. Rather, was this the greatest individual accomplishment over the course of a single game in the history of baseball? At the start of every one of the more than 210,000 games played, two players had the opportunity to pitch a perfect game. Only 23 have and Haddix's performance isn't one of them. Nobody has done it twice. Of the more than 420,000 opportunities less than .0055% have met the criteria for being "perfect." Had the Pirates pulled out a win in the bottom of the 12th, the Haddix sample would have represented .00024% of the universe of games.

Secondly, this wasn't even about just pitchers. It considers all players and everything that has happened. Is there a more astonishing accomplishment than 12 innings of perfect ball? Would, for example, a second baseman starting 9 triple plays in the same game register as a greater accomplishment? The earlier citation of Cloninger hitting 2 grand slams while pitching a complete game is a great example. Fewer players (13) have had multiple grand slam games than have pitched perfect games. No player has done so more than once. More players have played than have pitched, so there could have been, theoretically, more opportunities, but how many have there actually been? An opportunity is a player coming to the plate with the bases loaded multiple times during a game. How many times has that actually happened?

And I don't mean to make this all about statistics. Every oddity isn't some grand accomplishment. Can others cite an example they might rank above Haddix? Which is the greater accomplishment, Haddix's 12 innings or Don Larsen's World Series perfect game?

Anyway, thanks for all the responses.