The records are well known, but there are some amazing sports feats that are completely forgotten. Maybe they took place long ago. Maybe they didn’t get the proper recognition at the time.
Let’s start with this:
Ned Garver winning 20 games for the 1951 St. Louis Browns. Garver was 20-12 for a team that went 52-102, making him responsible for over 38% of his team’s victories (Only Steve Carlton did better, and he at least got a Cy Young award out of it). The Browns RBI leader that year had a total of 55. They scored 611 runs, 61 runs less than the next weakest offense. That’s less than four runs a game. Somehow Garver managed to win 20 and lead the league in complete games (since his bullpen had an ERA of over 5, that probably helped).
In the modern era of baseball, the record for most losses is 22. You’d think it’d be easy to lose 20+ games in a season, but it’s not. You have to be good enough (or have enough promise) for the manager to keep putting you out there, or have such a dearth of talent around you that you’re the only option.
Many people know that Babe Ruth hit 60 HRs in 1927. Another feat by a Yankee that year is just as astounding, IMHO.
Despite his power, Ruth batted 3rd. Lou Gehrig hit clean-up. As we all know, Gehrig played every game that year (and about every other year too). That means that at least 60 times, he came up to bat with no one on, since Ruth had just cleared the bases (actually, Ruth hit 29 doubles and 8 triples that year too, so the actual number is higher).
Ah Anthony Young, the Mets may not have many claims to fame, but the suckiest pitcher of all time is one of them.
Does anyone want to remind me why I stayed a Mets fan in the early 90s? I was young enough, I could have pulled off a team switch and it would have been OK.
It’s not a “feat” exactly, but I find it interesting that journeyman Rusty Torres took part in three major league games that were forfeited!
He was playing for the Yankees in the Senators’ final game at RFK Stadium, when fans went wild and the game had to be forfeited.
He was playing for the Indians on 10-Cent Beer Night in Cleveland, when Billy Martin and the Texas Rangers were charging the field with bats to fight off drunk fans.
And he was with the White Sox on Disco Demolition Night.
It’s general baseball wisdom that you have to be a decent pitcher, at least, to lose 20 games, even on a terrible team.
Everyone knows the story of the Williams Shift in baseball – moving players to the right side of the infield to neutralize a left handed power hitter. What people don’t know was that it wasn’t first developed to stop Ted Williams. It was designed to stop Cy Williams, when he was playing for the Phillies in the 1920s.
Like Ted, Cy was a dead pull hitter, and he never tried to hit the ball the opposite way against the shift. He still led the NL in home runs four times. He was also one of only three players born before 1900 who hit over 250 home runs – the others being Babe Ruth and Rogers Hornsby.