That Ryan fella was pretty good.
Name the major league baseball team that featured 15 pitchers, none of whom had a season record of .500 or better.
In addition to his 7 no hitters, he had five no-hitters broken up in the 9th inning.
Also, when he set the single season strikeout record (383 Ks) with the California Angels, it was 1973, the first year of the DH in the American League. He didn’t face any pitchers that year.
I would guess last year’s Oakland A’s, quite possibly the worst “major league” team of my lifetime, but I can’t believe they only employed fifteen pitchers. How about the 1962 Mets?
If it’s not the Mets it should be. Roger Craig was considered the ace of the pitching staff at the start of the season. He lost 24 games.
He is also the answer to the trivia question “Who pitched the last home game for the Brooklyn Dodgers?”
Last year’s A’s actually had 10 pitchers with .500 or better records, the '62 Mets 3 such pitchers including the legendary Ken MacKenzie, who was the only pitcher on the staff with a winning record (5-4).
The team with zero pitchers having a .500 or better record was the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134 after most of their good players were transferred to another club the owner had bought. One of the Spiders’ staff aces was Crazy Schmit (2-17), who amazingly did not have the worst won-loss percentage on the staff among pitchers with at least 10 decisions.
Who was the only boxer that Jack Dempsey wouldn’t fight?
Sam Langford
Dempsey said it in a interview with Ed Sullivan
The 1962 Mets had a pitcher over .500 and a couple who were 2-2 and 1-1.
The one guy over .500 was a guy named Ken MacKenzie (Canadian, unsurprisingly with that name) who was 5-4. In 1963, the Mets also had just one pitcher over .500… Ken MacKenzie, who went 3-1. He got traded to the Cardinals late that season and never won another game.
I would assume the answer to Jackmannii’s question is the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, though that’s stretching the concept of “major league baseball.”
Finding a post-1900 team that has no pitchers above (if a bad team) OR under (even if really good) .500 is actually really hard. The 1916 A’s went 36-117. but had a 2-1 and a 1-1. The 1906 Cubs, who went 116-36 giving them the highest winning percentage in MLB history, had a guy go 3-5. There are a few teams like that - I know the 1910 A’s had no losing pitchers, and there are a few more but I don’t remember which ones.
Tangent: baseball went through an anti-Hispanic racist phase in the 60s where they thought it would be cool to anglicize players names. So you may see references (like, baseball cards) to Jay Alou and Bob Clemente. Matty (Mateo) stuck; but they never tried to stick Felipe with “Phil”.
According to Baseball-Reference, Harry Lochhead was 0-0 with 1 game and 3.2 innings pitched. He was not a pitcher, but one of the 15 players who pitched for Cleveland that year.
Amazing. An already horrible 19-94 team finished 1-40.
I excluded ol’ Harry because he did not have any decisions.
That was my thought, but you said 15 pitchers, and without him there would only be 14. I get what you’re saying though, just silly nitpicking on my part.
Catcher Ron Hassey performed feats in 1981 and 1991 that no other catcher has ever peformed twice.
The only catcher to have caught two perfect games. Len Barker in 1981 and Dennis Martinez in 1991. He and Gus Triandos are the only catchers to have caught no-hitters in both leagues.
Five catchers have caught a no-hitter in both leagues. In addition to Triandos and Hassey, Jeff Torborg, Darrell Porter, and Drew Butera have done it.
Which Giants player did Eli Manning almost throw the ball to on the famous “Helmet Catch” play (instead of David Tyree?)
Chris Snee, a Giants offensive lineman. Manning said he was being grabbed by Patriots defenders from behind and his instinct, trying to avoid the sack, was to throw a shovel pass and he saw a white Giants jersey right in front of him, with Snee standing there very invitingly and not blocking any Patriots, but luckily had enough presence of mind in that split-second to recognize Snee wasn’t a tight end or otherwise eligible receiver.
I think that the more interesting bit is that catch was the last that David Tyree would make as a player. He missed the following season due to injury, then played another year as a special teams player.
And he’s been living off it ever since. Every now and then I see that’s he’s doing a personal appearance somewhere in the area.
He was a journeyman at best. Most players with his career can’t even do the convention circuit.
Which NFL player had the longest career (defined as longest time on a roster?)
Bernard Williams, who joined the Eagles as an offensive lineman in 1994. He was suspended by the Eagles for drug reasons in his second year but was never formally waived until November 2023, thus giving him 29 years of time in the NFL.
What happened to Blue Jays’ pitcher Dave Stieb three times in the 1988-1989 seasons?
Two of his no-hitters and one perfect game were broken up with two outs in the 9th. The no-hitters were back-to-back starts, and he had two strikes on the batter in both games.