Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Ultimate Respect

The other night something very rare happened in a baseball game. It was the ultimate sign of respect, in my opinion, that can happen during an actual game. A recently prolific hitter(he played in 90 games last year as a rookie) for the Texas Rangers, Josh Hamilton, was walked by the Tampa Bay Rays manager WITH THE BASES LOADED. Yep, they decided giving up only one run for sure was better than the prospect of pitching to him and potentially giving up multiple runs. It worked out as the pitcher struck out the next hitter to win the game 7-4. So think about that, the manager Joe Maddon decided he'd rather let one guy score and bring the potential winning run to the plate (if he hit a homerun) than to pitch to Hamilton. Wow. In recent history, only Barry Bonds has been walked with the bases loaded. In fact, it's only happened five other times in baseball history. Here's the list:

DatePlayerTeamOpponent
1881Abner DalrympleChi. White StockingsBuffalo Bisons
1901Napolean LajoiePhila. A’sChi. White Sox
1928Del BissonetteBrooklyn RobinsNY Giants
1944Bill NicholsonChi. CubsNY Giants
1998Barry BondsSF GiantsDiamondbacks
SundayJosh HamiltonRangers Rays

4 comments:

stef said...

pretty cool.

Desiree said...

Thanks for the trivia!

Anonymous said...

I will be the most impressed when you are walked with the bases loaded.

Anonymous said...

If I own the club, the gutless wonder is gone the next day.
Thommy