Fun, Unique, and Unusual Baseball Stories

 A review of some unique and unusual stories in the world of baseball. 

Home Team Wins – a FIRST in Major League Baseball history! 

A new statistic was accomplished in baseball on Tuesday, August 11, 2015.  For the first time in Major League Baseball history, ALL 15 home teams won on the same day!  The closest home teams have ever come before now was 12 wins, over a hundred years ago, on May 23, 1914.

The 15 winning home teams were the Blue Jays, Cardinals, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Giants, Indians, Mariners, Marlins, Mets, Padres, Rays, Royals, Twins and White Sox. Added altogether, the winning teams outscored their visitors by 80-32 runs.

I love baseball statistics! 

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Flash Gordon in Baseball

Tom Gordon was a major league pitcher from 1988 to 2009.  He recorded 153 strikeouts in 1989 while playing for the Kansas City Royals. Those strikeouts were one of the highest totals in the American League that year, earning Tom the nickname “Flash.” 

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1899 Cleveland Spiders - The year that nobody came to the game!

The Cleveland Spiders were a major league baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio from 1887 to 1899.  They achieved minor successes for ten of their eleven seasons of play. In 1899, their last year as a professional baseball team, they played so poorly that eventually the fans stayed away. 

This wasn’t entirely the fault of the team. That year, the owners bought the St. Louis Browns and decimated the Cleveland Spiders’ team to enhance the St. Louis team. Also, a large number of Cleveland home games were shifted to ‘road’ games. As a consequence, the fan base dwindled. The first 16 home games only drew a total of 3,179 fans (an average of 199 fans per game). Because of these meager attendance figures, the other teams in the league (NL) refused to come to Cleveland because their cut of revenue from ticket sales wouldn’t even cover their travel expenses. Thus, the Spiders were forced to play 85 of the rest of their 93 game schedule on the road.  

The Cleveland Spiders ended up with an average of only 145 fans per game paying to attend home games. They finished with a dismal win-loss record of 20-134 ~ the worst in MLB history. 

Winning a ROY

While watching or listening to a baseball game on TV or radio, you may have heard the announcers talking about who might win a ROY. The first time I heard that term, I had no idea what it was and had to look it up. 

ROY stands for ‘Rookie-of-the-Year, an awarded honor which recognizes the top-performing first-year athlete in a professional sports league.  A Roy award is not just for baseball.  Other sports, such as soccer, basketball, and football, recognize outstanding debut seasons. 

Summary

I hope you have enjoyed this compilation of unusual and unique informational tidbits from the world of Major League Baseball. 

*This post about Fun and Unusual Baseball Stories was written by Wednesday Elf, the Baseball Contributor on ReviewThisReviews.com  

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