Does Friday the 13th Bring Bad News to Baseball?
PLUS: SHOULD WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC MOVE TO MID-SUMMER?
Pregame Pepper
Washington expects better results from its rotation now that veterans Zack Littell and Miles Mikolas have been added via free agency . . .
Hard to believe this is the 10th year the Nats and Astros have shared Ballpark of the Palm Beaches . . .
Houston closer Josh Hader will open the season on the IL with a biceps problem . . .
The Reds may have to replace ace starter Hunter Greene, out til the All-Star break after bone fragments were taken out of his right elbow . . .
Atlanta used a club-record 71 different players last year . . .
Curacao native Ozzie Albies, seeking the comeback trail while playing for Team Netherlands, hit the first game-winning home run in the history of the World Baseball Classic . . .
Versatile Kody Clemens, in his seventh official spring training, ranked third among the Twins last year with 19 home runs . . .
Australian native Liam Hendriks is spending the spring proving he’s healthy again after elbow surgery . . .
On the Minnesota coaching staff under new manager Derek Shelton is Toby Gardenhire, son of former Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, a member of the Twins Hall of Fame . . .
The Mets also have a coach (Troy Snitker) whose dad was a legend as a manager (Brian Snitker with the Braves).
Leading Off
Happy Friday the 13th !! How Scary Number Impacts Game
By Dan Schlossberg
Today is Friday the 13th, two days before the infamous Ides of March but still an uneasy date in the minds of those who are superstitious.
The date has harrowing memories for the Montreal Expos, who should have stayed home on Friday the 13th of May in 1977. They lost, 5-3, to the Chicago Cubs at Olympic Stadium to even their record at 13-13. The Cubs had 13 hits and left 13 men on base. The winning run was driven in by Larry Biittner, whose No. 26 was 2 x 13. The losing pitcher, Dan Warthen, wore No. 39, or 3 x 13.
Eight years later, Montreal lost its entire team when the Expos became the Washington Nationals.
The most notorious episode of No. 13 bringing bad luck to a player was the Ralph Branca fiasco of Oct. 3, 1951.
His last-of-the-ninth pitch to Bobby Thomson with one out and two on became a three-run homer that gave the New York Giants a 5-4 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers in the final game of the unscheduled 1951 National League pennant playoffs. Branca only 25 at the time, was crushed and would be done within five years — even though he changed to uniform No. 12 a year after “the shot heard ‘round the world.”
More recently, Ronald Acuna, Jr. of the Atlanta Braves tore each of his ACL ligaments in separate incidents sandwiched around a historic 2023 campaign in which he became the only man to reach 40 home runs and 70 stolen bases in the same season.
The first tear, in his right knee, occurred while he was playing right field three days before the 2021 All-Star Game.
His second tear, in the left knee, occurred while running the bases on May 26, 2024. When he returned a year later, he was only a shadow of his former self.
Then there’s the strange case of Alex Rodriguez, who came up to the Seattle Mariners wearing No. 3 as a tribute to Dale Murphy, who wore it with the Braves. When A-Rod got to the Yankees, the jersey had been retired for Babe Ruth, forcing A-Rod to add a “1” in front of it. By the time the three-time MVP retired, he had 696 home runs — but a year-long suspension for alleged involvement with performance-enhancing substances and then lying about it.
Wearing No. 13 also caught up with Omar Vizquel, a smooth-fielding Venezuelan shortstop who inspired Cooperstown conversation before becoming ensnared in a pair of domestic abuse allegations five years apart. Charges were dismissed but most voters also dismissed Vizquel as a potential Hall of Famer.
Jim Leyritz, a valuable backup catcher and pinch-hitter best known for hitting a late-inning three-run homer that deadlocked Game 4 of the 1995 World Series between his Yankees and the Atlanta Braves, also wore No. 13. And he also suffered more his share of troubles, including jail stints for a DUI manslaughter charge, violating bail conditions by drinking, and for domestic battery. Most charges were dropped or changed to probation.
Manny Machado, now with the San Diego Padres, was wearing No. 13 in 2017 when he his hard slide into Boston second baseman Dustin Pedroia effectively ended the latter’s career.
Even Roberto Clemente once wore the dreaded digits. Just months after collecting the 3000th hit of his Hall of Fame career, he died when the overloaded plane he had loaded with relief supplies for Nicaraguan earthquake victims plunged into the Caribbean.
Other memorable players who wore No. 13 were David Cone, Zack Greinke, Hanley Ramirez, Lance Parrish, John Valentin, and Turk Wendell.
Most averted catastrophe, although Dave Concepcion’s 19-year run as the star shortstop of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine was somehow overlooked by Cooperstown voters.
Closer Billy Wagner, who also wore the notorious numbers, almost suffered a similar fate — until voting writers came to their senses last year, his 10th and last on the ballot.
Not everybody associated with No. 13 encounters a black cat along the way. Sal Perez has worn it throughout his long and distinguished career as the slugging catcher of the Kansas City Royals, for example. But he was one of the lucky ones.
It’s worth noting that no team has officially retired No. 13, although several refused to distribute it because of its alleged superstitious aspects.
They agreed with Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner when he said, “I never stepped on a white line. It didn’t help or hurt me but I just didn’t want to take any chances.”
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ devoted a chapter to superstitions in his 2025 book The New Baseball Bible: Notes, Nuggets, Lists, and Legends from Our National Pastime. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
If MLB Says Yes To Olympics, Could That Also Fix World Baseball Classic?
By Sean Millerick
The World Baseball Classic just might be here to stay.
Earth-shattering stuff there, I know. Yet just a few Classics ago, it might have been.
The buy-in from players over the last four years has been staggering. Brad Pitt’s query from Moneyball of “how can you not be romantic about baseball” has become the go-to cliche anytime something magical happens on the diamond…but it’s also really the only way to describe the energy surrounding this tournament. Most fans love it and most players want in.
Yet that doesn’t mean there aren’t concerns, particularly on the pitching side. The prospect of injuries hangs over participating in something this intense this early in the season. It’s a worry shared by fans and players alike, and probably more than a few front offices. And just ask Miguel Rojas, Mike Trout, and way too many others about the insurance implications; it turns out some aspects of Baseball with a capital B are unromantic after all.
The concerns aren’t without merit, just without fun. I’ll admit to sharing some of them: three years later, I’m still not convinced participation in the 2023 tournament didn’t play a role in Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara’s health issues that season.
At any rate, any talk of that nature is just a primer for a discussion that will only grow over the course of the season, and kick into high gear during the forthcoming CBA talks: should MLB allow its players to participate in the Olympics?
Of course, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. This past week Bryce Harper got the ball rolling by putting his interest out there, and he’ll be far from the last player to do so. As long as the NBA, NFL (still cringing over flag football being added), and NHL are sending their talents, MLB needs to follow suit. Especially since it’s not as if the NPB was holding out their own stars the last couple Olympics. The best players need to be on sports’ biggest stage.
Are there some issues here? Sure. The already touched upon insurance concerns. The fact that doing so would stretch the All-Star Break from three days to two weeks. What does that do to momentum? If that happens, does that mean the playoffs start later? Or does that mean the naysayers about the length of the MLB season get their way, and 8 to 10 games are trimmed off the schedule? Forget owners accepting the idea of their best players getting hurt; would they tolerate losing two weeks worth of chances to sell tickets during such a popular time for families to attend games?
It’s going to be fascinating to see how that works out.
However, most of the concerns with the Olympics question seem to stem from calendar and revenue issues, not health. After all, by definition, players are going to be in mid-season form. No one is going to be overexerting themselves without sufficient ramp-up. More importantly, most players won’t be playing at all, just recuperating. A two-week break is an IL stint, a rehab assignment. The most likely outcome is MLB teams coming out of the Olympics with stronger rosters, not weaker ones.
Any debate about the WBC, on the other hand, is the inverse of this. Health is the foremost concern. Players aren’t stretched out yet, and are going right from fielding drills and games against career minor-leaguers into a playoff atmosphere. Pitchers especially are babied, justifiably, and aren’t at their full strength.
So why not put the Olympics and the WBC on the same footing?
What if the WBC were a summer event?
It’s not as if overlapping needs to be a problem; math and the Summer/Winter Olympic cycle proves this much. Some players may opt out if their teams are in the thick of the playoff race, but the majority of stars will still participate. Those that do will be fully ready to go though, with no abbreviated Paul Skenes and Tariq Skubal appearances necessary. The majority of MLB’s players still get the extra rest time, helping to stave off those dreaded injuries.
The only hiccup is what MLB would choose to do in the two years there wasn’t a major tournament. Keep the two-week hiatus, and just make a real show of stretching out the All-Star Game and MLB Draft events? Or go back to the status quo?
Otherwise, it just makes too much sense not to do so, and to do so as soon as the next tournament.
If MLB says yes to the Olympics, they need to say yes to a summer WBC.
Sean Millerick is a diehard Miami Marlins fan but still finds cause for hope every Spring Training. He currently writes for @MarlinManiac. You can find him on Twitter @miasportsminute.
[Editor’s Note: As a professional baseball journalist since 1969, I prefer the WBC be played after the season, filling the black hole between the end of the World Series and the Winter Meetings. A midseason disruption would be even worse than the current spring training interruption. Teams that send top players to the WBC should also be cutting exhibition game ticket prices in half in exchange for showcasing an inferior product. — Dan Schlossberg, HtP weekend editor]
Extra Innings: World Baseball Classic Notebook
That three-homer game by first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino (Royals) Wednesday night gave Italy a 4-0 record and knocked Mexico out of the WBC . . .
It was the first time in six editions of the tournament that anyone hit three home runs in a game . . .
Italy, a country that had no professional baseball until 1948, had a 9-13 lifetime record in WBC play but pulled off one of the greatest upsets in tournament history with its 8-6 win over Team USA Tuesday . . .
Manager Mark DeRosa admitted leaving Bryce Harper and Alex Bregman out of the USA starting lineup against Italy caused both stars to give him “the side-eye” . . .
Team Italy pilot Francisco Cervelli, a former big-league catcher, led his team to a silver medal at the 2025 European Championship after a ninth-place finish in 2023 . . .
Mets rookie Nolan McLean, who struggled against an Italian team that had only five returnees from its 2023 incarnation, can redeem himself in the championship game if Team USA gets that far . . .
A win over Canada in the quarter-final would push Team USA to the semi-final contest, which defending NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes would pitch . . .
AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal started the World Baseball Classic opener for Team USA, then returned to the Detroit training camp for the rest of spring training . . .
Nicaragua, Great Britain, and Czechia were first-timers in the tournament this spring, while Panama returned for the first time since 2009 . . .
When Team USA beat Mexico, 5-3, it was the first time since 2006 that the Americans prevailed over the Mexicans.
Know Your Editors
Here’s the Pitch is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [biggentleben@hotmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
The Note about Spring Training ticket prices during the WBC is important because ST tickets are absurdly expensive. If Rob Manfred cared, he'd tell teams to do something, but of course, he doesn't.