A Dubious Record For the Nationals
ALSO: TIMED TO 50th ANNIVERSARY OF #715, NEW HANK AARON BIO HITS STORES
Pregame Pepper
Did You Know . . .
Blake Snell is 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA after last night’s 17-1 defeat by the Diamondbacks, whose winning pitcher was Jordan Montgomery, another late-signing free agent . . .
Kudos to Atlanta’s Travis d’Arnaud, who capped a 3-homer game with a grand slam Friday night against the World Champion Texas Rangers . . .
Babe Ruth got married at 5:00 in the morning of Opening Day because he didn’t want a crowd of strangers at his wedding . . .
When Jackie Robinson broke into the majors with the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, Leo Durocher was his manager in spring training, Clyde Sukeforth was his manager on Opening Day, and Burt Shotton was his manager for the rest of thhe season . . .
Tanner Houck’s shutout of Cleveland at Fenway Park Wednesday night was the fastest nine-inning game in 14 years at one hour and 49 minutes . . .
Albert Suarez, a portly Venezuelan pitcher who pitched overseas since making 18 appearances for the 2017 San Francisco Giants, has returned to the majors with the Baltimore Orioles . . .
Kudos to the Leiter family, the first to have father & son duos of different generations. Jack Leiter, who made his debut when he started for Texas Thursday, is the son of two-time All-Star Al Leiter and the nephew of Al’s brother Mark. Since Mark, Jr. is now in his fifth major-league season, the Leiters are now the first set of brothers whose sons also made it to the big leagues. The debut of the youngest Leiter comes 40 years after his father was drafted in the second round of the amateur draft by the Yankees.
Leading Off
Nationals’ reliever set record by letting four inherited runners score
By Andrew C. Sharp
On May 10, 2008, at Nationals Park, a scoring quirk let Nationals’ reliever Joel Hanrahan do what no other pitcher in the history of the American and National leagues has ever done: He was charged with allowing four inherited runners to score.
Canadian baseball writer Gary Belleville, who uncovered this unheralded record, wrote a detailed account of Hanrahan’s dubious but historic performance for SABR’s Games Project in December 2023. Amazingly, Belleville found no published account of the game that mentioned the relief pitcher having allowed four runners to score that were deemed inherited. All four, of course, were charged to Nats’ starter Mike O’Connor.
It’s certainly a disaster for a team -- and a starting pitcher -- when a reliever comes in with the bases loaded and lets the three base-runners score. But a starter charged with four earned runs after he’s lifted from the game? Hanrahan proved it could happen, thanks to rule 9.16(h).
The box score from the Associated Press, used in hundreds of newspapers, inexplicably listed “Inherited runners: Hanrahan 3-4.” Retrosheet’s box score has Hanrahan allowing three inherited runner to score, although Baseball-Reference does say he allowed all four to score.
Already leading 3-0, the Marlins knocked out O’Connor in the fourth. The inning began with a home run by Wes Helms and a double by Matt Treanor. After Marlins starter Andrew Miller sacrificed Treanor to third, Cody Ross walked and Jeremy Hermida drove in a run with a single. O’Connor walked Ramírez on four pitches to load the bases. With Florida up 5-0, O’Connor threw two balls to Jorge Cantu before Washington manager Manny Acta headed to the mound. Hanrahan was called in to try to limit the damage. It was not to be.
In his second season with the Nationals, Hanrahan continued to have control problems. He came into the game having walked 19 batters in 20 innings. His earned run average was just under 5.00.
Hanrahan immediately threw a wild pitch to Cantu. Ross came home to make it 6-0 with the first inherited run charged to O’Connor. After throwing a strike, Hanrahan walked Cantu to re-load the bases. The next batter, Dan Uggla, drove the first pitch he saw into the Marlins bullpen in left field for a grand slam, putting the Marlins up, 10-0, and putting O’Connor on the hook for three more runs. Hanrahan retired the next two batters.
How it happen was because rule 9.16(h) states that a “relief pitcher shall not be held accountable when the first batter to whom he pitches reaches first base on four called balls, if such batter has a decided advantage in the ball and strike count when pitchers are changed. Because Cantu had a 2-0 count when Hanrahan entered the game, his walk was charged to O’Connor – creating a fourth inherited base-runner.
Ultimately, O’Connor was charged with nine earned runs in 3⅓ innings. His earned run average jumped from 6.35 to 13.00. After the next day’s game, he was demoted to Triple A and never appeared in another game for Washington.
The Marlins ended up winning, 11-0, Florida’s sixth straight victory. The shutout was one of a franchise-record 21 times the Nationals were blanked in 2008.
Later in 2008, Hanrahan had some brief success as the Nats’ closer after Jon Rauch was sent to Arizona near the trade deadline. The 26-year-old righty saved nine games in 12 chances for a Washington team that won just 59 games that season. But Hanrahan struggled again in 2009.
Traded to Pittsburgh in June 2009, Hanrahan showed immediate improvement. He became the Pirates’ closer in 2011, a role in which he flourished. Hanrahan set a two-season Pittsburgh record with 76 saves in 2011-12. He made back-to-back All-Star teams before sustaining a career-ending arm injury.
In his two-plus seasons in Washington, Hanrahan had allowed a whopping 47 percent of inherited runners to score. But in his two seasons as the Pirates’ closer, just 9 percent of the runners he inherited scored.
Andrew C. Sharp is a retired journalist and a SABR member who lives in New Jersey and blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Newest Hank Aaron Book May Be Most Unusual
By Dan Schlossberg
Writing a book isn’t easy. I know: I’ve authored or co-authored 41 books since 1974.
There were bookend biographies of Hank Aaron, including Hammerin’ Hank: the Henry Aaron Story in 1974 and the forthcoming Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron.
Timed to coincide with the year-long celebration of the No. 715 golden anniversary, the newest book is a hefty hardcover with a suggested price tag of $32.95. But it is also the most unusual Aaron biography ever written.
It not only contains a very personal foreword from Dusty Baker, whom I have known since he was a rookie outfielder with the Braves more than a half-century ago, plus a preface from Kevin Barnes, whom I met when he was an 18-year-old batboy for the Braves in 1973.
It also includes many photographs never published previously anywhere else; I took them personally during more than 50 years covering Aaron and the Braves.
More than anything else, what separates this volume from every other Aaron book is the fact that it was organized by topics rather than time.
As someone who has been a rabid fan of both Aaron and the Braves since they beat the Yankees to win the 1957 World Series, it was easy for me to pick a list of topics, then divide them into chapters.
Unlike almost all of my author colleagues, I did not formulate an outline first to please my publisher. I told Julie Ganz (now Julie Perry) what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. She knew I had done the first Aaron biography and also collaborated with Al Clark, Ron Blomberg, and Milo Hamilton on their autobiographies.
Then I started writing, imagining that each chapter could stand alone as a separate magazine article.
I started with the highlight of Aaron’s baseball career, the night he broke Babe Ruth’s record in Atlanta on April 8, 1974. I added chapters on his humble beginnings, greatest teammates, favorite managers, most memorable moments, and his family — including brother Tommie, with whom he spent the entire 1962 season in Milwaukee.
There’s a chapter on awards Aaron should have won, a chapter of Aaron oddities and ironies, and of course a long chapter that explains why Henry Louis Aaron, more than any other player, was the perfect advocate for Jackie Robinson’s legacy long after Jackie passed on.
This book will allow readers to learn why three presidents claimed they could not have won without Aaron’s active participation in their campaigns; how Aaron became so friendly with one of them they went on a ski trip together; and why the star slugger made millions more off the field than he did during his playing career.
Many interviews — some of them dating back to the 1973 season when he came oh-so-close to The Record — helped tell the story of how a modest man marooned in small-market cities broke the biggest record in sports despite death threats and mountains of hate mail from bigots who wanted no part of a black man breaking a white man’s mark.
It took six months to nail down an exclusive phone interview with Billye Aaron, Henry’s well-spoken widow, but the wait was worth it, as readers of the Epilogue will discover. There’s also a bonus chapter on the extensive Aaron exhibit now on display at the Atlanta History Center in upscale Buckhead.
The most difficult section of the book is the Acknowledgments page. There were so many people to thank — from Baker, Barnes, and Billye to Brian Snitker and Aaron’s son Lary, both of whom were released by the Braves when Henry was the team’s farm director. But the far-sighted slugger knew enough to offer Snitker a minor-league coaching job some 47 years ago. That same man, a paragon of loyalty, has now won six straight National League East division titles.
Chris Lucas, son of the late blind sportswriter Ed Lucas, took my notes and photographs and turned them into a power point I will use during a signing tour that starts May 1 (Springfield Library) and includes stops in Cooperstown June 20 and July 20. You’re the best, Chris!
This may not be my best book but it’s certainly the most expensive. I just hope readers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Pre-order now from amazon.com.
Former AP newsman Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Here’s The Pitch, and various other outlets. To book a talk, signing, or personal appearance, contact him via ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: An Afternoon With Chris Lucas
“Baseball took his sight but he made baseball his life.”
— Chris Lucas, son of the late blind sportswriter Ed Lucas, in a college lecture
Ed and Chris Lucas were enjoying a pre-game meal in the crowded Yankee Stadium dining room when a man with a British accent, unable to find a seat, asked to join them. After they talked awhile, Ed said, “I remember your show. My son used to watch Channel 11 and I loved your songs.” Chris and the British man exchanged knowing glances, realizing Ed thought Paul McCartney was one of the Monkees . . .
Baseball broadcasters routinely describe uniforms of both teams because of a suggestion by Ed Lucas, who thought blind listeners needed to have a better word picture of the game . . .
In the wake of their successful book Seeing Home, the Ed Lucas story has been optioned by Hollywood hot-shots for a future motion picture . . .
Though he had a reputation for surly behavior toward the media, Barry Bonds was invariably nice to Ed, who first met the slugger as a clubhouse kid tagging along with father Bobby . . .
Willie Mays wasn’t afraid of much but he didn’t like Ed’s Seeing Eye dog.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.