Tommy Milone (Remember Him?) Still Pitching
PLUS: THE WORLD SERIES MVP WHO REFUSED HIS CLUB'S CALL TO THE HALL
IBWAA members love to write about baseball. So much so, we've decided to create our own newsletter about it! Subscribe to Here's the Pitch to expand your love of baseball, discover new voices, and support independent writing. Original content six days a week, straight to your inbox and straight from the hearts of baseball fans.
Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Entering play Wednesday, just four teams from last year's playoff field would be in this year's postseason bracket: the Braves, Dodgers, Rays and Yankees . . .
Scenery change helps: Aaron Hicks is slashing .340/.444/.604 in 17 games since Baltimore signed him May 30, the day Cedric Mullins went on the IL with a right groin strain. Hicks has three homers in 53 at-bats with his new club after just one home in 69 at-bats with the Yankees before being released on May 26 . . .
With ace lefty Max Fried (2.64 ERA over the last four years) due back around the All-Star break and Kyle Wright right behind him, the Atlanta Braves don’t need to trade for another starter . . .
Tampa Bay started last weekend with seven of the top 70 position players listed by Baseball-Reference.com in WAR (Wins Against Replacement) . . .
Because he’s sidelined with his second Tommy John surgery, Jacob deGrom has to rate as the most disappointing free-agent signee but Carlos Rodon (Yankees) and former MVP Jose Abreu (Astros) are a close second . . .
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has been a post-season bust in two-strike situations, going 2-for-39 with 25 strikeouts in his three playoff years . . .
Playing as if they’re on permanent holiday, the Mets and Yankees both are off on Memorial Day and Labor Day this season . . .
After missing six weeks with a barking hamstring, 33-year-old former MVP Giancarlo Stanton hit .119 (5-for-42) in his first 12 games back with the Yanks . . .
Before leaving as free agents, Chris Bassitt (Blue Jays) led the 2022 Mets in innings pitched, while Taijuan Walker (Phillies) was second in that department . . .
Injured starters Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodon (Yankees) and Jose Quintana (Mets) are rehabbing in the minors and should be ready to return soon . . .
Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, which housed Negro Leagues baseball before becoming a Southern League staple, will host an official 2024 major-league game involving the Giants, long-time team of Birmingham native (and Negro Leagues veteran) Willie Mays, the oldest living Hall of Famer at 91. Built in 1910, Rickwood is the oldest ballpark still in use (the Southern League plays one game a year there).
Leading Off
Tommy Milone, the last pitcher to hit the first pitch out of the park
By Andrew Sharp
After 13 years with nine different teams, left-hander Tommy Milone was cut by the Mariners earlier this season. Still pitching for the AAA Tacoma Rainiers in the Pacific Coast League, Milone, now 36, hopes for another shot. If he gets one, it’s a sure bet it won’t top his first big-league shot.
That one took place at bat, not on the mound. On September 3, 2011, during his major-league debut with the Washington Nationals, the 24-year-old Milone came up in the bottom of the second and hit the first pitch he saw for a home run.
Facing the Mets’ Dillon Gee with two men on base, Milone’s liner deep to right gave the Nats a 5-0 lead. He was the last of seven pitchers who homered on the first pitch they ever saw. (An eighth, Gene Stechschulte of the Cardinals, did it as a pinch-hitter on April 17, 2001, in game in which he did not pitch).
The still-active Adam Wainwright did it in 2006. Of the seven who were pitching in the game, Milone is the only one whose homer came with any men on base.
The first American Leaguer who homered on the first pitch he saw, Bill Lefebvre of the Red Sox in 1938, was also a left-handed pitcher and batter, like Milone. The other six -- seven if you count Stechschulte -- batted and threw right-handed.
Unfortunately for Milone on the mound, he didn’t make it out of the fifth inning in that 2011 start. He gave up four earned runs in a game Washington won in walk-off fashion.
Although Milone hit well at Syracuse (9-for-26, .346) before his September call-up, the first-pitch homer was the only one he hit in the majors. Spending most of his time in the American League, he had just six singles in 53 other plate appearances.
Wainwright, with 10 career homers, clearly has proved to be the best hitter among the pitchers who hit first-pitch homers, although Esteban Yan can claim the highest average: 2-for-2 and a sacrifice in three times up. Yan was well into his career, mostly in relief, before he first batted and homered in 2000.
As of this season, 31 players in history have homered on the first pitch they saw in the majors. The most recent was the Tigers’ Akil Baddoo on April 4, 2021. Baddoo, Starling Marte (2012), and Willson Contreras (2016) join Wainwright and Malone as active players who hit the first pitch they saw out of the park.
Unless some pitcher is used as an emergency pinch-hitter (less likely if the “Manfred man” rule persists), Milone’s feat most likely will be the last of its kind.
Andrew C. Sharp is a retired daily newspaper journalist and a SABR member who blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Man of Honor: David Freese Freezes His Election to St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame
By Dan Schlossberg
David Freese is a man with integrity.
The now-retired third baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals didn’t think he belonged in the team’s Hall of Fame — and said so.
Although Freese helped the Cards get to the World Series twice and was directly responsible for the unlikely world championship of 2011, he didn’t think he belonged in the company of Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Dizzy Dean, and other Cardinal Hall of Famers, with Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina soon to follow.
So, after contemplating his decision for several uneasy weeks, Freeze froze himself out of consideration.
It’s something other players should do — especially those elected “All-Stars” by fans who recognize their names rather than their recent achievements.
Even some members of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown should reconsider their own merits. Are you listening, Harold Baines, Bill Mazeroski, and Ted Simmons?
Getting back to Freese, he was voted Most Valuable Player of both the National League Championship Series and World Series in 2011 — after the Cards overcame an epic collapse by the Atlanta Braves to clinch a playoff spot via the wild-card route.
The club went only 90-72, one better than Atlanta’s 89-73, but got hot when it counted most.
All Freese did was knock in 21 runs, a record for any player in any post-season, and hit a game-winning home run in the 11th inning of World Series Game 6 to force a seventh and deciding game against the Texas Rangers.
For those not bothered by the wild-card in the first place — and especially by a wild-card becoming a world champion — it was one of the most significant home runs in World Series history.
Two years later, Freese was a big cheese again, helping the Cards reach the Fall Classic by more legitimate means, taking the NL Central crown with 97 wins and beating the Braves, the beasts of the East, in the playoffs.
"This is something that I have given an extreme amount of thought to, humbly, even before the voting process began," Freese said in a statement. "I am aware of the impact I had helping the team bring great memories to the city I grew up in, including the 11th championship.
"I feel strongly about my decision and understand how people might feel about this. I get it. I'll wear it. Thank you for always being there for me, and I am excited to be around the Cardinals as we move forward."
If baseball had its own version of Profiles in Courage, David Freese would have a chapter.
He was a pretty good player, with a .277 average and 113 home runs over 11 seasons. But except for that one miraculous autumn, he was no Hall of Famer.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has been covering baseball since 1969. The Syracuse University graduate still writes for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Memories & Dreams, Latino Sports, Sports Collectors Digest, and other outlets. He’s signing books in Cooperstown July 6 and July 22. Write him via ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
“We’re not getting outs when we need to and putting guys away. We’re not playing defense. We don’t execute. That’s why we’re playing the way we’re playing.”
— Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Atlanta’s decision to DFA utilityman Charlie Culberson on Father’s Day morning caused the Braves to find another player’s father for the ceremonial first pitch. The father of Atlanta native Michael Harris II rode to the rescue, threw the pitch to his son, and the center-fielder responded with a 5-for-5 game that included a home run . . .
When Craig Kimbrel (Phillies) and Kenley Jansen (Red Sox) notched their 400th saves within days of each other earlier this season, they both victimized the Braves, their former team . . .
Baltimore’s all-black Nike uniforms did nothing to quell the city’s ongoing gang problem . . .
The once-moribund Miami Marlins, who have two world championships but no division titles, went 10 games over .500 for the first time in 12 years . . .
According to Playoffstatus.com, the three teams least likely to reach the post-season are the Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals . . .
After four straight playoff seasons and nine appearance in the last dozen years, the Cards have fallen from their nest atop the NL Central to dead last, nearly 10 games removed from a wild-card spot.
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.
I covered Milone during his fantastic season at AA Harrisburg (12-5, 2.85 ERA). I'm amazed he's still competitive in today's game with his lack of velocity.