WWTBAM Bored

After last nights grand slam by the Astros' Yuli Gurriel, the Kansas City Royals are now the only team in Major League Baseball that have never hit grand slams in consecutive games.

...according to the radio guy this morning. I've been unable to confirm on the internet other than confirming it is the first time the Astros have done it.

And with the win, the Astros are 15 games over .500 for the first time since 2005 when they went to the World Series (and got swept).

I would love to see the list of unofficial, unsanctioned stats that are kept in baseball. I don't think the league tabulates who has hit the most triples on even-numbered Wednesdays, but someone out there probably does.

Baseball stats are unbelievable. About a million years ago, I won a local radio station's sports trivia contest by quickly googling that Dale Long was the first player to hit home runs in eight consecutive games.

SportsFan68 wrote:Baseball stats are unbelievable. About a million years ago, I won a local radio station's sports trivia contest by quickly googling that Dale Long was the first player to hit home runs in eight consecutive games.

I knew this.

But only because his name was mentioned constantly when Don Mattingly tied the record (as did Ken Griffey Jr). Also, I could've sworn he was a sportscaster on one of our local tv stations, but I can't find any mention of that, so I must be misremembering.

SportsFan68 wrote:Baseball stats are unbelievable. About a million years ago, I won a local radio station's sports trivia contest by quickly googling that Dale Long was the first player to hit home runs in eight consecutive games.

Baseball-Reference has a (subscription) Play Index site that allows you to research almost any kind of obscure baseball records you can imagine within the era there are accurate box scores for (I think this goes back to the 1910's now). In the brief time I was a subscriber, I was able to find all kinds of nifty records nobody would have ever thought of... mainly inspired by events I remember from games I attended. Apparently, I attended the only game in which a #8 batter collected 6 hits, as well as the only time a pitcher finished a game by facing seven batters and getting nobody out...

Unfortunately, it's not good with individual events from games. I'd still like to know if anyone has broken Nolan Ryan's record of 10 career grand slams allowed...

lb13

littlebeast13 wrote:

SportsFan68 wrote:Baseball stats are unbelievable. About a million years ago, I won a local radio station's sports trivia contest by quickly googling that Dale Long was the first player to hit home runs in eight consecutive games.

Baseball-Reference has a (subscription) Play Index site that allows you to research almost any kind of obscure baseball records you can imagine within the era there are accurate box scores for (I think this goes back to the 1910's now). In the brief time I was a subscriber, I was able to find all kinds of nifty records nobody would have ever thought of... mainly inspired by events I remember from games I attended. Apparently, I attended the only game in which a #8 batter collected 6 hits, as well as the only time a pitcher finished a game by facing seven batters and getting nobody out...

Unfortunately, it's not good with individual events from games. I'd still like to know if anyone has broken Nolan Ryan's record of 10 career grand slams allowed...

lb13

Wasn't hard to find The Coward of the County...er, the Gambler...no wait, it was Kenny Rogers who gave up 11 in his career.

Sporcle even has a quiz on it:

https://www.sporcle.com/games/DJC83/mlbmcgss

bazodee wrote:I would love to see the list of unofficial, unsanctioned stats that are kept in baseball. I don't think the league tabulates who has hit the most triples on even-numbered Wednesdays, but someone out there probably does.

I've often wondered how accurate some of the older statistics are. It would seem like inadvertent errors would creep in very easily, especially with little means of verifying some of these statistics.

And, of course the scoring rules have changed over the years; at one time, what are now ground rule doubles were credited as home runs if a ball bounced into the stands. Sacrifice flies have been scored as sacrifices (batter not charged a time at bat) intermittently over the years, and the current rule was not in effect for much of the 1930s until 1954. So, season and lifetime averages for players like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Joe DiMaggio would undoubtedly be higher under that rule.

littlebeast13 wrote:

SportsFan68 wrote:Baseball stats are unbelievable. About a million years ago, I won a local radio station's sports trivia contest by quickly googling that Dale Long was the first player to hit home runs in eight consecutive games.

Baseball-Reference has a (subscription) Play Index site that allows you to research almost any kind of obscure baseball records you can imagine within the era there are accurate box scores for (I think this goes back to the 1910's now). In the brief time I was a subscriber, I was able to find all kinds of nifty records nobody would have ever thought of... mainly inspired by events I remember from games I attended. Apparently, I attended the only game in which a #8 batter collected 6 hits, as well as the only time a pitcher finished a game by facing seven batters and getting nobody out...

Unfortunately, it's not good with individual events from games. I'd still like to know if anyone has broken Nolan Ryan's record of 10 career grand slams allowed...

lb13

Happily, they talk more about his no-hitters.