by Bruce Nash
Four days later, in the seventh inning of a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Ramirez waited out a pitching change by climbing into the wall and sipping on a sports drink. When he finished, he tipped his cap to the Fenway faithful and returned to his position.
Manny being MannyBoston Globe/Getty Images
Two weeks later, he told a reporter for ESPN Deportes, “The Red Sox don’t deserve a player like me.” He was traded to the Dodgers the very next day.
It was just Manny being Manny.
STEVE “PSYCHO” LYONS
First Baseman · Chicago, AL · July 16, 1990
Steve Lyons aired his dirty laundry during the middle of a game when he absentmindedly dropped his drawers at first base.
Lyons, a utility infielder for the Chicago White Sox, led off the top of the fifth inning in a 5–4 loss to the host Detroit Tigers. He laid down a perfect bunt toward first and then dived headlong into the bag, beating the throw from first baseman Cecil Fielder to pitcher Dan Petry for an infield single.
Feeling dirt trickling down inside his pant legs, Lyons unbuckled his belt and casually pulled down his pants to brush away the grime. His sliding shorts over his jock strap were clearly visible to the 14,770 fans at Tiger Stadium and to a TV audience.
Suddenly realizing where he was—and it wasn’t in the privacy of the clubhouse—Lyons quickly yanked his pants back up, but he already had exposed himself to ridicule. While the fans roared with laughter, Lyons, his pants still unbuckled, put his hands on his hips, rolled his eyes skyward, and walked in a small circle while flashing an “I-can’t-believe-I-pulled-my-pants-down” grin.
When the embarrassed player eventually returned to the dugout after the scoreless inning was over, giggling women in the stands waved dollar bills at him. One fan offered Lyons his belt.
In a postgame interview, Lyons explained, “I’m still not sure why I did it. I just kind of forgot where I was.”
He said he was thankful he wasn’t bare-assed naked or wearing dirty undies under his pants. He credited his mother Lillian for that. “She’s the one who always told me to wear clean underwear in case something happened and I had to show them to strangers,” Lyons said.
To the bemusement of players who actually had accomplished some amazing feats on the field, Lyons got more than his 15 minutes of fame. Within 24 hours of the incident, he did 20 radio interviews and seven live TV spots and was considered for a photo spread in Playgirl magazine (which he turned down).
“We’ve got a pitcher, Melido Perez, who earlier this month pitched a no-hitter, and I’ll guarantee you he didn’t do two live shots afterwards,” Lyons told Sports Illustrated at the time. “I pull my pants down, and I do seven. Something’s pretty skewed toward the zany in this game.”
ORLANDO HUDSON Hudson
Second Baseman · San Diego, NL · July 26, 2011
MILTON BRADLEY
Right Fielder · Chicago, NL · June 12, 2009
LARRY WALKER
Right Fielder · Montreal, NL · April 24, 1994
You would think that it’s virtually impossible for a Major Leaguer to lose track of the outs during a game, especially since all he has to do is look at the scoreboard or ask a teammate or simply count. You would think.
And that’s the problem. Sometimes they don’t think—like second baseman Orlando Hudson, of the San Diego Padres, or right fielders Milton Bradley, of the Chicago Cubs, and Larry Walker, of the Montreal Expos.
Hudson screwed up in a 2011 home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the top of the sixth inning with the Padres trailing 3–0. Arizona had runners Chris Young on second and Miguel Montero on first with one out when Brian Roberts hit a little flare to short right field. Hudson raced out and made a nice running catch for what everyone but Hudson knew was the second out.
Believing the inning was over, Hudson tossed the ball to the ball girl, who lobbed it to a fan in the box seats. Hudson started to jog toward the dugout when he saw first baseman Jesus Guzman race over to the stands and scream for the ball. The fan obediently threw it back, but by then it didn’t matter. The umpires waved Young home and sent Montero to third. Hudson returned to his position at second and cracked a sheepish grin.
After the game, which the Padres lost 6–1, Hudson told reporters that he tried to laugh off his gaffe right after it happened. “I said [to his teammates on the field] ‘Well, there’s only two outs. I threw the ball away. Let’s get the third out. My bad, boys. It happens. That’s all I can say.’ And then I started laughing. Life goes on. Nobody’s perfect.”
Milton Bradley can attest to that. During a 2009 game at Wrigley Field against the Minnesota Twins, Bradley was having just an awful day in the field. He lost an easy fly ball in the sun and later, by taking the wrong angle, he turned a single into a double. Adding to his woes, Bradley also was tagged out on a grounder to third when he could have remained safely perched on second.
In the top of the eighth inning, the Twins, who were winning 6–4, put runners Nick Punto on third and Brendan Harris on first with one out. The next batter, Joe Mauer, hit a shot to right. Bradley raced over and made a nice running catch for the second out. But for some reason, he thought it was the third out. He froze at the spot where he caught the ball and posed for a few seconds. Then he turned to the right field bleachers and tossed the ball into the crowd. As soon as he let go of the ball, it suddenly dawned on him that the inning was not really over.
Punto had already tagged up at third and scored. Meanwhile, Harris ran all the way to third from first. As more than 40,000 Cubs fans booed, Bradley rested both hands on top of his head and stared at the ground.
Hoping to win back the crowd, Bradley flipped a warm-up ball into the bleachers before the top of the ninth inning. Whoever caught it fired it right back at him in disgust.
After the game, which the Cubs lost 7–4, Chicago manager Lou Piniella said, “Do we have to go over the math? One, two, three. I don’t know what else to say.”
Bradley said he wasn’t embarrassed, but acknowledged that the fans had every reason to be mad at him. “The fans have high expectations of me and I have high expectations for myself,” he said. “I’ve never made a mistake like that in my life. Sue me. I guess I’ll be in the bloopers with Larry Walker now. There are worse people I could be with.”
Bradley was referring to Montreal Expos right fielder Larry Walker, who, in a 1994 game at Dodger Stadium, set the standard when it comes to counting—or rather miscounting—outs.
Bradley reacting to his brain sprainAssociated Press
With one out and a man on first in the bottom of the third, Los Angeles catcher Mike Piazza sent a fly ball to right. Walker made the routine catch in foul territory for what he mistakenly thought was the last out of the inning. In a thoughtful gesture, Walker trotted over to the box seats on his way to the dugout and handed the ball to a boy sitting in the first row.
Hearing shouts of alarm from his teammates, Walker turned around and saw Dodgers runner Jose Offerman, who had tagged up from first, rounding second and hustling to third. Walker dashed over to the boy, snatched the ball from him, and fired it to third to keep Offerman from scoring. The next batter, Tim Wallach, walloped a home run.
As he took the field in the bottom of the fourth, Walker presented the boy with a new baseball. Walker’s act of kindness triggered a standing ovation from the fans and a warm reception every time he came to bat.
It would have been an otherwise forgettable 7–1 Expos loss had it not been for Larry Walker’s memorable memory lapse.
JIM HENRY
Pitcher · Boston, AL · September 25, 1936
Finding himself in a tight situation, rookie pitcher Jim Henry got so flustered that he couldn’t tell the difference between a baseball and a resin bag.
Henry had won his first
five decisions for the Boston Red Sox when he faced the host Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium. He breezed through the first two innings, but got in trouble in the bottom of the third. With two runs in and no outs, the Senators had runners Joe Kuhel on third and John Stone on first.
Trying to collect himself before facing Cecil Travis, who was a .320 hitter, Henry walked behind the mound, picked up the resin bag, and kept squeezing it with his pitching hand. He was working out in his mind how to pitch to Travis, and paying no attention to the runners.
With Henry’s back to the plate, Kuhel broke for home while Stone sprinted for second in an attempted double steal. Taken by surprise, Henry threw to second, hoping to nail Stone. It was a good throw. It would have been better, though, had he flung the baseball instead of the resin bag.
Kuhel scored the third run of the inning and Stone was safe at second. As the crowd burst into laughter, Red Sox second baseman Ski Melillo picked up the resin bag and handed it back to the red-faced pitcher. Henry failed to recover from his gaffe. He was so unsettled that on the next pitch, he carelessly went into a full windup, allowing Stone to waltz into third with another steal.
Boston manager Joe Cronin had seen enough and yanked his rattled rookie. As Henry headed for the showers, a fan yelled, “Maybe you’ll have better luck throwing a bar of soap!”
DAN FORD
Center Fielder · Minnesota, AL · September 5, 1978
Minnesota Twins manager Gene Mauch furiously paced around his office and declared, “All I’ve got to say is that the man will not get paid for tonight’s game.”
His ire was directed at Twins center fielder Dan Ford, who was cheering when he should have been running.
Trailing the visiting Chicago White Sox 4–0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Minnesota loaded the bases with Ford on third, Jose Morales on second and Larry Wolfe on first. When Bombo Rivera lined a one-out single to center, Ford backpedaled down the third base line, waving his arms and yelling, “C’mon, Jose! C’mon, Jose!” to Morales, who was trying to score from second.
The problem with such cheerleading was that Ford had stopped short of home plate and continued to urge on his teammate, who then flew past him and touched home. Suddenly, Ford realized that he hadn’t crossed the plate and immediately touched it with his toe. But White Sox catcher Bill Nahorodny noticed the mix-up and shouted at umpire Joe Brinkman, who called Morales out for passing Ford.
Mauch ran out of the dugout and, with a resigned look on his face, asked Brinkman, “Did what I think happened, happen?” The ump nodded. Mauch turned away without protest. As he headed back to the dugout with the downcast and chagrined Ford, Mauch growled, “Just keep right on going.” Ford went straight into the clubhouse and left the stadium before the end of the game.
Instead of two runs and one out, the Twins had one run and two outs. The play took on added importance because Minnesota lost 4–3.
GARY GEIGER
Center Fielder · Boston, AL · June 8, 1961
Gary Geiger hit what he thought was a game-winning triple. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
In a lengthy night game against the visiting Los Angeles Angels, the Boston Red Sox entered the bottom of the 11th inning trailing 4–3. But leadoff hitter Chuck Schilling walked and Geiger smashed a pitch off the center field wall that drove Schilling home.
As Geiger pulled into third, the Boston players cheered. Now they were tied 4–4 with a runner on third and no one out. But to their stunned amazement, they watched Geiger trot jubilantly past third as if he were waiting for their congratulations.
It suddenly became clear that he had forgotten the score and failed to realize that his hit only tied the game; it didn’t win it. Geiger was tagged out on a baserunning blunder that ultimately cost his team a victory.
“I thought the score was tied when I hit the ball,” confessed the ashamed outfielder after the game. “When I ran to third, I saw Schilling score. I thought the winning run was in. Then I heard [third base coach] Billy Herman yelling at me and I turned back. I thought I was going to be congratulated for having knocked in the run. But then I got caught in a rundown and that was it.”
The game ended in a tie because of a downpour in the 12th inning, forcing the entire game to be replayed the next day as part of a doubleheader. The Red Sox lost the makeup game 5–1.
EVERY TRICK
IN THE BOOK
For the Sneakiest Cheating of All Time,
The Baseball Hall of Shame™ Inducts:
LENNY RANDLE
Third Baseman · Seattle, AL · May 27, 1981
No third baseman ever blew a play more outrageously than Lenny Randle.
It happened in the top of the sixth inning at Seattle’s Kingdome when Amos Otis of the visiting Kansas City Royals topped a ball down the third base line. Three Mariners converged on it, but they knew the roller was too slow for them to throw out Otis. All they could hope for was that the ball would turn foul.
The ball kept rolling straight, hugging the line in fair territory. Suddenly, Randle was struck with a brainstorm. He dropped down on all fours. Then he huffed and he puffed and he blew the ball foul.
Initially, plate umpire Larry McCoy signaled a foul ball. But after Royals manager Jim Frey protested, the call was changed to an infield single. The umpires ruled that a fielder cannot deliberately alter the course of a fair ball to make it go foul. Randle had done just that with his head’s-down play.
Randle re-living his blown playOwen Blauman
“I didn’t blow on it,” he told reporters after the game, won by the Royals, 8–5. “I used the power of suggestion. I was just telling the ball, ‘Go foul, go foul.’ The Bird [Detroit pitcher Mark Fidrych] used to talk to the ball and he didn’t get into any trouble. How could they call it a hit? It was a foul ball.”
Mariners manager Rene Lachemann backed up his infielder. “Lenny’s breath from yelling must have moved it,” he said with an impish smile.
The blown play, which didn’t factor in any scoring, was “one of the big moments in the history of the Kingdome,” declared Seattle’s public relations director Bob Porter years later. “We didn’t have any wind in our indoor stadium, but that night we had a breeze—and it was created by Lenny Randle.”
HAL NEWHOUSER
Pitcher · Cleveland, AL · September 5, 1955
Hal Newhouser called on the US Army to help him steal the catcher’s signs.
Between games of a doubleheader pitting the visiting Kansas City Athletics against the Indians at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the US Army put on a show. Recalled Indians left fielder Ralph Kiner, “They rolled out tanks and all sorts of equipment, and drove them around the edge of the field. Then, before the second game started, they parked their equipment in an area behind the outfield fence.”
A few yards away, in the bullpen, Indians pitcher Hal Newhouser noticed a telescopic rangefinder on one of the tanks. He furtively climbed into the tank and began focusing the rangefinder on home plate.
“He keyed in on the Kansas City catcher [Joe Astroth] big as life,” said Kiner. “There were the signs staring Hal in the face. He called them out and somebody else got on the bullpen phone and alerted our dugout and they were passed on to our batters.”
By getting tipped of the pitches, the Indians scored in the first five innings en route to a 9–2 drubbing of the A’s.
“We were bombing the hell out of the Kansas City pitchers right from the start of the game,” Kiner recalled. “[A’s manager] Lou Boudreau knew we were getting the pitches from some place. He went nuts trying to find out, but never did.”
MILLER HUGGINS
Manager · St. Louis, NL · August 7, 1915
Crafty St. Louis Cardinals skipper Miller Huggins tricked an opposing rookie pitcher into literally throwing the game away.
The Cardinals were playing host to the Brooklyn Dodgers (then known as the Robins) in a game that was deadlocked 4–all. In the bottom of the seventh inning, St. Louis loaded the bases with two outs against rookie hurler Ed “Whitey” Appleton.
With the pressure building, Huggins thought it was the perfect time to con Appleton. Coaching at third base, Huggins yelled to the mound, “Hey, Appleton! Let’s see that old ball!”
Appleton had been raised to be polite and respectful toward his elders. Apparently he wasn’t raised to be wary. Willing to accommodate so distinguished a baseball man as Miller Huggins, Appleton turned toward the coaching box and, without calling time-out, tossed him the ball. It happened so fast that the incredulous Brooklyn players didn’t have time to stop him.
As the ball floated through the air, a grinning Huggins nimbly stepped aside and watched it bound toward the wall in front of the third base box seats. By the time the ball was retrieved, Jack “Dots” Miller and Tommy Long, the runners on third and second respectively, had scampered home with the winning runs in a 6–4 St. Louis victory.
“[Miller’s] face was wreathed in a smile of sophistry,” said an account in the St. Louis Republic. “Huggins, the arch perpetrator of the trick, scratched his chin and looked away from Umpire [Bill] Klem . . . Uncle Wilbert Robinson, who manages the Brooklyn outfit, seemed suddenly to have swallowed a catcher’s mitt, if the fluidity of his face and his general incoherence could be taken to mean anything.”
Because of Huggins’s ploy, the rules were eventually amended to prohibit a coach from acting in any manner to draw a throw by a fielder. But the rule change came much too late for the humiliated Appleton, who lasted only two years in the bigs.
“It seemed hardly less than criminal to thus forever wreck this guileless youth’s confidence in diamond nature,” said the Republic. “But professional baseball is professional baseball with about as much sportsmanship to it as could be squeezed through the eye of a needle.”
