Truth might be stranger than fiction. But baseball can be stranger than
either of them. And here's all the proof you need -- in the 2000 edition of
the Strange but True Feats of the Year.
On Sept. 7, the great Jose Canseco actually swung at a pitch that hit him.
Charlie Manuel opened his big-league managing career in Cleveland by
getting ejected in two of his first three games.
Rickey Henderson had no extra-base hits in a month and a half with the
Mets, then homered in his first at-bat with the Mariners.
|  | | The Marlins' Jesus Sanchez saw the world from one end to the other during the 2000 season. |
It wasn't quite Chan Ho Park and Fernando Tatis, but Devil Rays starter
Ryan Rupe gave up two grand slams last season -- to the same hitter (Jermaine
Dye), five months apart (April 26 and Sept. 1).
The Yankees set the most impossible record of the year twice. They hit
three sacrifice flies in an inning in two different games. Detroit's Bobby
Higginson made the first one possible by dropping a fly ball June 29.
Anaheim's Ron Gant guided them through the second one by dropping one fly ball on
Aug. 19, then catching another one but forgetting the outs, to let Jorge
Posada score from second.
The Twins and Royals each hit back-to-back-to-back homers in the same game
April 9. Neither of them hit back-to-back-to-back homers in any game in the
'90s.
In that same game, the Royals started their day against Eric Milton by
having none of their first 20 hitters reach base. They followed that act by
having their next nine hitters reach base.
In a Sept. 13 game against the White Sox, Juan Gonzalez made the third out
of the first, second and third innings.
Kevin Elster hit three home runs in the very first game ever played at Pac
Bell Park. After that, he didn't hit three homers in any month all season.
Jeff Cirillo had an even more amazing quiniella: He managed to have a
three-homer game (June 28) and a 217-at-bat homer drought in the same season.
Hideo Nomo allowed a home run April 19 after he was out of the game. It
ain't easy, but to pull it off, Nomo had to allow a shot off a left-field
railing by Mike Stanley that was first ruled a single. Nomo was then yanked
by manager Phil Garner. So he was literally sitting in the dugout when the
umpires conferred -- and changed the call to a home run.
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More and more wacky stuff
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Click here for Jayson Stark's best of the rest in the Strange but True Feats of the Year.
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In a May 6 game in Texas, the Rangers blew a five-run lead and the A's blew
an eight-run lead in the same game.
With some slight assistance from a pulled groin, Texas infielder Frank
Catalanotto went 29 straight days (between April 19 and May 18) without
making an out. He got hits in five straight at-bats, then went on the
disabled list, then came back and had a 5-for-5 game.
But he couldn't top backup Astros catcher Tony Eusebio, who had one of the
most innovative hitting streaks of all time. It lasted 51 days (just 12 days
shorter than Joe DiMaggio's) -- but only 24 games. So Eusebio had more days in
which he extended the streak by not playing than he did by playing.
In a May 2 Mets-Giants game, the first batter of the day (Jon Nunnally) and
the last batter of the day (Jeff Kent) hit home runs.
The vagabond-starter-of-the-year award goes to Florida's Jesus Sanchez. In
August and September, he made successive road starts in the Mountain
(Colorado), Pacific (Arizona), Central (Houston) and Eastern (Atlanta) time
zones, then made his next start in -- where else? -- Canada (Montreal).
On May 29, in their first meeting since their humongous nine-player trade
the previous winter, the Tigers and Rangers miraculously got through a whole
game without using any of the nine players in that trade.
The White Sox hit five home runs in one game June 10 and lost. Then they
gave up five home runs the next day and won.
The Braves turned an Aug. 6 ground-ball double play in which both outs were
at first base. (Ground ball to first for one out. Late throw to the plate.
Rundown between first and second.)
The Marlins somehow lost a May 18 game against San Diego in which they
stole 10 bases.
The Cubs and Expos played a 1-0 game June 17 in which the only run was
driven in by a pitcher who didn't get the win (Ismael Valdes).
In a July 23 game in Houston, both Benes brothers -- Andy and Alan -- gave up
a home run to the same hitter (Lance Berkman).
Thanks to spectacularly creative baserunning, the Cubs started an inning
Aug. 2 by having their first five hitters reach base -- and wound up with more
outs (two) than runs (one).
It took Tigers reliever Danny Patterson only two pitches to strike out
Oakland's Ramon Hernandez on Aug. 19 -- thanks to manager Phil Garner, who
cooperatively yanked C.J. Nitkowski after Hernandez ran an 0-2 count trying
to bunt. Patterson then threw ball one, strike three.
The Yankees outhomered the Red Sox in their head-to-head games at Fenway
Park, 14-0.
In their incredible Sept. 15 game in which they used 42 players, the Tigers
and Red Sox used 17 different players in the top of the eighth inning, then
ripped through five more players before a pitch was thrown in the bottom of
the eighth.
And finally, it's our Top Five Strange but True Feats of the Year:
5) In Randy Johnson's bizarre May 21 start in New York, 10 straight outs
were strikeouts -- and eight straight hits were extra-base hits.
4) In back-to-back starts, May 21 and 27, Giants starter Russ Ortiz won a
game in which he gave up 10 runs (in 6 2/3 innings), then failed to win a
game in which he gave up one hit (in six innings).
3) In a span of four days (Aug. 5-8), A's closer Jason Isringhausen blew
one save without throwing a pitch (balk). Then he came into a game in New
York, blew a save on his first pitch (Bernie Williams homer) and turned that
tie into a loss on his next pitch (David Justice homer). So that's two blown
saves on one pitch, a loss on the next pitch, if you're scoring.
2) In the Sept. 6 game in which he became the fourth player in history to
play all nine positions in one game, Texas' Scott Sheldon had no balls hit to
him at any of those positions. (His only chance: at catcher, where he at
least caught a strikeout).
1) And in a Sept. 20 game against San Diego, Rockies catcher Ben Petrick
performed the Strange But True Feat of the Year 2000, by driving in four runs
-- with zero hits. (Two RBI ground balls, one sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded
walk were all it took.)
Jayson Stark is a Senior Writer at ESPN.com.
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