Shortstops are in the news in MLB these days – as some “difference makers” at the position are rejoining line ups in need.
Hanley Ramirez is back with the Dodgers and, after a slow start, has gone 12-for-26, with two doubles, three home runs, six runs scored and eight RBI in his past eight games.
Jose Reyes is expected to return to the Blue Jays line up this week, having missed most of the season with a severe ankle sprain. How much will he boost the resurging Jays? Reyes, a league batting champ as recently as 2011 and a .292 career hitter, hit .395 with one home run, five RBI and five steals (in 10 games) before his injury.
Yankee captain Derek Jeter has begun taking fielding and batting practice and is expected back – to provide offense and leadership – after the All Star break.
Then there are those difference makers going the other way. Like the Rockies’ Troy Tulowitzki, who recent went on the DL with a broken rib – and was hitting .347, with 16 homers and 51 RBI.
Anyway, all this media coverage surrounding the off-the-field status of shortstops led BBRT to recall a day when a particular MLB shortstop had a truly different kind of on-the-field day.
Toby Harrah – didn’t need the glove for the June 25, 1976 doubleheader – made good use of the bat though.
On this day, June 25, in 1976, Texas Rangers’ shortstop Toby Harrah played every inning of both games of a double header without ever getting a fielding chance. Not that the ball wasn’t hit around the infield. In game one, an 8-4 Rangers’ win over the White Sox, there were eleven infield put outs (not counting the catchers’ six putouts on strikeouts) and eight infield assists. (Second baseman Lenny Randle was most active with one putout and five assists.) In game two, a 14-9 Rangers’ loss, there were fourteen infield put outs, twelve infield assists and three infield errors. (Second baseman Lenny Randle was again the most active infielder with two putouts, six assists and two errors.)
On the other end of the spectrum, the most chances ever for a shortstop in a doubleheader is 25; the most in a nine-inning contests is 15 and the most in an extra-inning game is 21.
What Harrah didn’t have a chance to do with the glove, he made up for at the plate. Apparently well rested due to inactivity in the field, Harrah finished the doubleheader with six hits in eight at bats, two home runs, two runs scored, seven RBI (five in the game one win) and one stolen base.
For trivia buffs, by the way, Harrah and Bump wills remain the only ML player to hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs. It happened in the seventh inning of an 8-2 Rangers’ victory at Yankee Stadium on August 27, 1977. (The Rangers hit a total of five homers in that game.)
