Welcome to another edition Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday, a weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances or statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that caught my eye. To see past Trivia(l) Tidbits, just type Trivia(l) into the search box on the lower righthand side of the page.
Like many of these “Tidbits,” this edition provides an example (two, actually) of what you can run across if you spend your times browsing baseball-related websites (like Baseball-Reference.com, Baseball-Almanac.com and National Pastimes.com, to name just a few of my favorites).
This time, we’re looking at oddly even games. (I’ve actually written about this in the past, but today is the anniversary of one of these contests, so it seem an appropriate time to revisit these statistical coincidences.
An Oddly Even Game
On August 13, 1910, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers) played perhaps the most “even” MLB game ever. The first game of that day’s twin bill was pretty tight – a 13-inning, 3-2 Pirates’ win. Game Two put Game One to shame. It ended after nine frames in an 8-8 tie (called due darkness). In the game:
- Each team scored 8 runs;
- Each team recorded 13 hits in 38 at bats;
- Each team made two errors;
- Each team recorded 13 assists and 27 putouts;
- Each team gave up three walks;
- Each team suffered one hit batsman;
- Each team fanned five times;
- Each team was charged with one passed ball;
- Each team was awarded five RBI among their eight runs scored.
N0w, what are the “odds” of coming up with another one of those “even-Steven” games?
Ooops! They Did It Again.
On April 15, 1968, The Astros topped the Mets 1-0 in 24 innings. In that one:
- Each team had 11 hits in 79 at bats;
- Each team had ten singles and one double;
- Each team left 16 men on base;
- Each squad made on error;
- Each team threw two wild pitches;
- Each team turned one double play.
- Each team used four pinch hitters.
- Oh, and by the way, the winning tally scored on a groundball error. So, each team scored zero “earned” runs.
Next week, an MLB unicorn – a once in baseball history baserunning feat.
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