{"id":16705,"date":"2024-02-10T10:37:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballroundtable.com\/?p=16705"},"modified":"2024-02-10T10:37:55","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:37:55","slug":"the-day-bryce-harper-could-have-left-his-hot-pink-bat-in-the-dugout-and-other-on-base-oddities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballroundtable.com\/the-day-bryce-harper-could-have-left-his-hot-pink-bat-in-the-dugout-and-other-on-base-oddities\/","title":{"rendered":"The Day Bryce Harper Could Have Left His Hot-Pink Bat in the Dugout \u2026 and other On-base Oddities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, here are some more Baseball Roundtable musings, as we wait for Spring Training to open. This time it\u2019s rare occurrences and oddities (unicorns, if you will) in some way relate to getting on base or on-base percentage.\u00a0 I hope you find them interesting and entertaining.<\/p>\n

Bryce Harper and an Unblemished Hot-Pink Bat<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

It was Mother\u2019s Day (May 8) 2016 and the Nationals were facing the steaking Cubs at Wrigley Field. (The Cubs were 23-6 and were on a six-game wining streak.)\u00a0 Bryce Harper<\/strong> was batting in the three-hole and playing right field.<\/p>\n

Like most players that day, he was using a special hot-pink Mother\u2019s Day bat.\u00a0 Little did he know that he would never even swing that stick over the thirteen innings of play that afternoon \u2013 or that he was about to become the first (still only) player with seven plate appearances in a game and not a single at bat.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 And, to make this more of an MLB unicorn, Harper would reach base in every plate appearance for a 1.000 on-base percentage making him the first (still only) MLB player with seven plate appearances in a game, a 1.000 OBP for the game and not a single at bat<\/strong>.\u00a0 (Yes, in baseball, we count everything.)<\/p>\n

It went like this:<\/p>\n