Friday, June 1, 2012

Baseball's Greatest Rarity


In Major League Baseball's treasured "modern" history (1900 and after), numbers are everything.

A player has hit for the cycle 293 times.
There have been 272 no-hitters throw in major league history. (Sorry Justin Verlander, you were just short of 273.)
A pitcher has thrown an "immaculate inning" (3 strikeouts in 9 pitches) only 45 times. (Some bizarre people on this list.)
Pitchers have combined for only 19 perfect games. (Phil Humber most recently.)
After Josh Hamilton obliterated the Orioles, only 16 players had 4 home runs in a single game.
Only 15 fielders have turned unassisted triple plays (twice it ended a game, once it happened in the World Series).
A miniscule 13 sluggers have hit two grand slams in a single game. (Fernando Tatis did it in an inning.)

These are incredibly rare historical feats. Their scarcity is reflected in the numbers. Let me drop an even rarer number on you. Something currently more rare than unassisted triple plays and four homer games.