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MLB Trivia

It Only Happened Once in Major League Baseball

June 2, 2015

Enjoy this baseball season with some bizarre baseball trivia.

MLB TriviaOnly player to steal the same base twice.

In 1920, base-stealing rules were codified: players from then on could only steal the next consecutive base. But before that, anything went. In September 1908, Germany Schaefer of the Detroit Tigers stole second base…then went back and stole first base. And then he stole second base. Again.

Only pitcher to throw consecutive no-hitters.

About 230 hitless games have ever been thrown by Major League pitchers, a rate of about two per season. In 1938, Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer threw a no-hitter…and then in his next game, threw another no-hitter. (It was the highlight of a 119-121 pitching career.)

Only pitcher with an all-strikeout season.

Pitchers aren’t generally very good hitters (the American League doesn’t even let them bat), but the worst might be Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax. In his rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955, Koufax came up to bat 12 times…and struck out 12 times.

Only team to come back from a 3-0 playoff deficit.

Best-of-seven playoff series are used in the playoffs of several major team sports. Once a team has a 3-0 lead, they have a 99 percent likielhood of winning the series. Only once in baseball has a team come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. In 2004, the Boston Red Sox rallied to win four games against the Yankees…and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

Only player to get a hit for two different teams on the same day.

On April 4, 1982, Joel Youngblood hit a two-run single for the New York Mets in a game against the Chicago Cubs. After the game he was traded to the Montreal Expos and flew to Philadelphia to play in a night game against the Phillies. He got a hit in the seventh inning.