by Bruce Nash
Satisfied but still somewhat nervous, Mike donned his brother’s uniform and pretended to be a Pirate.
The Brothers McEnaney got away with their scam. Will watched most of the football game and Mike got to sit in the bullpen in uniform during a Major League contest.
Recalled Mike, “Kids kept leaning over the railing of the bullpen, yelling, ‘Hey, Will, give us your autograph.’ So I did. I wonder how much a Will McEnaney autograph signed by Mike McEnaney is worth?”
KEN GRIFFEY JR.
Center Fielder · Seattle, AL · April 15, 1995
Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella had a cow over a bet he won with his star player, Ken Griffey Jr. No, really, he had a cow—a live one.
The two had made a wager during the early days of training camp at the Mariners’ facility in Peoria, Arizona, when the season was delayed because of a players’ strike.
“It was batting practice, and I had three swings left,” Griffey recalled. “Lou bet me a steak dinner that I couldn’t hit a home run to each field on those three swings. I hit one to right and I hit one to center, but I missed the one to left. So I paid up.”
Griffey gave him a steak so rare, it mooed. When Piniella arrived in his office, he found a 1,200-pound Hereford inside. “When he walked in, there was the cow and some other stuff the cow had left after lifting its tail, plus he had slobbered everywhere,” said Griffey. “Lou got sick.”
Piniella took the practical joke with a smile. “It’s a long summer,” he told reporters at the time. “We just might keep the cow around and let him loose in center field during a game.”
Griffey told the press, “When did I think it up? As soon as I lost the bet.”
Years later, Piniella recalled, “The cow mooed a couple times and did a couple other things, and we got it out of there. It was okay as a joke, but it smelled like cow [dung] in my office for a week.”
The cow escapade inspired a commercial that Griffey did for the Seattle Mariners during spring training the following year. In the spot, he’s inside Piniella’s office when he cracks open the door and talks to the camera: “Last year, I bet Lou that I would hit the next ball out in batting practice. I lost, so I had a live cow delivered to his office. This year we went with the rack of lamb. Boy, I hope he’s hungry.”
The next shot is from inside Piniella’s office. It’s crammed with eight bleating sheep.
TED LYONS
Pitcher · Chicago, AL · 1925
A future Hall of Famer stuck it to another future Hall of Famer in a classic prank that left the victim hopping mad.
Chicago White Sox second baseman and manager Eddie Collins had a habit of sticking a piece of chewing gum on the button atop his cap as he went up to bat. Whenever he got two strikes against him, he would pluck the gum off his cap and chew it like crazy.
One day in 1925, White Sox pitcher Ted Lyons surreptitiously sprinkled red pepper on Collins’s gum while it was still perched on top of his cap. When the count went to 0-and-2, the unsuspecting Collins tore the gum off his cap and started chewing like he always did in that situation. All of a sudden, he let out a whoop and spat out the gum. Then he struck out on the next pitch.
Back in the dugout, the furious Collins announced to his players, “I’ll fine the joker a million bucks if I ever find him!”
SNOOZE PLAYS
For the Most Mind-boggling Mental Miscues of
All Time, The Baseball Hall of Shame™ Inducts:
JOE DIMAGGIO
Center Fielder · New York, AL · July 30, 1951
In all his 13 years in baseball, Joe DiMaggio never suffered a mental lapse on the field—except once.
Through his first 1,713 regular season games, 45 World Series contests, and 10 All-Star games, the Yankee Clipper had never been known to throw to the wrong base, try for an extra base without a good chance of reaching safely, or to be guilty of daydreaming out in the field. But DiMaggio, the thinking man’s ballplayer, whom teammates and fans always counted on for his rock-solid dependability, committed an embarrassing blunder in his 1,714th game.
It came at a most inopportune time. In the top of the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium, Detroit Tigers star George Kell was on second base with one out and his team ahead 3–2. The next batter, Bud Souchock, flied to deep center where DiMaggio made the catch. Unbelievably, DiMaggio leisurely started to trot in with the ball, erroneously thinking that there were three outs. But Kell knew differently. He tagged up at second and headed toward third, where coach Dick Bartell waved him around. By the time DiMaggio woke up from his mental fog, Kell was racing for home. DiMaggio’s blunder allowed Kell—who could run only slightly faster than First Lady Bess Truman—to score from second base on the outfield fly.
The thinking man’s player forgot to thinkNational Baseball
Hall of Fame Library
The 39,684 fans gasped in disbelief. Joe DiMaggio, the closest baseball had to a perfect player, had pulled a boner—one that put the home team down by two runs, 4–2—with only two innings left to play.
Joltin’ Joe was so ashamed that he figured there was only one way to atone for his mistake. In the bottom of the ninth inning, after the Yankees had tied the score, he drove in the winning run with a two-out single.
PEE WEE REESE
Shortstop · Brooklyn, NL · July 12, 1947
Pee Wee Reese found to his everlasting chagrin that courtesy has no business on the baseball diamond.
In the bottom of the third inning in a 6–5 victory over the Chicago Cubs, the Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop walked. He was taking a lead off first base when batter Carl Furillo swung mightily and missed. The bat slipped out of Furillo’s hands and sailed toward first base.
Being the nice guy that he was, Reese carelessly ambled off the bag to retrieve the bat. Unfortunately, he had failed to call time. As the Little Colonel stooped down to pick up the bat, Cubs catcher Clyde McCullough fired the ball to first baseman Eddie Waitkus, who slapped the tag on Reese for the out.
Reese should have known better. After all, he played for four years under manager Leo Durocher, who famously said, “Nice guys finish last.”
LOU WHITAKER
Second Baseman · Detroit, AL · July 16, 1985
Fans selected Detroit Tigers second baseman Lou Whitaker to start in the 1985 All-Star Game because of his glove and stick. He certainly wasn’t chosen for his memory.
Whitaker arrived in Minneapolis ready to play, but with nothing to wear. That’s because the American League All-Star forgot to bring his uniform and gear. He left everything in the back seat of his Mercedes at home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
An emergency effort to get a uniform flown in from Detroit failed when the replacement was lost in transit. So Whitaker was forced to dress up like a Little Leaguer. He bought a Tigers jersey and cap from a Metrodome concession stand for $15 and had a number 1 written in blue felt-tip pen on the back. He borrowed a pair of pants, and the Twins loaned him a pair of the team’s blue socks.
Fortunately, Mizuno, the company that paid Whitaker $5,000 a year to wear its baseball cleats, was on hand to present him with a pair of white spikes for the occasion. He then borrowed a glove from Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken. But Whitaker had to tape over the brand name because a rival company paid him $9,000 a year to play with its glove. Wearing something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue didn’t help Whitaker. He went 0-for-2 in a 6–1 loss.
There was one item that no player was willing to share. Before the game, Whitaker lamented, “I don’t even have a protective cup.”
BABE HERMAN
Right Fielder · Cincinnati, NL · April 27, 1932
After beating the visiting St. Louis Cardinals 6–4, Babe Herman’s Cincinnati Reds teammates headed home, leaving the day’s triumphs and trials behind them
at the ballpark. But not Herman. He left behind his little boy.
Herman didn’t mean to do it. He just plum forgot his 7-year-old son Bobby.
About six weeks after Herman had been traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers to the Reds, the outfielder was caring for Bobby in Cincinnati while his wife remained in Brooklyn to tend to their ill 2-year-old son, Danny.
Herman with his forgotten son, Bobby National Baseball Hall of Fame Library
For the game against the Cardinals, Herman took his son to Crosley Field, got him a box seat and some food, and told the boy to wait for him by the back of the grandstands after the contest.
With his son cheering him on, Herman had a great game. He whacked two singles and a double, drove in a run, scored a run, and stole a base. Afterward, he showered, shaved, and dressed while mentally replaying his hits. Still on cloud nine, Herman hitched a ride home with Reds manager Dan Howley.
Meanwhile, Bobby dutifully did what he was told and stood outside the ballpark, waiting for his no-show father.
When Herman was almost home, Howley turned to him and said, “Geez, we left the kid!” Upon phoning the ballpark, Herman was relieved to learn that the team secretary had found Bobby and was bringing him home.
Recalled Herman with a chuckle, “I guess I had too much on my mind that day.”
RICKY PETERS
Pinch Runner · Oakland, AL · June 25, 1986
Ricky Peters deserved an F in remedial arithmetic when he incorrectly added up the number of runners on base. Because two plus one doesn’t equal four, his figures totaled up to a mortifying loss.
In a game against the Kansas City Royals, the visiting Oakland Athletics, who were tied for last place in the AL West, entered the top of the ninth inning tied 4–4. After Jerry Willard opened the frame with a single, Peters went in as a pinch runner and was sacrificed to second. Following a strikeout by Mike Davis for the second out, Carney Lansford was walked intentionally. With Jose Canseco at the plate, Royals hurler Steve Farr threw a wild pitch, and both runners advanced. Peters was now only 90 feet away with the potential winning run.
Farr then walked Canseco, triggering a mental blunder that seemed impossible in the Major Leagues. The Canseco walk should have loaded the bases. But, incredibly, Peters thought that the bases were already loaded and began to trot happily toward home plate. Third base coach Bob Didier was incredulous and shouted, “Back! Back! Back!”
When Peters realized his mistake, he wheeled around and sprinted back toward third, but it was too late. He was tagged out. The rally was killed and the inning was over. In the bottom of the ninth, the Royals won 5–4 with the help of an A’s fielding error.
After the game, Farr, who was the winning pitcher, told reporters, “Gee, that’s the first time I’ve ever gotten out of an inning on a walk.”
A’s manager Jackie Moore was so livid he could hardly talk. “Ricky thought the bases were loaded,” Moore told reporters. “How could he? He had just run to third on a wild pitch. This is the big leagues—and this is embarrassing. The bottom line is we looked like a bunch of idiots. Every night something bad happens. I don’t know what the answer is.”
Apparently the front office did. Moore was fired as manager the next day. Presumably, he should have known better than to count on a pinch runner who couldn’t count.
BOB SKINNER
Left Fielder
BILL VIRDON
Center Fielder
Pittsburgh, NL · June 17, 1959
Pittsburgh Pirates outfielders Bob Skinner and Bill Virdon helped lose a game when they both simply forgot what inning it was.
Because these two normally dependable players suffered a bad case of befuddlement, Chicago Cubs batter Cal Neeman huffed and puffed his way to a wacky game-winning “inside-the-beer-cup” home run.
It was the bottom of the eighth inning at Wrigley Field. With the score tied 2–2, the Cubs had runners Ernie Banks on second and Bobby Thomson on first and two out. Up to the plate stepped Neeman, Chicago’s 200-pound catcher, known for neither his speed nor for his power.
Neeman drilled a sinking liner to left-center field, where Skinner tried for a shoestring catch but failed to snare the ball. As Banks scooted around third and headed for home, Skinner resignedly began jogging toward the Pittsburgh dugout. He mistakenly thought it was the ninth inning and that the game was over when Banks scored.
That an otherwise heads-up veteran like Skinner could make such a blunder was hard to imagine. Even more unimaginable was that his usually alert teammate, center fielder Bill Virdon, was just as unmindful. Instead of chasing after the ball, which was now bouncing toward the ivy-covered wall, Virdon began trotting in alongside Skinner.
Meanwhile, Thomson and Neeman were scampering around the bases. Pittsburgh shortstop Dick Groat was the only Pirate involved in the play who knew the game wasn’t over. As he dashed into left field, he screamed at his two oblivious outfielders, “Get the ball! Get the damn ball!”
On the basepaths, Neeman couldn’t understand why he was still running. When he last looked, he had hit what he thought was just an RBI single. “When I got to second base, I was amazed to see the third base coach waving me on,” Neeman recalled. “And when I got near third, he was waving me on home. I had to look around to see if he was waving at somebody else. Nobody ever waved me home before.”
Skinner and Virdon, now fully aware of what was happening, had turned and chased after the ball. But it was Groat who finally tracked it down. Given Neeman’s speed—or rather lack thereof—the Pirates still had a chance to throw him out at the plate. But then fate decided to play a cruel joke on the three fielders.
“The bleacher fans had thrown all their beer cups and trash down onto the warning track,” Skinner recalled. “When we got there, we couldn’t find the ball. We finally found it—stuck in a cup! So Dick picked it up and threw it with the ball still inside. But it was too late. Neeman made it all the way around, even though he was the slowest runner in the league.”
Because of Skinner and Virdon’s snooze play, Neeman’s single turned into a three-run inside-the-park home run to win the game 5–2.
MANNY RAMIREZ
Left Fielder · Los Angeles, NL · August 11, 2008
At the start of the ninth inning of his 10th game with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Manny Ramirez was supposed to be in left field. Instead he left the field.
Manny being Manny, he was missing in action because he went to the bathroom in the clubhouse without telling anyone. The game was held up for several minutes until he was found and ordered to return to his position.
The Dodgers were well aware of the hijinks they could expect from Ramirez when they acquired the 12-time All-Star from the Boston Red Sox at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. But the Dodgers were willing to put up with his antics because he was an awesome hitter.
It looked like the team had made a great acquisition; in his first 10 games, the dreadlocked slugger batted .475 (19-for-40) with four home runs and 13 RBIs.
It took less than two weeks, however, before Ramirez had one of his many Manny Moments.
In the bottom of the eighth inning of an 8–6 Dodgers win over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, Ramirez got his second hit of the night, a single that set up an insurance run. Later in the inning, Ramirez was forced out at the plate, so he jogged into the dugout. And that’s when the fun began.
“I was sitting there when Manny was forced at the plate, and then I realized that I didn’t shake Manny’s hand for getting the hit,” manager Joe Torre told reporters after the game. “So he went by me and I put my fist out. He was probably 8 feet away, and he put his fist out and was starting to come back. I said, ‘No, don’t worry about it.’”
Manny being Manny, Ramirez took it to mean that he was done for the night. And because he needed to pee anyway, he heade
d up the tunnel to the clubhouse.
So when the ninth inning started, the Dodgers had only eight players on the diamond. Left field was empty and Ramirez was AWOL.
“I didn’t know anything about it until [pinch hitter] Juan Pierre said, ‘He took all his bats and went on in,’” Torre recalled. “So I said, ‘Well, we’d better get him out here.’” Which they did.
While the umpires held up play, Ramirez finally reappeared and, with his dreadlocks flying, he hustled out to his position. Sporting a sheepish grin, he finished buttoning up his uniform.
After the game, he explained his absence to reporters. “I went to the bathroom in the bottom of the eighth. All the guys said, ‘Hey, we play nine here.’”
Observed teammate Jeff Kent, “When he came out, his jersey was half undone. So if he was going to the bathroom, he takes his jersey off to do it?”
Manny being Manny, this was not the first, second, or third time he had spontaneously left his post during a game. He made several unscheduled trips inside the Green Monster at Fenway Park when he played left field for the Red Sox.
During a break in the action in a home game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on July 18, 2005, Ramirez thought a reliever was coming in because pitching coach Dave Wallace had gone to the mound to talk to starter Wade Miller. Relief was definitely on Ramirez’s mind because he had to pee badly. So he used this opportunity to sneak into the Green Monster to take a leak. No one would have been the wiser except that there was no pitching change. The game was held up until he emptied his bladder and returned to the field. Afterward, when reminded that the scoreboard has no bathroom, Ramirez claimed that he peed in a cup.
In his final weeks with the Red Sox, Ramirez had several more Manny Moments. During a sixth-inning pitching change in a game against the Minnesota Twins on July 9, 2008, Ramirez stepped inside the scoreboard and could be seen through an opening between the balls and strikes counter talking on a cell phone (see photo).