Obscure sports trivia

As opposed to two perfect games that were the same?

 

Reggie Jackson?

 

Correct!

 

I remembered the Mike Witt perfect game and knew he was with the Angels then. I had thought Vida Blue (RIP) had pitched a perfect game. Then I looked it up after my guess and it was Catfish Hunter who threw it.

 

Who's got the lowest career on-base percentage of any hitter with 3,000 hits or more?

 

I'm going to take a WAG and say Cal Ripken Jr. He didn't have a very high average compared to most 3,000-hit guys and I'm not sure he walked enough to offset that.

 

I’d guess Adrian Beltre for basically the same reasons.

 

I was going to guess Cap Anson because of the quirky walk rules pre-1900 but it was all there in black and white.

 

You, sir, are correct. Beltre had a .339 career on-base percentage, just a tick higher than Ripken at .340 and Robin Yount at .342.

I initially went down this rabbit hole thinking Lou Brock at .343 had the lowest.

 

The rule that always kills me is the one year when walks counted as hits. Among a lot of things, what the heck were they thinking about?

 

I mean, a walk is essentially as good as a hit, no? Gets ya to the same place.

The evolution of baseball is fascinating. Re-reading "Where They Aint" about the turn of the century Orioles and how the game changed drastically when they moved the mound back and made guys pitch from the rubber. I mean, hitters even used to be able to request of the pitcher that a pitch was low or high. That's insane, but it definitely helped the offense.

 

Nah, because hits can also be doubles, triples and homers.

Also interesting back then was that pitchers had to throw underhand, a batted ball was fair if it just bounced once in fair territory before going foul and fielders could drill the runners with the ball for an out. They really did have some weird rules back then.