Only career stolen base coming in first game
Posted by Andy on June 4, 2011
Here are the 21 players since 1919 to have a stolen base in their first career game and to never steal another base in their careers:
| Rk | Player | From | To | G | PA | CS | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greg Golson | 2008 | 2010 | 31 | 30 | 2 | /*987 |
| 2 | Dennys Reyes | 1997 | 2010 | 670 | 60 | 0 | *1 |
| 3 | Matt Macri | 2008 | 2008 | 18 | 36 | 1 | /*543D |
| 4 | Jaime Bubela | 2005 | 2005 | 11 | 20 | 0 | /*8D7 |
| 5 | Michael Coleman | 1997 | 2001 | 22 | 70 | 1 | /*8D97 |
| 6 | Terry Bradshaw | 1995 | 1996 | 34 | 71 | 3 | /789 |
| 7 | Wayne Housie | 1991 | 1993 | 29 | 27 | 0 | /8D9 |
| 8 | Trench Davis | 1985 | 1987 | 23 | 34 | 0 | /8 |
| 9 | Gene Verble | 1951 | 1953 | 81 | 219 | 1 | /645 |
| 10 | Ernie White | 1940 | 1948 | 121 | 181 | 0 | *1 |
| 11 | Hersh Lyons | 1941 | 1941 | 1 | 1 | 0 | /*1 |
| 12 | Red Tramback | 1940 | 1940 | 2 | 5 | 0 | /*9 |
| 13 | Hugh Alexander | 1937 | 1937 | 7 | 11 | 0 | /97 |
| 14 | Johnny Berger | 1922 | 1927 | 11 | 18 | 0 | /*2 |
| 15 | Ed Cotter | 1926 | 1926 | 17 | 27 | 0 | /56 |
| 16 | Camp Skinner | 1922 | 1923 | 34 | 47 | 0 | /87 |
| 17 | Jake Miller | 1922 | 1922 | 3 | 13 | 0 | /*9 |
| 18 | Paul Johnson | 1920 | 1921 | 69 | 216 | 3 | /879 |
| 19 | Roy Grimes | 1920 | 1920 | 26 | 60 | 1 | /*4 |
| 20 | Bill Hollahan | 1920 | 1920 | 3 | 6 | 0 | /*54 |
| 21 | Earl Pruess | 1920 | 1920 | 1 | 1 | 0 | /*9 |
Greg Golson will probably get off this list one day. He's injured right now but will probably play in the majors again at some point. Notice that there are a few pitchers on here--that's not terribly surprising. Pitchers don't get stolen bases too often, so a guy getting one in his first game has a better chance than a position player for that to be his only one.
June 4th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
More weirdness for Dennys: He stole third (he was the lead runner) and scored on an error by the shortstop. I looked up the PBP in case it was a case of an AL pitcher whose first game offensively was not his first game as a pitcher (which was not the case for Reyes, who was with the Dodgers at the time).
At one point in 2007, the Twins had a Dennys and a Perkins on their pitching staff, and a McDonald in their outfield.
June 4th, 2011 at 11:59 pm
How do you generate that report? Is it using the regular play index, cause I have no idea how you would do it.
June 5th, 2011 at 12:34 am
@1: the Reds once had an outfield of Young, Frank and Stein.
June 5th, 2011 at 1:52 am
@2 Its a 2 step search:
Step 1:
Use the batting game finder
Set SB>=1
On the bottom right fill in 1 for the player's first ____ career game
Search by Clicking Get Report
Save your report by clicking Share, Link Url and then save report.
Step 2:
Using the batting season finder
Select : "Find Totals for Combined Seasons or Careers"
Set sb=1
On the bottom of the page where it says "Only find players in the saved report (may need to reload):", select the search that you saved in step 1
Search by Clicking Get Report
June 5th, 2011 at 2:07 am
Where was I when Terry Bradshaw played in the major leagues? Bradshaw debuted with 3 straight hits as a substitute in 3 straight games -- and got sent back to the minors. It would be the only 3-game hitting streak of his career.
Red Tramback was a pitcher/OF who went 21-8 and batted.321 in the class-C Western Association in 1939, the year before he debuted with the Giants. He only played 2 games in the majors.
Roy Grimes was the twin brother of Ray Grimes, who had a 133 OPS+ in 6 seasons, including a fantastic 1922 season -- all over the NL leaderboard, 2nd batting, OBP, SLG. (What is that, the Triple Tiara to Hornsby's Triple Crown?) I'd like to know the story behind why Ray Grimes left the Cubs in 1924, playing in the PCL instead the rest of that year and all of the next.
June 5th, 2011 at 3:24 am
is that terry bradshaw the quarterback?
June 5th, 2011 at 4:12 am
I think Juan Pierre has better stats than Maury Wills.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:47 am
Ha! I recall Terry Bradshaw (the outfielder) quite well. Never would have guessed he had just one career swipe though, and it always amazes me that he had such a short Major League career, because it seems like he was around longer. I also always get him confused with fellow '95 teammate Allen Battle, but that's neither here nor there. I have an odd soft spot for those pre-LaRussa mid-90's Cardinals teams....
June 5th, 2011 at 8:52 am
@John
That's why Bradshaw switched to that minor sport...it aged him very quickly, in fact he's now 20 years older than he should be
June 5th, 2011 at 9:29 am
@4
Thanks, Raphy, for the Play Index 101 tutorial. I try to duplicate blogger's searches here sometimes and come up empty, scratching my head.
The order of the two searches, which play index finder to use and how to set the filters is clearly critical. I haven't quite mastered it yet.
With your instructions, I was able to duplicate Andy's list exactly. (Not that I doubted it, but just wanted the satisfaction of doing it for myself.)
June 5th, 2011 at 10:00 am
Neil - Its my pleasure. If you ever want to know, just ask.
I used to include PI instructions with my posts, but wasn't sure if people wanted them.
June 5th, 2011 at 10:28 am
@11, Raphy -- I think it would be great to include P-I "how-to's" on the more subtle searches.
June 5th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Camp Skinner ... wasn't Bart Simpson sentenced to summer school there?
Actually, Camp Skinner was one of 3 low-end players who went to Boston (along with a satchel of cash) in exchange for Herb Pennock before the '23 season.
Every time I see one of those 1920s BoSox-to-Yanks fire-sale deals, I think of Terry Malloy's soliloquy to his brother: "So what happens? He gets the title shot outdoors in the ballpark, and what do I get? A one-way ticket to Palooka-ville!"
Pennock sure took advantage of those title shots: 5-0 in the WS, winning all 5 starts, plus 3 saves, 1.95 ERA and 0.85 WHIP in 10 games.
June 5th, 2011 at 12:29 pm
@12
Raphy, I agree with JA about instructions with the more advanced tweaking of the PI two-tier searches. There is a blend of users (hopefully subscribers) in here between high database-skill and low.
I'm more toward the low-end and feel embarrassed to ask a dumb question. I'm intimidated by the (anticipated) sarcasm of the high-end users (definitely not people like you or JA!).
Let the subscriber/sponsor base of BRef grow!
June 5th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
I spent too many nights at Beehive Field in New Britain CT in high school watching the great Wayne Housie. My second favorite player from that era after Bob Zupcic.
June 5th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
The Eastern League was awesome back in those days. Housie hit 6 home runs and was second on the team. Greg Blosser could do nothing but hit home runs. He had 8. The entire team had 41 all season. I guess it makes sense as a team they had a .316 OBP and only slugged .311.
It's not easy to ground into 129 double plays in 140 games with a .316 OBP.
June 6th, 2011 at 12:11 am
I didn't know you could do searches like that 🙂 It's an excellent thing.
June 6th, 2011 at 9:47 am
@5, You took the words right out of my mouth.
How does a guy named Terry Bradshaw play in the majors and I didn't hear about it? (rhetorical)