Did you know ... Cup of Coffee Players

[Déjà Bru]

I keep an eye on Wikipedia's "Did you know ..." feature (yes, I would love to get a new life) and my eye was caught today by the story of Hy Cohen. Wikipedia will not be complete until every human being who has ever lived has a Wikipedia article written about him or her.



Hy Cohen "made his MLB debut on April 17, 1955, relieving Harry Perkowski and giving up seven earned runs and striking out two over 7 innings in a 14–1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals ... He played [six] more games for the Cubs. During his only career start in the first game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 1, he surrendered five earned runs across three innings pitched. Cohen played his final major league game on June 2, 1955, at the age of 24."

Hy and bye, Cohen. His final major league ERA was 7.94. He was sent down to the minors where he lingered for three seasons before retiring. He became a high school social studies and phys ed teacher, coaching football, tennis, and baseball teams. No tears for his short pro baseball career, hopefully.

I was going to start a thread about "Cup of Coffee" players, seeing if people had any interesting stories about them, until I looked up the definition of the term on Baseball-Reference. According to them, "A player with a 'cup of coffee' is one who has played only one game in the majors as either a pitcher or a batter."

A much narrower definition than what I had in mind. One game. A short list, no?

Wrong. According to Baseball-Reference, as of today (the list is presumably changing constantly), there are over 500 pitchers and 1,000 batters on the list of "Cup of Coffee" players! Some with 0 plate appearances or innings pitched but all with exactly "1" under the "G" column.

Alas, not much material for a thread, then. Way too much available input! Still, I thought I would share this information.

Eh, I'll find something else to amuse me.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Some with 0 plate appearances or innings pitched but all with exactly "1" under the "G" column.

Actually, I was wrong about this. It's universally "1" for the list of pitchers, but for batters there are 75 or so with "0" under "G" (games) column. Head scratcher. How?

[Déjà Bru]

Hmmm. Here is Mike Belfiore, highlighted on the list above. Appeared in one game, clearly indicated. Zero on the list.

Which makes me look like this at Baseball-Reference:

Which may also may you look like this at this thread:

[Déjà Bru]

It's a matter of semantics, I guess. He appears properly on the pitchers list:



but in that one game, he never appeared at the plate. Still "G" means game appearance, so even on the batters list, he should be given a "1" even though he never had a "PA."

Yes, I could definitely use a new life. ()

[Westheim]

OOTP does it correctly

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

OOTP does it correctly

Yay! Maybe B-R should subcontract OOTPD.

[Sizeman21]

SABR is an amazing tool for learning about the history of players, teams, ownership and fellows populating the game over the last 150 years.

I love Cup of Coffee players in baseball, well any sport I suppose. SABR has a biography section where authors and researchers create a vivid story of a players past. I love reading about players in the "Cup of Coffee" section they have https://sabr.org/bioproj/category/de...ic/one-gamers/

[Boomcoach]

there was an article in Wikipedia the other day, may have even been the article of the day, of a 1 game player who was only listed by the name "Lewis", who played in one game in 1890.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_(baseball)

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Boomcoach

there was an article in Wikipedia the other day, may have even been the article of the day, of a 1 game player who was only listed by the name "Lewis", who played in one game in 1890.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_(baseball)

That was even the Article of the Day!

[Boomcoach]

For myself, articles like that are part of what I love about Wikipedia. I enjoy reading things that I wouldn't have known to look for.

It makes me think about Marco's (Sinatra) line from Manchurian Candidate, about the books stacked on the floor:

Col. Milt : [gesturing towards a pile of books] You read them all?

Marco : Yeah, they also make great insulation against an enemy attack! But the, uh, truth of the matter is that I'm just interested, you know, in, uh, Principles of Modern Banking and, History of Piracy.

[picking up books]

Marco : Paintings of Orozco. Modern French Theater. The... Jurisprudential Factor of Mafia Administration. Diseases of Horses and novels of Joyce Cary and... Ethnic Choices of the Arabs. Things like that.

[Tiger Fan]

I love learning about those cup of coffee guys in any sport. When I was in college I toyed with the idea of trying to write a book about hockey players that fit that category. Had a title I liked but never got far with it. As a take off on the Where are they now line of writing you get in bios or retired players it was to be called :

WHERE WERE THEY THEN?
A history of cup of coffee NHLers

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Sizeman21

SABR is an amazing tool for learning about the history of players, teams, ownership and fellows populating the game over the last 150 years.

I love Cup of Coffee players in baseball, well any sport I suppose. SABR has a biography section where authors and researchers create a vivid story of a players past. I love reading about players in the "Cup of Coffee" section they have https://sabr.org/bioproj/category/de...ic/one-gamers/

That's a great link. Not hundreds of players, but every one in there with an interesting story, I bet. For example, based on this random click: Frank Wurm.

As of 2016, three major-league pitchers had triple-digit lifetime ERAs. One was Frank “Socko” Wurm, a 20-year-old veteran of World War II who allowed four runs to score in one-third of an inning with the Brooklyn Dodgers in September 1944. After his rocky debut, the lefty never got a chance to lower his 108.00 mark. The same twin demons, arm and control problems, plagued him and another Brooklyn mound prospect of that time, Claude Crocker. A third lurked as well, fueling his wildness: combat fatigue. Wurm had to be alive to appear in the record books – only the grim luck of the battlefield spared him to wear a big-league uniform – but his nervous disorder flared up on the mound. The repercussions proved to be lifelong.

EDIT: Heh, at one point, the Dodgers paid for bringing up from the minors a player named Herring by sending Wurm to the St. Paul Saints. Headline: "Branch Rickey lands Herring with a Wurm."

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Actually, I was wrong about this. It's universally "1" for the list of pitchers, but for batters there are 75 or so with "0" under "G" (games) column. Head scratcher. How?

I’m like 90% sure these are all pitchers post-DH, who appeared in a game but not the lineup and so have 0 games as an offensive player.

[ukhotstove]

Detroit Tigers 1912.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

That's a great link. Not hundreds of players, but every one in there with an interesting story, I bet. For example, based on this random click: Frank Wurm.

EDIT: Heh, at one point, the Dodgers paid for bringing up from the minors a player named Herring by sending Wurm to the St. Paul Saints. Headline: "Branch Rickey lands Herring with a Wurm."

Bill Veeck once said he wanted to trade for Norm Cash and insist the other team add $1 so he could say he "traded for Cash plus Cash."

[GeoWar]

Here are a couple -
Bert Robert Shepard was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who pitched in one game for the Washington Senators in 1945 after having had his right leg amputated after his fighter plane was shot down in Germany during World War II while he was serving as a pilot in the Army Air Forces

And this one had a movie done about him --pitcher Monty Stratton loses his leg when his hunting rifle misfires during a wilderness outing. Pitched five years for the Chicago White Sox, winning 36 games and losing 23. But his career was shortened when he lost his right leg in a hunting accident in 1938. His comeback attempt was the subject of the 1949 movie, ''The Stratton Story,''

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

Detroit Tigers 1912.

Referring to this, I believe:

On May 18, 1912, the Tigers players went on strike to protest the suspension of star center fielder Ty Cobb, who had gone into the stands on May 15 to attack a disabled fan who had been abusing him. Rather than forfeit the next game, the Tigers sent out a team of replacement players, mostly local college and sandlot players but also including Tigers coaches Joe Sugden and 48-year-old Deacon McGuire. Manager Hughie Jennings also entered the game as a pinch hitter. Starting pitcher Allan Travers gave up 24 runs on 26 hits in a complete game loss, both American League records.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by GeoWar

Bert Robert Shepard was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who pitched in one game for the Washington Senators in 1945 after having had his right leg amputated after his fighter plane was shot down in Germany during World War II while he was serving as a pilot in the Army Air Forces

I'm surprised that he only got the one shot at it, considering his performance that day. Note another Cup of Coffee guy involved:

On August 4, 1945 Shepard got the call to enter in the fourth inning of a home game in which the Senators were well behind the Boston Red Sox. It was game two of Washington's fourth consecutive doubleheader, with a fifth scheduled the next day as well. Shepard made headlines not only for being in the game itself, but also for his 5⅓ innings of impressive relief, allowing only three hits and one run. He struck out the first batter he faced. The final score was Red Sox 15, Senators 4.

The game of August 4, 1945 was notable for two other events as well. Shepard came in to relieve teammate Joe Cleary, whose surrender of seven runs on five hits and three walks in one-third of an inning in his only big-league appearance earned him the highest lifetime ERA — 189.00 — of any pitcher in Major League Baseball history to have recorded at least one out. Also, outfielder Tom McBride tied a major league record with 6 runs batted in in the fourth inning, which was pitched by Cleary.

In between games of a doubleheader on August 31, Shepard received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal for his service in World War II.

[Eric]

When I saw this thread, I immediately thought of Moonlight Graham.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...rahamo01.shtml

While he didn't get a chance to for an at-bat, he did save a kids life.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Eric

When I saw this thread, I immediately thought of Moonlight Graham.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...rahamo01.shtml

While he didn't get a chance to for an at-bat, he did save a kids life.

Well, the part about saving the kid is fictional, obviously, as are some other aspects created in the book or the movie. But what is real is this:

In only one game, in only one inning, he was a major league ballplayer. A defensive substitution in the end of the eighth inning, he was on deck when the guy ahead of him made the third out in the top of the ninth. Then he played right field in the bottom of the ninth — stood, really, because no balls were hit to him — and that was it.

One game, one inning, a major league ballplayer. I find myself pondering what I would trade in my life for merely that opportunity.

I wouldn't trade my wife (we are getting along right now); I wouldn't trade my kids; I wouldn't trade my dog when she was alive; I wouldn't trade my home.

But there is a bunch of other stuff that I have accumulated in all these decades that I would gladly give just to have Graham's experience of putting on a baseball uniform, pounding my glove, crouching into a fielder's stance, and peering in at home plate in a major league stadium.

Just once.