10 ELITE MLB Players SNUBBED From HALL OF FAME - Including NEW SNUB CARLOS BELTRAN!! SNUBBED Part 3

Welcome to another edition of MLB Hall of Fame SNUBS and today, we’ll be ranking #30-#21 along with some updates to the previous 2 videos which will be linked at the end of this one so you can check out my TOP 20 SNUBS of all time. Before getting into the main list, there have been some fortunate updates to my Top 10 list.

In the recent 2023 Hall of Fame election, my #6 snub of all time was finally elected to the Hall of Fame and it’s the great Scott Rolen, who was an elite player on both sides of the ball. Rolen was a Rookie of the Year winner who ended his career with 8 Gold Glove Awards. Based on defense alone, he would be a Hall of Fame candidate, but when you take into account his amazing bat and the fact that he averaged 28 home runs a year for 8 straight seasons and drove in over 100 runs 5 times, it’s a shoe-in for me. Scott Rolen absolutely deserves enshrinement in Cooperstown and I’m very happy to remove him from my snubs list as he gets the plaque that he deserves.

The second update of course is the man who was my #1 snub of all time, the Crime Dog, Fred McGriff, who was elected by the Contemporary Era Committee after somehow being snubbed on the ballot for 15 years. In my opinion, the fact that this happened will be a black eye for the writer’s association for as long as they continue to be the sole voters on the traditional Hall of the Fame ballot. Fred McGriff, of course, came within 7 home runs of 500 and had he hit those measly 7 more homers, he would have probably been in a long time ago. McGriff was an elite hitter and excellent defender for over a decade averaging 30 home runs a year for an astonishing 16 years. Congratulations to both Fred McGriff and Scott Rolen for being elected into the Hall of Fame, better late than never.

New Snubs: Carlos Beltran, Ross Barnes

To replace McGriff and Rolen in the Top 10, I’m going to start with a brand new snub and that snub is Carlos Beltran, who made the Hall of Fame ballot this year and received only 46.5% of the vote. Beltran was similar to Scott Rolen in that he was a Rookie of the Year winner who was an elite defender and hitter, but Beltran had an even longer career, accumulating 435 home runs and 2,725 hits. He was a 9-time All Star, 3-time Gold Glover, 2-time Silver Slugger and drove in over 100 runs 8 times. It is certainly worth pointing out that Beltran lost many votes due to his involvement in the 2017 Houston Astros cheating scandal. He was a 40-year old player at the time in the last year of his career, so whatever cheating took place certainly didn’t change the fact that he had a Hall of Fame career. Will the voters seriously keep him out? He not only had a Hall of Fame career but also won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2013 for his humanitarian work off the field. He apologized for his involvement and took responsibility. Meanwhile, 2017 Astros manager A.J. Hinch and bench coach Alex Cora are continuing their managerial careers elsewhere without issue. Also, as a final point, sign-stealing has been part of the game forever and even though the Astros clearly took it too far, Beltran was far from the only one involved and to keep him out of the Hall of Fame for this one blemish on his otherwise stellar resume, in my opinion, is ridiculous. Carlos Beltran is my newest Top 10 Hall of Fame snub of all time, along with a player from the 19th century named Ross Barnes, who not only hit the first home run in MLB history but absolutely dominated the game during the early years of professional baseball.

For more info on Barnes, check out my video on him above. So, now that my Top 10 remains complete, let’s move on to 10 more snubs, #30 through 21. Keep in mind these snubs are understandably mostly borderline cases, but in my opinion all 10 should eventually be enshrined and I’ll explain why.. here we go...

#30 David Cone

Although most baseball fans remember David Cone as being an excellent pitcher, his name may not jump out as an obvious Hall of Famer. When digging a bit deeper though, I believe he has an excellent case. He had a 17-year that included five All-Star appearances, five World Series rings and even a Cy Young Award in 1992. Cone is 27th All-Time in career strikeouts with 2,668. His career WAR of 26.3 beats out many Hall of Fame starters including Don Drysdale and Whitey Ford. When examining his placement on the JAWS ranking, which evaluates Hall of Fame worthiness, Cone finds himself dropped in the middle of a massive list of Hall of Famers. Notice how Cone is mixed in with names like Juan Marichal and Bob Feller among others. He only had 194 career wins, but when considering everything else, does that warrant him falling off the ballot during his first year of eligibility? Cone also finished in the Top 6 for the Cy Young 5 times and his best year was a year he didn’t even win it, 1988, when he went 20-3 with a 2.22 ERA. Without the Cy Young, he is definitely a boderline case, but when you add that into the mix, it puts it over the top for me – David Cone should have a plaque.

#29 Jack Glasscock

He was the best shorstop of an entire century – ableit the 19th century. Called “The King of Shortstops,” deadball superstar Jack Glasscock had a 17-year career in which he collected over 2,000 hits. At that time, 2,000 career hits was no small feat as he was only the 6th player of all time to do it. However, his strongest asset was his defense. Glasscock led the National League in fielding percentage seven times and assists 6 times. When he retired in 1895, he had the Major League record for games played, putouts, assists, double plays and fielding percentage. Had the Hall of Fame existed at the time, he was have been a first ballot no brainer Hall of Famer. Unfortunately, by the time the Hall of Fame did exist, he was overshadowed by the greats of the 20th century and only received 2.6% of the vote in his one and only year on the ballot in 1936. Since then, he has only been forgotten even more, due largely to the fact that most of the teams he played for no longer exist – such as the Indianapolis Hoosiers and Louisville Colonels. He did, however, play two years for the New York Giants, including the outstanding 1890 season in which he led the league in hits and won the batting title with a .336 average. Despite the fact that his overall numbers may not be Hall of Fame worth by today’s standards, because he stood out above his peers as one of the best in the game for well over a decade, even if it was in the 19th century, Jack Glasscock deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

#28 Luis Tiant

Coming up next is Luis Tiant, a pitcher who was on the ballot for 15 years and was never elected. He was also snubbed on 3 ballots for the Veteran’s Committee. Today he is 82 years old and still with us, so I’m hopeful he will be able to enjoy the moment when he is elected. And why should he be elected? How about a 19 year career in which he won at least 20 games 4 times, finished in the Top 6 for the Cy Young 3 times and had 2 ERA titles. He had 2,416 strikeouts, more than Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal and Jim Palmer. In the postseason, Tiant went 3-0 with 2.86 ERA in 4 starts. He had all these accomplishments despite playing a large portion of his career at hitter friendly Fenway Park. He also pitched for the offensively light Cleveland Indians for the first 6 years of his career, and the lack of run support killed his record. For example, he went 12-11 in 1966 despite a 2.79 ERA. Five of his 12 wins that year were via the shutout. In 1968, he went 21-6 with an ERA of 1.6 Unfortunately, he only made 3 All Star Teams, but was certainly snubbed there. In 1973, for instance, he won 20 games – and had 12 at the All Star Break but did not make the All Star Team. All told, he won 229 games with a 3.3 ERA and an incredibly impressive 187 complete games. He is also one of two pitchers with two streaks of 40+ scoreless innings. The other is the great Walter Johnson.

#27 Tommy John

How could a player who had a Hall of Fame career who also has one of the most famous names in baseball history be left on the outside looking in? Even if we ignore the massive impact Tommy John had on the game by becoming the first player to make a successful comeback to the game after successful ligament replacement surgery, his career itself warrants induction. John pitched for an incredibly impressive 26 years. Aside from his incredible longevity, he won 288 career games – 12 shy of 300 – and won at least 20 games in 3 separate seasons. Although he never won a Cy Young Award, he certainly could have as he finished in the Top 10 four times, which includes two times when he was the runner-up. The only reason I have Tommy John ranked this low on my overall list of snubs is because he was only great for about a 4-year window and for most of his career was just good or average. Still, I consider longevity an important factor and considering he pitched for 26 years, his 3.34 ERA is impressive. When you combine his career numbers with the fact that he made an extraordinary comeback through a groundbreaking surgery that bears his name and continues to help hundreds of pitchers continue their careers despite experiencing what used to be career-ending injuries, it’s a shame that Tommy John isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise – the player with the most hits is not in, the player with the most home runs is not in and the player with the most famous name of all – also not in.

#26 Orel Hershiser

Up next is a player whose shelves are filled with so many awards, if you visited his home, you would just assume he’s a Hall of Famer. His name is Orel Hershiser and just to run through those awards before getting into his stats, he has a Cy Young Award, Major League Player of the Year Award, Silver Slugger, ALCS MVP, NLCS MVP, World Series MVP, and a Gold Glove Award. Add all that to a World Series Ring and 3 All Star Appearances. He was one of if not the best pitcher in the game during the late 80’s. At one point in 1988, he threw a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. Although his career slowed down after the 80’s, he continued to be a dominant postseason pitcher and pitched well for both the Indians and Mets as well, retiring with a 2.59 ERA in 22 postseason games. Although his best regular season years were certainly with the Dodgers, especially the insane 1988 Cy Young season in which he went 23-8 with a 2.26 ERA, he was still good from 1995 to 1997 with Cleveland, when he went 45-21. His accomplishments and awards alone merit induction despite only winning 204 career games, which is partially due to poor run support. He did have a relatively high ERA as well at 3.48, but it has been proven you can get in with an ERA in 3’s – Jack Morris was recently inducted and he had a 3.9 career ERA. Bottom line, when you do what Hershiser did at his best then go on to win over 200 games while continuing to pitch well when it counts, you deserve a plaque in my opinion.

#25 Albert Belle

Next up is a player known more his insane temper and toxic relationship with the media than his talent on the field. This unfortunately may have kept him out of Cooperstown. After all, it’s the baseball writers who vote. Albert Belle got only 7% of the vote on his first ballot. The next year, he dropped to around 3% and fell off the ballot. He only played for 12 years but was an absolute machine during most of it, driving in over 100 runs 9 consecutive times. That includes the strike-shortened 1994 when he smashed 36 home runs in just 101 games. Belle finished in the Top 3 for MVP 3 times and in the Top 10 5 times, although he never won the award. He easily could have and should have in 1995 when he crushed a league leading 50 homers with 126 RBIs. He had a slugging percentage of .690 and an OPS over 1.000 and led his team to an easy division title. He also hit .317 that year but lost the MVP to Mo Vaughn, who hit an even .300 with 39 home runs. Belle was better in nearly every category but Vaughn took home the MVP. Belle did win the Player of the Year Award. In his career, he was a 5-time All Star and 5-time Silver Slugger as well and is the only player to ever hit 50 homers and 50 doubles in the same season. Unfortunately, he had to retire early due to a degenerative back condition, but he still managed 381 home runs, over 1200 RBIs and a .295 batting average. His career OPS of .933 is just 7 points below one Willie Mays and is better than Hank Aaron, Albert Pujols and Ken Griffey Jr. among many other greats of the game. To me, the only possible excuse to keep him out is his lack of longevity, but when you’re as good as he was, 12 years in more than enough.

#24 Carlos Delgado

Next up on the Hall of Fame snubs list is the great Carlos Delgado, who is slightly higher than Belle because he had a longer career at 17 years, allowing him to hit 473 homers – just 27 shy of 500. Aside from that, he also had a season where he could have easily taken home the MVP. It was 2003 and Delgado hit 42 homers with an incredible 145 RBIs while hitting .302 with an OPS over 1.000. Unfortunately, A-Rod, perhaps with a little assistance, outdid him in Texas and won the MVP. Since voters don’t consider juicers legit and won’t put them in the hall, I assume they must also credit Delgado then for being the true MVP that year. Aside from 2003, he was incredibly consistent, crushing at least 30 home runs 11 times, going over 40 3 times. Here’s one stat that might convince you Delgado is a Hall of Famer or at least deserved more than getting kicked off the ballot after one year. He drove in more runs than Mickey Mantle. When you combine that fact with the fact that he had nearly 500 homers, that’s all I need to know. Names on the list of similar players on baseball reference includ Willie McCovey, Jeff Bagwell and Willie Stargell. The voters did Delgado dirty when they failed to even give him 5% of the vote.

#23 Thurman Munson

Up next is a player whose career and life was cut short by a tragic plane crash. Had this never occurred, Munson would have likely waltzed into the Hall of Fame. Still, even with his shortened career, I think Munson deserves enshrinement. During his 11 year career, he made 7 All Star teams, won 3 Gold Gloves, and took home the Rookie of the Year Award as well as an MVP Award. That alone sounds close to a Hall of Famer. If it’s not enough, how about an absolutely phenomenal postseason career in which he hit .357 in 30 games, helping the Yankees win two World Series rings. He had 16 World Series starts and was unstoppable, hitting .373. Defensively, he was also dominant, throwing out 4 of 6 would-be base stealers during the ‘77 World Series. The only excuse to keep him out is his shortened career, in which he still hit .292 but only had 1,558 hits. Still, he did get the 10 year minimum in, has an MVP and was an absolute superstar during his time. When you add that to the postseason contributions, I believe he absolutely deserves a plaque and I’m shocked he was never voted in when you consider his tragic death as, for better or worse, I would assume he would have gotten some sympathy votes. Nevertheless, in my opinion, he’s a Hall of Famer with or without sympathy votes.

#22 Jim McCormick

It’s time to go way back in time again and talk about one of the early players of the game. Jim McCormick is another forgotten 19th century player who played pro ball from 1878 to 1887, just 10 years. However, during that time, his numbers were off the charts – even for early baseball stats. For example, he won 265 games in his career – nearly 300 – in just 10 years. In 1880, he led the league with an insane 45 wins, a number impossible to achieve today. He is 11th All Time with 466 Complete Games and is one of just 4 pitchers in baseball history with 4,000 innings pitched with an ERA under 2.50. The other 3 are all in the Hall of Fame – Christy Matthewson, Walter Johnson and Eddie Plank. In fact, when looking at his incredible numbers, it’s quite baffling he’s not in the Hall of Fame. The reason may be because he hasn’t been on the ballot in many decades and back when he was, he was held out for not reaching 300 wins, which most of his peers who made the Hall of Fame did. However, nowadays, 300 wins is rare and far from a requirement to get in. Jim McCormick is some one whose case needs to be re-evaluated and he needs to be put in the Hall of Fame and hopefully he has descendants he can be there to celebrate the induction.

#21 Dwight Evans

Coming in as my ultimate snub in today’s edition of snubs is an amazing player who spent 20 years in the league, dominating in both the field and at the plate. His name is Dwight Evans. Evans may be the most baffling case of some one who didn’t even receive 5% of the vote, which caused him to fall off the ballot. This just goes to show many of these voters don’t do the slightest bit of research when casting their ballot. This is some one who played 20 years, won 8 gold gloves, accumulated over 2,400 hits and crushed 385 home runs. He was a three-time All Star and 2-time Silver Slugger as well. The offensive numbers alone make him a borderline case, but when you add in the 8 Gold Gloves, the case should become clear – Dwight Evans belongs in. His career WAR of 67.2 is higher than Willie McCovey, Duke Snider and Jackie Robinson. Along with his power, Evans had a knack for getting on base and led the league in walks 3 times. He simply helped his teams win games for 20 years on both sides of the ball and even though he didn’t reach any of the main milestone numbers, Evans was great for a sustained period of time and deserves a plaque in Cooperstown.

The First GREATEST PLAYER In MLB History Is NOT In The Hall of Fame

With each passing year, the history baseball becomes richer and lengthier. The one unfortunate aspect to this fact is that great players from the past slowly get forgotten. Baseball fans will likely always be knowledgeable about immortal superstars like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. However, there are some stars of the 20’s and 30’s that many fans may have never heard of such as Hippo Vaughn, who won at least 20 games 5 times including a dominate 1918 season, in which he went 22-10 with a 1.74 ERA. He would have easily won the Cy Young Award, but it wouldn’t exist for another 48 years.

In today’s video, we’ll be discussing a player who was considered the best baseball player alive at one point. However, this was so long ago, that even before Babe Ruth came along, he was already largely forgotten. In 1915, an article written in Baseball Magazine said,

“No matter how great you were once upon a time – the years go by, and men forget. Ross Barnes, 40 years ago, was as great as Ty Cobb or Honus Wagner ever dared to be.”

Charles Roscoe Barnes was born on May 8th, 1850, in Mount Morris, New York. He took an interest in a relatively new sport called baseball, and made the roster of a team called the Rockford Forrest Citys in 1868. During the thee years he played for them, he earned a reputation as one of the best all-around ball players in the country. He was only 5’8” and didn’t crush the ball, but was the game’s first scientific hitter, studying where the defensive players were and aiming to hit it where they ain’t.

Ross Barnes

In 1871, the Rockford Forrest Citys joined the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the first fully pro baseball league to exist. However, before the season began, Barnes signed with the Boston Red Stockings, another team in the National Association. He made his professional debut in 1871 and was a masterful hitter, finding ways to get on base however possible, then using his amazing speed to score runs. He led the league in runs scored during his first season and hit .401 with an OPS over 1.000. It has to be noted that the game was drastically different during this time, with the pitching mound just 50 feet away and gloves not even existing. Still, this was professional baseball and Barnes was proving to be one of the best to play.

He was also praised for his spectacular defense and powerful arm. In 1872, his second season, Barnes led all of baseball with a .430 batting average. He also led the league in hits, doubles, slugging percentage and OPS. He was clearly the premiere player in the league – and is one of if not the first superstars in baseball history. Another early player and manager of the game, Bob Ferguson, is quoted as having said that Barnes was “The best batter and ball player who ever lived.”

Another former player turned famous sportswriter, Tim Murnane, said Barnes was the “king of second baseman, as well as the finest batsman and run-getter of all time. In his third season, 1873, he had his best season and would have easily won the MVP award had it existed at that time. Barnes hit .431 and averaged more than 2 hits per game. He led the league in nearly every offensive category including hits, doubles, triples, and walks, and even stole a league leading 43 bases. During this time, baseball had experienced a big boost in popularity as it was hugely popular with soldiers during the Civil War. They brought the game and interest in it back to their towns after the war. Still, it was the 1870’s, and even though professional baseball was a reality, there were no television sets or even radio broadcasts back then, so player popularity could only be so strong.

In 1874, Barnes had a down-year by hitting .340. Imagine a .340 batting average being a down-year. The next year, he bounced back some by hitting .364 while leading the league in hits and runs scored. During his first 5 years as a pro ball player, Barnes proved himself to be simply be best all around player in the world. However, the league he played in – the National Association- would fold after the 1875 season, leading the way for the National League of Professional Base Ball Players to form and become the dominant professional baseball league in 1876. In 1969, Major League Baseball decided that the National Association would be excluded from “Major League” status due to erratic scheduling and a history of gambling. It is quite rich that Major League Baseball won’t consider the National Association a Major League due to issues with gambling. Also, erratic scheduling makes no difference in the fact that these were the best players in the world. Major League Baseball understood this when they officially promoted several of the Negro Leagues to “Major League” status, a move that made perfect sense as many if not most of the players who played in those Negro Leagues were more than good enough to play in the Major Leagues.

The decision to still not consider the National Association a Major League is extremely controversial, because there is no doubt that from 1871-1875, the best players in the country played in the National Association. If you were a baseball fan at that time, the National Association was your Major Leagues.

Barnes proved this when he signed to play in the National League with the Chicago White Stockings in 1876. Barnes had another monster year, hitting .429 with a league-leading 126 runs and 14 triples. He also led the league in doubles, walks, total bases and every offensive percentage. After the first season of Major League Baseball, the best player in the game was Ross Barnes. When combined with his National Association career, he had an absolutely dominant 6-year stretch. As a defender, he led all second basemen in fielding percentage during his career and rarely made errors, despite the fact that errors were much more commonplace during his era than they are today.

Despite the fact that Barnes was not a big home run hitter, he can say something that no home run hitter can ever say. On May 2nd, 1876, in Cincinnati, he hit the first home run in Major League history. In his next bat, he almost did it again, crushing one off the wall for a triple. Unfortunately, in 1877, Barnes began to suffer from a mysterious illness. His strength and speed were compromised and he could not play like he used to. He attempted comebacks in 1879 and 1881, and although he was serviceable, could not repeat his impressive seasons of the past. Barnes retired having only played in 9 professional seasons.

This fact is important, because the Hall of Fame requires that players have at least 10 years of Major League experience to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Even if you count his time in the National Association, he only played 9 years. If you only count his National League career, he played for 4. He was not a manager, owner or even technically an organizational pioneer, meaning he cannot be inducted as non-player. But, does the Hall of Fame have to follow this rule to a tee? The answer is no. In 1977, the board of directors passed a special resolution for Addie Joss, a fantastic pitcher who played only 9 years but died of tuberculosis before the start of his 10th MLB season. The resolution allowed the ten-year minimum requirement to be waived and Joss was inducted into the Hall of Fame. This same process needs to happen for Ross Barnes, who absolutely deserves to have a plaque in Coopertown. Barnes passed away 107 years ago, in 1915, when he was already forgotten by most MLB fans. This remains true today, but a simple recognition of his accomplishments with a plaque in Cooperstown would go a long way to bringing more awareness to his contributions to the game. Barnes was not only the first best player in Major League Baseball, but also hit the game’s first homer, and was possibly the game’s first true superstar.

Top 20 MLB ACTIVE Draft Steals

Welcome to another Humm Baby Baseball countdown and today we’ll wrap up my series on MLB Draft Steals by going down the list of my Top 25 MLB Active Draft Steals. This includes only players that are currently active and on a Major League roster and each of these players signed out of a draft in which they were taken in no higher than the 5th round. Players of the past like Mike Piazza, Ozzie Smith and John Smoltz have proven that you don’t have to take a prospect in the first or second round in order to find a future Hall of Famer. That hasn’t changed and today we’ll talk about 20 MLB stars who were all taken very late in the draft. I am ranking these based not just on how good the player is, but also on how late they were taken. The later the pick, the better the steal. A few honorable mentions include..

Honorable Mentions

• Mike Yastrzemski - 14th Round

• Jared Walsh - 39th Round

• Adam Frazier - 6th Round

• Cedric Mullins - 13th Round

• Tommy La Stella - 8th Round

• Matt Moore - 8th Round

• Matt Carpenter - 13th Round

20. Corey Dickerson - 8th Round

First up is Corey Dickerson, who was a massive superstar at Meridian Community College in Mississippi. He hit .459 with 21 bombs during his freshman year. Still, he wasn’t taken until the 8th round by the Rockies in 2010, who had also drafted him in the 29th round out of High School in 2009. Dickerson destroyed Rookie Ball with a .348 average and 13 bombs. He moved quickly through the Minors and found his way into the Rockies lineup by mid-2013. In 2014, he crushed 24 bombs with a .312 batting average and .931 OPS. He was later traded to the Rays where he hit 27 homers in 2017, making the All Star Team. In 2018, he hit .300 for the Pirates and won a Gold Glove. Dickerson recently signed with the Nationals for the 2023 season.

19. Nestor Cortes Jr - 36th Round

Coming in at #17 is a player with a chance to move much higher a list like this in the future, Nestor Cortes Jr. He was not taken until the 36th round in 2013, but absolutely dominated the minor leagues with an 11-4 record and 1.53 ERA in 2016. He continued to pitch well in the minors until, surprisingly, the Yankees left him unprotected and he was taken in the Rule 5 Draft by the Orioles. Luckily for the Yankees, the O’s were not patient with him and after a couple bad outings, they sent him back to New York. He went 5-1 in 2019, then after a stint with the Mariners, came back to the Yankees where he finally had his breakout season in 2022 going 12-4 with a 2.44 ERA and 163 strikeouts, making his first All Star Team. He is currently slated to be in the rotation for the 2023 and could end up being an amazing steal from the 36th round.

18. Ty France - 34th Round

Next up is another player who could be ranked much higher on a list like this in a few years. Ty France was taken all the way down in the 34th round of the 2015 Draft and as of now, is the only player from that round to make the big leagues. France played at San Diego State University and showed some ability by hitting .337 across four seasons. Nevertheless, he wasn’t considered a big prospect and not taken until the 1,017th pick by the Padres. He hit so well in the Minors, the Padres had no choice but to keep moving him up until 2019, when he made Triple A look like T-Ball, hitting .399 with an OPS over 1.200. He hit 27 home runs in just 76 games, forcing the Padres to bring him up to the big leagues. He never got a full opportunity, however, until he joined the Mariners lineup in 2021 and hit .291 with 18 homers. France could go on to become one of the greatest steals of all time, but he is still at the beginning of his big league career.

17. Jordan Romano - 10th Round

Undrafted out of High School, Jordan Romano at first attended Connors State College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he 0-1 with an 8.68 ERA, not exactly stellar numbers. The next year, he improved drastically and transferred to Oral Roberts, where he became the closer, saving 11 games with a 2.66 ERA. The Blue Jays took him in the 10th round of the 2014 Draft, paying him a $25,000 signing bonus. The Jays almost lost him when the White Sox took him in the Rule 5 Draft in 2018, but after a trade to the Rangers, he was returned to Toronto. Despite a high ERA in the Triple A, his strikeout stuff was good enough to give him an opportunity and in 2020, Romano broke through with a 1.23 ERA in 15 apperanaces. In ‘21, he became the closer and last season, he made his first All Star Team and saved 36 games with a 2.11 ERA.

16. Blake Treinen - 7th Round

Next up is a player with an amazing story. Blake Treinen retired from baseball for the first time after his freshmen year of High School. He had some weight issues and struggled with borderline Type 2 Diabetes. Treinen worked hard to get in shape and by his Junior year realized he had grown 6 inches and could throw a ball harder than ever. He gave baseball another try and pitched well, but had no scholarship offers. He went to a Junior College called Baker, where he struggled to get playing time. After a transfer to Arkansas, he was told that they don’t hold open tryouts and denied even the opportunity to play ball. Finally, Treinen was given a chance at South Dakota State, where he went 7-3 with a 3.00 ERA. The A’s took him in the 7th round and later traded him to the Nationals. In 2014, Treinen, against all odds, made it to the big leagues and pitched well, with a 2.49 ERA in 15 games. The A’s eventually got their man back in another trade and in 2018, Treinen was one of the best in the game, allowing just 46 hits in 80 innings with a stunning 0.78 ERA. He’s been one of the most effective relievers out of the Dodgers bullpen since 2020 and an absolutely incredible steal from the 7th Round.

15. Max Muncy -5th Round

Max Muncy had a nice career at Baylor where he hit .311 with 27 homers. It wasn’t enough to get him very high in the draft however, as he wasn’t taken until the 5th round when the Oakland A’s took him as the 169th overall pick. He hit 25 homers with 100 RBIs during his first full minor league season and became a prospect to keep an eye on for Oakland. Unfortunately, he didn’t hit well with the big league club during two stints in 2015 and 2016, looking like the dreaded Quadruple-A Player. The A’s released him during the end of Spring Training in 2017. He signed a Minor League deal with the Dodgers, earned another shot in the big leagues by 2018 and from there, became one of the premiere power hitters in the game, crushing 35 home runs in ‘18 and 35 again in ‘19. He has made two All Star Teams and already has 144 big league home runs.

14. Brandon Belt - 5th Round

Coming in at #14 is the Captain, Brandon Belt, who was taken in the 5th round of the 2009 Draft out of Texas. He was quickly a mid-season All Star with the High A San Jose Giants. He blasted through the minors all the way to Triple A in his first season, ending the year with a .352 average and 23 home runs across all levels. He was quickly considered a top prospect for the Giants and made his MLB debut in 2011. By 2012 he was a regular and helped the Giants win their second World Series in 3 years. Of course, he was also part of the 2014 World Championship team as well and hit one of the most dramatic homers in Giants history in the NLDS in Washington D.C. with this tie-breaking bomb in the 18th inning. He ended up spending 12 years with the Giants, getting on base consistently while playing phenomenal defense at first base. In 2021, he crushed 29 home runs and helped the Giants win a franchise record 107 games. For the 2023 season, he has signed with the Blue Jays.

13. Chris Bassitt - 16th Round

Up next on the list is a pitcher named Chris Bassitt, who had a 1.62 ERA as a reliever during his Junior year at the University of Akron. He wasn’t taken until the 16th round by the Chicago White Sox. His excellence continued in the Minor Leagues and the organization converted him to a starter. Bassitt made his big league debut in 2014. After that season, the Sox sent him to the A’s along with Marcus Semien, who we may be discussing soon as well. Bassitt went on to be an All Star in Oakland. In 2020, he had a 2.59 ERA. In 2022, Bassitt went 15-9 for the Mets, helping them win over 100 games. After the season, he signed a 3-year, $63 million contract with the Blue Jays. Not bad for a 16th Round Pick.

12. Jake Cronenworth - 7th Round

Just cracking the Top 10 is Jake Cronenworth, who is still very early in his career. He played for the Michigan Wolverines, hitting .338 in his final year with 6 homers. The Tampa Bay Rays took him but not until the 7th round. He hit extremely well for five years in the Rays organization, but before he could make his big league debut, he was traded to the Padres. The Padres thanked the Rays for developing him for them, put him right in their lineup and let him rake as he hit .285 his rookie year, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting. The next season, in 2021, he made his first All Star Team and found his power stroke, crushing 21 homers. He made the All Star Team again in 2022 and drove in a career high 88 runs. He also hit well in the postseason for San Diego and is already a definite great steal as a 7th round pick even though the Rays never took advantage.

11. Brandon Woodruff - 11th Round

Coming up next is pitcher Brandon Woodruff, who was a solid prospect out of High School and was as originally taken in the 5th round by the Rangers but did not sign. His stock fell a bit after struggling at Mississippi State with a 6.75 ERA his Junior Year. The Brewers took him in the 11th round. In 2016, he went 14-9 with a 2.68 between Single and Double-A, becoming a serious pitching prospect for Milwaukee. The next year, he made his big league debut. By 2019, he worked his way to the top of the Brewers rotation, making the All Star Team and going 11-3 with a 3.62 ERA. He made another All Star Team in 2021 and then, in 2022, went 13-4 with a 3.02 ERA. He, along with Corbin Burnes, has become one of the most solid 1-2 punches at the top of a rotation in the game. Burns, by the way, was also a nice steal from the 4th round, but this list is only considering those taken in the 5th and lower.

10. Kyle Hendricks - 8th Round

Next up, we have The Professor, Kyle Hendricks, who was a solid pitcher for the Dartmouth Big Green. He was not considered a huge prospect and not taken until the 8th round by the Texas Rangers. Shortly after his pro career began, the Rangers traded him to the Cubs as part of a trade that sent Ryan Dempster to the Rangers. He quickly turned heads in the Cubs organization, going 13-4 with an even 2 ERA between Double and Triple A. He was promoted to the big leagues the next season and had a stellar rookie year, going 7-2 with a 2.46 ERA. In 2016, he was one of the best in the league, going 16-8 with a 2.13 ERA, then continued to dominate during the postseason, helping the Cubs win their first World Series since Teddy Roosevelt was president. Although he hasn’t repeated his 2016 season, Hendricks has continued to be a staple in the Cubs rotation and is still on their roster for the 2023 season.

9. Joc Pederson - 11th Round

Coming in at #9 is a fantastic steal in the 11st round, taken out of Palo Alto High School, Joc Pederson. He hit extremely well in the minors and after the 2013 season in which he hit 22 home runs, Joc was ranked as the #1 Dodgers Prospect by Baseball America. He became a full time big leaguer in 2015 and made the All Star Team, finishing the season with 26 bombs. His best season came in 2019 when he crushed 36 home runs. He came through for the Dodgers in 2020 and then the Braves in 2021 with some key postseason home runs, helping each team win a World Series. He smashed over 20 home runs again in 2022 for the Giants and now has a 171 career homers as an 11th Round Pick.

8. Marcus Semien - 6th Round

Next up is a huge star in the game named Marcus Semien, who played college ball at Cal. He was a solid prospect, but after hitting .275 his Junior year, his stock dropped a bit and he fell all the way to the 6th round. It was the White Sox who took him and he moved quickly through the minors, earning a promotion in just his third season. In 2014, he got an extended shot in Chicago but hit just .234 with 6 homers in 64 games. It was after this season when the White Sox packaged him up with Chris Bassitt and a couple others to send to Oakland for Jeff Samardzija and Michael Ynoa. The Sox got some value from these players but they certainly lost the trade. Semien became an everyday player in Oakland and crushed 27 homers in 2016. He was an MVP candidate in 2019 when he hit .285 with 33 homers. He has only missed about 8 games in the past 4 years. Before the 2022 season, he signed a 7-year deal worth $175 million with the Rangers.

7. Jeff McNeil - 12th Round

Next up is Squirrel, Jeff McNeil, who didn’t even play baseball during his Senior year at high school because he was focused on golf. He eventually returned to baseball at CSU Long Beach and hit .348 his Junior Year. The Mets took notice and drafted McNeil but not until the 12th round. His hitting ability and incredible speed were immediately noticeable in the minors as he hit .292 in A Ball with 17 steals. The next year, 2015, he hit .308 and was slowly climbing the Mets Top Prospects List. Still, he wasn’t promoted until 2018 as he was tearing up Triple-A with Las Vegas. With New York, he hit .329, finishing 6th for the Rook of the Year. The next year, his bat exploded with 23 bombs and a .318 average. He also made the All Star Team. He led the league with a .326 batting average last year and recently signed a lucrative extension with the Mets. He was an absolutely fantastic steal for the Mets in the 12th Round.

6. Robbie Ray -12th Round

Ray was an elite High School pitcher in the Nasvhille area who went 7-1 with 0.95 ERA during his Senior Year. He was planning to play at Arkansas when the Washington Nationals drafted him 12th round and offered a signing bonus of nearly $800,000, an amount usually allocated for fourth round picks. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse and Ray entered the Minor Leagues. Unlike many players on this list, the minors weren’t always easy for Ray and he struggled in High A, going 4-12 with a 6.56 ERA. The Nationals stuck with him, though, and by 2013 he had completely turned his career around, drastically improving his strikeout stuff and going 11-5 with a 3.36 ERA. With his improved value, the Nats traded him to Detroit, and Ray made his big leauge debut in 2014. He was later traded to the Diamondbacks and after two rough seasons, everything came together in 2017 when he went 15-5 and made the All Star Team. With the Blue Jays in 2021, Ray was one of the best in the game, striking out a league leading 248 batters and taking home the Cy Young Award. In November of 2021, he signed a 5 year, $115 million contract with the Seattle Mariners.

5. Mookie Betts - 5th Round

Although the next player wasn’t taken too insultingly low, I still have to put him very high on the list because Mookie Betts went from a 5th round pick to an American League MVP. He was a fantastic High School athlete and hit .548 with 24 steals his Junior Year. However, he committed to attend Tennessee on a scholarship, which certainly hurt his draft stock. He was taken in the 5th round but offered a $750,000 bonus. He signed with the Red Sox and went on to dominate the minors, hitting .346 in 2014 between Double and Triple A, earning a call up to the big leagues. From there, the rest is history as Betts became one of the greatest players in the game, making the All Star Team every year, winning Gold Glove after Gold Glove and even taking home the MVP in 2018. He helped the Red Sox win a World Series then did the same for the Dodgers in 2020. In his first 9 years, he already has 213 home runs, 6 Gold Gloves, an MVP and a batting title.

4. Josh Hader -19th Round

Moving into the top 3, we have Josh Hader, who makes it this high because he was taken all the way down in the 19th round. Hader went 10-0 with 0.3 ERA in High School, but at that time had a fastball in the mid-80’s. The Orioles took him as the 582nd overall pick and he is just one of the three players from his round to make the big leagues. Hader adjusted his workout routine and increased his velocity dramatically in the Minors. He had a 2.77 ERA in 2013 and made the Single A All Star Team. After the season, he was traded to Houston and continued to pitch well in their system as a starter. In 2016, he was traded to the Brewers and continued to start games in the Minors. However, after he was promoted in 2017, he pitched so well out of the bullpen that Hader became a reliever and won the Reliever of the Year award in 2018 despite not yet being a full time closer. He took over the closer role for good in 2019 and became one of the most dominant in the game. In 2021, he reached 400 strikeouts faster than any pitcher in history innings-wise. He’s already made four All Star Teams and has 131 career saves. He was traded to the Padres in 2022 and after some early struggles, pitched well for them during the postseason.

3. Jacob Degrom - 9th Round

Incredibly, one of the greatest pitchers of his generation was not even selected out of High School and was exclusively a shortstop throughout his first two college seasons. I’m talking about Jacob Degrom, who wasn’t drafted until the 10th Round of the 2010 Draft by the New York Mets. Early in his Minor League career, he had to undergo Tommy John surgery, but came back strong in 2012, going 9-3 with a 2.43 ERA in A Ball. In 2013 The Mets added him to their 40-man Roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. He made his Major League Debut in 2014 and in 22 starts had a 2.69 ERA with 144 strikeouts in 140 innings. DeGrom took home the Rookie of the Year award and went on to become one of MLB’s premiere starters, winning back to back Cy Young awards in 2018 and 2019. He’s made four All Star teams and recently signed a 5-year $185 million deal with the Texas Rangers.

2. J.D. Martinez - 20th Round

Just missing out on #1 is J.D. Martinez, who gets this high not only because he is a 5-time All Star with nearly 300 career home runs, but because he was taken shockingly in the 20th round. He played college baseball at Nova Southeastern University, where he set the school home run record with 32. He was an RBI machine who hit .394 and absolutely should have gone higher in the draft. However, because he went to a Division II school, he wasn’t considered too hot of a prospect and wasn’t taken until the 20th round when he was selected by the Houston Astros. He tore up the minor leagues, hitting well over .330 at each level, until the Astros promoted him in 2011. Unfortunately, he bounced back and forth between the minors and big leagues for the next 3 years until the Astros released him just as he was ready to hit his stride in 2014. He signed with the Tigers and hit .315 with 23 home runs. From there, he only got better, hitting 38 bombs the next season and becoming an All Star. He had his best years, however, in Boston and was instrumental in 2018, hitting 43 bombs with 130 RBIs, leading the team to a World Series ring. He recently signed a $10 million deal to play for the Dodgers in 2023.

1. Paul Goldschmidt - 8th Round

Coming in at #1 on my list of the Top 20 Active MLB Steals is an 8th Round selection named Paul Goldschmidt. He played college ball at Texas State and set Bobcat career records with 36 home runs and 179 RBIs. Still, he wasn’t taken until the 8th round of the ‘09 draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Minor Leagues were child’s play for Goldschmidt who crushed 35 home runs in High A with a .314 average. The next year, he had 30 homers in Double-A when the D-Backs promoted him. From there, he became an MLB superstar, making 6 straight All Star teams and twice finishing runner-up for the MVP in Arizona. He hit 36 homers and drove in 125 runs in 2013 and helped the Diamondbacks make the postseason twice. He was later traded to St. Louis, where he won the 2022 MVP award after hitting .317 with 35 bombs. Goldschmidt is one of the best in the game and was a superb steal for the D-backs in the 8th round.

Top 10 MLB BRUTAL & Memorable FIGHTS & BRAWLS...

Baseball is and always has been a relatively clean sport, with the only contact between players occurring through light tags and the occasional collision at home plate. However, every year, there’s always a few bench-clearing brawls which often begin with a good old one-one-one fight. Even though there have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of bench clearing incidents, there’s a few that have become ingrained in the baseball fan’s memory.

#10 Brawls Will Not Be Tolerated

The first fight on the list comes from the pandemic shortened 2020 season, in which MLB stressed how important social distancing was and that no brawls would tolerated. But the fight had to go on. It happened in a game in Oakland between the Astros when pitcher Humberto Castellanos accidentally hit A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano with a breaking ball that didn’t break. Laureano, who had already been hit twice in the series, was visibly frustrated and let Castellanos know he needed to break that pitch off better. He had no intention of starting a fight at this point. Then, Astros coach Alex Cintron provoked A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano into charging the dugout, and he obliged.

Laureano never got to Cintron so the one on one fight didn’t happen, but it caused a bench-clearing brawl in the midst of the 2020 season, which infuriated MLB. In the aftermath of the incident, Cintron was suspended 20 games and given a large fine while Laureano was suspended 6 games. Laureano said he had no interest in starting a fight until Cintron said something derogatory about his mother.

#9 Bryce Harper vs Hunter Strickland

Coming in at #10 is a 2017 fight whose roots go all the way back to the 2014 NLDS. It was during Game 2 when Harper hit a home run off Strickland in a game that the Giants went on to win. In Game 4, he hit another bomb off Strickland and didn’t run right away, probably because he wasn’t sure if if was fair or foul. The Giants ended up winning that game as well. In fact, they won the NLDS and eventually the World Series. Surely, by the time these two faced each other again 3 years later, those home runs were a distant memory. Apparently, not for Strickland.

Strickland threw a 98 MPH right at Harper’s hip, causing Harper to charge the mound. There was no tension between the teams and this really was in retribution for a the NLDS home runs 3 years prior. Notice how Buster Posey barely reacts, probably because the whole thing is so ridiculous and not worth getting hurt over. During the brawl, Michael Morse suffered a concussion and never played again. Years later, Harper said there was no ill-will and he appreciated that Strickland didn’t try to aim for his head; he just wanted a fight – and he got one.

#8 F*** You

During the 2004 season, tensions between the Yankees and Red Sox were extremely high as they faced off at Fenway park in July. These teams had recently been involved in a postseason 2003 brawl that will appear a bit later on this list. The Yankees were in first place and the Red Sox in second, looking for a big spark in the second half. Perhaps they found that spark when Alex Rodriguez was hit by a Bronson Arroyo pitch and was not happy. I’m no professional lip-reader but I think we can all make out what he is saying here. Catcher Jason Varitek had some choice words for A-Rod and here’s what happened next.

It wasn’t a fair fight at first as Varitek kept his mask on for a while . Meanwhile, Tanyon Sturtze faced off against current Giants manager Gabe Kapler. Trot Nixon jumped in and got involved as well. Some other big names involved in the action included Curt Schilling and David Ortiz. When the smoke cleared, Strutze was seen bleeding from the forehead. It was an insane brawl and the Red Sox went on to win the game in walkoff fashion. They got hot from there and eventually went on to beat the Yankees in the ALCS despite being down 3 games to none and of course broke the Curse of the Bambino, winning their first World Series since 1918. Rodriguez and Varitek were suspended 4 games each and fined $2,000 while Kapler and Sturtze were suspended three games each and handed $1,000 fines.

#7 Benitez vs. Martinez

On May 19th, 1998, the New York Yankees were taking on the last place Baltimore Orioles. Before the game even started, the umpiring crew got word that something might be brewing and to be ready. However, by the 8th inning, the O’s were up by 3 and everything seemed normal. That is, until Armando Benitez allowed a 3-run home run by Bernie Williams to tie the game. Benitez, known for his hot temper, threw the next pitch at 98 miles per hour up directly at Tino Martinez. Benitez dropped his glove, put his hands up and basically dared the Yankee dugout to come on out. They did.

For a moment it looked like it would be just another bench clearing incident but when the Yankee bullpen arrived at the scene, it was on as they immediately started to throw down with Benitez. This started a chain reaction and before long, it was an all-out brawl. A young Joe Giardi was involved as was the powerful Darryl Strawberry. The fight went deep into the dugout and created a wild scene so out of control the umpires just backed off, knowing there was nothing they could do about it. Eventually, order was restored, but in the aftermath, Benitez was suspended for 8 games. “It was one of the worst brawls I have ever been in,” said umpire Drew Coble. “At one time, it was from dugout to dugout.”

#6 The Batflip Heard Round The World

It was the 2015 American League Division Series and the Toronto Blue Jays were in the playoffs for the first time since they won it all back in 1993, facing the Texas Rangers. The best of 5 series was tied at 2 games a piece in the 7th inning of a tie-game when Jose Bautista connected with an massive 3-run bomb and unleashed one of the greatest bat flips of all time. The batflip angered many of the Rangers players, including Roghned Odor, but there was not much they could do it about it at that time. Fast-forward to May of the 2016 season, when the two teams faced off. The Rangers had not forgotten the bat-flip, and Matt Bush hit Bausita with a pitch. He took first without incident, but when Bausista slid in extra hard and late into Odor at second base, it was on.

Odor landed one of the most solid punches thrown in MLB history, caught perfectly on a high definition recording. Eight players were suspended and 14 ejected. Odor was suspended for 8 games, eventually reduced to 7 games and Bautista was suspended for one game.

#5 Pedro vs Zimmer

Coming in at #4 is one of the most insane moments in MLB history – and yes, I do have a ranking of those moments as well, and this one made the list. It was a series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees and ghings started to heat up when an up and in pitch thrown by Pedro Martinez hit Karim Garcia in the 4th inning. A few minutes later, Garcia slid hard into second which resulted in a shoving match and emptying of dugouts. Later, Roger Clemens threw up and in to Manny Ramirez, although honestly if you look at the replay, the pitch wasn’t overly aggressive. It was slightly up and slightly in, but Ramirez took offense anyway and started this all-time brawl in which 72-Year old Yankee coach Don Zimmer wanted a piece of Pedro and went straight for him. Martinez sidestepped, grabbed Zimmer’s head and threw him to the ground. It was an incredible and horrifying scene to watch an active young MLB player throw an old man to the ground. Of course, Zimmer was the one who charged Martinez and is lucky Martinez didn’t seriously hurt him. Martinez later said it was the lowest moment of his career. To make matters more insane, a few innings later, Yankee pitcher Jeff Nelson got into a fight with a Fenway Park employee in the bullpen and Karim Garcia hopped in to assist him. This was an all-time insane moment and one of the most memorable fights in MLB history.

#4 Ruth’s Yankees vs. Cobb’s Tigers

There was a time when the Yankees and Tigers had a bit of a rivalry going on, mainly because the Yankees had Babe Ruth and the Tigers had Ty Cobb, the two biggest stars of the game. However, they were two very different types of players. Ruth was a pure power hitter, who believed in swinging as hard as you can every time, always going for the fences. This disturbed Cobb, who believed it was a brute way to approach the game. He believed in doing what was best for the moment – whether that be a walk, single or extra-base it. He considered himself an artist with the bat, not a monster like Ruth. This was a the main fuel for a feud between the two that reached a climax during a game between the two teams on June 13th, 1924 in Detroit. At this point in time, Ty Cobb was both a player and manager. Tensions were high throughout the game as both dugouts hurled insults at the other team.

In the 9th inning, Babe Ruth led off. The first pitch from Bert Cole was up near his head. Both the second and third pitches also narrowly missed him. Ruth pointed towards Cobb in centerfield and started yelling at him before eventually popping out. The first pitch to the next batter, Bob Meusel, hit him in the ribs. He slammed down his bat and charged the mound. Both dugouts emptied and fists were flying everywhere as the umpires tried to restore order. Just as things began to calm down, Ruth heard an insult from the Tigers dugout and charged. More fights broke out from there and fans began to rush the field to get involved as well. One fan engaged in a fight with an umpire. The ump knocked him out with one solid roundhouse punch. The fighting went on for about 25 minutes until police finally arrived. The game was never resumed. Bert Cole and Bob Meusel were suspended while Ruth was fined. Ruth and Cobb may have never squared off directly during the fight, but the tensions between the two players was a large factor in this insane brawl taking place that day in Detroit.

#3 Marichal vs. Roseboro

Coming in at #3 is the probably the ugliest and most disturbing brawl in MLB history. It happened at Candlestick Park on August 22nd, 1965. The Giants and Dodgers were in a pennant race and emotions were running hot, but no one could have predicted what what happen as pitcher Juan Marichal stepped up the plate. After the second pitch, a ball low and away, Dodgers catcher John Roseboro threw the ball back to the pitcher faster than usual, right by Marichal’s ear. Marichal confronted the catcher, they exchanged a few words, then things quickly got out of control and in an unprecedented move, Juan Marichal began to hit Roseboro with his bat. He got in at least one strong blow to the head before umpire Shag Crawford, along with Sandy Koufax and others were able to stop Marichal and pry his bat away. Meanwhile, a brawl broke out as Roseboro bled from a 2-inch gash on his head. That didn’t stop Roseboro from trying to get back at Marichal, but Willie Mays stopped him and tended to his head. Mays was later credited with keeping the brawl from becoming an all out riot. Roseboro eventually needed 14 stitches. Years later, he admitted to intentionally throwing close to Marichal’s head because Marichal had been brushing back so many Dodger hitters. After the brawl, Marichal was suspended 8 games and fined $1,750. Roseboro missed 3 games, but made a fully recovery, although later he sued Marichal, eventually settling for $7,500. Years later, the two became friends and appeared in old timers games and golf tournaments together.

#2 San Diego vs Atlanta

Coming in at #2 was not just a single brawl, but one of the most wild sequences of brawls and fights between two teams in MLB history. The troubles started on August 11th, 1984 when the Padres infielder Alan Wiggins kept trying to bunt for a base hit. Pascual Perez had seen enough and began yelling at Wiggins to swing the bat. Some yelling took place but no brawls. Still, tensions were already in the air when the final game in the series took place on August 12th. Perez faced Wiggins and sure enough beaned him. Words were exchanged but benches did not empty. That is, until Perez came to the plate and Padres pitcher Ed Whitson tried to hit him. Benches cleared, but no punches were thrown. In the 4th, they tried to hit Perez again and failed, resulting in the ejection of Whitson and Padres manager Dick Williams. In the 6th, it was reliever Greg Booker’s turn to try and hit Perez. He missed and was ejected along with the second Padres manager of the evening, Ozzie Virgil Sr. Finally, in the 8th, Craig Lefferts succeeded in beaning Perez, which led to a bench-clearing brawl. The third Padres manager, Jack Krol, was ejected along with Lefferts and multiple other players. Multiple punches were thrown and the scene got so wild, it looked like the game might be forfeited. Instead, it was eventually resumed, but Donnie Moore hit Graig Nettles in the 9th and the fight resumed. Braves Manager Joe Torre, who almost made it through the game, was ejected as were several more players including Tim Flannery and Goose Gossage. One Padres player, Kurt Bevacqua, was hit by a beercan from the seats and charged the crowd. A total of 17 players, managers and coaches had been ejected at this point and, amazingly, Pascual Perez and Alan Willgins never were. Five fans were also taken away in handcuffs. Incredibly, the game once again continued and the Braves eventually won. Padres manager Dick Williams was suspended 10 games and fined $10,000 while Joe Torre missed 3 games and was fined $1,000. After the game, the umpiring crew chief John McSherry said, “I’ve never seen violence like that. It’s a miracle somebody didn’t get seriously hurt. It took baseball down 50 years. It was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life. It was pathetic, absolutely pathetic.”

#1 Don’t Mess With Texas

Coming in at #1 on my list of the top 10 MLB fights of all time has to be one of the most iconic images in MLB history. It occurred on August 4th, 1993, in a game between the Rangers and White Sox. Tensions had been high between the two rivals all season long. But soon, things would go beyond trash talking. In this particular game, Robin Ventura had already driven in a run to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. A bit later, White Sox pitcher Alex Fernandez hit Juan Gonzalez with a pitch. Then, Robin Ventura stepped up to the plate against Nolan Ryan and sure enough, the retribution pitch came up and in and hit Ventura on the back. At first, it looked like he was going to just take his base. Then, he charged Ryan – a bad idea.

Ryan landed 6 good blows to Ventura’s face before Ivan Rodriguez was able to break them up. Benches cleared the brawl was on, but regardless of what would happen after benches cleared, the iconic moment of the day was set in stone when Ryan had Ventura in a headlock and landed punch after punch after punch. T-shirts are still available to this day. Ventura and White Sox manager Gene Lamont were ejected, but surprisingly, Nolan Ryan was allowed to continue. The reason was that he never left the mound and only defended himself when the attacker arrived. Also, perhaps the umpires didn’t want to find out what would happen if they did try to eject him.

And that does it for today’s list of 10 of the greatest fights in MLB history. Let me know any others that I missed as there have been many classic brawls and fights that have occurred over the course of MLB history. Thank you so much for checking out today’s video; please hit the subscribe and thumbs up button. Have a wonderful day and we’ll talk to you in the next one.

Top 10 Most BIZARRE And WACKY MLB Moments

They say you see something new in every baseball game. With 162 games per year from each MLB team, it’s no surprise that there have no shortage of amazing and unforgettable moments, incredible comebacks and epic collapses. There have also been some weird, wacky and wild moments as well and in today’s video, we’ll be counting down 10 of the wackiest most insane moments in MLB history – one in a million moments that will likely never be repeated again. So, without further ado, let’s get into the list..

#10 J.T. Saves The Day

It was Game 5 of the 2002 World Series, the biggest stage in baseball, between the San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels. The Giants had 2 men on in the 7th when Kenny Lofton roped an extra base hit into right field. That’s when the Giants tiny batboy, 3 year old Darren Baker, the son of manager Dusty Baker, was a little too eager to run out and collect Lofton’s bat, the bat of his favorite player. As J.T. Snow scored, he saw the little boy wandering around the danger zone with another runner coming in hot behind him and the catcher ready to receive the throw. In one fell swoop, he snagged Darren and carried him to safety. It was an incredible scene and J.T. Snow, despite hitting over .400 and having a great postseason and career, is still remembered largely for being the hero that day. Darren Baker went on to play college ball at Cal and was drafted by the Washington Nationals. He hit .290 in Double-A in 2022.

#9 Attack of the Bugs

It was the 2007 playoffs – more specifically the ALDS – and the weather was unusually warm for an October evening in Cleveland, Ohio. The Yankees were hanging on to a 1-0 lead in the 7th inning when set-up man Joba Chamberlain entered the game to set things up for the Mariano Rivera. Chamberlain had a 0.38 ERA and 12.8 per 9 strikeout ratio that season. He was practically unhittable. He finished off the 7th inning without an issue. “We were dead in the water,” said one Indians player. Then, when Chamberlain took the mound in the 8th, the bugs attacked. The weather and stadium lights attracted an army of midges, small mosquito-like flies, who converged onto the pitching mound precisely during the top of the 8th inning. One Yankees player said,

“I just remember Joba grabbing the back of his neck to wipe off sweat and his hand was black, full of bugs.”

It was impossible for Chamberlain to focus as the bugs completely engulfed him. A walk and two wild pitches later, he gave up the tying run. He was visibly shaken and frustrated as the bugs continued to wreak havoc throughout his entire appearance. Then, the Yankees came up to bat and it was the Indians turn to deal with the bugs – or was it? In the bottom of the 8th, the bugs, who being from the area were obviously Indians fans, had disappeared. Thanks to the midges, the Indians won the game and the series.

#8 The Big Unit vs The Bird

Next up, we have an absolute one in a billion moment I still can’t believe actually happened. It’s only ranked this low because it happened in Spring Training. We all know the story. The premiere pitcher in the game, current Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, was pitching against Giants prospect Calvin Murray in Spring Training. Somehow, a bird happened to fly right through the path of a 95 mile per hour fastball, resulting in the tragic end to the poor bird’s life in an explosion of feathers. In all the years I’ve watched baseball, I’ve never noticed a bird happen to fly right in between the batter and the pitcher. If a bird did happen to fly through that zone, the odds of the baseball thrown by a pitcher and the bird being in the exact same place at the exact same time have to be beyond astronomical. Add to that the fact that it was Randy Johnson who threw the pitch and this incident becomes simply unbelievable. If this happened in a movie instead, I would instantly laugh it off and call the writers out for how unrealistic the scene was, explaining that such a thing would never – could never actually happen. I still can’t believe it actually did.

#7 A 3’7” Pinch Hitter

In 1951, former owner of the Cleveland Indians Bill Veeck purchased the St. Louis Browns and came up with some wild innovations and publicity stunts to compete with the St. Louis Cardinals, the better and more popular team at the time. By far, his most famous decision, was to sign Eddie Gaedel, a 3’7” 60 lb professional performer Veeck found through a booking agency. He was issued a uniform with the number 1/8 and popped out of a paper-mache cake in between games of a doubleheader to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the American League. It was seen at first as one of Veeck’s more mild stunts and the sponsor of the promotion was disappointed. Little did they know what was going to happen in the second game of the Doubleheader. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Browns manager Zack Taylor sent up the little man to pinch hit. He had been added to the active roster, and the umpires had no choice but to let him hit. Even the Browns players had no idea Gaedel would actually play in the game. Pitcher Bob Cain laughed at the absurdity of the situation and the catcher had to catch from his knees. Gaedel walked on four pitchers and bowed to the crowd on his way to first in one of the wildest scenes in MLB history. The A.L President voided the contract the next day because Veeck was making a mockery of the game.

#6 Down Goes Zimmer

It was during the 2003 ALCS between the Yankees and Red Sox when all hell broke lose in Boston. Tempers flaring between teams is nothing new – nor is an all out brawl. However, the scene here was certainly more bizarre than normal. Things started to heat up when an up and in pitch thrown by Pedro Martinez hit Karim Garcia in the 4th inning. A few minutes later, Garcia slid hard into second which resulted in a shoving match and emptying of dugouts. Later, when Roger Clemens threw up and in to Manny Ramirez, it was on like Donkey Kong. 72-Year old Yankee coach Don Zimmer, who momentarily forgot his age, wanted a piece of Pedro and went straight for him. Martinez sidestepped, grabbed Zimmer’s head and threw him to the ground. To make matters more insane, a few innings later, Yankee pitcher Jeff Nelson got into a fight with a Fenway Park employee in the bullpen and Karim Garcia hopped in to assist him.

#5 Pyscho

It was the 2000 World Series, known as the Subway Series, between the New York Mets and New York Yankees. The rivalry was fierce and there had been massive tensions throughout the season between the two teams. There was an especially tense situation occurring between Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza. Piazza had homered in three consecutive at bats against Clemens until their 4th meeting, earlier that season, when Clemens hit Piazza in the head with a fastball, causing him to miss the All Star Game. Every one was eager to see this match-up. What if Clemens hits him again? Would Piazza charge the mound? Or maybe it would be settled on the field – with a big strikeout or another long home run. With all the speculation, no one, and I mean no one, could have predicted what actually went down. Clemens jammed Piazza, causing him to break his bat. What happened next is still inexplicable. Clemens hurled the barrel of the bat, which has now turned into a sharp and dangerous weapon, towards Piazza. What was he possibly thinking? Did he think Mike Piazza intentionally broke his bat and made sure the barrel flew towards him? Well, that would make him the greatest hitter to ever live and is obviously not what happened. Later, Clemens claimed he thought it was the baseball, which makes absolutely zero sense. Even if we took the massive and impossible leap to believe that he couldn’t tell the difference between a baseball and a bat, if he thought it was the ball, he would’ve thrown it towards first base, not angrily towards Piazza. Benches emptied but there was no brawl, as most players were probably completely confused and shocked. Clemens wasn’t even thrown out of the game – probably because no one could believe what they just saw. Just think about how often the barrel of the bat ends up in the pitcher’s hand – it’s extremely rare. How did that exact event happen with these two players at that exact moment in time – their first meeting since the beaning and it was in the World Series. And then, the Clemens actually throws the thing at Piazza. I still can’t believe it.

#4 Two Batters At One Time

This is a screen shot from a game between the Cardinals and Cubs that was played on September 22, 1974. How did this happen? It was a 5-5 game in the Top of the 9th inning and “The Mad Hungarian” Al Hrabowski was on the mound. Hrawbowski was famous for an extended ritual he performed in which he turned his back to home plate, forcing the batter to wait out the ritual. The Cubs were not in the mood on this day and Gary Madlock decided to make Hrabowski wait for him instead, walking away from the batter’s box to add some pine tar to the bat. The umpire, Shag Crawford, ordered Madlock to return to the box. When he didn’t hear him or didn’t comply, Crawford started calling strikes with no one in the batter’s box, which brought out Cubs manager Jim Marshall to argue. The hitter on-deck, Jose Cardenal, got into the argument as well and at one point, had ventured near home plate, when Crawford continued to call strikes. Cardenal instinctively jumped into the batters box to hit around the same time that Madlock ran up and tried to jump in to hit as well, creating an insanely bizarre scenario in which two hitters were in the batter’s box at the same time. Even the announcer literally said on the air that this is some wild shit. Things didn’t end there as an all-out brawl broke out between the two teams, Cardinals player Ted Simmons punched Madlock and Cubs player Andre Thornton suffered a finger injury that ended his season. Order was eventually restored, but it may be the only time in MLB history where two batters were ready to take a swing at the exact same time.

#3 Disco Demolition Night

In 1979, Mike Veeck, the son of the aforementioned Bill Veeck and Chicago White Sox front office promotion manager, came up with a crazy idea. Like father, like son. In Mike’s case, it was not a publicity stunt, rather a promotion that allowed fans to enter the ballpark for just 98 cents if they brought a disco record along with them. The records would all be destroyed in-between games of a doubleheader, officially ending the disco era. Veeck was hoping for at least 20,000 fans as compared to their regular attendance of 5,000. Over 50,000 people showed up with records in hand and many more leapt fences and gates to enter the ballpark during the game. The boxes that fans were supposed to put their records in overflowed and many took them to their seats. Records along with other dangerous items were being thrown around the stadium and the game had to be halted several times. The records were indeed blown up, but they left a huge hole in the playing field, which would’ve made the next game difficult to play even if thousands of fans didn’t storm the field, which they did. They set fire to the field, pulled up bases, destroyed equipment, and took over the stadium. The rioters overwhelmed security and the best could try was to put on the scoreboard “Please return to your seats.” It wasn’t too effective. The second game had to be forfeited by the White Sox and to this day, Disco Demolition Night is one of the most infamous and disastrous promotions of all time.

#2 Independence Day in Atlanta

It was one of the most wacky and unlikely chain of events in MLB history and it started on the 4th of July of 1985 but didn’t end until the 5th. The Mets were in Atlanta and the game, which started like any other game, was quickly becoming something else. There were multiple rain delays, arguments, ejections, and a fireworks display planned for after the game. When that would be, nobody knew. After 9 innings, the game was tied 8-8 and continued into extras. In the top of the 13th inning, the Mets took a 10-8 lead and it looked like this long night would finally be over when with 2 outs in the bottom of the 13th, Terry Harper hit a home run to tie the game. The game continued all the way through until the next day, when the Mets scored another run in the 18th. In the bottom of the 18th, the Braves had run out of position players. Their last hope was a relief pitcher named Rick Camp. Camp was a notoriously awful hitter with a career .061 batting average entering the season. He had never hit anything close to a home run. It looked like this crazy 18 inning game was about to come to an end. Here’s what happened.

Mets players were stunned - Ray Knight threw his hands up in disbelief and Lenny Dykstra dropped to his knees. When Camp stepped up to the plate, the home plate umpire joked “You might as well hit one out, and we can play all night.” The Mets did score 5 in the Top of the 19th and ended up winning the game, but the Camp home run was still was on the craziest moments in MLB history. To make this scene even wilder, the fireworks still went off at about 4 in the morning, prompting 911 phone calls from residents who thought the city was being bombed.

#1 10-Cent Beer Night

It was 1974 and in an effort to improve attendance, the Cleveland Indians decided to hold 10-Cent Beer Night, offering 10 oz beers for just 10 cents with no limit on the number of purchases. What could possibly go wrong? To make matters worse, this promotion occurred in a game between the Indians and Rangers, two teams that had just gotten into a bench clearing brawl a few days earlier, and Indians fans were in a rowdy mood already. Over 25,000 fans showed up to 10-Cent Beer Night, more than double that was expected. Almost immediately, it was apparent there were going to problems. A woman ran out on the field, flashed the crowd, then tried to kiss the umpire. Later, a naked man ran on to the field and slid into second base. The next inning, a father and son ran out on the field and mooned the fans. The stadium started to look like a warzone as fans began randomly setting off firecrackers. Fans threw items like hot dogs onto the field and other naked people started appearing throughout the stadium. Gunpowder and marijuana smoke covered the entire ballpark. By the 7th inning, all the sober fans had already departed, leaving an army of extremely drunk belligerents who stormed the field, armed with knives and clubs formed from portions of the stadium they tore apart. Both Indians and Rangers players grabbed bats and the war was on in one of the most unbelievable scenes in the history of the game. Eventually the players escaped to the safety of the clubhouse and the uncontrollable beasts destroyed the field and stadium for 20 minutes until the police were able to restore order. The Indians were forced to forfeit the game and several players and umpires were injured. The Indians actually had the guts to hold another 10-Cent Beer Night that season, but this time with a 2-Beer per person limit.

Top 10 EPIC COLLAPSES In MLB History

An MLB season lasts 162 games and every one of them count. If there’s one lesson that has been taught over and over throughout baseball history, teams need to get the pedal the metal all the way up until a playoff spot or division title has been mathematically guaranteed. Without that, it doesn’t matter how big of a lead your team has entering September. In today’s video, we’ll take a look at the Top 10 most epic and painful team collapses in MLB history. There are teams that had great seasons up until that final home stretch when everything completely fell apart and when that happens, there’s almost always another team getting hot just at the right time to take that playoff spot from them.

Before I get into the main list, I have 2 honorable mentions – or should I say dishonorable mentions - that didn’t quite make the list.

Honorable Mention #1 – the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers, who had a 13 ½ game lead at one point in the season, but a red-hot Giants team caught them, forcing a 3-game playoff that led to Bobby Thomson’s shot heard round the world. The fact that this didn’t make my Top 10 tells you what kind of collapses we’re about to talk about.

Honorable Mention #2 – The 2021 New York Mets, who were the first team to spend over 100 days in first place and still finish with a losing record. Their collapse was a bit more gradual and not a complete last minute meltdown, which is why they’re not in the Top 10.

Now, let’s get started with the Top 10.

#10 The 1987 Toronto Blue Jays

In 1987, the Toronto Blue Jays looked prime to win with a team loaded with stars like Fred McGriff, George Bell, Jesse Barfield and even a young Cecil Fielder. Their pitching was stacked with names like Jimmy Key, Dave Stieb and closer Tom Henke. On June 13th, they were 32-20, sitting in first place in the A.L. East. They never took a massive lead in the division and in fact were competing with the Tigers for the division crown, but after they won 2 out of 3 against them in a late September series – and by late I mean around September 27th, it appeared that the division belonged to the Jays. They were up by 3 ½ games with just 7 to play when the Jays completely lost it. They were swept by the Brewers, then had one final 3-game series with the Tigers in which they were again swept, losing each game by 1 run. The Blue Jays lost 7 consecutive games to finish the season and ended up losing the division to the Tigers, who won their final 4 games to clinch the championship and send the Blue Jays home.

#9 The 1934 New York Giants

The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals caught the 1934 Giants against all odds

The 1934 Giants were absolutely stacked. They had three future Hall-of-Famers, Mel Ott, Bill Terry and Travis Jackson, in their starting lineup. The rotation included two pitchers who won over 20 games that season in Hal Schumacher and another Hall-of-Famer, Carl Hubbell. The team spent the vast majority of the season in first place and had a 7-game lead on September 6th. They struggled a bit during the next week, but with just 14 games left to play, still held a 5 ½ game lead over the St. Louis Cardinals. Then, the two teams met in a 3-game series and the Cardinals won 2 out of 3. Led by the powerful slugger Ripper Collins and their Ace Pitcher, Dizzy Dean, the Cardinals continued to stay hot, slowly gaining on the Giants. Still, with five games left in the season, the Giants were up by the three games and their only remaining games were against two bottom feeders in the league at the time, the Dodgers and Phillies. The Cardinals needed to win just about every game the rest of the way and hope that the Giants would somehow lose every one of their five remaining games. That’s exactly what happened. The Giants lost their final five games of the season and the Cardinals swept the Reds to propel them into first place, making the Giants the first team in MLB history to blow a 7-game lead in September.

#8 The 2007 New York Mets

The Mets are a team that have some of the most unbelievable comebacks in baseball history but also a team known for massive late-season collapses. The 2021 Mets know something about collapsing as they spent more than 100 days in first place yet still finished with a losing record. Neverthelss,they got nothing on the 2007 Mets. After a rough loss in the 2006 playoffs, the Mets entered 2007 motivated and ready, with a wealth of talent that included Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Tom Glavine and Billy Wagner. They won the first four games of the year and after 14 games, were 11-3. The domination continued throughout the season and on September 12th, the Mets held a 7 game lead in the division with the best record in the league. With 17 games left in the season, the playoffs seemed to be in the bag. Then, they lost a game by 1 run against the Phillies. Then, they lost another, this time by 2 runs. Then they lost another, by 4 runs. Then, they were blown, losing by 8 runs. What the hell was going on? The losing streak reached 5 games before they finally won a game. Despite the skid,The Mets had held such a strong lead in the division that with 7 games to go, they were still up by 2 ½ games. They had favorable matchups against two teams at the very bottom of the division - the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals along with one make-up game against the 73-82 Cardinals. They were swept by the Nationals and lost the makeup game to the Cardinals. After splitting the first two games with the Marlins, the Mets had to win Game 3 in order to prevent The Phillies, who won 4 of their last 5, to take the division. Tom Glavine could only get one batter out and the Marlins pounded the Mets 8-1. They lost the division and the incredibly hot Colorado Rockies overtook them for the Wild Card Spot. The Mets somehow blew a 7-game division lead with 17 games left and didn’t even get a wild card spot as consolation.

#7 The 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers

Newspaper Clipping from October 1st, 1962 reporting on the Dodgers & Giants Pennant Race

Coming in at #7 on my list of the worst late season collapses in MLB history is going to be the 1962 Los Angeles Dodgers. This is a team that was having an absolute dream of a season, entering into September with an 88-47 record, then going on a 7 game winning streak to apparently solidify their place as the #1 team in the National League. Only The Giants could dream of catching them, but they were 4 games back with just a week left to go in the season. The Dodgers were running on all cylinders, led by elite starters Don Drysdale and and Sandy Koufax. They had a chance to clinch the pennant during a 3-game series against the expansion Houston Colt 51s, but lost 2 out of 3. Then, all they had to do was manage one win during a 3-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. They were swept. Miraculously, the Giants caught the Dodgers and both teams were tied with a 101-61 record at the end of 162 games. The teams played a 3-game series to determine the pennant, just as they had done in 1951. And just like in 1951, the series went to a third game with the Dodgers looking strong late in the game. They had a 4-2 lead going to the Top of the 9th inning when the Dodgers imploded. Four walks, a wild pitch and an error later, the Giants had taken a 6-4 lead. They went on to win the game by that score, winning their first pennant in San Francisco. The Dodgers lost 12 of their last 16 games to blow the pennant in ‘62.

#6 The 1969 Chicago Cubs

A black cat prances around in front of the 1969 Cubs dugout

It was the historic 1969 season, the first season of division play and the Chicago Cubs looked destined to make a push for their first World Series championship since 1908. At the All-Star Break they had an incredibly impressive 61-37 record with a 5 game lead over the 2nd place Mets. By mid-August, that lead had increased to nine games. On September 2nd, they were 32 games over .500, led by superstars like Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Ron Santo and, of course, Ernie Banks. Then, the Mets suddenly caught fire, going on a 10-game winning streak. The Cubs on the other hand, who hadn’t lost more than 4 in a row all season long, lost 8 straight. Still, the Cubs held on a lead in the division. Then, on a September 9th game between the two teams, a black cat showed up in front of the Cubs dugout and pranced back and forth a couple times before running off. Whether one believes in the supernatural or not, this couldn’t be a good sign. Sure enough, the Cubs continued to fall apart and the Mets kept winning. New York went 38-11 and finish out the season and not only won the division, but won it by an absolutely insane 8 games, despite being back by 9 games in mid-August. The Cubs lost 18 of their final 26 games to finish off the collapse. This, of course, was part of the story for the 1969 Miracle Mets, who went on the win the World Series.

#5 The 2009 Detroit Tigers

On May 10th, 2009, The Detroit Tigers won a baseball game in Cleveland, which propelled them into first place in the American League Central. Nearly 4 months later, entering into September, they had never relinquished that first place spot and continued to look amazing, winning 6 consecutive games to start the month. They entered into a series against the last place Royals with a strong 7 game lead over the Twins. Undoubtedly, fans were preparing for a World Series push in October. This was when everything began to fall apart. The Tigers were swept by Kansas City and went on to lose 9 out of 12 games. The Twins, meanwhile, were heating up, and at one point in September, won 11 out of 12. On September 29th, the teams met up in a 4-game series. If The Tigers could win 3 out of 4, they would clinch. The series ended up in a 2-2 split. Still, The Tigers held a 2-game lead in the division with both teams entering the final 3-game series of the season. If The Tigers could win one game out of the 3 and the Twins lose just one out of 3, Detroit would clinch. The Twins did what they had to and swept the Royals. Meanwhile, the Tigers lost game one against the White Sox in a game full of ejections and hit by pitches. Their superstar Miguel Cabrera decided it was good night to go hang out and get drunk with some White Sox players. He got into an altercation with his wife and had to be picked up at the police station by the Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski. Needless to say, he didn’t have his best game, going 0-4 as the Tigers lost 8-0. They won the last game of the year, but with the Twins sweep of the Royals, the teams ended the 162-game season tied, necessitating a 163rd game to determine the division winner. In an insane game that went 12 innings, the Tigers blundered several opportunities to win the game and in end, the Twins were victorious, knocking the Tigers out of the playoffs on October 4th. It was an absolutely unbelievable meltdown and to this day, one of the most epic collapses in MLB History.

#4 The 1978 Boston Red Sox

Coming up next is the 1978 Boston Red Sox, a team loaded with talent. A few names you might recognize include Dennis Eckersley, Luis Tiant, Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, Dwight Evans and Carl Yastrzemski. The team got off to a red-hot start, winning 19 of their first 30 games and cementing themselves into first place. By June, they were 45-19 and 7 games ahead of the Yankees. Come September 1st, the Red Sox were on a 6-game wining streak, holding a 6 ½ game lead in the division with a month to go. Then, they entered into a rough patch, losing 5 out of 7 games. That’s when the 2nd place Yankees came to town for a 4-game series. If the Red Sox could just manage a split, any hope the Yankees had at that point could be put to bed. Instead, the Yankees swept the series and could smell first place, sitting just 3 ½ games back. The Red Sox continued to fall, losing 5 of the next 6. This epic collapse allowed the Yankees to tie for the division lead at the end of the year, forcing a one-game playoff. During this game, the Red Sox had a 2-0 lead entering into the 7th inning. It was looking like maybe they could pull through after all. That’s when Bucky Dent came to the plate. Incredibly, against all the odds, the Yankees came back from 6 ½ games back in September to win the game and the division.

#3 The 1995 California Angels

Lee Smith, closer for the 1995 California Angels

By 1995, Angels fans had gotten used to late-season collapses. It had happened multiple times in the 80’s, and when they did make the playoffs, things got even more painful. However, the 1995 California Angels looked like a Team of Destiny. They had a powerful rotation anchored by Mark Langston and Chucky Finley to go along with an incredibly talented lineup featuring the likes of J.T. Snow, Chili Davis, Jim Edmonds and Tim Salmon. They even had a future Hall-of-Famer as their closer with Lee Smith. Unsurprisingly, the Angels dominated the league for months, building an 11-game lead by early August. Suddenly, the Seattle Mariners received a massive jumpstart from the return of Ken Griffey Jr. who had been injured since May. He made his return on August 15th and beginning on the very next day, the Angels suddenly lost it, losing 21 of 25 games. Nevertheless, their lead was so strong it seemed insurmountable and with just two weeks left in the season, they somehow still maintained a 6-game lead. Then they lost 9 more in a row. In an absolutely incredible turn of events, the Seattle Mariners came back from 11 games back in August to tie the Angels for the division lead at the end of the season, forcing a one-game playoff. In that game, the Mariners sent the intimidating future Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson to the mound. He threw 150 pitches to seal the deal, defeating the Angels 9-1 and ending their playoff hopes. The Angels were 66-41 on August 20th with a 12 ½ game lead over the Mariners and went 12-44 the rest of the way, including two 9-game losing streaks. It was one of the most monumental meltdowns ever.

#2 The 2011 Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves

I’m going to cheat a little and put two in one since this was an epic dual collapse that the baseball world witnessed in 2011. Consider this 2a and 2b. The Atlanta Braves were essentially a lock to make the playoffs, holding a 8 ½ game lead over the Cardinals for the Wild Card on September 1st. Meanwhile, in the American League, the Red Sox had a 9 game lead for the Wild Card just in case they didn’t win the division, which they led by a game over the Yankees. The tailspin began for the Braves on September 2nd, as they began a 3-game series against the Dodgers. They lost the series 2-1. No big deal, right? Then they were swept by the Phillies in a series that included a 9-0 shutout. The bullpen, which had been lights out all season led by closer Craig Kimbrell, began to struggle and the offense went cold. The Cardinals had gotten red-hot and were gaining ground. The two teams met on September 9th for a 3-game series and the Braves were swept. By the end of the season, the Cards were hot on their trail and won 4 of their last 5 games to overtake the Braves, who lost 5 consecutive games to end the season.

During this monumental meltdown, the Red Sox weren’t faring much better, as they went 7-20 in the month of September, giving up the division to the Yankees. The Wild Card was in danger too, but a Rays loss and Red Sox win on the last day of the season would clinch it. It seemed as everything was going to work out as the Yankees were beating the Rays 7-0 in the 8th inning and the Red Sox led the Orioles in the bottom of the 9th with Jonathan Papelbon ready to close it out. Then, in a horrifying turn of events for Red Sox fans, the Orioles rallied, scoring 6 runs in the 8th and another in the 9th to tie the game. Up stepped Evan Longoria in the 12th inning to cap off the most epic dual collapse in MLB history.

1. The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies

1964 World Series Phillies Ticket

They were one of the most dominant young teams to ever take the field for the majority of 1964, led by Dick Allen, Johnny Callison and 19-game winner Jim Bunning. They were 47-28 at the All Star Break, and didn’t slow down from there, building a 6 ½ game first place lead by September 20th. That’s right – they had a 6 ½ lead on September 20th with just 12 games left in the season. The team literally began to print World Series tickets and Sports Illustrated held a photo shoot with the team for the cover of their World Series edition. There were two teams tied for 2nd place – the Reds and Cardinals, both 6 ½ back. As fate would have it, the Phillies schedule had them playing both teams down the stretch. First, they took on the Reds in a 3 game series that began on September 21st. They were swept. At the time, it wasn’t that big of a deal as they still held a 3 ½ game lead with about a week to go. Luckily, they had a fairly easy 4-game series against the middle-of-the-road Milwaukee Braves. They were swept again, bringing them to a 3-game series against the Cardinals, who smelled blood. The shell-shocked Phillies were once again swept, bringing their overall losing streak to 10 games. The Cardinals took over first place and won the pennant by a single game in what had to be the most epic and unexpected collapse in the history of the game. The team completely fell apart defensively and offensively while the manager Gene Mauch burned out his two best starters by starting them over and over during the losing streak. There have been many horrible collapses in MLB history, but the 1964 Phillies come in at #1 on my list.

Ranking the MLB COMMISSIONERS!!

Welcome to another Humm Baby Baseball countdown and in today’s video, I’ll be ranking the MLB Commissioners from worst to best. There have been 10 commissioners in the history of Major League Baseball, beginning with Kenasaw Mountain Landis in 1920. Of course, we all know the current commissioner, Rob Manfred. Half of the commissioners were active during my lifetime and their actions had constantly had a major impact on my enjoyment of the game. However, I will try not to be biased and give a fair evaluation of each commissioner, offering positives and negatives. Of course, some of the negatives I give may be positives for others, such as a rule change that I hate but others may love. For this reason, every one’s ranking will be different and I’d love to hear yours down in that comment section below. With that said, let’s get started.

And a lot of people probably assume that Rob Manfred will come in at #10 as the worst commissioner of all time. If you made that assumption, congratulations. Coming in at #10 as the worst commissioner in MLB History of my list is indeed Robert Manfred.

#10 Rob Manfred

Rob Manfred assumed the office of the Commissioner of baseball in January of 2015 and has been a complete disaster since that time. He listed several potential MLB cities and advocated for expansion, and there has been no obvious progress on that. He began instituting rule changes meant to improve pace of play, which only made the game look more amateurish, such as runners simply jogging to first for an intentional walk instead of taking four balls. The rule changes continued with more each year, including forcing managers to leave their pitchers in to face at least 3 batters and more recently, starting a runner on 2nd base in extra innings, which was supposedly a safety measure, but had been enforced in the Minors before the pandemic and was well on its way to the Majors. Speaking of the pandemic, the public bickering between the owners and players was absolutely out of control under Manfred as they were supposedly negotiating how they could have a 2020 season. Manfred said they would unequivocally 100% play baseball that year. Five days later, he backtracked, saying he wasn’t confident they would have a season at all. Manfred was also heavily criticized on how he handled the Astros cheating scandal, a scandal that occurred in 2017 under his watch. He referred to the World Series Trophy as a “chunk of metal.” In 2021, he stripped the City of Atlanta and local baseball fans of the All Star Game over a Georgia Voting Reform Law, and opinions on this were mostly divided politically. MLB has been terrible at marketing players under Manfred, who has said that players like Mike Trout need to market themselves. Under Manfred, the Minor Leagues were completely reassembled, resulting in 42 cities losing their affiliated team and labor relations were strained to the point that the 2022 season was in jeopardy after Manfred and the owners instituted a lockout. They went radio-silent for over a month, showing no signs of faithful negotiations or updates for the fans. On the positive side, he has unified all fans and players in their desire to see him fired as soon as humanly possible.

#9 William Eckert

Coming in at #9 is the 4th commissioner in MLB history, William Eckert, who was an extremely decorated Lieutenant General in the U.S. Air Force, serving during World War II. In 1965, MLB Club owners needed to vote for a new commissioner and decided to hire Eckert, who was completely unknown in baseball circles and hadn’t even watched a game in person in over 10 years. They wanted some one who wasn’t connected with baseball who had strong leadership skills with an understanding of business and bureaucracy. He accomplished very little during his tenure and drew much criticism for his handling of whether or not to cancel games after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. He wasn’t completely clear and his meek response caused confusion as to whether there would be games or not – some teams played and some didn’t. He knew nothing about the business of baseball and oftentimes sat still during moments of major controversy in which leadership and guidance was needed. He was so clueless about the game, he hadn’t realized that the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles and once referred to the Cardinals as “the Cincinnati Cardinals.” He stayed up late at nights just studying the game of baseball, learning names of superstars and trying to be prepared for whatever question the media ask lest he look like a complete fool. One of the few positives regarding Eckert is that he was one of the first to promote the game internationally. He once said

 “I can visualize within the foreseeable future the spread of major league baseball on an international scale to include Japan, Canada and several Latin American countries. I see major league baseball as a means of contributing to international friendship.”

He accompanied the Dodgers to Japan in 1966 on a goodwill and exhibition tour. It was also during his term that union leader Marvin Miller was hired as the head of the Player’s Association. Eckert violated several union laws, albeit possibly unintentionally, and was no match for Miller. The player’s union began to show its strength and the owners voted Eckert out as commissioner in 1968. Cubs owner Philip Wrigley, realizing that hiring an outsider was a mistake, said that baseball needed a “baseball man.”

#8 A. Barlett Giamatti

The only reason Giamatti is this low on the list is because he was only commissioner for five months before tragically dying of a heart attack at age 51, so he never got the chance to really improve or destroy the game. He was, however, President of the National League for nearly three years before becoming commissioner and fought to improve the fan experience at ballparks. He was tough and quick when it came to handing down punishments and suspensions. Once he became commissioner, he reorganized the administration by creating a deputy commissioner to assist him, a position that still exists. He is most famous for dealing with the betting scandal of Pete Rose. After a report showed the Rose had bet on 52 Reds games in 1987, Giamatti and Rose negotiated a deal in which Rose would voluntarily accept a lifetime ban from the game with the ability to apply for reinstatement in a year. He did not have to publicly admit guilt and, in fact, denied that he bet on games for many years thereafter. Unforunately, Giamatti died a few days after this agreement. Giamatti, a lifelong baseball fan, may have turned out to be a fine commissioner, but sadly, he ended up being the William Henry Harrison of MLB Commissioners, dying too early in his term to really tell how good or bad he would have been.

#7 Bowie Kuhn

After forcing out William Eckert, owners hired that “baseball man” they wanted with the much more baseball-savvy Bowie Kuhn, who at 42 became the youngest commissioner in history. He made the unfortunate decision to ban both Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle from being involved in Major League Baseball because they had associations and sponsorships with casinos even though neither were directly involved with gambling, much less gambling on the game of baseball. His time as commissioner is filled with labor issues, including the first strike in MLB history in 1972 and the 1981 work stoppage, both which resulted in the cancellation of games. There were also labor disputes in ‘73, ‘76 and ‘80. Free Agency was created during his time as commissioner but he fought hard to prevent it, preferring to keep the old reserve clause system. Kuhn denied Curt Flood’s initial request to become a free agent and the dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled in Kuhn’s favor. However, the union was able to negotiate the start of MLB Free Agency in 1975. On the positive side of things, Kuhn fought hard to allow Negro League players to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. He also came up with the idea to have a World Series Night Game, assuming more people would watch due to being off work. The game drew in a record 61 million viewers. He made a controversial decision in 1974 that I believe was probably correct in order to maintain competitive integrity. Hank Aaron was 2 homers away from breaking Babe Ruth’s record and the Braves wanted to bench him for the 3-game series in Cincinnati to start the season so he could break the record at home. Kuhn ruled he had to play in at least 2 of the 3 games. He was also swift and quick with suspensions, although he is the first commissioner to be aware of the steroids issue and the first to do nothing about it.

#6 Bud Selig

During Selig’s time as Commissioner, I was not a huge fan. However, he did accomplish a lot during his reign as MLB Commissioner, including nearly 20 years of labor peace. It has to be noted that Selig was acting commissioner during the 1994 strike, and despite the fact that labor relations were already horrible when he took over in 1992 due to collusion by the owners, he was the acting commissioner when a strike prevented the World Series from happening, something two World Wars didn’t do. However, since baseball resumed in 1995, there was continuous peace throughout Selig’s time as Commissioner. He also instituted the Wild Card and expanded playoffs in 1994, which would prevent a situation like the one that occurred to the 1993 San Francisco Giants after winning 103 games but missing out on the playoffs because they happened to be in the same division with a team that won 104. The economics of the game were mostly healthy under Selig and teams were bringing in major revenue, which allowed many beautiful stadiums to be built. Whether some changes to the game during Selig’s term are good or bad depend on each fan’s viewpoint – but in general, inter-league play and instant replay are considered successful innovations in the game. He also created a rule I hated, which was making the All-Star Game determine which team had home field advantage in the World Series. This was possibly a knee-jerk reaction to the controversy caused after he ended the 2002 All Star Game in a tie. His biggest black eye might be the steroid-era. Selig knew steroids were rampant in the game but did next to nothing about it until he was pressured to do so by Congress. He turned a blind-eye to steroids during the 90’s when McGwire and Sosa were making headlines. It became obvious that any one could do it and get away, which led to more players doing it, such as Barry Bonds, who saw what was going on with McGwire and Sosa and decided he better do it too. Selig claims that he never knew or heard a thing about steroids during the 90’s. Either he is lying, which is most likely, or was completely ignorant about what was going on in the game. Whatever the case, he finally did begin to establish testing and punishments for PED’s, but the damage was already done. Overall, Selig is a mixed bag and falls right around the middle at #6

#5 Peter Ueberroth

The Commissioner of Baseball when I first became a fan in 1987 was Peter Ueberroth, who was hired in 1984 after overseeing the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was an impressive commissioner in the early years, immediately resolving an umpire dispute that almost lead to them striking during the 1984 postseason. He also quietly, behind the scenes, helped negotiate collective-bargaining agreements between players and owners, ensuring the no games were lost. He reinstated Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, who were banned from working in Major League Baseball due to associations with casinos. He was also a key player in pushing the Chicago Cubs to install lights so that night games could be played at Wrigley Field and was swift in dealing with cocaine issues by suspending numerous players. Ueberroth negotiated massive contracts with CBS and ESPN and attendances improved dramatically under his leadership. The baseball industry became profitable for the first time in years and every team was benefiting from increased revenue.

Unfortunately, despite all the positives, there is one negative that keeps him from being ranked higher on this list and that is his involvement in the MLB Collusion Scandals of the 80’s. In 1986, the MLB Player’s Association filed a grievance after noticing no teams were willing to sign major free agents. Stars such as Kirk Gibson and Tommy John received zero interest. This continued throughout the mid-80’s and most stars had to re-sign with their previous teams. Andre Dawson, desperate to play on natural grass, took a massive pay cut to sign with the Cubs despite being an absolute superstar in the prime of his career. The players filed more grievances until an arbitrator ruled that the owners and conspired to restrict player movement. Peter Ueberroth played a major role in this and had given the message to owners to keep salaries as low as possible. Owners were ordered to pay millions in damages and any of the free agents affected were allowed to offer their services to any team without losing their existing contracts. Ueberroth resigned as Commissioner before the 1989 season.

#4 Fay Vincent

Next up is Fay Vincent, who took over for Bart Giamatti after his untimely death. He had a shaky start as Commissioner – literally, as an Earthquake brought the 1989 World Series to a halt. He made the right call in delaying the World Series for 10 days. There was also a lockout during 1990 Spring Training, but Vincent worked with both sides and helped work out an agreement in order to save a 162-game season. Later that year, he banned Yankees owner George Steinbrenner for life because he paid a gambler to dig up dirt on his player Dave Winfield. Steinbrenner was later reinstated. Vincent appointed a committee for statistical accuracy, which determined that Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in the 1961 season was indeed a true MLB single season record despite the schedule having 162 games instead of the 154 games that Babe Ruth’s schedule had. Vincent also started the expansion process, helping bring in the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins into Major League Baseball. However, owners did not appreciate Vincent as player salaries rose and Vincent was not afraid to openly criticize owners and past commissioners for collusion. He seemed like a solid commissioner who avoided major controversy and avoided making major rule changes for the sake of making rule changes. The owners voted him out, however, leading the way to Bud Selig as acting and eventually official Commisioner. Vincent also receives some criticism for not taking a stronger stance against the use steroids in baseball, although he did send a memo to all teams in 1991 explaining that any player who uses an illegal substance including steroids are subject to discipline including possible expulsion from the game. Of course, steroids were not nearly as rampant during Vincent’s time as Comish. After being voted out, Vincent said,

“To do the job without angering an owner is impossible. I can't make all twenty-eight of my bosses happy. People have told me I'm the last commissioner. If so, it's a sad thing. I hope they [the owners] learn this lesson before too much damage is done.”

#3 Kenasaw Mountain Landis

Coming in at #3 is the first Commissioner in the history of Major League Baseball, Kenasaw Mountain Landis. Landis, a former U.S. Federal Judge, was hired in the aftermath of the 1919 World Series Gambling Scandal, in which several members of the White Sox threw the World Series.

“We want a man as chairman who will rule with an iron hand,” said National League President John Heydler. “Baseball has lacked a hand like that for years. It needs it now worse than ever.”

They got exactly what they wanted as Landis came down hard on the 8 players involved in the scandal, banning each for life, regardless of the fact that they were acquitted by in a Chicago trial. He made a statement that made it loud and clear - no player involved in the throwing of a game will ever play professional baseball again. It was a major priority for Landis to rid the game of gamblers and crooks and he continued to ban and suspend any players involved in gambling. Under Landis the Minor Leagues became affiliated with the big leagues although credit for this mostly goes to Branch Rickey. Before his time as commissioner, all minor leagues were unaffiliated alternate leagues. This innovation is still felt today when attending Minor League Games and watching young prospects from Major League organizations. He also made it a law that all teams must disclose their transactions in both the Majors and Minors. His ruthless approach cleaned up the game and helped create the Minor League system we know today. On the downside, although he did proclaim that no rule prohibits black players from playing in the Majors, he did nothing to proactively help get rid of the gentleman’s agreement, an agreement among owners not to sign black players. He never encouraged teams to sign any player who would help their team regardless of race, even though Landis had the power and strength to destroy the color barrier as early as the 1920’s. Had he done this, his legacy would have been a hundred times stronger today.

#2 Ford Frick

Next up is the third Commisioner in MLB history and #2 on my list, Ford Frick, a lifelong baseball fan. He was a sportswriter and National League President before becoming commissioner, the first to have no political background. Before becoming commissioner, Frick was a pioneer in helping to create the Hall of Fame after proposing the creating of a Baseball Museum to honor the greatest players to ever play the game. As commissioner, he helped Major League Baseball grow massively across the country with expansion teams, television contracts, creating an international presence and a college scholarship system. New teams that entered the league were the Mets, Astros, Angels and Senators. He also approved the first team moves in over 50 years, which included the Giants and Dodgers moving west, creating Major League Baseball from coast to coast. Overall, however, he laid low and allowed the game to thrive without meddling. One writer wrote that

“He understood his role. He was a caretaker, not a czar.”

If only the current commissioner understood such things. That said, Frick had one major negative that he is remembered for and it is the decision to make a distinction between Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs for a 154 game season and Roger Maris’s record of 61 for a 162-game season. This was a decision that was influenced in large part by the media, which he used to be a part of.

#1 Happy Chandler

Coming in at #1 is the second Commissioner in MLB history, Happy Chandler, a career politician who owners voted in as commissioner so they could have more influence in Washington D.C. He turned out to be a great commissioner, but not so much for the owners. His biggest contribution to the game was facilitating the breaking of the color barrier in 1947. After Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey announced to promotion of Jackie Robinson to the Dodgers, Chandler supported the decision and approved Robinson’s contract, even though he had the power to void it. After Phillies manager Ben Chapman hurled racist remarks at Robinson one game, Chandler threatened every team with disciplinary action should any race-based taunting happen again. Also, any player who decided to strike due to Robinson’s presence in the league would be indefinitely suspended. Ford Frick, who was N.L. President at the time, supported Chandler in this decision. Chandler made these decisions regardless of the opinion of the owners, many of whom were against allowing Robinson to play. Dodgers Pitcher Don Newcome said,

"Some of the things he did for Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and [myself] when he was commissioner of baseball – those are the kinds of things we never forget. Chandler had cared for black players in baseball when it wasn't fashionable.”

Chandler was the Commissioner who decided to put umpires on the outfield foul lines during the playoffs back in 1947. Additionally, he negotiated a multi-million dollar contract with Gillette and the Mutual Broadcasting System for radio rights to the World Series, with the proceeds going into a player’s pension fund that he created. It was the first pension for players and gave him the reputation as a player’s commissioner. Unsurprisingly, the owners were not fond of his performance and voted him out in 1951. Although he was generally great to players, he did go to extremes to keep labor peace, such as threatening to ban players if they organized a strike. Another situation he dealt with was a Mexican League opening up and offering huge money to MLB players to come play in their league. Chandler threatened a five year ban if any player left MLB to play in the Mexican League and didn’t return before April 1st. These were questionable decisions, but overall, Happy Chandler was an outstanding commissioner and comes on my list as the best in MLB history.

Top 10 MLB Clubhouse Cancers of ALL TIME

It’s the nature of the workforce. Whether it’s an office job, restaurant or even a Major League Baseball team, there are always going to be those people who just make things difficult. They complain too much, cause fights and create an overall negative atmosphere. In sports, they’re called Clubhouse Cancers. And in baseball, there are plenty of players who seem like, wherever they go, which oftentimes is all over the place because no team wants to keep them for long, they cause trouble. Today we’ll be counting down the Top 10 Players with reputations as huge clubhouse cancers. As a disclaimer, I don’t personally know any of the players on this list and have never shared a clubhouse with them, but based on interviews from teammates, constant drama and even some interesting events caught on film, the evidence suggests that the 10 players on this list are not the greatest teammates and have earned the title of “Clubhouse Cancer.” Before I get into the list, I’d like to mention three players not on the list that are sure to be mentioned in the comment section.

Alex Rodriguez

One is Alex Rodriguez, who was certainly no stranger to controversy. He created lots of distractions and was disliked by many teammates. However, many teammates such as Mariano Rivera, have spoken very highly of A-Rod and he has shown some signs that he’s not a completely self-centered jerk, such as the willingness to switch positions so Derek Jeter could remain at shortstop. He may have been a clubhouse cancer, but didn’t quite make my Top 10.

Barry Bonds

Neither did Barry Bonds, who certainly had a massive ego and didn’t get along with the media at all. Nor did he get along with his teammates all the time – the obvious example being Jeff Kent, another player known for being somewhat of a problem in the locker room. Late in his career, word got out that Bonds had his own TV and massaging recliner in the clubhouse. However, he was able to stay with the same team for 15 years and some former players, like Kevin Frandsen, have defended Bonds. Even if he was a jerk behind the scenes, the stories aren’t quite bad enough to propel him into my Top 10.

Ty Cobb

Lastly, there’s Ty Cobb, one of the most misunderstood players of all time. Cobb was certainly no stranger to a fight and not the most pleasant teammate of all time – his intensity was over the top and he would not tolerate any one slacking off in the slightest. However, his reputation as a massive racist, a murderer and one of the worst human beings ever was caused by poorly researched articles and documentaries, which have been recently debunked. As far as his clubhouse presence, ex-teammate Del Pratt said “I never had a bad word with Ty. He was set on winning, and he would do whatever he could to win a ballgame, but he wouldn’t toss a player aside without helping him be better. I learned more from Cobb than any man I ever played with.” Look forward to a video dedicated to Ty Cobb soon. But for now, let’s get started with those who did make the Top 10 list.

#10 Jonathan Papelbon

Known for a strong arm and even stronger mouth, Jonathan Papelbon kicks off today’s Top 10. He took speaking what’s on his mind to the next level, criticizing teammates and fans. After leaving Boston to sign with the Phillies, Papelbon said,

“The difference between Boston and Philadelphia, the Boston fans are a little bit more hysterical when it comes to the game of baseball. The Philly fans tend to know the game a little better.”

He wasn’t always polite to the Phillies fans either, however, especially after a blown save in which he heard a few boos and did this in response. When he left Philly, Papelbon basically insulted every one of his teammates saying,

"I was one of the few that wanted to win. I was one of the few who competed and posted up every day,”

He was a master at saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but Papelbon didn’t just use his mouth to get into trouble. He got into altercations with every one, even the radio and TV personalities. He apparently got into the face of commentator Howard Eskin and the two had to be separated. Superstars weren’t off-limits either, as he was suspended in 2015 for throwing directly at Manny Machado’s head and later that season, yelled at and proceeded to choke Bryce Harper in one of the most unbelievable moments ever caught on tape in an MLB dugout. Papelbon was simply all-around one of the greatest drama-kings in the history of the game.

#9 Trevor Bauer

Long before his current controversy and suspension, which I’ll get to, Bauer was known as a clubhouse cancer. He was selected by the Diamondbacks in the first round of the 2011 MLB Draft, but reportedly clashed with teammates during the 2012 season, resulting in the D-Backs trading him to Cleveland. After the trade, Bauer released a diss-track titled “You Don’t Know Me,” after D-Backs catcher Miguel Montero stated that Bauer “never wanted to listen.” With The Indians, the controversies continued. In 2016, he missed a Game 2 playoff start because he sliced his finger while repairing a drone. He tried to start Game 3, but had to come out in the first inning when blood started dripping from his finger. He made more headlines in 2019 when he appeared to harass a female college student on twitter. Later that year, frustrated that he was being taken out of a game, Bauer threw a ball over the centerfield fence. Terry Francona said what we all were thinking. He won the Cy Young Award with the Reds in 2020 and was a risky free-agent option for teams that off season given his controversial past. The Dodgers took a chance on him with a 3 year/$102 million deal. It could be said that it wasn’t the greatest deal for LA, as Bauer was accused by a woman of sexual assault and ended up being suspended for two years despite the DA deciding not to criminally charge him. The Dodgers canceled his bobblehead night and pulled his merch from the team store and website. Reports came out that the majority of Dodgers players don’t want him back. Bauer may or may not be a horrible person, but based on his history, he’s certainly a major distraction to a clubhouse.

#8 Carlos Zambrano

Next on the list is a 3-time All-Star pitcher who could also swing the bat with big power. His name is Carlos Zambrano and he was not only a great all-around ballplayer but also a serious hothead. During his career, it seemed like he was good for at least one suspension per season. He got into altercations with any and everybody, including his own teammates such as the case in 2007 when he got into a major slugout in the dugout with his catcher, Michael Barrett, after a passed ball and errant throw by Barrett. The list of Zambrano controversies is lengthy and quotes from his teammates don’t help his case. Speaking of his teammates, he once called out his entire team after a tough loss, calling them a bunch of “Triple-A Players.” When things aren’t going his way, he tends to take out his anger on the batter – in a painful way. In August of 2011, he was ejected after throwing at Chipper Jones twice during a particularly bad outing. After the game, he said he was walking out on his team and retiring. Instead, the Cubs suspended him for 30 days. Zambrano’s teammate Ryan Dempster said

“He’s made his bed. Let him sleep in it. It’s not like it’s something new.”

By 2011, he wore out his welcome in Chicago and was traded to Miami, where he pitched in just one more big league season.

#7 Rogers Hornbsy

Coming in at #7 is a Hall-of-Famer and two-time MVP who was apparently hated as a player and manager. Rogers Horsnby wanted nothing to do with his teammates, having no interest in hanging out after the games, but stories indicate he wasn’t just an introvert. He apparently had an abrasive personality and was simply mean and nasty with every one. Hornsby once said “Baseball is my life. It’s the only thing I know and care about.” In 1926, the Cardinals traded him to the Giants, where he hit .361 and had an OPS over 1.000. The Giants traded him after one season anyway. Then, he hit an incredible .387 for the Boston Braves. After that one year, they traded him too. After his career, he became a manager and was fired several times. He was let go by the 1932 Cubs in the middle of the season, and the Cubs went on to win the pennant. The players voted against him receiving a share of the extra earnings. Hornsby also had off-the-field issues, including gambling addictions and various lawsuits against him, one for knocking over an elderly man with his car in 1919. In a biography about Hornsby, Charles Alexander wrote

“Hornsby never seemed to understand that by itself brilliance in his chosen field just wasn’t enough. To survive, prosper, and keep others respect, he would also have to accommodate himself to what others thought and felt.”

It seems that the bottom line is that Rogers Hornsby was one of the greatest players of all time – but certainly not the nicest guy of all time.

#6 Carl Everett

Next on the list is a very talented player who many considered to be a complete nutjob. Despite being a 1st round pick with a fantastic combination of speed and power, he played for 8 teams in 14 years, never spending more than three seasons in one place. He was outspoken with his beliefs and some of these, such as the denial that dinosaurs ever existed and his belief that the moon-landing was a hoax, seem fairly harmless. However, his comments became more controversial and offensive when he said that he would consider retiring if he ever had a gay teammate, or at the very least, he would “set him straight.” His beliefs aside, Everett also went into frequent tirades, getting into verbal disputes with umpires, opponents, teammates, coaches and managers. During one argument, he headbutted the umpire, resulting in a 10-game suspension. Teams would get tired of dealing with him after a couple seasons and trade him somewhere else. His issues stretched beyond the baseball field as well. In 1997, he and his wife temporarily lost custody of his two children when bruises were noticed all over his 5-year old daughter. After retirement, he has been arrested at least twice – once for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and again for assaulting a family member. Everett was a great ballplayer but, apparently, an even greater clubhouse cancer.

#5 Hal Chase

Next up we go back to the early days of the game with Hal Chase, a degenerate gambler who was involved in nearly every major scandal in the early days of baseball. He began his career with the Yankees, then known as the Highlanders. He was very good hitter but played elite defense – at least when he was not throwing games. He got along poorly with teammates and ignored his coaches and managers. According to several interviews, he would miss practices, skip games due to “illness,” and was simply the definition of a clubhouse cancer. In 1910, manager George Stallings said he would resign if Chase was not released. He was eventually traded to the White Sox where he made enemies with White Sox owner Charles Comiskey and A.L President Ban Johnson by jumping into the Federal League, a third league formed to compete with the A.L. and N.L. He was blackballed from the A.L. but later returned to play with the Reds. Reds manager and former Giants pitcher Christy Mathewson accused him of betting on and throwing games. As a first baseman, he perfected the art of making fielders throws look errant by arriving late to the bag. The Reds would go into terrible losing streaks, due in large part to strange errors or baserunning blunders by Chase. He also uncharacteristically missed signs and made mental mistakes. According to his teammate Ed Roush,

“He was the best first baseman I ever saw. He also the worst if he wanted to lose a game. You could tell after an inning or two whether he was there to win or lose.”

Despite being known as one of the most spectacular fielders of all time, he made 402 errors in just 10 seasons. It’s likely many if not the majority of them were intentional. He was later accused of playing a major role in the White Sox 1919 World Series Scandal, even though he was no longer with the White Sox or Reds. His entire career is filled with stories of gambling, scandals and throwing games, which couldn’t have been good for the clubhouse.

#4 Albert Belle

Albert Belle was one of the most terrifying players to pick up a bat – he was fiercely competitive and extremely talented, scaring the hell out of his opponents. Problem is, he scared the hell out of everybody else too and was an absolute menace in the locker room. According to Buster Olney -

“Few escaped his wrath: on some days he would destroy the postgame buffet ... launching plates into the shower, and after one poor at-bat against Boston, he retreated to the visitors' clubhouse and took a bat to teammate Kenny Lofton’s boombox. Belle preferred to have the clubhouse cold, below 60 degrees, and when one chilly teammate turned up the heat, Belle walked over, turned down the thermostat and smashed it with his bat. His nickname, thereafter, was "Mr. Freeze."

The Indians had to bill him $10,000 a year for the damage he would case in clubhouses on the road and at home. Another lowlight of Belle’s career was getting suspended for a corked bat then convincing teammate Jason Grimsley to sneak through the ceiling panels into the umpire’s dressing room to replace the corked bat with a legit one. He was disliked by the media as well and was only tolerated because of his amazing production which included 9 consecutive years of 100 or more RBIs. After retirement, he spent time in jail for stalking and was arrested for indecent exposure and DUI.

#3 Vince Coleman

Coming in at #2 is Vince Coleman, who was the National League’s version of Rickey Henderson in the 1980’s. He stole a ridiculous 110 bases during his rookie season. At one point in 1989, he stole 50 consecutive bases without being caught. However, he was controversial from the beginning, getting along poorly with coaches and teammates, constantly getting into fights and arguments. After the Cardinals traded him to the Mets, there were stories that he ignored the coaches signs on the basepaths and did whatever he wanted. He was also no stranger to controversial comments, once responding to a question about Jackie Robinson by saying “I don’t know nothin’ about him. Why are you asking me about Jackie Robinson?” Robinson’s widow, Rachel, later responded by saying “I hope he’ll learn and be embarrassed by his own ignorance.” Things took a horrifying turn later when Coleman was named, along with two of his teammates, in a sexual assault complaint filed by a woman in Florida, but he was never charged. In September of 1992, he got into a fight with manager Jeff Torborg and was suspended for the rest of the season. In 1993, he injured Doc Gooden by carelessly swinging a golf club in the locker room. Then, Coleman did the unthinkable – he lit a very powerful and explosive M-100 firecracker and threw it into a crowd of autograph-seekers outside Dodger Stadium, injuring three people, including two children. A 2-year old girl was seriously hurt, suffering cornea damage to her eye and lacerations on her face. The Mets were done with him at that point. He was charged and somehow only received community service and even continued his career after the Mets traded him to Kansas City. However, he bounced around several teams for the next 4 years before retiring.

#2 John Rocker

Next up is former Atlanta Braves closer John Rocker, whose controversial comments had to create major distractions in the clubhouse. He made his big league debut in 1998 and by 1999 became the closer, finishing the season with 38 saves. That year, he had some not-so-nice things to say about New York City and its people in an interview. I don’t want to repeat, so here is the recording:

He also insulted New York Mets fans, calling them degenerates. He was suspended for the first 14 games of the 2000 season. Outfielder Brian Jordan said

"You've got one guy being a cancer time and time again. Eventually, it's going to have an effect on the team."

The Braves traded Rocker to the Indians, and things didn’t exactly work out well in Cleveland. He reportedly didn’t get along with teammates and during the 2001 ALDS, he threw water at fans in Seattle. His offensive comments continued in 2002 with the Rangers, when he used several slurs to insult patrons of a Dallas restaurant. He pitched poorly in Texas, but refused to be demoted to the Minor Leagues, so they released him. After a brief stint with Tampa Bay, he retired but the comments didn’t. He later defended Ozzie Guillen after using a gay slur against a reporter and defended the use of steroids in baseball, saying that of course he used them. Rocker had a great arm for a couple years, but is one of the most hated MLB players of all time.

#1 Milton Bradley

One of the biggest trouble-makers in the history of the game and my #1 clubhouse cancer has to be Milton Bradley. In his 12-year career, Bradley played for 8 teams, causing problems everywhere he went. He was drafted by the Expos in 1996 and was suspended in the minors for starting a fight after getting hit by a pitch. That was just the beginning. After being traded to the Cleveland Indians, he created controversy after controversy both on and off the field. He was pulled over for speeding, but refused the ticket then sped away without permission to leave, resulting in a 3-day jail sentence. He got into frequent fights and run-ins with opponents and teammates. He often didn’t hustle or run out pop flies, resulting in him being barred from Cleveland’s training camp. In April 2004, the Indians traded him to the Dodgers. That season, he was ejected from a game in June and decided to throw a bag of baseballs onto the field and a few into the crowd as souvenirs. In September, he was suspended for the remainder of the year and required to attend anger management after an altercation with an unruly fan. He also had more run-ins with the cops and police were called to his home three times for possible domestic violence, but no charges were filed. Later, with the Padres in 2007, Bradley went on a massive tirade against an umpire and tore his ACL during the blowout. He signed with the Rangers for the 2008 season. During one game, Royals play-by-play announcer Ryan Lefebvre had a few negative thoughts on Bradley, which caused Bradley to storm out of the Rangers clubhouse and climb up four flights of stairs to get to the announcer and presumably kick his ass. He was held back by Ron Washington and others before he could get to Lefebvre. He went to the Cubs and quickly wore out his welcome after publicly criticizing the team and the fans. They suspended him then traded him to Seattle. He made headlines for abandoning his property in Chicago without paying rent. With the Mariners, it was more of the same including multiple ejections and fights, getting booed for lack of hustle, flipping off Texas Rangers fans, getting arrested for making threats against a woman, and getting suspended for bumping an umpire. After his career, he has been charged multiple times for domestic violence and in 2018, was charged with spousal battery and sentenced to 36 months of probation and 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling.