Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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Third-string catcher Jaime Burke was pressed into duty in the 15th inning of today's game between Seattle and Detroit at Safeco Field. And it was Burke who ended up taking the loss in the Tigers 2-1 win.
Burke gave up a leadoff double to Miguel Cabrera (boring note: on my fantasy team!) and then wild pitched him to third. Marcus Thames drove home pinch runner Michael Hollimon with what turned out to be the winning run.
The last position player to get a decision as a pitcher was Brent Mayne of Colorado Rockies, who was the winning pitcher in a 7-6, 14 inning game against the Braves on August 22, 2000.
The last position player to get a loss was Jeff Hamilton of the Dodgers in a 22 inning game against the Astros on June 3, 1989. The Astros won the game 5-4.
(I will note that I don't know of a good way of compiling a list of such events. I'm just going from memory. And as of today, I still have a good memory.)
UPDATE - Rocky Colavito got a win for the Yankees in the first game of a doubleheader against the Tigers on August 25, 1968. Colavito entered the game in the fourth inning. Johnny O'Brien of the Pirates, who pitched in several games in his rookie year and 25 overall although he was primarily an infielder, got a win for the Pirates against the Phillies on July 3, 1956. Jose Oquendo took the loss for the Cardinals in a 19-inning game against the Braves on May 14, 1988. Take note of the positions played by Tom Brunansky and Jose De Leon in the game. Granny Hamner, an emergency starter for the Phillies after Harvey Haddix hurt himself warming up, was the loser for the Phillies against the Pirates on August 31, 1956. The Pirates pitcher batted seventh in this game also.
Today was the day of the long games with the Braves beating the Astros in 17 innings, the Mets beating the Phillies in a 12 inning game that featured a rain delay of 168 minutes, and the Red Sox and Yankees finishing in a rather brief 10 innings. Brief by Yankees-Red Sox standards.
And please be careful about worrying dogs unneccesarily.
The ghost of Jose Canseco haunts us.
0 Relax, Scoob; the game's over and the Mariners still stink.
When I think of falling out of coaches, I can only think of bigmouths like Ozzie Guillen or Jerry Manuel. Running out of coaches, now that's a childhood problem the Mets need to be wary of... >;)
I'm pretty sure the list above is comprehensive for the Retrosheet era. Position players got the occasional decision during the World War II period, most notably Jimmie Foxx.
The list of position players who have received decisions is full of players who started their career as pitchers, then become position players (Rick Ankiel, Willie Smith, Bobby Darwin), and those that have done the opposite (Brooks Kieschnick, Danny Murphy, Skip Lockwood, Mel Queen, Dick Hall, Bob Bowman, Johnny O'Brien, Hal Jeffcoat).
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