April 14, 2002: Mariners’ Ron Wright accounts for six outs in three at-bats in only major-league game

“You know, we just don’t recognize life’s most significant moments while they’re happening. Back then I thought, ‘Well, there’ll be other days.’ I didn’t realize that that was the only day.” — Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster), Field of Dreams

After eight years in the minor leagues and numerous injuries, Ron Wright certainly realized the significance of his major-league debut with the Seattle Mariners on April 14, 2002. Unlike Moonlight Graham, who never batted in his sole major-league appearance, Wright made three trips to the plate, and the results were memorable – for the wrong reasons. But like Graham there would be no “other days.”

Selected in the seventh round of the June 1994 amateur draft by the Atlanta Braves out of Kamiakin High School in Kennewick, Washington, first baseman Wright hit 32 homers for Class A Macon in 1995 and followed with 36 home runs in 1996 while splitting time between High-A Durham and Double-A Greenville.1

After winning the 1995 World Series, the Braves had a large lead in the National League East Division in 1996 and moved to solidify their pitching staff for the playoffs. On August 28 they traded Wright to the Pittsburgh Pirates as part of a package of prospects for left-hander Denny Neagle.2 Wright was ranked as the Pirates number-5 prospect; he seemed to be on a fast track to the majors. 

In Triple-A Calgary in 1997, Wright hit .304 with 16 homers in 91 games before missing the final weeks of the season with a broken wrist. Despite the injury, the Pirates called up the 21-year-old slugger in September. He traveled with the team and even took batting practice but never played.3

Wright almost made the 1998 roster in spring training but was sent to Triple-A Nashville, where he suffered a serious injury.4 Taking a swing in batting practice early in the season, Wright hurt his back. “I just went down just like I’d been shot,” he said. “The disk totally blew out.”5

Even worse, during the surgery to remove the disk, the surgeon nicked Wright’s sciatic nerve, resulting in permanent numbness in his right leg, robbing him of his power. “I went from prospect to suspect pretty quick,” Wright said.6

Wright missed most of 1998 and 1999, homering just twice in 146 at-bats, then bounced around in Triple A with the Cincinnati Reds and Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2000 and 2001 before landing in Triple-A Tacoma with Seattle in 2002.

After their 2001 season in which they won a record 116 games and lost in the American League Championship Series, the Mariners were off to a 9-3 start in 2002 and in first place in the AL West Division.7 But they lost designated hitter Edgar Martínez to a hamstring injury.8

Called up to fill the void created by Martínez’s injury, Wright spent two games on the bench before being inserted into the lineup as DH on Sunday afternoon, April 14, when third baseman Jeff Cirillo was hit in the face with a ball during batting practice.9

Seattle started lefty John Halama, who five days earlier had won his first start of the year with six innings of one-run ball against the Anaheim Angels. Texas, at 3-8 and already 5½ games back of Seattle after dropping the first two of the four-game series, countered with veteran left-hander Kenny Rogers, who was winless in two starts despite a 3.27 ERA in 11 innings. 

In front of a crowd of 32,866, Seattle took the lead in the first. Ichiro Suzuki led off with a double, went to third on a groundout by Carlos Guillén, and scored when Bret Boone bounced out to shortstop.

After Halama retired Texas in order in the bottom of the first, Rubén Sierra singled and John Olerud walked to put two on for Wright’s first major league at-bat. Taking a first-pitch fastball down the middle, he struck out looking on three pitches.

Of all the events that would transpire in his lone major-league game, Wright regretted only one – not swinging at the first pitch.

“The best pitch I saw that day was that very first one,” he said. “I’d been hitting the first pitch well, I like hitting the first pitch. I let it go because I hadn’t seen a [live] pitch in four days. And that first big-league pitch, I felt like I really could have smoked it.”10

Two innings later, Sierra led off with a double and Olerud singled him to third with no outs. With a chance to collect an RBI, Wright swung at a pitch down and away and chopped the ball back up the middle. An off-balance Rogers snagged it and fired to shortstop Álex Rodríguez to force out Olerud at second.

Sierra had hesitated at third base and broken late for the plate; he was caught in a rundown on Rodríguez’s throw to catcher Bill Haselman. After a throw to third baseman Hank Blalock, Sierra was tagged out on a return throw to Rogers. Waved to second base by first-base coach John Moses during the rundown, Wright was gunned down trying to advance with second baseman Michael Young applying the tag at the bag.11

Wright was the first player to hit into a triple play in his first game since Atlanta’s Leo Foster on July 9, 1971.12 He joined pitcher Larry Hesterfer of the 1901 New York Giants as only the second player to hit into a triple play in his only big-league game.13

After allowing just one hit through the first three innings, Halama allowed a double to Young to start the fourth. One out later, Rodríguez – in his second season with the Rangers after leaving Seattle as a free agent – gave Texas a 2-1 lead with a home run to left field.

In the sixth inning, Wright batted for the third time – again with two on and no outs – after Sierra and Olerud singled. This time he jumped on the first pitch and bounced sharply to Rodríguez, who turned a 6-4-3 double play.

In the bottom of the sixth, Rodríguez clubbed his second homer against Halama, a three-run shot that gave him five RBIs and gave the Rangers a 5-1 lead.14

The Texas bullpen entered the game with a 0-3 record and a 6.27 ERA; it got worse when they took over in the seventh and allowed eight runs on 10 hits with two walks and two wild pitches in three innings.

Charles Gipson and Suzuki hit safely against Texas reliever Steve Woodard and scored on Guillén’s triple.

Dan Miceli replaced Woodard and fared no better. Boone singled and, one out later, Sierra lined a hit to left to put runners on the corners. Olerud dumped a single into right to score Boone and chase Miceli.

With the game tied 5-5 and right-handed-swinging Wright’s spot due up, Seattle manager Lou Piniella pinch-hit veteran Mark McLemore, who struck out swinging against righty Rudy Seánez. Singles by Ben Davis and Gipson plated Sierra and Olerud to give Seattle a 7-5 lead.

Texas tied the game in the seventh. Kevin Mench and Haselman walked against Ryan Franklin. After Shigetoshi Hasegawa relieved Franklin, Mench scored on Boone’s errant throw to first after Frank Catalanotto’s grounder forced Haselman at second. Catalanotto took second on the error and scored on Rusty Greer’s single.

After Seánez recorded two outs to start the eighth, Mike Cameron walked, took second on a wild pitch, and scored when Sierra capped off a 5-for-5 day with a single to right. A passed ball and Olerud’s fourth hit, a single against John Rocker, made the score 9-7.15

Gabe Kapler doubled in the bottom of the eighth before Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki entered and got the last four outs for his third save of the year.16

Wright expected to remain with the Mariners for a few days, but after winning a 13-11 slugfest the following day and in need of pitching, Seattle optioned him to Tacoma.17   

After being swept by Seattle, Texas never recovered and finished in the AL West cellar at 72-90. The Mariners led the division until they faded in mid-August. Despite a 93-69 record, they finished third in the division behind the Oakland A’s (103-59) and the Anaheim Angels (99-63).

Wright spent the remainder of the season in Triple A, where he finished with a .273 batting average, 15 homers, and 57 RBIs and then split 2003 in the minors with the Detroit and Cleveland organizations; after a stint in the independent leagues in 2004, he retired at age 28.

A devout Mormon, Wright credited his faith for helping him during his journey, saying it “kept my head on straight through it all.”18 

After his baseball career, Wright and his wife, Annica, raised their family – three daughters and a son with autism – in St. George, Utah. He worked as a pharmacist after graduating from Idaho State in 2009.

It would be understandable if Wright was bitter about the circumstances of his only game in the big leagues, but he chooses to remember it fondly.

“It’s cool and not cool,” Wright said. “I could have fared better, but I did make my one game memorable. I’m just glad I made it. It was an unforgettable experience.”19

Acknowledgments

SABR members John Fredland, Kurt Blumenau, and Gary Belleville provided insightful comments and review of an earlier version of this article.

This article was fact-checked by Troy Olszewski and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted data from Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TEX/TEX200204140.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2002/B04140TEX2002.htm

Notes

1 In 1995 Wright finished fourth among all minor-league players in homers; in 1996 he finished third.

2 Also going to Pittsburgh were pitcher Jason Schmidt and minor-league outfielder Corey Pointer. Neagle was 14-6 with a 3.05 ERA in 27 starts with Pittsburgh. In 1997, he compiled a record of 20-5 for Atlanta and led the NL in wins.

3 Had he not been injured, the 21-year-old Wright would probably have seen substantial playing time because Pittsburgh’s starting first baseman, Kevin Young, was injured at the same time. Paul Meyer, “The Final Word: Young Hits Winning HR Day After Ripping His Mates,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 16, 1997: C-1.

4 Calgary served as the Pirates Triple-A team from 1995 to 1997. From 1998 through 2004, the Nashville Sounds were Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate.

5 Michael Clair, “The Story of the Modern Moonlight Graham,” MLB.com, August 19, 2020, https://www.mlb.com/news/featured/ron-wright-hit-into-triple-play-in-big-league-debut?msockid=26e4336959a8639426fd204b5884628e, (last accessed January 7, 2026).

6 Clair.

7 The Mariners tied the mark of the 1906 Chicago Cubs, who were 116-36. The Mariners, benefiting from the 162-game season, were 116-46.

8 Martinez’s injury occurred near the end of Seattle’s 8-4 win against Anaheim on April 11. He had surgery on April 13 and did not return to the lineup until June 14.

9  Charles Gipson was shifted from left field to third. Sierra was moved to left field and Wright was inserted at designated hitter.

10 Clair, “The Story of the Modern Moonlight Graham.”

11 “SEA@TEX: Grounder to Kenny Rogers Starts Triple Play,” YouTube video (MLB.com), 0:26, accessed January 7, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baiwu9ICelM.

12 Foster also hit into a double play and flied out in his first major-league game but played in 144 career games from 1971 to 1977.

13 The triple play was just the fourth for the Rangers since they began play in Texas in 1972. Not surprisingly, as of 2025, it remained the only known 1-6-2-5-1-4 triple play in the major or minor leagues.

14 This was Rodríguez’s third home run in five career plate appearances against Halama dating back to June 4, 2001. In his final 10 career plate appearances against Halama, he managed just two singles and a walk.

15 Olerud and Sierra combined to go 9-for-9 with three RBIs and three runs scored as the Mariners rapped out a season-high 18 hits, topping their previous high of 16 set the night before.

16 Hasegawa was credited with the win to go along with Sasaki’s save. Just six days earlier they had been the first pair of Japanese pitchers to record a win and a save in the same game. The following day they would reverse the roles with Saski picking up the win after blowing the lead and Hasegawa earning the save in Seattle’s 13-11 win. John Hickey, “Wright Start Goes Wrong,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 15, 2002: C-4.

17 Trent Toone, “Meet the Mormon ‘Moonlight’ Graham,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), November 1, 2012, https://www.deseret.com/2012/11/1/20509046/meet-the-mormon-moonlight-graham/ (last accessed January 7, 2026).

With Martinez out for an extended period, Wright expected to be with the Mariners for a while and told his parents not to rush to Texas. After the Rangers series and the Mariners’ trip to Oakland, he planned to see them in Seattle at Safeco Field, a 3½-hour drive from his hometown of Kennewick.

18 Toone.

19 Toone.