Stark: The home run that broke Baseball-Reference
From SABR member Jayson Stark at The Athletic on April 16, 2020, with mention of SABR members Sean Forman and David W. Smith:
The home run that broke Baseball-Reference was hit 12 years ago. But apparently, it’s still traveling.
The date was Sept. 26, 2008. Baseball’s most innovative Molina brother, Bengie, hit a home run for the Giants that day. He hasn’t crossed home plate yet. Seriously. So as far as we know, that makes him the only player in history to do something that should really be impossible:
A) Hit a home run, but …
B) Not even score a run on his own homer.
“I don’t know how that can happen,” says Molina’s manager, Bruce Bochy, all these years later. “But then again, I saw how it can happen.”
So how the heck did it happen? I’m happy to tell you how. I’m even happier to tell you how it caused computers across this land to basically say: “Wait. What? No, that’s not possible. We’re not putting that in our box score.”
Read the full article here (subscription required): https://theathletic.com/1750136/2020/04/16/stark-the-home-run-that-broke-baseball-reference/
Originally published: April 16, 2020. Last Updated: April 16, 2020.