1 fun -- or weird -- moment from each first-time 2025 HOF candidate
Brian Murphy
@Spokes_MurphyBaseball is the best. At times, baseball is also kooky.
The 14 newcomers on the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot can testify to that. In celebration of these Cooperstown candidates, let¡¯s look back at one fun moment from each player¡¯s career.
CarGo possessed a velvety-smooth swing. The way he would nonchalantly drop his bat right on home plate at the end of his follow-through when he knew he got a hold of a baseball -- you could watch that swing all day and be happy. Here, just put this on a loop.
Not included in that montage is one swing from June 7, 2017. Gonz¨¢lez absolutely annihilated a pitch against the Cubs, sending the ball to the back of the third deck in Coors Field. It traveled an estimated 480 feet. There was only one problem: It didn't count. CarGo said after the game that it was "probably the most painful foul ball I've hit."
But one person's pain can be another person's pleasure; check out the fan catching Gonz¨¢lez's blast on the fly.
Granderson sent three balls out of sight on June 25, 2018, in Houston. Well, that's a figurative description for two of those baseballs. But the other one, yeah, no one ever saw it again.
Granderson went deep twice off of Justin Verlander on this night, marking the final multihomer game of his career. But before those two dingers, Granderson came to the plate in the first inning and popped up on a fastball. Catcher Max Stassi discarded his mask as he drifted behind the plate, looked up and ... continued looking up. Then everyone looked up.
Swallowed by the Minute Maid Park rafters, this popup was no more. It had ceased to be!
Is Hern¨¢ndez a Hall of Famer? Here are the cases for and against his inclusion.
But what about Larry Bernandez? He must have a shot, too, right? And hardly anyone ever talks about left-handed pitcher Jerry Hernandez.
Look, we could just show you clips of King F¨¦lix's main alter ego and call it a day. And we still will -- here's Larry throwing out a first pitch -- because the way he and the Mariners embraced the Bernandez gimmick is honestly hilarious. But let's also include a bit of trivia.
Did you know that Hern¨¢ndez is the most recent -- and possibly last -- full-time American League pitcher to hit a grand slam? He did it in 2008 against the Mets. And he didn't get his grand salami off of some hurler trying to hang onto a roster spot. He hit it off of Johan Santana. In 2008, Santana led the Majors with a 2.53 ERA and had 7.1 bWAR. F¨¦lix was 4-for-50 with 22 strikeouts for his career as a hitter. And yet, here he is going oppo off of a two-time Cy Young Award winner at pitcher-friendly Shea Stadium.
Just ... what in the world?!
The "pie in the face" gag has been around since the turn of the 20th century. A staple of slapstick comedy, Jones turned it into a celebratory reward in Baltimore. If you got pied by the Orioles center fielder, you were the star of the game. Jones was on the receiving end many times as well.
In 2014, Jones was ready to celebrate with his teammates and O's fans after clinching an AL East title. And the pie man came bearing many baked goods -- first for outfielder Nick Markakis, and then more for those in attendance at Camden Yards. Look at him smash a few gleeful Orioles fans with pies. He does not hold back.
Kinsler was not a slow baserunner. He had 243 stolen bases during his 14-year career and even in his later seasons, his sprint speed was still near the league average of 27 feet per second.
But during a 2018 Spring Training game against the Dodgers, Kinsler recorded a stolen base very slowly, completely by accident and without a throw being made.
The situation: It's a 1-1 count to Justin Upton with two outs in the sixth inning. As J.T. Chargois gets a swing-and-miss from Upton, Kinsler breaks toward third. Well, it's more of a lazy jog toward third. Dodgers broadcaster Charley Steiner described Kinsler as "skipping" toward third. Whatever you want to call it, he wasn't exactly going all-out because he thought Upton's whiff was strike three and the inning was over.
Good thing for Kinsler that Dodgers third baseman Logan Forsythe seemingly forgot the count as well -- or perhaps he was stunned by the most casual steal attempt in MLB history. Kinsler ultimately made it to third safely. Only then did he realize that everything was not what it seemed.
Martin was a stellar defensive catcher who would do just about anything to record an out. We don't have a single reel of the times when Martin put his body on the line for a foul ball, so here is a string of clips showing his incredible tenacity. That last one is an absolutely wild grab.
We're going to highlight another such play from a 2018 Spring Training game versus the Phillies because it is a fantastic catch by Martin and looks like it could have been the most painful.
Scrambling toward Philadelphia's dugout, Martin ran into some protective netting while making a backhanded snare on a popup. It took a second for him to get untangled from the mesh and just when he thought he was clear, he accidentally dragged the netting down on top of him and got bonked in the face by a metal bar.
He did, of course, remain in the game.
In the Divisional Era (since 1969), there are only three players who have hit a pinch-hit, game-tying home run in the ninth inning and followed that up with a walk-off homer in extras. Raul Ibanez did it in the 2012 ALDS for the Yankees, and Trey Mancini did it in 2017 for the Orioles. But the first was McCann.
This occurred on May 17, 2011. McCann was getting a day off amid a 25-game homerless streak, but he snapped that in emphatic fashion, drilling clutch clouts against Astros pitchers Mark Melancon and Jeff Fulchino. McCann drove in all of Atlanta's runs in the 3-1 win.
We've selected Pedroia's leadoff homer in Game 1 of the 2007 World Series against Rockies left-hander Jeff Francis as his "fun" clip. But what's fun about it didn't materialize until a few days later. That's when a security guard at Coors Field stopped Pedroia from entering the stadium through the players' entrance. The guard didn't believe Pedroia was an actual ballplayer, even after the Red Sox second baseman showed his player ID card.
The ever-intense Pedroia was understandably upset. And since he always had a way with words, he let loose this gem of a quote, as relayed by manager Terry Francona:
"Ask Jeff [expletive] Francis who the [expletive] I am. I'm the guy who hit a bomb and just ended their [expletive] season."
Pedroia wasn't wrong; the Red Sox swept that World Series.
Whether he was taking photos with fans while in the on-deck circle, using his eye black to draw bunny whiskers for Easter or testing his catching skills in the dugout, Ramirez sure seemed to enjoy himself on a baseball field.
In 2016, while Red Sox teammate Jackie Bradley Jr. was being interviewed on MLB Network, Ramirez had everyone in stitches when he suddenly appeared behind Bradley, shirtless and ready to shadowbox. As MLB.com's Michael Clair wrote then, wow, Ramirez was sneaky buff.
By the way, JBJ returned the favor a couple of months later (fast-forward to the 4:00 mark).
Rodney, at 47 years old, is still playing professional baseball -- he just signed last month with the Hamilton Cardinals in Canada. As Rodney told The Athletic earlier this year, he would like to keep playing until he's 50. For as long as he's on the mound, you can rest assured that he will keep slinging his imaginary arrows.
Rodney's post-save celebration is one of the most unique to grace the game. He even had Ichiro Suzuki doing it in 2016 when they were teammates on the Marlins. And we've seen opponents turn the tables on Rodney after a big hit.
Rodney started his bow-and-arrow act during the 2012 season, a year in which he registered a 0.60 ERA over 74 2/3 innings. One year later, he pretty much turned an entire nation into amateur archers. After getting the final out of the 2013 World Baseball Classic for Team Dominican Republic, Rodney had many of his teammates pointing to the sky, following the path of the closer's invisible arrow.
One of the premier workhorses of his generation, Sabathia possessed strength on the mound and at the plate. He hit three home runs in 121 career at-bats, and they weren't wall-scrapers.
Sabathia launched a couple of majestic dingers in 2008. The first was a jaw-dropping crush job for Cleveland at Dodger Stadium. The second came after he was traded to the Brewers and was a second-deck shot against the Reds.
Since the designated hitter was instituted in 1973, Sabathia is one of only three pitchers to homer for multiple teams in the same season. The other two are Jason Schmidt (2001) and Mike Leake (2015). But Sabathia is the lone member in that trio who spent time with an American League club that season.
We could use this space to spotlight the time Ichiro told Bob Costas his favorite American expression, but after that Dustin Pedroia quote, we're bumping up against our limit of expletives allowed in a story.
Instead, we'll focus on when one of the greatest position players in MLB history tried his hand at pitching. Ichiro was a pitcher in high school and did get on the mound during an all-star game in Japan in 1996. Pitching in the Majors was something he always wanted to attempt, but his opportunity didn't arrive until the very end of the 2015 season, his 15th year in the big leagues. In the Marlins' 162nd game, Ichiro got the ball for the eighth inning against the Phillies.
He gave up two hits and a run while topping out at 88 mph, but he made it through the frame and even badly fooled Freddy Galvis with a breaking ball. After the game, Ichiro acknowledged what every pitcher who had to face him already knew: Pitching ain't easy.
"You could say that one of my dreams came true today," Ichiro said via an interpreter. "But I'll never ask to do that again."
However, Ichiro did throw out the first pitch ahead of the Mariners' 2022 home opener and fired a strike -- while in full uniform -- to Julio Rodr¨ªguez.
We've got another instance of a Rockies slugger hitting a deep fly ball that is plucked out of the air by a fan. But this clip has a twist.
Tulowitzki welcomed the birth of his first child in January 2014. About five months later in San Francisco, he crushed a home run to left-center off of Madison Bumgarner, and the ball headed straight for another dad with a baby. Carrying the young child in his right arm, this dad calmly snatched the long ball with his left hand while walking back to his seat.
But you know what really ties this dad-to-dad dinger together? It came on Father's Day. Simply adorable.
We'll close with Zobrist assisting on a very normal 6-3 groundout. Or at least he made it look normal despite the fact that the ball skipped up off his glove and bounced on his cap twice before he was able to gather and make a good throw across the diamond.
A real heads-up play, don't you say? (Sorry.)