Did you hear about that team that scored 21 runs in three innings? … And what about that series in Tampa in which we counted more Yankees home runs than grouper sandwiches? … We saw the weirdest, wildest ending ever to a pitcher’s first career save. … And I hope you wore your puffy shirt to that Orioles-Astros series last weekend because, well, yada yada yada.
But we begin this collection of Weirdness and Wildness by boarding our very own starship and chronicling …
Captain Kirk’s historic mission
He may not have gone where no explorer of the basepaths has gone before. But that’s not important now — because last weekend, Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk conquered his final frontier — by somehow doing this!
The impossible has happened.
In his 532nd MLB game, Alejandro Kirk has stolen the FIRST base of his entire career‼️ pic.twitter.com/L8UKjLJyKb
— Just Baseball (@JustBB_Media) August 16, 2025
Yes, you have just witnessed Captain Kirk’s boldest mission yet. This was last Friday, in game No. 532 of our hero’s slow-motion big-league career. And it was a day like no other, because this was the day the commander of this ship exited the world of baseball’s zero heroes — by finally stealing his very first base.
What a moment. So let’s discuss!
The green light — Can you imagine how much courage it takes to give baseball’s slowest everyday player the green light to run amok?
But the manager who authorized that green light, John Schneider, appeared on this week’s edition of the Windup’s Starkville podcast and actually seemed proud of it. Before the series with Texas, he said, he and first-base coach Mark Budzinski were ripping through their stable of speedsters who might be able to run on the Rangers if the right man was on the mound. Then Schneider casually tossed out there: “And Kirkie — obviously.”
Who knew Budzinski was actually listening! So in the eighth inning that night, the planets aligned in a way they rarely do. First and third, with you know who leading off first. Infield in. The Rangers 100 percent uninterested in holding Kirk close. Slowpoke hurler Jon Gray on the mound. An 0-and-2 count. Why the heck not! So Budzinski quietly whispered to Kirk: “You’re going.”
What? Really? Right! Kirk went “motoring” into second. The Rangers didn’t even bother to throw. Bedlam erupted in the Rogers Centre. Just as much bedlam erupted here at Weird and Wild World HQ.
“Has there ever been a more exciting stolen base in Blue Jays history?” I asked Schneider on Starkville.
“I can’t imagine there has been,” the manager replied, before remembering the historical fact that Rickey Henderson was once a Blue Jay. “Sorry, Rickey.”
Slow Horses — I’ll admit it. I’ve never spent more time looking at the bottom of the Statcast sprint speed leaderboard than I have since Kirk stampeded into second. But it was worth it, because what did I find?
Among the 224 active players with at least 100 “competitive runs” this year, Kirk ranked No. 1 in sprint speed — as long as you turned the list upside-down, that is, at 24.2 feet per second. That’s a mere 6 feet fewer per second than Trea Turner and Bobby Witt Jr., the actual leaders. But what’s a couple of yards at a joyous time like this?
I also found that Kirk has ranked as baseball’s slowest player under 30 years old in two of the last four seasons — trailing only legendary sprint champs Rowdy Tellez and Daniel Vogelbach in the other two. Kirk has now moved ahead of Vogelbach on the Road to Rickey Career Steal list, 1-0. But Tellez has five career steals, so if Kirk is motivated to keep burgling those bases, there’s something else to shoot for.
What’s the catch? You should also know that catchers represent the clear gold standard in the prestigious category of Not Base Stealing. In the 65 seasons of the expansion era, 21 players have gone where Kirk once traveled, by which I mean not stealing a base in any of the first 500 games of their career. Not surprisingly, most of them (13 of 21) have been catchers.
Wilson Ramos and Earl Williams made it past 800 games. Chris Snyder, Omar Narváez, Darrin Fletcher, David Ross, Javier Valentin and Johnny Estrada all went SB-less for at least 600 games. And Drew Butera (551 games) and A.J. Ellis (536) also avoided stealing for more games than Kirk.
And who’s the all-time record holder in Not Stealing? Yup, that would be yet another catcher, Russ Nixon, who was able to abstain from base-stealing for all 906 games of his career back in the 1950s and ’60s. However …
Fielder of Dreams — You probably don’t recall this, but there was a point when Nixon did not hold that record. I know that sounds confusing, but it’s true. In the early 1990s, his record was actually broken by the Usain Not Bolt of his time, Cecil Fielder. Seriously.
Fielder made it all the way up to 1,096 games without a steal. Then he realized that some records are made to be unbroken — so he shockingly stole a base, on April 2, 1996. Look it up.
Afterward, he stuffed the bag in his locker and went to call his wife. Her ecstatic reaction: “C’mon. You didn’t steal no base.” To which big Cecil chuckled and replied: “Watch ‘SportsCenter.’”
He’s keeping that base — Like Fielder, Kirk also took possession of the historic base. Vlad Guerrero Jr. yanked it out of the ground after the game and presented it to him. Kirk then gripped it so tightly throughout his postgame travels, it was clear he was taking the “stealing” part of this base-stealing gig slightly more literally than most people.
“So where’s that base?” I asked Schneider. “Now I have this vision of him sleeping with it, eating with it, driving around town with it.”
“I know it got authenticated, and I think it’s in his locker back at home,” Schneider said. “But I mean, he didn’t let go of that thing for, like, an hour and a half.”
And why would he? How will this man be able to convince his loved ones in 20 years that he really did steal a base … unless he can produce that base itself any time the skepticism alarm starts sounding? After all, can he be sure he’ll ever steal another one? Let’s just say his manager isn’t.
“He finally got one,” Schneider said. “But he doesn’t have the green light going forward.”
I’ll take 14 Brews, bartender
The Brewers didn’t lose a game this month until Aug. 17. (Jason Mowry / Getty Images)
The Milwaukee Brewers, man. I thought they’d never lose. They just finished running off 14 wins in a row. Does that seem like a lot? Let’s agree on yes!
You know how long a streak that is? It’s so long that 11 of the other 29 franchises in this sport have never had a winning streak of 14 games (or more) in the modern era.
The Brewers traded for an outfielder named Brandon Lockridge at the deadline this year. Two and a half weeks later, he still hadn’t seen them lose. That streak finally ended Sunday. But the winning-streak tidbits never stop. So here come five fun facts about the kings of the streak.
Put it on your calendar — Here’s a fun question from loyal reader Jim Werwinski. The Brewers didn’t lose a game this month until Aug. 17. What, he asked, is the latest in a full calendar month that any team stayed undefeated?
I fired this question at my friends from STATS Perform. If we look only at streaks of 14 or more and we don’t count the wacky stuff that went on in the 1800s, the Brewers only missed that record by one day!
Wild Bill Callahan’s 1935 Cardinals (14 in a row) and Long Tom Hughes’ 1912 Senators (16) both made it to the 18th before losing — those Cardinals in July and those Senators in June. But the Cardinals’ streak didn’t begin until July 2 of that year, so I’m deducting points from them. Also, only one other team made it to the 17th of any month undefeated — Snuffy Stirnweiss’ 1947 Yankees (17 in a row).
The domination sensations — The Brewers outscored their opponents 119-52 in that 14-game winning streak. That’s a difference of 67 runs, which computes to an average margin of 4.8 per game. Seems hard to win that many games by that many runs. Doesn’t it?
So I tossed that question at STATS, too. They found only seven other teams since 1900 that ripped off 14 wins in a row with that big a run differential.
2017 Indians (plus-75)
2002 A’s (plus-68)
1953 Yankees (plus-71)
1935 Cubs (plus-70)
1934 Tigers (plus-74)
1904 Giants (plus-81)
1903 Pirates (plus-73)
July was fun, too — I should also remind you that all this Brewers win-streak stuff didn’t just start in August. They fired off an 11-game streak in July, too. So I got to wondering: How many teams have had winning streaks that long (11-plus) two months in a row?
Let’s just say it’s been so long since anyone else did it that only the 112-year-olds reading this have a shot to remember it.
There was Fred Merkle’s 1916 New York Giants — won 12 in a row to kick off September, then lost one, then won 14 more in succession. So that was in the same month!
And there was Wildfire Schulte’s 1906 Cubs — won 14 straight from Aug. 20 through Sept. 1, then launched a 12-game streak from Sept. 3 to Sept. 16.
And that’s it in the modern era … until these Brewers. Wow.
Eight was not enough — And what about win No. 13 in this streak, last Friday in Cincinnati? The score after two innings that night: Reds 8, Brewers 1. The score after the postgame fist-bump line: Brewers 10, Reds 8.
So how many teams have ever rolled off the mat and won a game in which they trailed by seven runs (or more) to extend a winning streak that long? As is so often the case in this column, zero is a savvy guess. The previous record for biggest comeback, the Elias Sports Bureau reports, was “only” five — by the 2002 Moneyball A’s (in win No. 19) and Firpo Marberry’s 1934 Tigers (in No. 13).
Even when they lose, they’re scary — Fittingly, one of the goosebumpiest moments in this Brewers team’s wild ride came Sunday, in the game that finally ended the streak. The score was Reds 1, Brewers 0, in the ninth. Then this amazing thing happened.
Even though the Reds came back to win, I still posed this question to the great Katie Sharp of Baseball Reference: Before William Contreras waved his bat, how many other teams have ever hit lead-flipping home runs in the ninth inning when they were that close to wiping out a win streak of 14-plus games? And the answer was …
Just two, since 1912:
2002 A’s — Down two, Miguel Tejada smokes a three-run lead-flipping walk-off (in win 18).
1960 Yankees — Down by a run, Dale Long mashes a two-run walk-off (in win No. 14).
If we allow homers at any point in the streak, you can add the 1932 Cubs, who won their first game in a 14-game streak on a three-run walk-off bomb by Mark Koenig. But was that the same thing? I’ll vote no.
One thing you might have noticed: No team had ever hit one of those homers to “save” a streak that long — and then lost the game. But baseball never ceases to amaze us … much like the Brewers themselves.
Bronx Bombers by the Bay
Judging by their home run output, Yankees hitters were pretty comfortable at their home away from home. (Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
Have all those Yankees homers landed in Tampa yet? I haven’t checked with Air Traffic Control, so it’s hard to be sure.
Nineteen runs in two games Tuesday and Wednesday — every one of them on home runs? Who does that? Oh, that’s right. Nobody … ever, according to STATS … until this week, when the Yankees came to town — to play “road” games in their “home” spring training park (George M. Steinbrenner Field).
How wild (and weird) was it? How about this:
The Reds — have hit 13 home runs all month, while playing in the easiest park in MLB to hit a home run (Great American Ball Park).
The Yankees — just hit 14 home runs in Tampa … in two days!
The Padres — have only three players who have hit two homers (or more) in a game all season.
The Yankees — had five players who hit two in a game in 27 hours in Tampa.
Giancarlo Stanton, Mr. March edition — has had only one spring training since he joined the Yankees in which he hit three home runs all spring at Steinbrenner Field. (In fairness to Giancarlo, he did whomp three in one game in 2024.)
Giancarlo Stanton, Mr. August edition — just barreled three home runs at Steinbrenner Field in two days, in games that actually count.
The Cardinals in the first inning — seven home runs all season.
The Yankees in the first inning — 11 home runs in just three games (Opening Day, April 29 and Tuesday)!
And finally, there was this:
The Yankees, in the first inning of that series (Tuesday) — crushed back-to-back-to-back home runs. It’s the third time they’ve hit three in a row, in the first inning alone, this season.
The Yankees, in the last inning of that series (the 10th on Wednesday) — hit back-to-back home runs in an extra inning.
So I got to thinking: How many teams could have started and ended a series quite like that? I ran that question past my friend Katie Sharp, who for some reason keeps acknowledging my existence. The answer shouldn’t shock you.
How many other teams have gone back-to-back-to-back in the first inning of a series and then went back-to-back in an extra inning of a game in the same series? Of course that’s none — in the Baseball Reference play-by-play database, which dates back to 1912.
In fact, Katie could only find one team — the 2000 White Sox — that even hit two in a row in the first inning of any series and then finished off another game in that series with extra-inning back-to-backers. But three in a row? That’s a job only for the Bronx Bombers. Naturally.
Five things I can’t believe happened
Little Big League — Did Cal Raleigh really give the kids what they wanted in Williamsport, Pa., last Sunday — and thump a Big Dumper home run special in the Little League Classic? Oh, yes he did.
Wave goodbye to this baseball 👋
Cal Raleigh blasts his 47th home run! pic.twitter.com/UwaXmLdL3D
— MLB (@MLB) August 18, 2025
Let’s say the Mariners masher goes on to lead his league in homers. Seems like a safe assumption. How many other home run champs have ever hit a long ball in Williamsport that season? Right. None.
But hold on. It gets better. I spent way too much time searching to find the last home run champ to hit a home run in any ballpark in any of the 50 states where big-league baseball isn’t normally played. And the last to do it was … Duke Snider, on Aug. 7, 1956, in Roosevelt Stadium in beautiful Jersey City (where the Dodgers played 15 “home” games in 1956-57).
(Yes, Aaron Judge boiled a little corn with a homer in the 2021 Field of Dreams game — but he didn’t lead the league that year!)
The Bryce you pay — Did Bryce Harper really hit 888 feet worth of homers in two innings Monday — off the same reliever (Seattle’s Casey Legumina)? He did! It made Harper the first man in the Statcast era (2015-present) to hit two bombs of 440 feet-plus off the same reliever two innings in a row.
Asterisk alert! Brent Rooker of the Athletics also cranked two rockets that long off one reliever (Michael Mercado) on July 14, 2024 — in the same park (Citizens Bank Park). They just weren’t in back-to-back innings.
Where there’s a Will — How ’bout Will Smith. He can throw, apparently.
Last Saturday against the Padres: The Dodgers catcher threw out three base-stealers just in the first four outs of the game.
Meanwhile in Miami, I love Agustin Ramirez — but he’s thrown out only five base-stealers (in 62 tries) all season.
Seeing Red — Elsewhere in this Weird and Wild collection, I wrote about the Brewers coming back from seven runs down to extend their winning streak to 13 games last weekend. Except that might not even have been the Weirdest and Wildest part of that game.
The Weirdest and Wildest part was: The Reds went 9 for their first 12 to start that game … then ended the game by having 23 hitters in a row make an out. So how bizarre is that?
According to Reds TV stats magician Joel Luckhaupt, it isn’t often that you see a team (the Reds) score seven runs (or more) in an inning — and then have more than 20 batters in a row retired in the same game. In fact, it’s so rare that the only team to pull that off in at least the last 115 seasons would be … those Reds.
You’re welcome — On July 11, I wrote a column in which I awarded my (not) coveted midseason Least Valuable Player awards to Michael Harris II and Luis Robert Jr. You can’t imagine how proud I was that they both homered in the same game on Monday.
Harris has hit .380/.394/.704 since that column appeared. Robert has mashed .300/.361/.473. To the Braves and White Sox: I’ll waive my usual motivation fee!
Are you ready for some ‘did-he-really-catch-that’ talk?
You know what question we’ll be asking more than any other on Sunday afternoons in a few weeks? What’s a catch? So it was a little too perfect that baseball busted out an impromptu tribute to that question this past Sunday.
In Denver … this was the last out of Juan Mejia’s first career save.
Hey, he totally caught this, even though his first baseman (Warming Bernabel) was clearly playing tackle baseball (and then deserved a flag for excessive celebration). It made me wonder how often a pitcher records any kind of save on a popup to himself. I asked Statcast wizard Jason Bernard and his team to help me with that one.
They found this was the fifth save in the last 10 seasons to end with the guy doing the saving by catching a popup But surprisingly, there have actually been 35 of them now since the dawn of the modern save rule in 1969. (Wait. Pitchers really are athletes? Yes!)
On one hand, the leader in this category, Mariano Rivera, remains way ahead of Mejia, with three of these 1-unassisteds to one. On the other hand, that only represents 4.6 percent of all of Mariano’s saves (three of 652). It’s 100 percent for Mejia (one of one). So there’s that.
In San Francisco … Jung Hoo Lee probably wasn’t a big Jerry Rice fan growing up in Korea. But he ran quite a fly pattern to go knee deep in making this catch.
Jung Hoo Lee with the catch … BETWEEN HIS KNEES 🤯 pic.twitter.com/QRSMh2ArGV
— MLB (@MLB) August 17, 2025
The ground can’t cause a fumble, you know — and neither can Jung Hoo’s kneecaps!
In Houston … Jesús Sánchez couldn’t buy a hit (until Thursday night), but he can keep you from getting any hits — especially the ones that look like they’re sailing over the fence. He robbed two of them Sunday — a Gunnar Henderson would-be slam and this Samuel Basallo three-run shot that wasn’t.
After robbing a grand slam earlier today, Jesus Sanchez just took away a three-run homer that would’ve been Samuel Basallo’s first MLB hit pic.twitter.com/xoh1bWdYYJ
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 17, 2025
According to Sports Info Solutions, Sánchez is only the second outfielder, in the 22 seasons that SIS has tracked this stuff, to make two home run robberies in the same game. The other: the unforgettable Nook Logan, for the Tigers, on April 18, 2005. I’m pretty sure Nook clinched the Nookie of the Year award that day!
Weird and Wild Names in the News
JEN PAWOL — Here’s to Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire in the major leagues. It took 150 seasons or so, but … that … happened … last weekend in Atlanta.
Have you ever wondered how many men umpired in the big leagues before any women did that? I did, because of course I did.
According to Kenny Jackelen, Baseball Reference has 1,348 other umpires in its database, dating back to 1871, when the only “major league” consisted of Count Sensenderfer and all his fellow big-name players in the National Association. We didn’t check every one of those 1,348 umps to make sure they were all men. But assuming they were, does 1,348 men to one woman seem pretty even and balanced? Discuss!
SHOHEI OHTANI — So much Ohtani news. Who knows why we just settled on this item. But we had some prodding.
Something tells me @jaysonst just felt a disturbance in the Force. How many people have hit into a triple play and homered in the next at bat?
— Scott Sistek (@ScottSeattleWx) August 13, 2025
Good question. Thanks, Scott. Yeah, I checked. And according to STATS, when Ohtani pulled this off in Anaheim last week, he became the first player to do that since … a guy he might recognize … Freddie Freeman, on July 8, 2016, against the White Sox.
But Freeman actually hit the home run first. So the last to do this in Shohei’s order — triple play, then the homer — was Matt Holliday, for the Rockies, on Sept. 12, 2007, against the Phillies.
OK, now what about that question you didn’t ask? Ohtani was the first reigning MVP to pull off this feat since Hank Sauer, on April 27, 1958.
TREA TURNER – I’m fascinated by Trea Turner. He’s a fantastic baseball player. He’s also been known to take a few rides on the baseball roller coaster. Here’s what I mean:
Trea Turner in July 2024 — hit 10 homers.
Trea Turner in July 2025 — hit zero homers.
Trea Turner in May 2023 — got 22 hits in his second month as a Phillie.
Trea Turner in the last week — got 21 hits in seven games against Washington and Seattle.
Just so you know, he’s the first shortstop to get that hot, and erupt for 21 hits (or more) in seven games, in 92 years. Joe Cronin got 22 in seven games for the 1933 Red Sox.
THE MAX AND CLAYTON SHOW — My favorite pitching matchup of this whole season was Clayton Kershaw versus Max Scherzer, on Aug. 8 in L.A. That was for lots of reasons, but one of them was this:
In between their first meeting (as rookies in 2008) and this meeting 17 years later, they did some other stuff. Meaning … they combined for 432 wins and 6,350 strikeouts. Those seemed like monstrous numbers.
So I asked my friends from STATS: How many pitchers in the modern era have accumulated that many wins and strikeouts between their first and last matchups? Here’s the complete list since 1901:
Scherzer vs. Kershaw (17 years apart) — 432 wins, 6,350 K’s
Nolan Ryan vs. Steve Carlton (18 years apart) — 499 wins, 7,137 K’s
Don Sutton vs. Phil Niekro (21 years apart) — 613 wins, 6,554 K’s
FYI: The latter includes opposing each other in relief. So if we limit this list to only as starting pitchers (with no relief appearances sprinkled in there),we’re down to two duos – Max/Clayton and Ryan/Carlton. Very cool.
Weird and Wild Numbers in the News
The magic numbers: 99 and 94 — So why the heck am I writing about them? Because …
The starting pitching matchup in Monday’s Braves-White Sox game was No. 99 (Spencer Strider) vs. No. 94 (Yoendrys Gómez). And you loyal readers out there know me way too well.
Hey @jaysonst how does 193 stack up as possibly the highest combined uniform numbers for starting pitchers? @whitesox vs @Braves pic.twitter.com/CoXItv4FTd
— bob gordon (@gordonbob) August 18, 2025
Bob, you know why we care. And Katie Sharp knows why we care. So of course she agreed to check — and found … it wasn’t even the highest starting pitcher number combo this year. But it’s still the fifth-largest all time. Here’s that list:
198 – Hyun Jin Ryu (99) vs. Taijuan Walker (99) twice!
197 – Taijuan Walker (99) vs. Will Warren (98) on July 25, 2025.
194 – Will Warren (98) vs. Landon Knack (96) on May 31, 2025.
193 – Strider (99) vs. Gomez (94) on Aug. 18, 2025.
Lots of defensive tackles on that chart!
But also … the Braves brought in a position player (Luke Williams) to pitch in the eighth inning of that game but had an actual pitcher (Tyler Kinley) pitch the ninth. Guess which one gave up more hits? Yep. The guy who pitches for a living (1-0).
This Week in Strange But Trueness
BEWARE THE MIGHTY GRASSHOPPER — Now here’s a box score line you don’t see much: A team scores 27 runs — only in multiples of threes!
How about those Greensboro Grasshoppers, hopping all over the Asheville Tourists in this wacky South Atlantic League game on Aug. 9? There is so much nuttiness in that runs scored column, it’s hard to know where to start. But how ’bout this: Innings of six, six and nine runs in three straight innings?
If you’re thinking that can’t ever have happened in a big-league game, excellent thinking! Katie Sharp took a trip through the Baseball Reference database and found only two major-league games in the modern era in which a team had three innings of six-plus runs at any point in the same game. But how many of them did that three innings in a row? Right you are. None!
Unreal epilogue — The Grasshoppers then scored zero runs in the ninth off a position player (Asheville shortstop Andrew Vogel).
MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE BOX SCORE LINE OF THE WEEK — When the Blue Jays signed their new closer, Jeff Hoffman, over the winter, they saw him as a man who could put up zeroes at the end of the game no matter what swirled around him.
Well, turns out they were right. Just not how they expected. Check out his mind-blowing line from an Aug. 10 outing at Dodger Stadium:
2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 0 K, 33 pitches, 10 strikes
Also: WP – Hoffman (7-4)
What’s up with that? What isn’t up with that? Look at that line as many times as you need to. It isn’t possible to do that! Or is it?
Let’s start here: According to Baseball Reference, there have been 90 other pitchers in the modern era who walked at least five hitters in a game while pitching less than an inning. You know what they had in common?
• Every one of them gave up at least two runs.
• None of them came out of it as “the winning pitcher.” (The others went 0-44!)
But not Hoffman. Five walks … two outs … zero runs allowed. What the heck.
Here’s how he did that:
He entered with two outs in the eighth. There were two on and two outs. His team led by a run. He then went: walk, game-tying bases-loaded walk, foul pop to end the inning.
Then the Blue Jays scored to take the lead again, and here came Hoffman to pitch the ninth. This time around, he went: walk, walk, sac bunt, walk. And off he went. In came Mason Fluharty.
He got the last two outs (against Ohtani and Mookie Betts). He kept Hoffman’s runners from scoring. Congrats to the winning pitcher — Jeff Hoffman. C’mon admit it. There’s no sport that makes less sense than …
Baseball!
NO BLOOP FOR YOU — The pretzels were making me thirstier than usual during that Orioles-Astros series last weekend — as I asked myself: Why wasn’t this series sponsored by Vandelay Industries?
The starting pitcher for Houston in game two was … Jason Alexander.
The starting pitcher for Baltimore in game three was … Kremer (Dean).
Truly disappointing was … that neither of these teams hauled Alan Benes out of retirement to start game one!
WHY’D YOU TRADE THAT GUY — But was that “Seinfeld” plotline even the Strangest but Truest thing that happened in that series? I don’t think so, because …
At the trade deadline, the Orioles traded Ramón Urías to the Astros. And what did Urías do in the first game he ever played against the Orioles as an Astro? He came to bat with two outs in the eighth — and Orioles starter Brandon Young working on a perfect game — and you Strange But True fans know exactly what was bound to happen next.
So yep, we had to know if any player had ever changed teams in midseason, then broke up a no-hitter (not necessarily a perfecto) in the eighth inning or later against that team. And that answer, according to Kenny Jackelen, was … no … at least not since 1912. Shoulda kept that dude!
DEJA BOOM — Speaking of trade deadline Strange But Trueness, how ’bout this:
July 2 — Mike Yastrzemski homers against Merrill Kelly
Aug. 19 — Mike Yastrzemski homers against Merrill Kelly again
So what’s so Strange But True about that? Oh, nothing much, other than the fact that they were wearing four different uniforms!
That first homer came in a Giants-Diamondbacks game. Then Yaz got dealt to the Royals, Kelly got traded to the Rangers, and it seemed like they remembered each other.
According to STATS, it was only the third time in history that a batter homered off the same pitcher in back-to-back months even though both of them changed teams.
May/June, 1926 — Baby Doll Jacobson vs. Howard Ehmke
July/August, 1952 — Vic Wertz vs. Ned Garver
For good clean Weird and Wild fun, you can’t beat that Wertz-Garver episode — because they were traded for each other in a Browns-Tigers swap on Aug. 14, 1952. And three days later, Wertz went deep off — who else? — Garver … twice!
The Seymour the merrier
Finally, here’s what it’s like to be me, the official curator of Weirdness and Wildness. One minute, I’m minding my own business, staying out of trouble, living the dream. The next, my phone starts buzzing in the middle of the night because … stuff like this busts out.
#Rays have Bob Seymour playing 1B and LHP Ian Seymour pitching. And #SFGiants just brought in RHP Carson Seymour.
Paging @jaysonst …
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) August 16, 2025
This really happened last Friday night in San Francisco. Three players named Seymour have played in the big leagues in the last 112 seasons. Then they all showed up in the same game — right there at Oracle Park. So that was weird. And that was wild. But it wasn’t even the Weirdest and Wildest part of this game.
Rays broadcaster Neil Solondz took it upon himself to alert me to that part:
The Rays won this game by doing stuff you don’t see much.
• They trailed by one run in the first inning, then scored one run to tie it the next half-inning.
• They trailed by two runs in the second inning, then scored two to tie it the next half-inning.
• They trailed by three runs in the third inning, then scored (you guessed it) three runs to tie it again the next half-inning.
So how many other teams have won a game like that? Baseball Reference’s amazing Kenny Jackelen blitzed through over a century of baseball in the site’s database and found … exactly no other teams that won a game like that. But then karma and the entire Seymour delegation willed it to happen on one otherwise normal night in …
Baseball!
(Top photo of Alejandro Kirk: Mark Blinch / Getty Images)