The number of the day is NINE.
Shohei Ohtani may have had the greatest day at the plate in baseball history this week. In an instant classic Game #3 of the World Series, Ohtani got on base a record NINE times during the 18-inning game. 18 innings! That’s basically two 9-inning games back-to-back. A double-header.
Getting on base is everything and it doesn’t matter how you get there. We were reminded of this in a scene from the movie “Moneyball,” when General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) and his assistant Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) make the point to scouts for the Oakland Athletics:
Billy Beane: “He can get on base.”
Rocco [Scout]: “So he walks a lot.”
Billy: “He gets on base a lot, Rocco. Do I care if it’s a walk or a hit? Pete?”
Peter Brand: “You do not.”
Billy: “I do not.”
Ohtani’s record “on base” night was special because getting on base NINE times in a single game had only been done three times in baseball history:
Stan Hack (Chicago Cubs) 1942
Johnny Burnett (Cleveland Indians) 1932
Max Carey (Pittsburgh Pirates) 1922
The NINE bases reached by Hack, Burnett, and Carey were also during marathon 18-inning games. 18 innings! That’s basically two 9-inning games back-to-back. A double-header.
Doubleheaders in baseball are rare today. Not so 100 years ago before the arrival of night games. Teams would frequently play 18 total innings over 2 games, separated only by a short break.
Which leads to the next question. Has a player ever reached base TEN times over an 18-inning double header? Because THAT would surely be the greatest day at the plate in baseball history. And Marc has your answer. Yes. It has happened only once. By an Austin College Kangaroo.
22 Major League Baseball players from 1886 to 2018 played 18-innings of a double header and reached base NINE times, tying Ohtani’s effort. One, however, did it TEN times. His name was Ray Morehart.
On August 31, 1926, Ray Morehart of the Chicago White Sox faced the Detroit Tigers in a double header. He was an offensive machine. In game #1, Morehart reached base 5 times on 5 hits. In game #2, Morehart reached base 5 times on 4 hits and a walk. That’s 10 times over 18-innings. The feat has never been duplicated.
Morehart signed his first professional baseball contract in Luckett Hall on the day of his 1922 graduation from Austin College. He enjoyed a 10-year career in baseball, highlighted by a pivotal role on the greatest team in baseball history: the 1927 New York Yankees of Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. You can read that Roo Tale in the comments.
Ray Morehart granted an interview to baseball historian Norman Macht in 1985 about his days with the Yankees. The interview took place at Morehart’s home in Dallas, which he had purchased 50 years earlier with his share of the earnings from the 1927 World Series win. That interview can be read in the comments.
Shohei Ohtani getting on base NINE times over his 18-inning game is worthy of all the headlines in the world of sports this week. Ohtani, who is exceptional both on the mound and at the plate, is truly a modern-day Babe Ruth, the 1927 teammate of Ray Morehart.
But sadly, Ohtani fell one base short of Morehart’s historic day at the plate on August 31, 1926. Turns out that the number of the day is not Ohtani’s NINE. The number of the day is the perfect TEN that belongs to Ray Morehart, a Kangaroo who owns the greatest day at the plate in baseball history.
https://peanutsandcrackerjack.com/blog/ray-morehart-1927-new-york-yankees
https://www.si.com/mlb/shohei-ohtani-reached-base-9-times-world-series
