Plunk Everyone

You probably already knew, if you've been reading this website, that Chase Utley leads the major leagues with 24 HBPs this season. But did you know, that the total revenue of the #1 movies on the days Chase Utley has been hit by pitches is $264,892,743? That's what you get if you look at how much the number 1 movie on each day he got hit made that day, and add them all up. He's the only player over the $200 million mark, although the #1 movies on days when Miguel Tejada has been hit have made $194,974,437 on those nights - which is pretty good for just 11 dates. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" made $62,016,476 on the day Chase Utley got hit while it was #1 at the box office, but Juan Pierre got hit on three different days while the Transformers sequel was number 1, for a box office total of $123,131,506. That's the most for any plunked player/#1 movie combination this season. So, if baseball contracts were somehow written so that players who got hit by a pitch received a percentage of the box office take of the number one movie from the day they got plunked, this would somehow make some sense. And what a wonderful world that would be.

16 different movies have been #1 on dates when Chase Utley has been plunked this season - he got hit twice while "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian", "G-Force", "Obsessed", "The Final Destination", "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself", "Angels&Demons" and "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" were number 1, and once each when "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", "Funny People", "Star Trek", "District 9", "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", "Up", and "Hannah Montana the Movie" were number 1 at the box office.

Utley has been plunked 7 times on days when a movie from Sony Pictures was the top box office film, which ties Jason Kendall for the most plunks during one studio's days on the top of the hollywood numbers. Kendall was also plunked 7 times this year while Sony had the top film. Utley was hit most often while movies labeled as Comedies were number 1, with a league leading 7 plunks under those circumstances. However, Kelly Shoppach got hit 8 times while action movies were number one, and Ryan Garko has been hit 8 times while people were at Adventure movies, instead of watching baseball.

Overall, batters were hit the most this season on days when "Up!" was number 1, with a total of 99 plunks, although current number 1 movie "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" is up to 96 plunks already (through Monday, September 28th). 95 batters got plunked while Star Trek was number 1, and 92 plunks occured while Transformers was on top.

The Indians were hit 10 times on days when "Up!" was number 1, making them the only team to get hit 10 times this year while a single film was number 1. Of course there's no connection between the name of that movie and the Indians franchise trajectory this season. The Marlins have been hit the most often during the reign of "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs", with 8 plunks, but they'd probably prefer more meatballs thrown to them than beanballs. Also interesting is that the Red Sox have been hit the most while "Obsessed" was number one, and the Cubs have been hit most often while "I can do bad all by myself" was number 1.

The Brewers tied for the most plunks with the Phillies while "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" was number 1, although Prince Fielder was not plunked on a day when that movie was #1.

(box office numbers are from www.the-numbers.com and are through Monday, September 28th)