Plunk Everyone

In 1972, the Washington Senators fled DC for Arlington Texas (probably something to do with an intern), and took up residence at Arlington Stadium as the Texas Rangers.  They spent the next 22 seasons there, from 1972 to 1993, and in that time 355 different baseball players got hit by a pitch a total of 839 times.  Players from Willie Aikens to Richie Zisk (alphabetically) and from Dave Wilson to Juan Gonzalez (chronologically) took an HBP at Arlington Stadium.  But none of them got hit more than 17 times.  Only two players were hit 17 times at Arlington Stadium – Steve Buechele and Don Baylor.   The weird thing about that is that Baylor never played for the Rangers.  That makes Baylor the only player to have a share of the park record for HBPs at any major league park used since 1970, to do so without ever playing for the home team.  And that’s just weird.  Baylor got plunked at Arlington Stadium by 15 different pitchers in 14 different seasons.  No other player got an HBP there in more than 8 different seasons.  (But Buechele did edge him out for pitcher variety, getting his 17 plunks off 17 different pitchers).

Here’s the list of all 80 players who got hit by at least 3 pitches at Arlington Stadium. The number in parenthesis is their HBPs at Arlington Stadium as a Texas Ranger:
Don Baylor – 17 (0)
Steve Buechele – 17 (17)
Mike Hargrove – 16 (15)
Juan Gonzalez – 15 (15)
Toby Harrah – 15 (15)
Brian Downing – 15 (8)
Rafael Palmeiro – 14 (14)
Bill Sample – 14 (14)
Larry Parrish – 13 (13)
Scott Fletcher – 13 (13)
Pete Incaviglia – 13 (13)
Dean Palmer – 10 (10)
Kevin Reimer – 10 (10)
Jim Sundberg – 9 (9)
Cesar Tovar – 9 (8)
Bump Wills – 9 (9)
Dave Valle – 8 (0)
Al Oliver – 8 (8)
Don Slaught – 8 (6)
Tom Grieve – 8 (8)
Buddy Bell – 8 (7)
Johnny Grubb – 7 (6)
Curtis Wilkerson – 7 (7)
George Wright – 7 (7)
Bert Campaneris – 6 (4)
Geno Petralli – 6 (6)
Cliff Johnson – 6 (3)
Chet Lemon – 6 (0)
Elliott Maddox – 5 (4)
Ron Kittle – 5 (0)
Dave Nelson – 5 (5)
Ruben Sierra – 5 (5)
Larry Sheets – 5 (0)
Jose Canseco – 5 (3)
Willie Wilson – 5 (0)
Robin Yount – 4 (0)
Gary Ward – 4 (3)
Claudell Washington – 4 (2)
Bob Stinson – 4 (0)
Joe Carter – 4 (0)
Dave Chalk – 4 (0)
Jeff Burroughs – 4 (4)
Gene Clines – 4 (4)
Tom Brookens – 4 (0)
John Ellis – 4 (4)
Carlton Fisk – 4 (0)
Julio Franco – 4 (4)
Jim Gantner – 4 (0)
Kevin Seitzer – 4 (0)
Len Randle – 4 (4)
Darrell Porter – 4 (2)
Pat Putnam – 4 (4)
Lloyd Moseby – 4 (0)
Dave May – 4 (3)
Hal McRae – 3 (0)
Paul Molitor – 3 (0)
Graig Nettles – 3 (0)
Pete O’Brien – 3 (2)
Reggie Jackson – 3 (0)
Candy Maldonado – 3 (0)
Jeff Kunkel – 3 (3)
Freddie Patek – 3 (0)
Jim Rice – 3 (0)
Gary Pettis – 3 (3)
Lance Parrish – 3 (0)
Oscar Gamble – 3 (1)
Jeff Huson – 3 (3)
Willie Horton – 3 (0)
Roy Howell – 3 (1)
Rickey Henderson – 3 (0)
Juan Beniquez – 3 (1)
Bobby Bonds – 3 (2)
George Bell – 3 (0)
Jack Daugherty – 3 (3)
Rick Cerone – 3 (0)
Doug Strange – 3 (3)
Ken Suarez – 3 (3)
Gene Tenace – 3 (0)
Frank White – 3 (0)
Willie Upshaw – 3 (0)

Long time infielder and program ink hogger Mark Grudzielanek is currently a free agent after being released by the Indians.  Obviously, he is a tough guy to sign at this point in his career because his name is really hard to spell.  But, one important reason that some team should sign Mark Grudzielanek is that he’s a living piece of history.  He is, in fact, the last active player who got hit by a pitch at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.  That might not be very significant, but it’s interesting particularly when you look at the list of other players who were the last remaining major leaguers at parks that have closed down.

Ken Griffey Junior, for example.  His retirement means that there are no longer any active players with an HBP at Comiskey Park on their resume.  Also, he leaves Ivan Rodriguez as the last remaining player with a plunk at Arlington Stadium.  Jim Thome is the only active player who got plunked at old Cleveland Stadium, and Gary Sheffield’s 2009 retirement made the league completely vacant of players that got plunked at Mile High Stadium.

In 2007, Sammy Sosa and Steve Finley both played their last games in the majors, and they were the last two who had been plunked at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.  Going back to 2004, Fred McGriff was the last player out of the pool of those who had been plunked at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium.

You know who was the last player in the league with a plunk at Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota?  Allen Trammell.  Gary Carter was the last active guy with an HBP at Parc Jarry in Montreal.  Don Sutton was the last with a Forbes Field plunk on his splits page when he left the game after 1988.  Reggie Jackson was the final active player with an HBP at Sick’s Stadium in Seattle, and the last with a plunk at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium when he retired in 1987.  In 1986, Tony Perez and Pete Rose both retired, leaving no one left who had been hit by a pitch at Crosley Field.  Perez was also the last player with a plunk at Connie Mack Stadium.

So that’s a pretty interesting group – 4 current hall of famers, a few near misses for the hall, and some others who are either mortal locks, or who would have been without some kind of steroid or gambling problem.  And then Mark Grudzielanek.

The obvious conclusion here is that I’ve wildly under-rated the work of Mark Grudzielanek before making this discovery, and he should be a unanimous first ballot choice when he becomes eligible for the Hall.

(not playing first in this case, but being the runner on first)

Since 1974, no player has been a runner on 1st base while his teammate got hit by a pitch more often than Chipper Jones. He’s been on first 50 times when an HBP occurred. His closest active competition is Alex Rodriguez and Bobby , who have each been moved from 1st to 2nd 46 times by a plunking of the batter. John Olerud had 47 such incidents, and Carlos Delgado and Brian Giles and 44 and 40. Nobody else from 1974 to 2010 got over the 40 mark in this particular made-up statistical category. But, the weird part in Chipper’s case is that he’s only gotten hit himself 17 times. So his teammates have moved him over to 2nd with an HBP 33 more times than he’s taken a plunk himself.

Here are the only players, from 1974 to 2010, with under 25 plunks, but who had other people get hit more than 25 times while standing on 1st base:
Chipper Jones (17 HBPS, 50 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Robin Ventura (23 HBPS, 32 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Luis Castillo (12 HBPS, 31 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Wade Boggs (23 HBPS, 30 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Michael Young (18 HBPS, 29 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Neifi Perez (7 HBPS, 26 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Ron Belliard (24 HBPS, 26 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)
Harold Baines (14 HBPS, 25 HBPs by other players while he was on 1st)

Andres Galarraga was hit the most with Chipper Jones on 1st, with 16, but they have been matched by Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun for the post-1974 record for most HBPs by a batter/1st base runner combination (Braun being the runner and Prince being the plunking target). Chase Utley has been hit 15 times with Shane Victorino on first, and Alex Rodriguez got plunked 15 times with Bobby Abreau on 1st. Prior to Chipper and Andres, Don Baylor and Jim Rice held the post-1974 record with 14 instances in which Baylor got hit with Rice on first. 11 of those were in 1986, but Galarraga bettered that with 12 plunks with Chipper Jones on first in 1998.

Chipper Jones also holds a share of the post-1974 record for being driven in from third by a plunk with 7. Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr, and Ryan Theroit have also been driven in 7 times on an RBI HBP.

Ichiro Suzuki has been the runner on third 22 times when a plunking occurred, which is the most for any base runner on third since 1974. Chipper Jones is tied for 2nd with 19, along with Bernie Williams, Omar Vizquel, Jason Kendall and Craig Biggio – those last two can never be far away when their are HBPs flying around. Kendall has the post-1974 record for plunks occurring while he’s playing catcher, with 690. Biggio had 620 plunks land on opposing players while he was playing 2nd base, leading all players in the post-1974 era, and also had the most plunks occur while he was the base runner on 2nd, with 41. (Biggio of course was a noted fan of being on 2nd base, having hit 668 career double – 5th all time).