The worst MLB pitching debut was a perfect storm of humiliation | SB Nation
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- Опубліковано 24 вер 2018
- MLB history is full of notoriously bad pitching debuts -- ridiculous stories of mishap and desperation -- but only one pitcher's debut was broadcast on national television, took place with his whole family in the crowd, and included 9 earned runs in just over one inning. Mike Mayers of the St. Louis Cardinals had the worst MLB pitching debut ever.
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Imagine being so pissed off you just quit and join the navy later that day
Considering the salary of players at that time wasn’t astronomical compared to the average person, it’s plausible, especially if he’d always wanted to join.
Bruh a medeocre-good mlb player in the 40s was living the high life and earning a great salary.
Dude just joined the navy cuz he sucked and it was ww2, all the good players where in the military
@@KrolKaz please tell me that "krak head" is the official term for a fan of the Seattle Krakens
@@SuperNuclearUnicorn what's wrong with liking crack?
@@SuperNuclearUnicorn its actually the seattle kraken, for some reason
If you care he is still in the majors. He's with the Los Angeles Angels. He's coming out of the bullpen currently in 2020 in 21 innings pitched he has a 2.14 ERA and a 0.86 whip. He bounced back after this.
@Big J he hasn't given up an earned run since September 8th. 9 straight games of no runs allowed. 3.80 ERA and 1.29 whip is not bad Lmao
You the real one for this
@@Seth80897 he’s absolute garbage. As a Sox fan with an angels fan girlfriend, I’ve lost count of how many games this fool has blown. One tonight, in fact
@Big J I mean he's good enough to hang around in the big leagues for 6 years
@@Seth80897 hes trash
“Making his first and, to date, only career start.”
Oh no...
“These days he’s a regular, solid reliever”
OH THANK GOD
Same dude 😂
He's been a reliever this last year and he's not bad
Uh, he's been a bad reliever. Look at the numbers.
Michael Mulligan moron
Michael Mulligan he has a save in every game he’s appeared in
"Bumpus" is a name that seems to have fallen out of favor for some reason.
😂😂😂😂
It's a damn shame
Balls
Time to bring it back.
Who woulda thunk
I was at this game, felt so bad for Mayers. He’s turned into a pretty solid reliever since then though, nice reclamation story.
Sean Buchert Yeah I felt horrible for him I’m a big cardinals fan so I’m glad to see him turn it around seems like a nice kid
He had 48 strikeouts in 50 innings so far in 2018 which is pretty damn good. You can see even in this video he has good pitches, he was just missing his spots a few times combined with the Dodgers hitting the ball really well that day.
@@gmwdim and he was unprepared to be pitching in the majors on such short notice
Am not a mlb fan but relievers are like the bench in nba?
yes
Still better than any active pitcher on The Orioles
Brandon Leibowitz 😭
Stooooooop it hurts
Hey listen at least they might beat the record for most losses in modern baseball history
Lmao
Miaow!
At least Mike Mayers story has a happy ending. He earned his way back on to the Cardinals roster and has a respectable 2018 season, going 2-1 as a reliever with 4.50 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 50 innings. Not exactly a star pitcher but quite solid and certainly much better than most expected in the immediate aftermath of his debut.
Solid? He has negative 0.2 BBRef WAR right now and negative win probability added.
PandionOsprey there's always one analytics nerd that tries to suck the fun or good out of a sports story. That would be you, buddy! Congrats on being a douche.
He doesn't even make a good point with the stats. -0.2 WAR is basically zero, which means he's statistically an average pitcher by MLB standards which isn't bad for a reliever since most relievers have negative WAR (other than closers). And considering his stats made him one of the worst pitchers in MLB history in 2016, I'd say reaching the MLB average by 2018 is a huge improvement.
BBRef: His ERA+ is current 87, which means his ERA is 13 percent below the league average. His win probability added is -0.505. 83% of the games he enters are low leverage or medium leverage. Just 6 are high leverage. His average leverage index 0.69, meaning he's pitching in a ton of situations that aren't that important.
As of today on FanGraphs, there are 148 relievers who qualify for minimum innings pitched. Mayers is 89th in fWAR (0.4), meaning he is in the bottom half relief pitchers for fWAR. Negative fWAR doesn't start (as of today) until the 126th player.
He is not "quite solid."
All right, I guess you proved that he sucks. You must be proud.
His dad looked pretty upset. Didn't even clap at the end. He probably felt like his son was put in a bad situation completely unprepared
Well, yes, because that's literally what happened.
That's because he was. Thank you, Captain Obvious
i went to school with mike and talked with his dad he hated that mike was with the cards and wasnt being used properly
If we're being honest, there was a lot of bad luck here. Half the hits he gave up were garbage singles that would be an out most of the time. Heck, he pitched the first three batters well enough that he could have easily gotten a 1-2-3 first inning if the ball had fallen in gloves and calls had just gone his way..
That's why he clearly states it was "part bad performance and part bad luck". Didn't you listen??
Baseball is weird like that. You can throw a terrible pitch one night and leave it hanging over the middle and have it end up as a strike out or soft pop up (or even a hard hit ball right at a defender) then other nights you can throw a perfect pitch that ends up as a soft ground ball that ends up as a hit.
@@JonSmith-hk1bq lmao
Only "garbage" hit ball was seagers . Don't sugarcoat it
“The god damn pitcher”. I laughed so hard at that. Poor dude was getting raked by everyone
Just back here after the Mets' Tom Szapucki tied Mayers in his start today.
1.1 IP / 7 H / 9 R / 9 ER / 3 BB / 2 SO / 4 HR / ERA 60.75
Lol came here for that exact reason, at least he’s not alone!
I like all the sidenotes about other horrible pitching debuts over the years; a lot more interesting and relevant than what was on TV or in the news at the time.
Yeah I love how researched this video was, made it really interesting.
The worst game 7. Any sport
Oh god please no, because it's probably the time the Red Wings took a runny dump on the Avalanche in a game7 in the early 00s or so and I DO NOT want to relive that.
17 WS, glad the Dodgers lost, but it was boring, they could've at least made it close & interesting.
ConkeyCrack still doesn’t take away the fact that it was one of the greatest World Series ever.
JoeyDailyShow they did put runners on base in every inning till the 7th. But the Astros bullpen shut them down.
Easily the Pacers vs. Magic 1995 or we can go Pacers vs. Celtics (Miller's last year). Both of them were massacres from what I remember.
So basically, the Cards put Mayers between a rock and hard place.
The dude wasn't ready for the majors, but the MLB team didn't care. They just wanted warm body with a semi-live arm to be on the mound.
I would almost say the Cards should appologize to Mayers...
Hes good now tho tbh
@@trevorsanders8757 I saw in the comments he became a reliever.
@Nick gers He eventually made it as a reliever if I hear correctly. The issue is that he wasn't ready for major league ball. He was in AAA ball for a reason- to prepare for the big leagues. He wasn't a horrible player- he just wasn't ready, and got rocked. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cardinals wrote the game off as a loss before sending him out there.
He had a sub 3 era in like 20+ starts in AAA they thought he was ready...
trevor sanders not really
Bruh, the way he says St. Louis, Missouri
I thought I was having a stroke when he said that
Try going to Montreal they all say St. Louis like that
@@_top_jimmy_ Yeah, but that's just how the French canadians (or just French in general) pronounce St. Louis. It's because they say it in French. I doubt the anglophones from Montreal pronounce it that way too.
His pronunciation of Missouri was horrible, though.
Hey blacksox sounds like a travel ball team I played against
Yeah I cringed really hard.
This was posted a week ago... but this start was in 2016. The guy has 50 appearances this year and has been an average reliever and has made close to $1 million since 2016. He's probably pretty happy. AAA guys on the 40-man make six figures + 1 full year and a couple months on league minimum.
He is really good I do pitching lessons with him in grove city
Mike Mayers: worst pitching debut ever.
Sb Nation: poor guy, let’s make an 8 minute video about it.
i feel so bad for this guy and for his family but it’s good to hear he’s doing well in the bullpen. and hey, not all major league debuts are gonna be good. one game is one game.
At 4:26, it says he recorded an out and had a career ERA of 108.00. It's in the graphic of the excerpt of the article. You guys!
That's why I specified "some accounts." Despite what (some) newspapers said at the time, I read that SABR research led them to conclude that he didn't actually record an out. It's not totally clear one way or the other, but I trust that opinion. Old baseball stats are messy!
for reference: sabr.org/cmsFiles/Files/SABR_BB_Rec_Cmt_News_June_2004.pdf
yeah, despite what the video looked like there's actually a fair amount of debate about that:
"For nearly one hundred years there was a discrepancy in the account of just how unsuccessful Heitmann was in his one ML game. Written newspaper accounts claim he faced four batters and got none of them out, while the published box score indicated he faced five batters and got one out. In both accounts, the four batters who reached safely all did so on base hits, and all came around to score, tagging Heitmann with the loss. Official baseball statistics went with the box score version, crediting Heitmann with pitching one-third of an inning and finishing his career with an ERA of 108.00.
However, recent research by the Society for American Baseball Research confirms the newspaper accounts. As of 2011, Heitmann is now credited with facing four batters, giving up four hits and four runs, and being one of 19 players who retired from the major leagues with an ERA of infinity." -Harry Heitmann's Wikipedia page
Seth Rosenthal love these vids!
I thought maybe that image was supposed to go with the guy who actually did have the 108 ERA.
He just came 6 outs away from being the leader in a combined perfect game. Currently rocking a 1.35 ERA. Crazy to see how far he’s come since this game
Against the cardinals too💀
@@whoyacallingpinhead2083 hey, their pitching has sucked but their offense has been really good. They’re 8th in runs per game
@@firemarblefilmsI think he said that cause he debuted as a cardinal.
BRING BACK "THE YEAR OF OUR LORD"!!! it gave charm to the series. Like your pronunciation of Missouri.
Should've pronounced it like we do in Chicago: "Misery."
@@chicagoakland That's funny, that's how we refer to chicago!
@@Asa-bh7zi Ha cha cha
@@chicagoakland funny...
chicagoakland that’s funny. In Missouri we pronounce Illinois as, “shithole”.
Imagine being called up from AAA when you're not even ready. To be a starting pitcher against the Dodgers... Exciting and nerve wrecking at the same time.
This is just sad. I feel bad for this man here.
alec bettinger
When talking about Harry Heitman, you say he recorded zero outs and therefore has an infinite ERA, but the text you’re showing on screen clearly states he did record an out.
Misplaced video clip; ie. bad editing. That was another guy who had the 108 ERA.
Apparently there was dispute over Heitman's performance, with contemporary accounts disagreeing over whether he recorded 0 outs or 1. The article in the video says 1, but SABR has apparently determined that he did in fact fail to retire anybody, making his infinite/undefined ERA correct as it stands now.
His debut was so bad he joined the Navy!
He was one of the better relievers on the angels in the 2020 season. Good to see he has turned it around
Not anymore…
Very interesting.
I loved all the little quips/annotations too. "Nope, no, nah, I have a thing." LOL.
“The god damn pitcher” lol
Kazmir doesn't exactly rake either. 2016 was his first year in the NL, he went 5 for 43 for a .118 batting average. His only two RBIs were off Mike Mayers.
I laughed my ass off at that
@@andrewconfiado2082 me too
Yes the MLB seems to be like life, a few winners and a shitload of losers. @@scullystie4389
This nasty comment should be deleted
They have recently brought in mike against both the reds and pirates, he did very solid, and Im honestly proud
I can’t imagine the anxiety he must’ve had during this game
Great video! Really interesting. It definitely shows that invested a lot of time and dedicated a lot of effort to making this. You clearly have a passion for baseball!
This was so well researched, great vid!
I went to one of the worst pitching debuts for the cubs against the Mariners he played only that one game. He gave up 3 home runs.
IS ANYONE GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE HOW HE PRONOUNCED ST.LOUIS, MISSOURI
Shane Dalgleish i was looking for this comment
I hope it's a joke
He was joking. Literally a few seconds after he pronounced St. Louis correctly.
St louis is pronounced correctly by the way. Its a french name. In french it is pronounced exactly how he said it... But not Missouri tho
awesome bit of work on this video. Great research and narration.
Amazing quality content man subscribed! This is mlb network quality or better you are very talented keep it up.
Please do follow up video. As of 4/20/21, Mayers has a career record of 6-3. Not bad considering his inauspicious start.
when he said "scott kazmir, the god damn pitcher" i lold so hard i hit my head on my desk on accident
Really impressed by all the historical research in this. Good vid!
What a great informative video! Great work
Now introducing Roel Ramirez to take Mayers thunder.
I was at that Mayers debut, i felt so bad for him, although he's pretty solid from the 'pen this year
This is your best video yet, your research team deserves a raise
Poor dude in front of his family. When Josh Beckett had his debut in 2002, they scored 8 runs on him in 4 innings. He even cried in the dugout. Next year, he shutout the Yankees in the WS.
Haaaaa, just watched Keller give up a grand slam against the Reds while WATCHING THIS VIDEO. Keller is debuting for the Pirates and the Reds rang his damn bell in the first, he have up 6. He may be a contender. Date 5-17-19.
You should do nathan peterman's worst nfl qb debut
Daniel Ortiz Ryan Leaf?
ryan leaf had a great debut start actually@@oneofmanyte3321
Frosty Klecko lol ur not wrong
Wilson Alvarez faced 5 batters in his debut for the Texas Rangers on 7/24/89, giving up a single, two home runs and two walks before being pulled with an ERA of infinity. He did not pitch in the majors again until 8/11/91, for the Chicago White Sox, on which day he threw a no-hitter. May not be the worst debut, but it sure as heck is the best recovery!
I love these vids.... keep 'em coming!
I have a squabble on the Heitmann case. The article quoted clearly states that he DID record one out and ended his career with an ERA of 108.00
Twelve runs per inning would be 108, so if you're charged with 4 runs and record one out, that's your ERA.
Also technically if it was zero then the ERA would be undefined, not infinity.
Never knew his debut was this bad, he’s now one of the best relievers in baseball, crazy
"One of the best relievers in baseball." Look, as a Cubs fan living in LA, I'm a big Angels supporter. Love your ballpark, great fan base, typically really knowledgeable and love to talk about the game. Never any "oh you're a fan of another team" bullshit you get with Dodgers fans. But you're making those other Angels fans look bad with this hyperbole. Let's slow our roll a little here. He's got a 2.51 ERA, he's not exactly Mariano Rivera out there.
This was a great video. I loved the historical tie-ins.
You need to do some sort of video on the Fail Mary and events leading up to and following it.
Hey he just won reliever of the month
“Saint Louie, Miz or I”
The telling of this horrible pitching outing is very well done. And I love the laughably bad side stories!
Mike Meyers graduated Grove City 2 years before my freshman year which was kinda lit to see him start in the MLB
I think the Brewers Alec Bettinger might've just beat this.
Sadly
Poor Mayers. At least hes a reliever. Btw, i was in the stadium for lopezs debut.
I like how many other debuts you went into detail on.
Great editing bro
The Heitman article you're highlighting to talk about how he got no outs, literally says he got one out.
I went back to make sure I wasn't going crazy. Absolutely did.
Me watching the Angels bring him in and realize it's this guy. 😯
I remember this game. Thanks for sharing it.
Wow I actually remember watching this game! I'm a brewers fan so I was glad the cards were getting shelled, but you couldn't help but feel bad for the guy, especially when they kept cutting away to his family lol.
The worst streaker in the history of sports would be a good one.... Is KFC still open?
calgary flames streaker who climbed over the glass slipped when he jumped down and hit his head on the ice got knocked unconscious and landed on his back. junk pointed at the ceiling
@@clay4444 well there it is folks....the greatest streak in sports history.😂😂
Johnny McCollum i hope you looked it up lol
@@clay4444 oh you can count on it lol
I seem to recall that there once was a cricket streaker who tried to hurdle the stumps (you know, those 28 in long wooden sticks stuck in the ground) and didn't quite make it.
What happened to John Bois
He was too good at his job and now he teaches other people how to make videos
He's being held against his will, tied up in the SB Nation basement
All of the above are simultaneously true
He's been placed at the 1 yard line and he isn't allowed to leave until he scores a 99 yard TD run on a QB sneak.
He transcended human form and became god himself.
great video bro, nice job
I was at this game when I was 13, and my family and I left after they took him out. I still remember this game for whatever reason, but god I felt soooo bad for the guy. He’s not even in the Cardinals organization anymore, he’s with the angels now and has a career 7.03 ERA as of 2019.
He had some shitty defense behind him, too.
lol @ "the goddamn pitcher"
He just won reliever of the month lmao
He got DFA'd a few weeks ago but no one picked him up. Cards re-added him to the 40-man and he went 2 IP with 1 ER (solo homer) a few nights ago but his stuff looked pretty decent. Dude's had a tough career so far, hoping he is able to find his footing a bit as a reliever.
1.1 innings is more innings than I will ever pitch, he got to the show....good for him...
Worst nfl division champion (7-9 seahawks)
Or worst division winning team in any sport
Or whoever won the afc south in like the last 5 years besides the jags last yr
Francesco Piliero 2016 and 2015: 9-7 Texans, maybe, but
2014 and 2013: 11-5 colts? or
2012: 12-4 texans? Forgettable, probably, but not the worst
They beat the Saints in the wildcard...
Sam Rier but they shouldnt have even been in the playoffs at all, with two ten win teams in the conference booted for a mediocre team winning a weak division
It was already said, but those sad sack Hawks beat the Saints in the playoffs. Sad!
"And here he is grabbing a seemingly nonchalant drink of water. Nothing bad could happen, right?". "Well, in 1899, something bad did happen to Clyde Higgins when he grabbed a drink of water...."
Do a deep rewind of Jadeveon Clowney's monster hit against Michigan. So much went on that season and the play right before that was a bs call that went Michigan's way. The hit itself is absolutely ridiculous, but the context makes it even better.
This is the best series on UA-cam
On April Fool's Day, "The Worst" should become "The Wurst" and show how bratwurst and liverwurst are made.
Great video!
This reminds me of RA Dickey's major League debut. He did not pitch another MLB game that same year.
Its so annoying how he keeps comparing to other people instad of just getting on with the actual start
Dangit. It had to be my team 😂
Yes it was my team against yours 😂
My dad was at that game. I was watching on tv. I can remember them showing his poor family over and over during the nightmare inning
I’m literally watching the giants-D backs game rn and Lopez is on the mound right now tossing bullets good for a 1.13 ERA(he mentions Lopez towards the end of the video) kinda neat
4:59 he looks like Sylvester Stallone
I dont think so not at all
Lol he kinda does
This is so sad. Alexa warm up Despacito
Maybe it's just me, but I get irritated when I hear people talk about an infinite ERA. It's not infinite. To calculate ERA you divide the number of earned runs conceded by the number of innings pitched (obviously, each out constitutes 0.bar3). If you fail to record an out, you would be dividing by 0. Dividing by zero is not infinite, it's undefined.
The day after this video is put up, Boston scored 5 runs on a pitcher that made his debut and he only went 1/3 of an inning.
I ask for a rewind of David Freese Game 6 2011 walk off and you give me this :(
Immediately clicked once is saw “The Worst”.
I'm relatively new to your channel and your production quality is fantastic! Thanks for the video and I'm looking forward to killing more time at work watching your other videos.
As someone who was at college with Mike, this was painful to watch live. My opinion remains that the mistake the Cardinals made was not having a guy in left field in dressed as Michael Myers as he warms up to the Halloween theme, like he did in college.
He went to my high school and worked out with us today.
Of course his first strikeout was Grandal. Here we are two years later, still in the playoffs and Grandal continues to suck.
Do something about Rick ankiel. He was rarely this terrible, but he was so consistently bad that it really was impessive
aaaaaah....actually, ankiel was found in the MITCHELL REPORT to be high on drugs!
Wait, this Travers story sounds amazing. Do you have a video on that?
The camera's were on his family through out his start. It was absolutely painful.
Do the worst SB nation video that could be improved by Jon Bois.
Get to the point already!
At least he is still pitching. The Yankees had a guy in the mid-80's that pitched in one game that was meant as a tryout for the rotation in September, destroyed his shoulder, and never got back.
Charlie Zink, August 12 2008. Pitching debut for the Red Sox against the Rangers. Boston scores 10 in the first inning, including a three run home run and a grand slam by Ortiz. Zink and the relievers manage to blow a 10 run lead as the Rangers score 15 runs over the next 5 innings, 8 of which are charged to Zink, who goes only 4.1 innings and never plays in the majors again. Boston did at least manage to come back and win 19-17, but I can't remember watching a more humiliating start, giving up that kind of a lead.