Joe Cox - The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Stories Behind Baseballs Rarest Feats

Joe Cox is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and is the author of Almost Perfect: The Heartbreaking Pursuit of Baseballs Holy Grail , and has coauthored several other sports books . He lives with his wife and children near Bowling Green, Kentucky.

To the men who starred in the Negro Leagues, who by all rights should have their accomplishments celebrated in this book. The statistics dont allow their inclusion, but this book is dedicated to them, and to their baseball feats, many of which were equal or superior to those chronicled here.

Also, to Pap, have missed you many times in the last two decades, but never more than during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. They finally did it!

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Copyright 2018 Joe Cox

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ISBN 978-1-4930-3212-9 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4930-3213-6 (e-book)

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Printed in the United States of America

When Joe Cox asked me if I could write a few words to lead off The Immaculate Inning , I was excited to share a few thoughts about some of the more amazing parts of baseball history. The more that Joe and I talked about the book, the more I felt like what hes doing here and what I do for ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball have a lot in common. Were getting at the inside stories behind the game, and tracking accomplishments and feats. Of course, Joe got to think about and plan out exactly which stories he wanted to tell, whereas many times, on ESPN, we find ourselves working on them on the fly.

My very first Sunday Night Baseball game was the first no-hitter in the 30-year history of Sunday Night Baseball . I walk into the booth, Im nervous, trying to figure out who Im working with, just trying to get through the game, and Jake Arrieta throws a no-hitter against the Dodgers and it becomes this historic moment, out of nowhere in an early September game. In many ways, that embodies the reality that any time you go to the ballpark, you could see something amazing happen.

The Immaculate Inning reminded me of being in Chicago when Willson Contreras homered on his first pitch he saw in the big leagues. That was magical, the way the moment was building. He comes on deck, and our Sunday Night Baseball crew is actually set up in the seatswe do that two or three times a yearand the entire place starts to come to their feet, just while hes on deck. Hes a big prospect, and the entire Chicago fan base gets to its feet, just to see him on deck. You can feel the anticipation and hear the cheering begin before he even steps into the batters box. Its like a movie script. If youre watching the movie, youre going, Come on! The movie wouldnt even have been written in that wayits the first pitch, he hits it out of the park. And wow, to hear that place explodeit was like the World Series. It felt like that.

That story is in The Immaculate Inning , but so are a lot of other stories from players and games that are long before my timeand any of the readers times as well. I love the story about Bobby Lowe hitting four home runs after a big fish dinner and going back to the restaurant and eating there again, having the same meal until he got sick of it. Reading that story, I pictured Lowe running back to the restaurant, and in my minds eye I see that maybe the restaurant ends up with a sign on the wall that Bobby Lowe ate here and hit four home runs. Those kind of stories are baseball to me. I grew up in Los Angeles listening to Vin Scully and all those great stories. I love the beautiful way that baseball allows you the time to delve into things, and to mention the context of who this person is and the background of where they come from. All of a sudden, you paint a picture of someone thats not just a number of whatever theyre chasing or doing.

That said, the chase of numbers is also a big part of baseball. Weve lived through that with the 2017 Indians and their big winning streak. Weve seen it with this amazing 2017 rookie class, with Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge and Rhys Hoskins, and all the historic first time in baseball history moments with those guys. Im seeing that more than any other time in my life, and its incredible when historic numbers are reached and passed.

Those historic numbers are really important in providing historical context. For example, I think about Ted Williams hitting .400. Weve got some hitters right now with players like Jos Altuve and Daniel Murphy, who stand out as guys who get hit after hit and are at the top of batting races consistently year after year. And then you think about how far their numbers are from .400, and its unbelievable. To think about what Ted Williams did, its the kind of stuff that gives me a craving to go back in time and watchand have it not be black and whitenot even for just the numbers, but for the context. What was playing in that time like? We dont have a time machine, but the stories are a pretty good substitute to help us know different eras and styles of baseball.

As the first woman to regularly work national baseball telecasts, I get asked a lot about my legacy in the profession. To be honest, I dont do a good job of stepping backIm in the moment, thinking about the next game, so its more getting my brain on how can I break down Daniel Murphys at-bats or talk about Cody Bellinger. It helps me stay where Im at and not think too much about any of it. But I do know that as long as I can be, Ill be out there tracking the historic moments, telling the inside stories. Those storiesthe stories that Joe Cox tells here, the stories that Im looking forward to telling in the next gametheyre what makes baseball great, and theyre absolutely necessary for baseball to continue to be great.

Jessica Mendoza
September 2017

Jessica Mendoza is an ESPN Major League Baseball analyst on Sunday Night Baseball the exclusive national game of the week. Mendoza is the first female analyst to regularly call nationally televised MLB games.

Major-league records, for our purposes, begin with the 1876 National League. They include the Federal League (19141915), the Players League (1890), the Union Association (1884), and American Association (18821891), as well as the usual AL and NL data. Team names are per baseball-reference.com.

CHAPTER 1

Number of Times Accomplished : 15 (or is it 16?).

First Instance: Good question. Either Paul Hines, Providence Grays, May 8, 1878, or Neal Ball, Cleveland Naps, July 19, 1909.

Most Recent Instance: Eric Bruntlett, Philadelphia Phillies, August 23, 2009.