"You could look it up!" -- Casey Stengel
I was watching the Blue Jays the other day on TV and their play-by-play announcer, ex-catcher Buck Martinez, mentioned the one time in his big league career he played in the outfield. This happened in his rookie season, 1969, playing with the expansion Royals. He said he was scared as hell, didn't know what he was doing out there, but that his manager, Joe Gordon, wanted to stack as many righty hitters in the lineup as possible against Cleveland lefty Sam McDowell. Color man Pat Tabler asked him how that went, and Buck answered (paraphrasing), "Not too well. We got killed, and McDowell struck out fourteen."
I found the
game Martinez was referring to, and to my surprise his memory was spot on. Seven of KC's eight position players batted right; Cleveland beat KC 8-1; and McDowell went the distance, striking out fourteen, just as Martinez said.
What Martinez didn't say was this: he batted in the only run for KC, made no errors in the outfield, and in fact had one assist -- he caught a fly ball for an out, then picked off McDowell at second base for the double play. And he never played in the outfield again in his 17 year career.
Believe It or Don't!