We’ve reported on players whose careers have been unique due to what they did or did not do during their brief time in the big leagues, guys like Chris Jelic, the only player ever to hit a home run for his only MLB hit in his final at bat.
Today though the National Baseball Hall of Fame one-ups anything we’ve ever done with a feature on Larry Yount, the older brother of the greatest player ever to wear a Milwaukee Brewers uniform. Like his kid brother Robin, Larry made it to the Major Leagues…but once he did, well let’s just say the only way he was ever going to make it to the Hall of Fame was in their official blog 40 years later.
Larry, as pointed out in this brilliant piece by John Odell, is the only player to ever appear in a game without actually appearing in a game.
If that above sentence makes no sense to you, here’s Odell to clarify how things unfolded in front of 6500 fans in the top of the 9th inning against the Atlanta Braves at the Astrodome on September 15, 1971, a night when Larry Yount would unknowingly enter baseball’s record books:
“As Yount warmed up, his elbow began to stiffen, but he buckled down and reported to the mound, where he was announced as the next pitcher. The pain, however, got much worse as he took his final warm-up pitches on the mound. Not wanting to risk his career in his debut, he called in the trainer, who took him out. Both surely expected that Yount’s turn would come again soon.
It never did.”
Because Yount was announced and actually took the hill, his appearance was still official despite it’s brevity. The game transcription of the events in the 9th inning makes it look like Yount’s manager was skittish about his pitcher even being on the hill, making no mention of Yount’s injury. Here’s how it looks on Retrosheet:
"BRAVES 9TH: YOUNT REPLACED CHILES (PITCHING); RAY REPLACED YOUNT (PITCHING); Millan grounded out (shortstop to first); TSN box has asterisk-Yount injured warming up this is all of Robin's brother's career Debut game for Larry Yount; Garr singled; H. Aaron flied out to center; Williams flied out to right; 0 R, 1 H, 0 E, 1 LOB. Braves 4, Astros 1."
Interestingly enough, following Robin’s sensational rookie campaign in 1974, Larry himself would be traded to the Brewers with fellow minor leaguer Don Stratton in exchange for OF Wilbur Howard. Yount would never rise above AA though with the Brewers, going 8-16, 4.82 ERA between low-A Burlington and AA Thetford Mines before hanging it up. Still though, the fact that he was even trusted to take the hill in a Major League Baseball game means that Larry Yount was able to live out more of our childhood dreams than any of us ever will. Plus he’ll always be remembered for SOMETHING…even if it’s for something really, really obscure.
