Baseball is a hard game, and not many men have had the distinction of saying they've played in the Majors. It's been said that if you took every individual who has ever played in the entire history of the MLB, you would still be unable to fill up even the smallest stadium in the League. So if you ever have the honor of getting to play, even in one game in your career, you should feel very distinct.
Except Ron Wright.
Ron Wright was a career minor leaguer, except for the one game he was given a shot. In his one game, he had what many would consider to be the most nightmare of stat lines. The day is Sunday, April 14, 2002. It's a pleasant afternoon in Texas as the Mariners are in town to play the Rangers. Ron Wright is getting the start at DH. This lineup he is apart of is loaded with many of the same players who helped win 116 games the season prior. The circumstances couldn't be more ideal for Ron. And yet...
Wright's card is very misleading, because he never got any hits. He had three official at bats in this game in which he struck out, grounded into a double play and grounded into a triple play. The man hit for the failure cycle. A hat trick of pain. If there was a way to create four outs in an at bat, Wright probably would have found a way to do it.
The craziest thing about this game was the Mariners found a way to win the game despite Wright contributing over 1/5 of their total offensive outs. The Texas Rangers were what the Angels today would become. Alex Rodriguez drove in 5 runs and was generally amazing, but just like Mike Trout, his team just sucked and found a way to lose. Ron Wright never got another chance after he was pinch-hit for.
The
triple play was a combination of bad luck, poor baserunning and Ron Wright being greedy. With runners on 1st and 3rd, Wright knocks a pitch towards Kenny Rogers who snares in and spins around to make the throw to 2nd base for the force out on John Olerud. Under normal circumstances, Alex Rodriguez would just throw to 1st base and complete the double play, but Ruben Sierra at third base decided that he could score despite being a very slow runner. A-Rod throws home to Bil Haselman. Sierra is a dead duck and stops running halfway home and gets caught up in a run down that also included Hank Blalock and Rogers for out #2. Wright himself is also a pretty slow runner and while Sierra was making himself an easy out, Ron decided to try to take 2nd base. The decision proved to be a poor one as he was out by a mile when he tried sliding in with a waiting Michael Young applying the tag.
Mark McLemore would pinch hit for him in the game but fare no better, striking out twice. The Mariners used a 6 run 7th inning and a 2 run 8th to prevail 9-7 in the game. Wright wasn't longed for the majors and returned to the minors where he would remain until his retirement in 2004. He went on to get a degree in pharmacy and have four children with his wife. The man had more kids than major league at bats.
