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Larry Yount: King of the One Game Wonders!

Baseball history is replete with weird, one-time-only oddities. And so here’s a real good one I stumbled onto yesterday.

We’ve all heard about ballplayers who’ve had unusually short careers. The player is often described as “having a cup of coffee” in the majors.  Well, if a “cup of coffee” is a short career, the player I’m talking about today barely had a chance to “sniff the aroma” from a cup of coffee. As a matter of fact, he’s in the record books for having the shortest career ever. Read on to find out what it’s all about.

In a game played 49 years ago yesterday, September 15, 1971, between the Astros and the Braves, a 21-year-old September call-up for the Astros made his major league debut. He was announced into the game in relief in the ninth inning with the Astros trailing 4-1.

OK, nothing too unusual about that so far. But a funny thing happened on the way to the rook’s first major league pitch. Little did he know that he was about to become the player with the shortest career in major league history.     

As he arrived at the mound, he did the usual thing and started to throw some warm-ups as pitchers have always done. But suddenly, after a couple warm-up tosses, his elbow began to stiffen.  He called his manager and the trainer and a conference ensued on the mound. It was determined that the elbow was too sore for him to pitch, so he was taken out of the game before he threw a single pitch!

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Believe it or not, since he was announced into the game, that meant he had officially “played” in that game. That’s what the record books shows even today. In addition, major league rules state that any pitcher announced as being in the game must face at least one batter, “except in case of injury.” And so this unlikely scenario made him the only pitcher in major league history to “appear” in a game without ever actually having faced a batter! It has never happened before or since.

Just to make things worse, after he was taken out of the game, he was soon back in the minors. The next spring training in 1972, he was one of the last players cut from the Astros, and he never appeared in another major league game.

The unfortunate rookie pitcher’s name was Larry Yount. Does that name ring a bell? It should, because he’s the older brother of Hall-of-Famer Robin Yount.  

Here’s a little background on Larry Yount: He had been in the Astros’ minor league system since 1968. After showing well with the Astros’ AAA affiliate in Oklahoma City, Larry was called up on September 2, 1971. But Larry was an Army Reservist at the time, so before he could join the big-league club, he had to serve a week-long stint in the Army doing infantry drills. Larry later claimed, legitimately, that the intense drills tightened up his elbow and affected his pitching motion.

Larry Yount is also one of 31 pitchers—a list that includes Stan Musial—to pitch at least one game in the majors with zero innings recorded, that is, they did not retire a batter. In addition, Yount is the only pitcher in major league history to also be credited with “zero batters faced.”  Check out Larry Yount’s Baseball Reference page for a chuckle. You’ll see a whole bunch of “zeros,” except for a lonely “1” under the “Games” column. Here’s a link: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/yountla01.shtml.

Larry remained in the Astros organization until 1973 until he was traded to the Brewers’ minor league system in 1974. That year, he was briefly at spring training with his younger brother Robin, who was trying to make the team as a rookie, but he was quickly sent back down. Larry Yount retired after eight minor league seasons in 1976.

Robin Yount, of course, did a little better than his older brother, as he went on to have a Hall-of-Fame career. Over his 20 years in the Bigs (1974-1993), the three-time All-Star hit .285 with 3142 hits, 251 home runs, 1406 RBIs, and was a two-time MVP award winner.

There was a lot of professional baseball in the Yount family. In addition to Larry and Robin, Larry’s son Austin had a brief minor league career; as did his nephew, Dustin, Robin’s son, who played ten-years in the Orioles and Dodger’s minor league systems.  

And don’t feel sorry for Larry. He did well for himself after baseball, later becoming a successful real estate developer in Arizona. At Robin Yount’s Hall-of-Fame induction, he paid tribute to his brother Larry:

“He taught me how to work hard and dedication to the game was the only way to make it. He’s taken care of all my business activities for me and my family for many years and I thank him for it.”

So let’s take a moment to remember Larry Yount, the ballplayer who holds the dubious distinction of having the shortest career in major league history. Hey, he made it to the majors, didn’t he? That’s more than about 99.999% of the population can say.

And boy, that cup of coffee sure smelled good at the time!

Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from Larry Yount Wikipedia page

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