Baseball Incidents They'd Rather Forget Quiz

Answer: He lost a fly ball in the lights and it bounced off his head and into the stands for a home run

Canseco may have been a great hitter, but he was an awful fielder. This was seen at its finest when the Indians' Carlos Martinez hit a long fly ball. Canseco drifted back, got under it, then lost sight of it. The ball bounced off his skull, and a routine fly ball out turned into a home run.

Answer: He called time, dropped his pants, and wiped the dirt off his boxer shorts

"Psycho" was known for his hustle, so it was no surprise when he dropped the bunt and went flying down to first. More surprising was when, after calling time, he got up, unbuckled his belt, started wiping down his pants, and then all of a sudden yanked his pants back up and started laughing in embarrassment. Plain and simply, he had suffered a brain cramp, forgetting where he was and that he was in front of about 40,000 people and on national TV.

Answer: He got on his hands and knees and blew the ball into foul territory

Well, technically, there is no rule against it, and he did get away with it. It was rather comical to see a grown man on his hands and knees crawling up the third base line blowing on the ball, but it worked. The ball curled foul. Yes, it was comical, but in general, most Mariner baseball in the early 1980s was.

Answer: Cup

How to put this delicately. Some Seattle sports fans still refer to such an incident as getting "Manzanilloed". He was carried off the field on a stretcher and wound up having surgery.

Answer: Stopped short and called time out

It was an A for originality, a textbook looking steal in slow motion (no, it was not a slow motion replay, he just ran in slow motion), followed by a picture perfect slide about 20 feet short of the base and a pop-up with his hands in a perfect "Time Out" T motion. Needless to say, the only "out" the umpire called was on Stargell.

Answer: Sportcaster Keith Olbermann's mother

To give you an idea of how bad Knoblauch's throwing problems were, Olbermann's mother was several rows into the first base stands at the time. The throw was well over the first baseman's head. The formerly great second baseman suddenly found himself unable to throw accurately no matter how hard he tried (which was the problem, the harder he tried, the worse he threw), eventually prompting him to be moved to left field, and then ending his career. Several players have suddenly developed this problem, and few have ever overcome it.

Answer: He made three errors on one play

The ground ball was hit to him. He bobbled the ball for error number one, then picked it up and threw it past first base and into the outfield for error number two. Then, when the right fielder threw the ball back in, he caught the ball and tried to relay it home. However, he again threw it wildly past the catcher for error number three.

Answer: He handed the ball to a fan, allowing the runner to advance two bases

When a ball goes out of play, the runner is given two bases from the time of the throw (or hand-off, as the case may be). Walker, thinking there were two outs already in the inning and thinking his catch ended it, handed the ball to a young boy in the front row. There was only one out, however, and when he realized it, he got the ball back and tried to throw the runner out. Too late. As soon as the fan touched it, the ball was dead and the runner was awarded the bases.

Answer: He still had the ball, so two runs scored during the argument

In one of the classic brain freezes of all-time, Cone caught the ball and tagged first, then when the umpire called the runner safe, began arguing with him immediately, without calling time out and making sure the play was over. While he was screaming at the umpire, the runners kept running.

His teammates tried to get his attention, but he would have none of it as he just kept on yelling at the umpire while two runners scored.

Answer: He threw a peeled potato into the outfield, then tagged a runner running home with the real baseball

"The Great Potato Pickoff" was a pre-designed play where Bresnahan had peeled a potato to the size and shape of a baseball. Under the guise of replacing a broken glove, he went to the dugout and got it, then hid it in the pocket of his glove. When a runner stole third, he hurled the potato into the outfield.

The runner mistook that for the baseball, and thinking the throw had gone wild, ran for home, where Bresnahan tagged him out. For this, the runner was awarded the base, and Bresnahan was ejected and then was released the next day.