This column was written for three people, Steve Berthiaume, Orel Hershiser and Eduardo Perez, three of my buddies on Baseball Tonight. On a recent show, I got a little caught up in the fact that Carlos Lee had 13 sacrifice flies, setting the Astros' club record for sacrifice flies in a season before he even got to the All-Star break. As I was explaining this oddity, I overstated it somewhat, saying, "I've always been fascinated by sacrifice flies.''
Before I could say another word, Berthiaume, who is hilarious, interrupted my thought by yelling at me, "did you just say you've always been fascinated by sacrifice flies?'' And then the three of them, on national television, proceeded to laugh at me. After a good 10 seconds of this, I, also laughing, boldly shot back, "stop making fun of me.''
It was, of course, good natured fun. I love those guys. It was, I hope, an amusing moment. And yet, I must defend myself. OK, "fascinated'' was a bit strong. But I offer the following facts about sacrifice flies. You be the judge of whether I deserved their derision.
• According to the Elias Sports Bureau, sacrifice flies were recognized as an official statistic from 1908-1930, then in 1939, but not continuously until 1954 (for the purpose of this story, we are only recognizing sacrifice flies after 1953). In 1954, the Dodgers' Gil Hodges had 19, which, 53 years later, remains the record. How weird is that? And yet, Carlos Lee, with 13 at the break, has a chance to break Hodges' record (from 1926-30, sacrifice flies were awarded for advancing any runner to any base with a fly ball).
• Eddie Murray is the all-time record holder with 128, followed by Cal Ripken with 127. A third Oriole, Brooks Robinson, holds the record for most seasons leading or tied for the league lead in sacrifice flies with four. Murray is the all-time record holder, but he never led or tied for his league lead in sacrifice flies in a season, but the following players did: Leo Posada, Barry Foote, Jack Heidemann, Rick Wilkins, Clay Dalrymple and Alan Bannister, who tied with Carl Yastrzemski for the American League lead in 1977.
Heidemann tied for the AL lead with Rico Petrocelli with 10 in 1970. Heidemann finished his career with 15 sacrifice flies. Posada tied with Minnie Minoso and Vic Power for the AL lead in 1961 with 12. Those 12 sacrifice flies were the only ones Posada hit in his three-year career.
• Eleven times in history has a player hit three sacrifice flies in one game, including Chad Kreuter, and the last being Edgar Martinez in 2002. Then there's Adam Dunn, who has 15 sacrifice flies in his career, two more than Lee has this year. In 2004-05, Dunn went 1,085 plate appearances without a sacrifice fly. He had 65 chances -- runner at third base, less than two outs -- before he finally broke his streak with a fly ball to left field. The crowd at Great American Ballpark cheered him. Dunn raised his arms in triumph.
• Chili Davis drove in 112 runs in 1993, the record for RBIs in a season without a sacrifice fly. Perez told me that Davis told him that he never went to the plate with a runner at third base and less than two outs thinking about hitting a fly ball. He said it wasn't the correct mentality for a hitter to go to the plate thinking he was going to make an out. Plus, Davis said, if he tried to hit a fly ball, he might end up hitting an easy pop up to an infielder. And yet, Davis had 94 sacrifice flies, tied for 44th all time entering this year. In 1988, he tied Ripken (the only season in which Ripken led his league) for the AL lead with 10.
Dunn (102 RBIs, zero sacrifice flies for the 2004 Reds) and Nick Esasky (108 RBIs, zero sacrifice flies for the 1989 Red Sox) are the only other players since 1953 to drive in 100 runs in a season without hitting a sacrifice fly. Compare that to Heidemann's 1970 season. He drove in 37 runs, 10 on sacrifice flies, meaning over one-quarter of his RBIs came on balls in which he didn't even get a hit.
• Bob Boone, a career .254 hitter without much power, had as many or more sacrifice flies in his career (78) than six members of the 500-home run club who played all or most of their career after 1953: Willie McCovey, Harmon Killebrew, Mark McGwire, Reggie Jackson, Sammy Sosa and Mickey Mantle. Mantle hit 47, as many as Mickey Tettleton, and only one more than Neifi Perez. Perez? Mantle? Maybe this is explainable because those 500-home run guys were also swing and miss guys, as is Dunn, and Boone was a contact guy who was one of the best at putting the ball in play. And, maybe, when those 500-home run hitters got the ball in the air, it wasn't a sacrifice fly, it was a home run.
• Have you given any thought to how you can get a sacrifice fly? You can get one without even hitting a fair ball. You can get one while making an inning-ended double play: one out, runner on third scores, runner on first is thrown out trying to go to second, but if the runner on third scored before the third out was made, the run counts, and the hitters is credited with a sacrifice fly. You can be credited with a sacrifice fly, and still reach base: runner on third, fly ball to deep left field, left fielder drops it, runner on third tags and scores, batter gets credit for a sacrifice fly, no time at-bat, but reaches on the error. You can get two RBIs on one play without being recorded with an official at-bat if you hit a sacrifice fly that is so deep, the runners on third base and second base each tag up and score.
• Frank Thomas, the newest member of the 500-home run club, has 117 sacrifice flies in his career, 11 short of Murray's record.
So, when Thomas hits 12 sacrifice flies in the second half of the season to break Murray's record, and Lee hits seven more to break Hodges' single-season record, I just hope it happens on a night when I'm on Baseball Tonight. And I hope my friends Steve Berthiaume, Orel Hershiser and Eduardo Perez are on that night when I announce these historic and fascinating feats.
Who will be laughing then?
Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. His new book "Is This a Great Game, Or What?" has been published by St. Martin's Press and is available in bookstores. Click here to order a copy. In addition, click here to subscribe to The Magazine.