Blind Squirrels Find Nuts

Ahh, anything can happen on any given day during the long season.  A day after blowing a ten run lead and losing to the A’s 14-13, in part due to a blown call at homeplate (replays apparently showed that Cuddyer was safe), the Twins came back yesterday and beat the A’s yesterday 3-2 in ten innings.

As for blind squirrels, yesterday’s Tigers-Mariners game featured a couple.  Magglio Ordonez staved off his potentially imminent release by hitting a grand slam, only his fifth of the season, as the Tigers won 9-7.

Meanwhile, the M’s wasted two homeruns from that noted slugger, former-A Jack Hannahan.  Hannahan now has three HRs on the season in 136 AB’s to go with a lusty .191 batting average.

As a long-ago Cubs announcer, whose name I cannot readily call, was fond of saying, “Any man with a bat in his hands is dangerous.”  On any given day, any major league player can have a monster day.

My all-time favorite example is the immortal Cesar Gutierrez.  Gutierrez was a light-hitting shortstop for the Detroit Tigers, who in the second game of a double header on June 21, 1970, went 7 for 7, setting an American League record and tied the major league record for most hits in a game without making an out.  Here’s the boxscore for his big game.

Taking out that one big day, Gutierrez hit .230 the rest of the season (94 for 408), and .225 for the rest of his career (121 for 538).