[OT] What Is the Rarest Single-Game Feat in Sports?

[Tom Pasniewski 98]

Tonight's perfect game by Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks is only the 15th perfect game pitched in the last 105 years and 17th overall.  Certainly a rarity but the rarest?  So what is the rarest one-day single feat in sports?  I would say to be rare it has had to have happened and possibly been duplicated.  This would make such things as Chamberlain's 100-point basketball game not eligible.

If you were going by a pure statistical standpoint, given that on any given night you have 18 players in a game of baseball, times 15 games a night for 270 player-games and so forth, we have in the millions of player-games in this history of baseball which would seem to put a rare offensive per-game effort that's happened only a few times as the rarest feat.  But feats could also be rated as expectations.  For example, he never did anything remotely like that before or after that day but on that day, boy did he go beyond everybody's wildest expectations.

And is the rarest feat something that lacks a catch phrase - perfect game, hole-in-one, hat trick, quadruple double, hitting for the cycle, etc.

Anyway, just looking for people's thoughts?

[Josh '99]

For hitters in baseball, something that's comparable, in number of occurrences at least, is the four-homer game, of which there have been 15 in history.

[jy3]

the thing about examining rarest events is that you can get crazy. i guess that is why you had those stipulations

i would think that a four triple game would be pretty rare. but has it happened...once?...twice?
what about  4 sbs in a game?
always interesting to talk about this stuff htough

[Josh '99]

Dave Roberts stole four bases in a game earlier in the year.  I have to imagine it's been done before then.

Looking it up, the single-game record is 7; the post-1900 record is 6.

There has been one four-triple game in major league history, and it happened in 1897.

[Tom Pasniewski 98]

I was actually thinking of the four-homer game but wasn't quite sure if someone had hit five or not.  Was kind of sure they hadn't but not absolutely sure.  I thought Johnny Damon's three hits in one inning last year for the Sox was a pretty rare feat especially since they were three different hits (single, double, triple)

[Bio '04]

At a recent trivia night at Dino's :-P they asked this question:

Who is the only person to score a goal every possible way in one game?

(i.e. there are 5 different types of goals.  The DJ came up with these suggestions: even strength, power play, shorthanded, empty netter and penalty shot, but I'm not sure if that's the correct five.)

A: Mario Lemieux

That's pretty rare! :-)

[billhoward]

[Q]Bio '04 Wrote:

 At a recent trivia night at Dino's  they asked this question:

Who is the only person to score a goal every possible way in one game?

(i.e. there are 5 different types of goals.  The DJ came up with these suggestions: even strength, power play, shorthanded, empty netter and penalty shot, but I'm not sure if that's the correct five.)

A: Mario Lemieux

That's pretty rare![/q]

A sixth way: against.  

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]jmh30 Wrote:

 For hitters in baseball, something that's comparable, in number of occurrences at least, is the four-homer game, of which there have been 15 in history.[/q]

But remember there are nine times as many hitters as pitchers in a given game.  (So I guess four HRs is rarer.)

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

 [Q2]Bio '04 Wrote:

 At a recent trivia night at Dino's  they asked this question:

Who is the only person to score a goal every possible way in one game?

(i.e. there are 5 different types of goals.  The DJ came up with these suggestions: even strength, power play, shorthanded, empty netter and penalty shot, but I'm not sure if that's the correct five.)

A: Mario Lemieux

That's pretty rare![/Q]
A sixth way: against.  [/q]

You mean an own goal?  Those aren't officially recorded.

[Josh '99]

[Q]Tom Pasniewski 98 Wrote:
I was actually thinking of the four-homer game but wasn't quite sure if someone had hit five or not.  Was kind of sure they hadn't but not absolutely sure.  I thought Johnny Damon's three hits in one inning last year for the Sox was a pretty rare feat especially since they were three different hits (single, double, triple)[/q]No player has hit five homers in a game.  Twice a player has hit five home runs in a double-header:  Stan Musial in 1954 and Nate Colbert in 1972.

Damon's three hits in an inning tied a record, it had been done four times previously.  The most recent was Gene Stephens, also a Red Sox.  The three previous times were by Tom Burns, Fred Pfeffer, and Ned Williamson of the Chicago Cubs (then known as the White Stockings), who all did it in the *same* inning of a game on September 6, 1883.  So yeah, I'd say that's pretty rare as well.

And because Tom's question made me curious, the record for most hits in a game is 9, by Johnny Burnett of the Cleveland Indians in an 18-inning game in 1932.  The record for most hits in a 9-inning game is 7, shared by Wilbert Robinson of the 1892 Baltimore Orioles (incidentially, not the same franchise we know as the Baltimore Orioles today) and Rennie Stennett of the 1975 Pittsburgh Pirates.

[Rosey]

Has there ever been a baseball game in which two players hit for the cycle?  I'd imagine that would be pretty rare.

Cheers,
Kyle

::banana::

[Tom Pasniewski 98]

Speaking of hitting for the cycle, there are seven ways to reach base safely that I know of - four being hitting for the cycle plus walking, being hit by a pitch and having the ball get away on a third strike.  Since Int. Walks are not kept as a separate stat, I'll keep it at 7 - it's never been done and I wouldn't call the cycle plus any of those particularly amazing since the cycle is what's amazing.

I would offer, without the actual names, that playing baseball games for two different teams in the same day is rare but as that's not a single game nor much of a feat since it usually involved trades between teams involved in doubleheaders.

In golf, multiple holes in one are rare as are what I've heard called seagulls and albatrosses, though I think the latter is correct - three-under par on one hole which can only be accomplished with a 2 on a par 5.

In basketball - has anybody done the quadruple double - double-digit points, rebounds, assists AND steals?

In hockey, Lemeiux's feat is pretty impressive.

In football, the 100-plus yard punt return for a touchdown is rare.

There is also the issue of separating the rare unaided from the rare aided - for example, holes-in-one are unaided whereas Damon's three hits were all made possible by hits and walks by his teammates and would be considered aided.  There's a fine line there - was Lemeiux's penalty shot aided by an unusual ref call or an unusual (well, obviously) act by a player on the opposing team?

I think that even though I qualified the original question, the point is that there are so many variables, consensus is not possible.

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]Tom Pasniewski 98 Wrote:

 Speaking of hitting for the cycle, there are seven ways to reach base safely that I know of - four being hitting for the cycle plus walking, being hit by a pitch and having the ball get away on a third strike.[/q]

One more way: catcher's interference.

[CUlater 89]

You can also reach base on a  fielder's choice and an error (although they don't count for OBP calculations).

[KeithK]

How about pitching two shutouts in a single day?  I'm at work away from my recordbook, but I know it's been done before.  Probably multiple times.  Though I'm not sure it's fair to consider feats that are essentially impossible based on the way the game is currently played.  No one starts both ends of a DH anymore (doubleheader?  what are those?)

The rare baseball feat that I most want to see happen wouldn't qualify here either because I don't think it's ever yet been done: a pitcher striking out five batters in an inning.