I love streaming. I often run into trouts.

August 20, 2019 9:41 PM

NBA legend, bicycling enthusiast and longtime Deadhead Bill Walton announces a recent White Sox game, and we learn the record for the most strikeouts in a single inning (spoiler alert: it's three), and that rainbow is a flavor.
posted by vverse23 (16 comments total)

Actually! You can have a strikeout without recording an out, if the third strike is not caught by the catcher and the batter runs to first before being thrown out there. It's Calvinball, man.

Consequence being you get four-strikeout innings with some frequency in recent years, and a few five-strikeouts have happened in the minor leagues.
posted by away for regrooving at 9:51 PM on August 20, 2019 [18 favorites]

It's not on the list that away for regrooving linked to, but the most recent occurrence of a 4-strikeout half-inning in MLB was on April 22 when Luke Bard pitching for the Angels against the Yankees struck out Gleyber Torres, Clint Frazier, Mike Tauchman, and Kyle Higashioka. That's the only time it's happened this season so far. It happened four times each of the previous two seasons.
posted by theory at 10:21 PM on August 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

It's one of my favorite silly bits of trivia that there's no maximum strikeouts in an inning! That said Bill Walton was great, him and Benetti had some great chemistry. Also good was Michael Schur the night after! He apparently has a mlb podcast and you can tell he's a big fan of the game.
posted by Carillon at 10:37 PM on August 20, 2019

It all rolls into one...
posted by AugustWest at 11:04 PM on August 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Bill Walton is something that's for sure. You never really know where the sentance he starts is going to end. Refreshing in sports broadcasting.
posted by Windopaene at 11:19 PM on August 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Actually, that Viagra slogan he mentions, actually is the best marketing slogan in the world:
'If it lasts more than 4 hours, call your doctor.'
posted by ouke at 2:09 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm glad that other people have noted the fact about strikeouts, rendering this comment all but superfluous.
posted by hoyland at 3:23 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

Even if you ignore the dropped-third-strike instances, surely not three, but six strikeouts is the most "in a single inning."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:15 AM on August 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

Ah but how many in married inning man?

Is 6:30am too early to be high?
posted by srboisvert at 4:31 AM on August 21, 2019

Is 6:30am too early to be high?

Never! Wake and bake!
posted by bwvol at 4:47 AM on August 21, 2019 [3 favorites]

Actually, that Viagra slogan he mentions, actually is the best marketing slogan in the world:
'If it lasts more than 4 hours, call your doctor.'

Oh, absolutely! Every guy in the country, upon hearing it for the first time, goes "four hours? hmmmmmm..."
It's also funny that it's a legit, required medical warning. Like, the FDA wrote the slogan for Pfizer.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:21 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's one of my favorite silly bits of trivia that there's no maximum strikeouts in an inning! That said Bill Walton was great, him and Benetti had some great chemistry. Also good was Michael Schur the night after! He apparently has a mlb podcast and you can tell he's a big fan of the game.

Michael Schur ran a blog, Fire Joe Morgan, between 2005 and 2008 under the alias Ken Tremendous. It was and remains the best, hilarious, profane, and astute. There are also all sorts of sabrmetrics jokes in Parks and Rec, including the law firm of Babip, Pecota, Vorp, and Eckstein.
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 7:31 AM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

From the batter's perspective: As of 1991 nobody had struck out three times in an inning. (This is actually pretty easy to check because there aren't many innings that had 19 batters.) This should be spectacularly rare.

Has anybody struck out twice in one inning?
posted by madcaptenor at 8:15 AM on August 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was at this game, bill was having way more fun than I was.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:50 AM on August 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

If you find yourself in Portland this weekend, you can join Bill on a bike ride during Sunday Parkways. It's part of a celebration of the Trailblazers' 50th anniversary, and our one and only NBA championship.
posted by terooot at 12:26 PM on August 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

This one time, in the 80s, I saw Walton, Larry Bird, and Kevin McHale at the Dead in Worcester MA getting out of a limo and going backstage and then later saw Walton doing the deadhead dance behind the stage. You know the dance.
posted by hypnogogue at 9:28 AM on August 22, 2019