The Immaculate Inning

A quick and enjoyable read about some of the rarest feats to ever occur on the baseball diamond. This is a fantastic exploration of what each feat actually is, as well as a breakdown of the frequency, rarity, and unlikelihood of achieving these feats by some of these ball players. The accompanying stories highlighting occurrences of the feats are vivid and entertaining. After reading each one, you feel as if you had experienced them first hand and not just in a book.

As a baseball fan, I didn't think there would be much in this book that I didn't already know. I was wrong. There are some stats that are familiar to baseball fans, but many more that will surprise the average fan. Also, it was very entertaining to read the biographical details for those who set some of these records.  The chapters are short and enjoyable.

The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Stories Behind Baseball's Rarest Feats by Joe Cox. Baseball is all about statistics and this book captures some of the most unique ones in the sport. If you want to know things like how many men hit two grand slams in a game or stole 100 bases in a seaspon or achieved other unusual lofty heights in baseball, this is the book for you. However, this is not just a book about numbers, in each chapter the pursuit of a few of the men who achieved each feat is described in more detail fleshing out the story and making it more than just a book of statistics. It is a great addition to any sports lover's library.

Review of the “Immaculate Inning” by Joe Cox…a free eBook from NetGalley

This is a book for the “true” baseball fan who loves the trivia of the Game. Cox has done a great job in digging up stories about “unusual” plays and occurrences over the last one hundred and forty years of professional baseball. All of the stories begin at the start of the National League in 1876, but are divided between modern baseball (after 1900) and the “classic” dead-ball time. Those dealing with pitching include the winning of games and ERAs, strikeouts and walks. Those of hitters deal with hits, home runs, consecutive game streaks, etc.

Cox does his best to take his statistics from reliable sources, but is good at explaining how those from the “classic” era can be erratic even mythical. In the early days of baseball, errors were considered hits as were walks (so on base percentages are odd); a walk could be six or seven balls and a strikeout could be four strikes (where fouls didn’t count). Early baseball put a premium on “short” ball such as bunting and slapping the ball to all fields, and stolen bases. It wasn’t until the 1920s that the long ball became the primary push for batters.

In the early 1950s, fast-ball/strikeout pitchers became the dominant style. Fire-ballers like Bob Feller and others began throwing up to 100mph fastballs, and overpowered hitters for years, until the mound was lowered in 1968. But the use of Relief specialist and “Tommy John” surgery saved many a career.

So if you look to see who has six walks or six hits or six stolen bases in a game, this is your book.

Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog@blogspot.com zebsblog@gmail.com

I enjoyed this book, maybe more than I expected to.. I think it was the balance of the history and meaning with the stats that made it so readable. Rather than just a list of "x happened y times, the first was in year z" the narrative contextualized it.

Although MLB history goes back to 1876 with the birth of the national league, I felt that there were a fair number of recent history feats. I wonder if that's a factor of the role of the internet in easier record keeping as it certainly doesn't feel like many of these feats are happening more frequently.

A good read for most MLB fans, probably highest interest to more hardcore fans or trivia buffs who really love this level of detail.

Have you ever taken notice of an incredible baseball feat and wondered how many other times it could have happened? Well, wonder no more, as Joe Cox takes you inside 30 of baseball's rarest achievements in his enjoyable new book, The Immaculate Inning. Cox takes the reader on a tour of special achievements, from those that happen in an instant (the unassisted triple play), over the course of a game (stealing six bases in a single game), or even an entire season (striking out 300 batters). He also, of course, covers the so-called immaculate inning from which the title is drawn, where a pitcher strikes out all three batters on nine pitches.

The author does a fine job telling you how many times each event has happened, who the likely and unlikely doers are, and even offers educated insight on the likelihood of seeing these things happen again. While most of these items have at least an outside chance of being equaled, a few no doubt are never to be matched.

Cox's book is best digested in small bites, with enough space to allow the rarity and uniqueness of the accomplishment to nestle into your mind. The book can be read straight through or jumped into and out of, but each chapter provides the stories of some of baseball's rarest feats and the players who made them happen.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free Kindle copy of  The Immacualte Inning by Joe Cox courtesy of Net Galley and Roman and Littlefield, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review to Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I am a fan of the game and the subject matter sounded interesting. This is the second book by Joe Cox that I have read (Almost Perfect).

This is a book for the hardcore baseball fan who is interested in those who have accomplished the game's rarest treats. It is well written and is a fairly quick read. The book covers those who accomplished significant feats while only briefly appearing in the major leagues as well as more famous players. As an example, many fans will remember that Ken Griffrey, Jr. of the Seattle Mariners and Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees homered in eight consecutive games, but few remember that Dale Long of the Pittsburg Pirates was the first to do it.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of baseball and is looking for an interesting read.

THE IMMACULATE INNING by Joe Cox,for a baseball statistic geek like me, was a treat for me to read. Cox did his homework and really found a lot of unique facts about the baseball players who achieved these difficult and/or odd and/or lucky feats in baseball history.
Cox devotes a chapter to each feat (like hitting .400, or winning 30 games, etc) and at the beginning of each chapter he reviews the times it happened, prominent players who did it, and likelihood it could happen again amongst other facts. Then the meat of each chapter describes a few of the instances this particular accomplishment happens. Cox does an excellent job of considering the player, the rules of the time, the style of baseball played, even how that player might tie into other players that completed the discussed feat or another feat in the book. Cox keeps the chapters short but meanwhile still informative and entertaining.
THE IMMACULATE INNING reveals the details behind those well-known feats all baseball fans know and brings humanity those players who achieved those unique feats.

Of all our major sports, baseball is the one with the longest history. All that history means that on a singular level, there’s room for a lot of interesting things to happen. It’s like the adage about infinite monkeys and infinite typewriters eventually producing “Hamlet” – do something long enough and you’ll eventually get some singular results.

Joe Cox’s latest book “The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Stories Behind Baseball’s Rarest Feats” (Lyons Press, $27.95) recounts some of those singular moments. Some are just one game (or even one play) while others consist of longer stretches and even full seasons, but they all share at least one commonality: you don’t see them every day.

Here, we get a closer look at 30 of baseball’s rare accomplishments. Fifteen of these feats took place in just one game; the others are longer, with five involving multi-game streaks and the rest reflecting full seasons.

The shorter happenings are indicative of brief flashes of brilliance, with a planetary alignment of talent, situation and luck. Stuff like the unassisted triple play of the subtitle – something that has happened just 15 (or 16 – you’ll see) times in the game’s history; a lot of factors need to fall into place for one of those to happen. Feats such as four strikeouts in an inning or the titular immaculate inning – striking out the side on nine pitches – happen more frequently but are no less impressive.

Some of the single-game accomplishments are fairly well-known – four homers in a game is an established milestone for a hitter, as is 20 strikeouts in a game for a pitcher. Among the less prominent offensive marks, six is a popular number – six hits in a game, six walks in a game and six steals in a game are all rarities.

But those aren’t the only game rarities. Want to know how many players homered on the very first pitch they saw in the big leagues? Cox has you covered (it’s 30, by the way). What about a Super Slam, that magical moment played out in every kid’s sandlot fantasy? Two outs, bottom of the ninth, down three runs, bases loaded … and it’s a grand slam! That’s the Super Slam, something that has happened even less frequently than the first-pitch homer.

Then there are the streaks – getting hits in 12 straight at-bats or getting on base in 17 straight plate appearances; eight-game home run streaks and 40-plus game hitting streaks and 50-plus inning scoreless streaks. All fascinating. As for full-year feats, you can check out 40/40 seasons and Triple Crowns both batting and pitching. Years with 50-plus home runs or a .400 batting average or stealing 100 bases or striking out 300 batters.

All of it laid out through Cox’s research. Not only does he provide the specific number of players who have accomplished a given feat, but he also offers up some historical context. We get the first player to do it and the latest player to do it, as well as Cox’s thoughts with regards to those who were likeliest to achieve a certain feat, those whose presence on the list is a surprise and the potential for someone else to reach said milestone going forward. All that and some engaging stories about some of those who managed to etch their names on the game’s history via these remarkable on-field exploits.

It’s an interesting collection. Cox has included a couple of sections that don’t quite jibe with the rest - “Position Players Pitching” and “Surviving Shenanigans to Win a League Batting Title” are the main culprits – but they’re plenty interesting, offering a quirkier take and an opportunity for something a little bit different. Still, the main body of the work is all about these statistical anomalies that offer snapshots of greatness; some are larger than others, but every one of them is an indicator of something amazing and precious taking place on a baseball field.

And Cox captures that sense of wonder and excitement. He’s clearly someone who adores hardball rarity – his previous book “Almost Perfect” shares that same sort of interest in the unlikely – and has a great passion for the game. When that passion is compounded with his in-depth research – as well as his breezy style and conversational tone – you wind up with a fine read.

“The Immaculate Inning” is an ideal book for any baseball fan with an appreciation for the game’s vast and varied history. Joe Cox has brought together some of baseball history’s most impressive feats under a single banner; why not take a swing?

The nature of the game of baseball lends itself to allow players to have one outstanding inning, game or achievement in an otherwise mediocre (or worse) career. Stories about these events, whether accomplished by a Hall of Fame player or a player who was only in the major leagues a brief time, are told in this entertaining book by Joe Cox.

The title of the book gives a hint as to one of the 30 accomplishments highlighted: an “immaculate inning” is one in which the pitcher strikes out all three batters he faces in an inning while throwing only nine pitches. Other achievements highlighted in the book include striking out 20 batters in a game, walking six times in one game, hitting and stealing for the cycle in a game (the latter is stealing second, third and home in a game – more impressive if done in an inning) and having a hitting streak of at least 40 games.

While many of the players who accomplished these feats will be familiar to fans since nearly every feat has famous players who achieved them, the stories about the lesser known players are what make this book a treat to read. Examples of this are a pitcher who struck out four batters in an inning – one of only 33 innings Derek Wallace pitched in the major leagues; Mark Witten hitting two grand slams in an inning, and Earl Averill reaching base in 17 consecutive plate appearances in 1962.

One interesting note about that last feat was that only one other player accomplished this record – Piggy Ward, who played for the Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds when he had his streak – in 1893. Including players who accomplished these feats in the nineteenth century, when the records and statistics kept were spotty, is a testament to the research and work that Cox put into the book.

“The Immaculate Inning” is a book that all baseball fans of any era will enjoy as it covers the entire spectrum of the game. The structure of the book is such that it can be read in one sitting or enjoyed in small pieces as none of the chapters are extremely long and once finished, it goes immediately into the next accomplishment. It is recommended to be added to the library of baseball book collectors.

I wish to thank Lyons Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.