When you're a baseball player remembered for one big at-bat, it's almost always something good: a walk-off double, a record-breaking single, a pennant-clinching home run.
When you're a pitcher remembered for one pitch ... well, it isn't always as good.
Ralph Branca died Tuesday at the age of 90. He was a fine pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but inevitably all his obituaries referred prominently to the pitch he threw to Bobby Thomson in 1951 that promptly flew into the left-field stands and won the pennant for the New York Giants. The hit became known as "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," and they heard Branca's name around the world, too.
Here are some other pitchers whose careers were overshadowed by one pitch that didn't go quite right:
• Ralph Terry to Bill Mazeroski, 1960. If any pitch surpasses the fame of the fastball thrown by Branca, it is this one. The setting could not have been more dramatic: World Series, Game 7, ninth inning, tie score. Mazeroski's shot won the Series for the Pirates over the Yankees.
• Mitch Williams to Joe Carter, 1993. And this was the second. Williams was known as Wild Thing and had made a habit of giving Phillies fans many nervous moments. His teammate Curt Schilling finally started putting a towel over his head so he didn't have to watch when Williams was on the mound. The Phillies nonetheless made the World Series, but it all came crashing down when Carter hit a bottom-of-the-ninth home run to win the Series for the Blue Jays.
• Al Downing to Hank Aaron, 1974. Word association for baseball fans. Al Downing. Answer? Probably Hank Aaron. Downing pitched in 17 major league seasons, but giving up Aaron's record-breaking 715th home run is how he's remembered.
• Donnie Moore to Dave Henderson, 1986. With the Angels one strike away from the World Series, Moore gave up a home run to Henderson of the Red Sox, sending the game to extra innings. He had a chance to make everyone forget that hit, but gave up a sacrifice fly, to Henderson again, in the 11th, and the Sox went on to win the ALCS. Less than three years later, his career over, Moore shot his wife and then committed suicide.
• Carl Mays to Ray Chapman, 1920. It's unfortunate to be remembered for a pitch that lost you a championship. It's horrific to be remembered for a pitch that killed a man. Mays, a submariner for the Yankees, fired a high inside fastball to Chapman of the Indians. Chapman never moved. The ball hit his helmetless head, and he died the next day at age 29. "I would give anything if I could undo what has happened," Mays said. He was exonerated of blame, but he had to live with the memory of the pitch for half a century until his death in 1971.
Money grab
Olympic organizers in Rio de Janeiro are trying to hand over almost $3 million in ticket refund payments due to 13,000 people.
One big problem. They can't find them.
Organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada tells The Associated Press "we are hunting after people. We have the money, but don't know how to get it to them."
Andrada says 140,000 people returned Olympic and Paralympic tickets for resale with a value of 80 million Brazilian reals ($23.5 million). He says the official returns were offered in order to keep tickets away from scalpers.
About 90 percent have been reimbursed. But Andrada says incorrect bank details and incorrect credit card numbers are hampering the remaining refunds, which are due mostly to Brazilians.
Trash man
A video shows Dallas QB Dak Prescott throwing a Gatorade cup away, missing the trash can, and then going to pick it up to put it in the can.
Wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com: "Jeez, what kind of a Cowboy is Prescott if he couldn't even get arrested for littering."
Good-hands team
From Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times:
"The latest minor-league baseball team to come up with a zany new mascot: the Fond du Lac (Wis.) Dock Spiders.
"On the plus side, they ought to be quite proficient at catching flies."
Sports on 11/24/2016