History of The Bunt Double

This past Friday Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs wrote a wonderfully entertaining piece that focused on the two occasions in which major leaguers bunted for power in 2012. In his piece, Sullivan shows the gif images of both Quentin Berry and Juan Pierre's awkward-looking bunted doubles, but what he did not mention is that this was Pierre's third time pulling off the bizarre feat, which would tie him for the record since play-by-play data is available.

St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Rafael Furcal is the only other player in history known to have grabbed the extra base off of a bunt more than twice. Furcal did it in consecutive seasons in 2002 and 2001 and then again just recently in 2009.

Prior to that, only Alfredo Griffin was known to have done it twice, once in 1985 and again two years later in '87. Oddly, Griffin's first bunt double occurred in a season in which three other players also recorded power bunts-- Mariano Duncan, Odibe Mcdowell, and no bunting discussion would be complete without Brett Butler, the all-time leader at bunting for a hit. 1985 was the only season in which there were four instances of bunting for a double, but there were three power bunts in 1975 and in 1997.

Fittingly, Jackie Robinson was the first to record the bunt double in 1951.

No player has ever recorded a bunt triple.

Here is the full list (google doc) of all known bunt doubles:

Bunting for a Double

Name Year game_id event_id hit_cdQuintin Berry2012CLE201205230382Juan Pierre2012PHI201206030452Cliff Pennington2010OAK201004080702Rafael Furcal2009LAN20090720092Juan Pierre2007LAN200707020602Juan Pierre2004NYN20040720012Endy Chavez2003MIL200304300262Rafael Furcal2001NYN200106240612Rafael Furcal2000CIN20000808012Abraham Nunez1999PIT199905310412Tony Fernandez1997TEX199705130722Mike Lansing1997MON19970706072Edgar Renteria1997FLO199704010242Robby Thompson1995PIT199506210792Chad Fonville1995CIN19950817012Mitch Webster1991PIT199105250172Hal Morris1990PIT199008250622Mark McLemore1988CAL198804080392Alfredo Griffin1987OAK198706211352Oddibe McDowell1985KCA198505280172Mariano Duncan1985SLN19850706022Brett Butler1985CLE19850913262Alfredo Griffin1985BAL198509030332Rick Miller1981BOS198109260632Frank Taveras1979SDN19790721022Darrell Porter1979KCA197906120852Miguel Dilone1978OAK19780605052Bobby Murcer1976SFN197607210662Rick Burleson1975BOS197507080452Larry Bowa1975PIT197504270632Jack Brohamer1975MIN197505130162Don Wilson1971PHI197105070132Willie McCovey1970SFN19700503282Bobby Tolan1969CHN196906090432Hal Lanier1965SFN196505150682Danny O'Connell1961DET19610802122Jackie Robinson1951BRO19510824072

. . .

James Gentile writes about baseball at Beyond the Box Score and The Hardball Times. You can follow him on twitter @JDGentile.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2013/2/17/3998004/history-of-the-bunt-double

Add to del.icio.us   Digg this   Post to Furl   Add to reddit   Add to myYahoo!