But when nights like that come along in baseball, America turns its longing eyes toward us, here at Weird and Wild World Headquarters. So \u2026 (America asks) \u2026 How rare was that? \u2026 How historic was that? \u2026 How Weird (and Wild) was that?<\/p>\n
Thanks for asking. After nearly a week of people saying that might have been the greatest defensive game of all time, I was no longer just wondering about that. I decided: I had to know.<\/p>\n
So, the Weird and Wild column tried to answer that question. Spoiler alert: We\u2019re going with yes on that! But here\u2019s how hard it was to get there.<\/p>\n
All THREE of Jo Adell\u2019s home run robberies from tonight \u2026<\/p>\n
Yes, you read that right \ud83d\ude2e https:\/\/t.co\/bc0Wb9i1Ii<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/axhyQFpLHD<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 MLB (@MLB) April 5, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n What do the record books say? <\/p>\n Ho-ho-ho. Now that\u2019s hilarious. The record books are absolutely no help on stuff like this. You want to know which right fielder holds the record for most putouts in a game? Oh, you can find that in your dusty old record book. But most home run robberies in a game? Good luck, pal.<\/p>\n What do the number crunchers say? <\/p>\n Fortunately, our favorite researchers could at least dish out some fun facts on this feat. Here are my four favorites:<\/p>\n He\u2019s a one-man team \u2014 The wild-card era is more than three decades old. In all that time, according to STATS Perform, only one team has robbed three home runs in a game. It was (yup) Team Jo Adell.<\/p>\n Even two is an event \u2014 You should know that home-run robbery data goes back only a little over 20 years. But in all that time, according to Sports Info Solutions, there have been only two other outfielders who even stole two home runs in a game: Nook Logan in 2005 and Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez last year.<\/p>\n A game for all seasons \u2014 How hard is three in one game? Only five outfielders in the sport had three (or more) all season last year: Fernando Tatis Jr. had four. Cedric Mullins, Ram\u00f3n Laureano, Bryce Teodosio and Jacob Young had three apiece. (Hat tip: Sports Info Solutions.)<\/p>\n Once (maybe thrice) in a lifetime \u2014 Just for fun, want to hear a couple of names of famous active players who never even robbed three home runs in their outfielding careers? How about Andrew McCutchen \u2026 and Bryce Harper (with two each). Of course, it doesn\u2019t help if you play in a park where the fence is 30 feet high. But whatever!<\/p>\n I enjoyed all those meaty tidbits. But they don\u2019t really tell us if this was the greatest defensive game ever. So I kept plowing forward. It was time to find out \u2026<\/p>\n What do the metrics say? <\/p>\n I posed that question of my friend Mark Simon of Sports Info Solutions, the folks who bring you The Fielding Bible<\/a>. Over at SIS, they\u2019ve been keeping track of all sorts of defensive data \u2014 including home run robberies \u2014 for more than two decades.<\/p>\n So they could tell you, for instance, who rolled up the most Defensive Runs Saved in one game. But when I asked whether DRS could help us find the greatest defensive game on record, Simon basically told me: Don\u2019t even go there.<\/p>\n One play alone \u2014 if it\u2019s impactful enough and the catch probability is low enough \u2014 can skew a stat like that, to the point where it offers almost no perspective on a game like Adell\u2019s gem against the Mariners. DRS is incredibly meaningful in large samples. But it is almost no help with measuring a game like this.<\/p>\n \u201cSo why don\u2019t you go ask ChatGPT,\u201d Simon suggested, slightly tongue-in-cheek.<\/p>\n Sure. How could that hurt, right? So \u2026<\/p>\n What did ChatGPT say? <\/p>\n This seemed like a good idea \u2014 for about 30 seconds. It\u2019s awesome that AI can do stuff like tell Siri what to say. But why not give it a chance to do something way more important, by which I mean:<\/p>\n Filling up the Weird and Wild column.<\/p>\n So I asked the mysterious Chatster: What\u2019s the greatest defensive game in baseball history?<\/p>\n Guess what? ChatGPT couldn\u2019t possibly have been happier that I asked. It then told me, within seconds: \u201cOne performance stands above almost everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes! Tell us more.<\/p>\n I then learned all about exactly the kind of game I was searching for \u2014 Ozzie Smith against the Dodgers, in 1978, that game when the Wizard \u201cput on what many consider the greatest defensive game ever.\u201d<\/p>\n You know, that game where he had 13 assists at shortstop, \u201ca modern-era record.\u201d That game where he \u201cmade multiple highlight-reel plays deep in the hole, showing insane range, arm strength and accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n This, ChatGPT told me, was the game when Smith \u201cbecame legendary.\u201d Great. Now we\u2019re getting somewhere. Except for one tiny detail \u2026<\/p>\n This game never actually happened in real life.<\/p>\n Oops. What?<\/p>\n Yes, apparently, nobody programmed into ChatGPT that people like me could look this stuff up. Which I did, just to double-check, and discovered: (1) Ozzie never had 13 assists in any game that year, (2) Ozzie never had 13 assists in any game he played in the big leagues, and (3) Ozzie did have seven assists in a game against the Dodgers in 1978, but it didn\u2019t seem that legendary, possibly because his team lost 7-0.<\/p>\n Aw, what the heck. Even AI could make a mistake, I thought. Fortunately, Chat also listed \u201cother famous defensive masterpieces worth mentioning.\u201d<\/p>\n Beautiful. I was re-energized \u2014 until I found out the next item on the ChatGPT list also wasn\u2019t quite as advertised.<\/p>\n That was Brooks Robinson, in Game 1 of the 1970 World Series. At least this game existed. So that was a start. But there was good news and bad news.<\/p>\n The true part: Robinson did make probably the most famous play of his career in that game \u2014 the fabled Lee May backhand robbery and throw from foul territory. The not-so-true part: Chat claimed that was just one of \u201ca string of unreal plays\u201d Robinson unfurled that day.<\/p>\n Except (whoops!) no he didn\u2019t. Robinson did put on a glove show throughout that World Series. Just not in that one game! He had only two other assists that day, and even made an error.<\/p>\n So I really appreciate ChatGPT being so eager to help that it basically just made stuff up. But I\u2019m done with that. So I moved on to another Mark Simon suggestion and wondered \u2026<\/p>\n What did the official historian of baseball say? <\/p>\n It\u2019s always reassuring to know that there\u2019s such a thing as the \u201cofficial historian of Major League Baseball\u201d hanging around, waiting for people like me to ask questions like this. So of course I asked John Thorn, that official historian himself, if any games in history notably rival the Adell game.<\/p>\n But guess what? Even the Historian King didn\u2019t have any of those in his archives.<\/p>\n
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