MLB
OTD in 2002: Shawn Green Set the MLB Record With 19 Total Bases in 1 Game
May 23, 2002: LA Dodgers OF Shawn Green hit a perfect game with 4 home runs and 19 total bases, passing Joe Adcock for the MLB record
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Every sport is affected by a degree of randomness and luck. It is never guaranteed that the most talented teams will win or that the best player will dominate. This discussion is most often applied to baseball, a sport where the difference between balls and strikes is largely dependent on the umpire’s perspective.
Hitting a baseball going at the big league level is extraordinarily difficult. Batters are expected to hit ball three inches in diameter traveling around 100 miles per hour with a bat only two and a half inches in diameter. Daunting indeed, and precisely what made Shawn Green’s performance on this day in sports history so impressive.
SHAWN GREEN ACHIEVED A SINGLE-GAME MLB RECORD OF 19 TOTAL BASES
May 23rd, 2002 represents one of the greatest single-game performances in MLB history. While the MLB was enjoying an offensive renaissance due to the steroid era, no player was able to record an offensive onslaught like Shawn Green did on this day right near the end of the steroid era. The Dodgers All-Star OF annihilated any Milwaukee Brewers pitcher that took the mound that day en route to a record-setting 19 total bases.
Coincidentally the former single-game total base record also came during a matchup between the Dodgers and a Milwaukee team in 1954. Milwaukee Braves’ great Joe Adcock recorded 18 total bases behind five hits in a victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers that stood for nearly half a century until Green’s unexpected outburst took over the top spot in the record books where it still rests today.
May 23, 2002: Los Angeles #Dodgers OF Shawn Green broke Joe Adcock's MLB record with 19 TB during 1 GP, going 6-6 with 4 HRs, 7 RBI, & 6 runs in a 16-3 demolition of the Milwaukee Brewers fueled by 1 of the greatest individual performances of all-time
— Pro Sports Outlook (@PSO_Sports) May 24, 2021
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