Craig Christian showed me this 1957 Joey Jay card a couple days ago. The strange thing about it? Look at the stats. One game, one save but no innings pitched.
At first, I wondered if there was some obscure rule I wasn’t aware that would award a pitcher a save without accruing pitching time. Then after looking up Jay’s stats, it occurred to me. He pitched 2/3 of an inning in 1957 and got the save.
APBA just didn’t have the ability to print the fraction on the card.
| Split | W | L | G | GS | GF | CG | SV | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | BF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 Totals | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Joey Jay was solid pitcher for the Braves and the Reds in the 50s and 60s. He even won 21 games in consecutive years in 1961-1962. One would think that the above card from 1957 is from his rookie season but in fact, Jay had been around for four seasons already.
Two things stand out with Joey Jay. One, he was the first Little League alum to play in the majors. Two, he was one of the first “bonus babies”. That explains why his first couple of seasons were devoid of much playing time. The Braves were forced to keep him on the roster in lieu of sending him to the minors.
One last thing about Jay. I have the pleasure of playing him in my 1966 replay. He’s with the Reds right now but later in the season, he will be traded to the Braves. The odd thing is that he is a CW with a 5.05 ERA with a 6-6 record. Maybe APBA knew what they were doing because right now in my replay, Jay is 0-3 with a 6.06 ERA in 19 innings.
thanks Craig!
I may be wrong about the pitcher, but I believe Randy Myers of the Cubs came into a game with two out in the 9th and picked the runner off of first without ever throwing a pitch and got the save once.