(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a series of articles by Times News writer Rich Strack. After previously writing about the “Greatest Games” and “Greatest Comebacks” in sports history, Strack will now give his thoughts on the “Greatest Individual Performances.” Today’s topic is Major League Baseball.)

By Rich Strack

tnsports@tnonline.com

In this difficult time of a health crisis, the matter of sports competition that brings so much recreational joy to millions of Americans has been on hold.

Almost every sport, from the professional and college ranks down to high school and youth leagues has seen their season suspended or canceled.

With the process of starting up sports again still in its infancy, there remains a void for the athletes and fans alike.

If you’re like me, with many years of devotion to athletic competition, some of the greatest events from the past are still being played in your memory rewind.

So sit back and let me distract you from public concerns for just a moment with Part 1 of a series on the “Greatest Individual Performances” that will remain forever in my personal Hall of Fame.

Today I give you three of the best single-game MLB player performances of my lifetime.

July 2, 1963

Warren Spahn vs Juan Marichal

You can talk no-hitters and even perfect games, but it’s hard to argue that the greatest game ever pitched was thrown by Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves and Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants.

Let’s begin with some mind-boggling statistics that fans will never see in a Major League baseball game again.

Spahn and Marichal were on the mound for four-and-a-half hours until the game ended in the bottom of the 16th inning. Marichal threw 227 pitches, allowed eight hits and struck out 10.

Perhaps even more amazing was Braves’ southpaw Spahn, 17 years older than his counterpart. He threw 201 pitches, allowed nine hits, walked just one (intentionally), and struck out two.

The drama was building as the Braves threatened to score in the top of the fourth after Marichal retired Hank Aaron, who went 0-7 in the marathon, on a deep fly to left that was held up by the infamous Candlestick Park wind. With two outs, the Braves put runners on first and second. Del Crandall then singled to center, but Willie Mays gunned down the lead runner at the plate.

The pitchers continued to put up goose eggs on the scoreboard. In the bottom of the ninth, the Giants’ Willie McCovey hit the ball down the right field line and into the seats for an apparent home run, but the umpire called the hit a foul ball. An argument ensued, which changed nothing, and the scoreless tie went to extra innings.

Marichal had retired 16 hitters in a row before giving up a harmless single in the 13th. In the bottom half of the inning, Frisco manager Alvin Dark told Marichal he was going to take him out of the game.

“A 42-year-old man is still pitching out there,” said the Giants’ hurler. “I can’t come out.”

In the bottom of the 14th, the Giants loaded the bases with two outs, but Spahn retired the next hitter on a fly out. Both pitchers got the sides in order in the 15th, and Marichal got the last out in the top of the 16th on a comebacker with his 227th pitch of the game.

With one out in the bottom half, Mays belted a drive to left through the wind and into the seats to finally end the game with a 1-0 San Francisco win.

What’s more, just five days after his incredible performance, Spahn pitched a shutout. That season, at the age of 42, he led the National League with 22 complete games.

May 23, 2002

Shawn Green - Los Angeles Dodgers

Against the Milwaukee Brewers, Dodgers right fielder Shawn Green had six hits in six at-bats.

He hit four home runs and a double, collected seven RBIs and amassed an MLB record 19 total bases for a single game.

What’s equally amazing is that Green entered the series in a 1-for-19 slump, after not hitting the ball out of the infield in the previous five games.

He began his onslaught with an RBI double in the top of the first, helping LA jump out to a 3-0 lead. In the second, he hit a 1-1 pitch for a three-run home run. The Dodgers led 8-1, and Green already had four RBIs after two innings.

In the fourth, he launched another dinger over the right-center field wall and cracked another bomb in the fifth. After just five innings, Green was 4-for-4 with three homers and six RBIs.

He led off the eighth with a single and scored on a Hiram Bocachica two-run HR. Then in the ninth, Green went yard with a 450-foot rocket to the seats to punctuate a 16-3 Dodger win.

In the three-game series, he finished with nine hits, six homers, 10 RBIs, and eight runs scored. He totaled 30 bases and raised his batting average 34 points to .265.

September 16, 1975

Rennie Stennett - Pittsburgh Pirates

An exhibit in the Baseball Hall of Fame called ‘One for the Books’ contains a record by a lifetime .274 hitter that has yet to be broken. In a 22-0 rout of the Chicago Cubs, Bucs’ second baseman Rennie Stennett had seven basehits in seven at-bats in a nine-inning game.

Stennett smacked a leadoff double to right in the first inning off Cubs starter Rick Reuschel. Pittsburgh would strike for nine runs in the inning, eight of them charged to Reuschel, who could only manage to record one out before being removed from the game.

The Pirates would bat around that inning, and Stennett lined a run-scoring single to right in the same frame.

Stennett’s third at-bat would come in the top of third. He lined a ball to center for a hit in front of Richie Hebner’s home run to put the Pirates up 9-0.

In the fifth, Stennett added another pair of hits, starting the frame with a double to left. Later in the inning, Stennett grounded a single through the right side for his fifth hit of the afternoon. The Pirates tallied six more runs in that inning to extend their lead to 18-0.

Now a perfect 5-for-5 on the afternoon, Stennett led off the seventh with a ground single to center for his sixth straight hit.

In modern MLB history, 43 players had recorded 6-for-6 games, including Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Paul Waner; however, no batter had been able to go 7-for-7 in a nine-inning game.

As he stepped to the plate with two outs in the top of the eighth, Stennett sought to join a club of his own and make MLB history. He promptly slashed a triple to right for his record-setting seventh hit in his seventh at-bat.

Stennett donated his bat from that afternoon to the Hall of Fame, where it remains on exhibit.

Final thoughts

As a lifetime baseball fan, the most incredible performance ever to me was the Spahn-Marichal 16-inning pitching duel. In today’s game, starting pitchers rarely throw more than six innings and if they hit the 100-pitch count, they leave the game sooner. Spahn and Marichal threw a combined 448 pitches on that July night in San Francisco, and until Mays hit the home run to end the game, not a single run was scored. How about Spahn walking just one batter, and that was intentional, while striking out only two Giants?

What amazes me about Green’s four home runs and six hits is that his offensive explosion followed a 1-for-19 slump, and not one ball hit out of the infield in his previous five games.

Rennie who? Stennett’s name will be a tough answer to the question about who has the most basehits in a nine-inning game.

Statistics are used to calibrate a player’s career, but no logical, statistical explanation can be made for these extraordinary single game accomplishments. That’s what makes baseball the most unpredictable sport of all.