BOB HAMELIN, DH, ROYALS, 1994
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George Brett retired in 1993 after a Hall of Fame career and was replaced by Hamelin. Much to everyone’s surprise, Hamelin outdid Brett himself by hitting .282/.388/.599 in 101 games and smacking 24 home runs. He easily won the Rookie of the Year award over another pretty good slugger named Manny Ramirez. But all Brett comparisons faded after that season. Hamelin struggled to reclaim his former glory and was even sent down to the minors to work on his swing. The Royals eventually gave up on him, and he was out of baseball by 1998 after just six major-league seasons.
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Richard Rosera says
Another one on my list is Marty Bystrom of the 1980 Phillies. As a September call-up to fill in for an injured pitcher, he went 5-0 with a 1.50 ERA at the tender age of 21. Without a doubt, the Phillies would not have edged out the Expos by a game in their division without this performance. Then he started deciding Game 5 of the Pennant series (still the best darn series I’ve ever seen!) against Nolan Ryan of the Astros and was relieved with the game tied 2-2 in the 5th inning. He started Game 5 of the World Series against the Royals & pitched well, but left trailing by a run (the Phillies pulled out a win & then won their first-ever championship in Game 6). Unfortunately, the next year he reported to spring training out of shape (too many off-season banquets?). He hung on for a few more undistinguished years with the Phillies & Yankees, and was out of the majors after 1985.
Richard Rosera says
Agreed that this list has plenty of listings which are a stretch at the very least. My personal list would include Bob “Hurricane” Hazle, whose shining moment came for the Milwaukee Braves in 1957; as an August call-up, he batted .403 in 41 games, with 7 home runs and 27 RBI, helping the Braves win the pennant & then scored the first run in the 5–0 7th game victory over the Yankees, in the only World Series won by the Braves in Milwaukee. Despite only 134 at-bats, Hazle finished 4th in NL ROY voting. But he had a bad start in 1958, was traded, and was out of baseball by 1960.
Joltin Joe says
Most of these guys had really good careers. They are hardly one hit wonders. Who writes this nonsense?
MJ says
Whoever came up with this click bait bullshit should never be allowed near any paying job in sports ever again, go do some click bait stupidity for hollywood, surprised if you can even spell baseball.
Al McDonell says
Screw this site. I get to the next guy, Rick Ankiel, and they talk about his pitching and how awful it was. And it was. It was hideous. They say people like this story, great pitcher struggles in the playoffs, loses it mentally. I think you forgot his comeback as an outfielder. THAT is why everyone loves this story. You guys suck.
Jack Dennis says
Luis Gonazlez?? get outta here!
Doug Pippen says
They may as well have mentioned Sidd Finch.
He never lived up to his hype (nor ever lived, for that matter) 😉
wardenerd says
Joe Charboneau unquestioned as a second year drop out after rookie of the year season
LIfromLA says
Congratulations, I guess, on suckering me into falling for this clickbait, but this list is embarrassing. It’s basically a random collection of what an average baseball fan might come up with in 5-10 minutes, without doing any serious thought or research. It’s also apparently pretty old. For example, Dontrelle Willis was 29 years old six years ago, and Mark Fidrych died in 2009. Do people really buy from your advertisers after you’ve shamelessly wasted their time? I hope not…
Ray Rardin says
Would have added Kal Daniels and his 1987 season.
James says
This was framed as forgotten players. If you are old enough to have been around during the time of these guys careers I would say you aren’t much of a baseball fan if you don’t remember them. There are some good to quite good players listed here.
Arr Evans says
Yeah, hard to accept that a forgotten, “one hit wonder” would be in the HoF.
This list is exactly why the dummies who write this crap never put their name on it.
Bill says
No Joe Charbonneau?
chiefpontiac says
Fidrych hurt his knee shagging fly balls in the outfield during spring training of his second season. To compensate for the discomfort, because he came back too soon, he altered his delivery and he hurt his shoulder and was never the same…Dizzy Dean suffered the same fate.
Dino Juarez says
And so why exactly on Yahoo’s home page is there a picture of Kris Bryant of the Cubs accompanying the headline when not only is he not even mentioned in the article, but just finished only his third season, batting .295, with 29 HRs, and 73 RBI?
NerdAxis says
J.P. Arencibia literally had the best MLB debut in history and quickly fizzled out. Such a shame.
ProfRobert says
Joe Charboneau, Indians’ 1980 Rookie of the Year, out of MLB mid-1982, holds record for fewest MLB games played by a RoY winner.
Kurt Adams says
What about Billy Grabarkewitz. He was going to make everyone forget Cal Ripken Jr., before Cal Ripken Jr. even existed.