A nine-Toole player!

Remember in 2000 when two players did the "all nine positions" thing? I thought that was going to become a trend of annoying proportions. Nobody in the majors has done it since. Not even Don Kelly!

MLB players who have played at least 1 game at every position over a season:



Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/27/2012.

MLB players who have played at least 1 game at every position over a season:

Sport McAllister is the only true utility player in the bunch:



Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/27/2012.

3 other guys have 15+ games at P, C, and SS. The last was Art Hoelskoetter, whose MLB career ended in 1908. It's been 104 years since we've have a proper manly man in the big leagues.

I know the last five guys on the list were stunts and shouldnt really count -- anybody know about the first four? Has anybody ever done it genuinely?

I know the last five guys on the list were stunts and shouldnt really count -- anybody know about the first four? Has anybody ever done it genuinely?

How could this happen and not be a "stunt"?
Eight (or more) perfectly-timed and coincidental injuries over the course of one game is more like an act of... well, You know.

6 - the list in #3 says over a season, in italics no less.

Well, see, that's why you're You, and I'm, uh, not.

I know the last five guys on the list were stunts and shouldnt really count -- anybody know about the first four? Has anybody ever done it genuinely?

McAllister was for real. In 1899 he threw 16 innings and caught in 17 games, and had at least 3 appearances everywhere but 2nd. This was for the 20-134 Cleveland Spiders, so I think that extreme desperation was the order of the day. Sport has a SABR bio that says:

Even after the calamitous 1899 season, Sport remained highly thought of in baseball circles. The Sporting Life of November 18,1899 noted, "McAllister of the Cleveland’s [sic] is the most versatile player in the league today."

Walsh actually got a decision (a loss) in his pitching appearance, but it was on the last day of the season and so was probably a stunt. He did catch in 4 games, so the rest of it wasn't a stunt.

Rothrock's pitching appearance was 1 inning in a blowout loss in game 149 of a 96-loss season, and he caught on the second-to-last day of the season. Stunt.

Spider Clark legitimately played everywhere in the field in both of his two seasons. His one pitching appearance was 4 innings, so it might not have been a stunt. But it might have been. No idea when in the season it was. Buffalo had 3 position players (including a 42-year-old Deacon White) make precisely one long appearance in relief, which suggests that the manager would run any old body out there if his starter got blown out early. So my WAG is that it was not a stunt.

I recall former major-leaguer Bill Tuttle did the nine-position thing while with the Syracuse Chiefs in a late-season game in the 1960s.

From the Bert Campaneris wikipaedia page:

On September 8, 1965, as part of a special promotion featuring the popular young player, Campaneris became the first player to play every position in a major league game.[2] On the mound, he pitched ambidextrously, throwing lefty to left-handers, and switched against right-handers. Since then, César Tovar (Twins, 1968), Scott Sheldon (Rangers, 2000) and Shane Halter (Tigers, 2000) have joined this select list of nine-position players in a major league game.

I think it may be a while before we get another player to do 8 positions plus RHP and LHP in one game.

When I was 9 years old my grandfather got me a book about wacky things that had happened in baseball history. It was a wonderful little book and the Campaneris and Tovar games were in there. It's a little thing but anytime I see either name I think of my grandfather who passed away over 20 years ago and smile a bit.

Sport McAllister is the only true utility player in the bunch:

That is the perfect name for a hackish YA novel. I'm sure Lupica is at work on the Sport McAllister series.