INSANELY GOOD Minor League Baseball Players Who NEVER Got A Chance In MLB!!

Today's documentary is about 7 INCREDIBLE Minor League Baseball Players who put up massive stats yet somehow NEVER GOT A FULL OPPORTUNITY in the big leagues!! These are incredible stories about guys like Joe Bauman, Ron Wright and the incredible Steve Dalkowski Jr. who, legend has it, could hit close to 115 MPH!! These players either NEVER GOT PROMOTED or if they did, played ever so briefly and never got a real opportunity in Major League Baseball!

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[arrowgantonegreen]

My dad was 19 years old and in college on a baseball scholarship when Pearl Harbor happened. The next day he enlisted in and served in the US Army Air Corps until the end of the war. His scholarship was gone, but he had veterans benefits to pay for school. So he played for the local minor league team and went to school. He moved up a league and changed schools to continue with his degree. His second year with the team he got called up due to an injury and played in 3 games. That was as far as he made it. He never regretted choosing his country over the game he loved. He never made it to a baseball card. But he's still my favorite baseball player of all time. He would have turned 100 in October if he were alive. Great video.

[jimlewis]

I was privileged to see Joe Bauman hit three hkmeruns in the game that got him to 72. He had been tied at 69. The pitcher he hit the three off had won twenty games that year. Anyone who thinks modern baseball players have big power should have had an opportunity to see a baseball hit over the outfield light towers at 355 feet. He still owns the record. My dad and I sat on top of a pickup cab along the outfield fence that night. We couldn't afford tickets, but got to see history made. I was 14 that year.

[kiltedwolf]

I found myself in a bar late one night in Anaheim, Ca back around '95 sitting next to Paul Pryor. . .a former MLB umpire. I was in the city for a baseball convention and knew the guys Paul was representing. We were vendors at the convention. When they left, Paul didn't. He wanted a nightcap so I decided to hang around and talk to him. Not every day you get a chance to do this. Paul was good natured and had lots of stories. I remember asking him, "who's the fastest pitcher you ever called balls and strikes behind the plate?" Without giving it a minutes thought, he replied, " Steve Dalkowski". Dalkowski was a legend no matter where he was. . .mainly for his arm AND his wildness. Many do not know that Steve's minor league catcher was Cal Ripkin Sr. The Orioles had high hopes for their phenom. Only, he never panned out of course. Several years back, a friend in Orange County sent me a newspaper clipping about Dalkowski. He had passed away. Later in life, he had fallen on hard times and often would show at Cactus League spring training ballparks trying to sell items of little value. People in baseball who still knew him would often buy stuff even if it wasn't worth much. Such an amazing amount of talent in a golden arm. . wasted. He died a broken man.

[sFreak]

I have one you can add to that list. I actually played amateur baseball against Tydus Meadows. It's interesting how politics work in sports. Tydus was drafted in the 27th round or so out of Vanderbilt. But, he won a batting title in Rookie Ball with the Chicago Cubs organization and later protected a MLB bust by hitting cleanup on a Lansing Lugnuts team that had the Cubs #1 pick Corey Patterson hitting third in the lineup. Tydus outperformed Patterson but never got called up to the MLB team during the same time that Patterson did. Tydus bounced around minor league organizations winning arbitration cases as hush money. He finished his career in the independent leagues.

[eauhomme]

One player from modern times I would throw on this list: Brian Raabe.
Second baseman, 41st round pick in 1990 by the Twins out of the U. of Minnesota.
Got off to slow start, hitting .246 and .257 in his first two years in A ball, with no power, but in his second year walked 40 times to 14 strikeouts, a sign of things to come.
Did better the next year, .288, .381 OBP, 48 walks, 17 Ks. Earned promotion to AA ball.
AA Nashville the next year, .286, .364 OBP, 56 walks, 28 Ks.
AAA Salt Lake brought five consecutive .300 seasons, with the addition of some power as well.
1996, 28 years old, .351, 18 HR, 19 K. (How long has it been since someone had the same number of homers as strikeouts?)
1997, .352, 14 HR, 20 K.
Defense? .990 career fielding percentage at 2B, plus above average numbers at SS and 3B.
But by the time he got hot, he was done as a prospect. He only got 29 career major league at bats. He played briefly in Japan and retired after hitting .327 in his final AAA season at 31.
For his career, he hit .311, .378 OBP, 384 walks to 153 strikeouts in 3874 AB, with 60 HR.
In AAA ball, he hit .332, .393 OBP, 49 HR, 228 BB, 83 K.

You would think a guy who never struck out, never made errors, and hit .332 career in AAA would have gotten at least half a chance. But since he was never a prospect and started out slowly, he was never to be considered one.

[kenjiheilman]

Great video. I’d like to add Matt Young (Matthew E. Young), OF who came up with the Braves and hit for average, walked more than he struck out, and stole bases at every level through AAA, including hitting .300+ for a full season at AAA in 2010. Major league debut in Apr 2011 with Braves pinch running for Chipper Jones, but released shortly thereafter. Picked up by Tigers, Cardinals and Angels but wasn’t ever given a chance. Never understood why.

[Grillinnap]

This is like no matter how much hard work you put in at your work place, your boss still has nothing good to say about you.

[charles-yzc]

I watched Chase Lambin play for the Rochester Red wings, Everyone in Rochester wondered why he wasn't a mlb player

[dporter]

Ouch. The dudes only pro game was an absolute disaster

[terencehill]

Atleast we can say Skidmore batted 1.000!

[mikehoffman]

In the 60's we had this kid on our team in little league that had a freak of an arm. He got screwed up by the coach trying to get him to throw different pitches. Anyways, back then the batters wore over-sized helmets that were held onto your head by the elastic band inside. One time Dougie fired a heater and it went right at the batters head. Either the kid froze or he didn't see it coming and he just stood there. This is no lie what happened next. The ball hit the kid in the helmet and it didn't bounce off. It punched a clean hole in the plastic helmet and stuck in that hole. No lie. I was the 12 year old catcher and even at that age I thought that was amazing.

[lawrencetaylor]

I went to many AAA Denver Bears games as a snotty nosed kid, and since we came from the south side, I sat mostly on the first base line. Bo Osborne was my favorite player. At least I think that was his name. I thought he was almost as good as Willie McCovey. Of course, home runs were easier in Denver due to the thinner air.

[michaelmckinnon]

The first to hit 60 HRs in a season was Tony Lazzeri in the minors for the Yankees in 1922 tho

[EmperorPigeon]

Great vid! I would incldue minor league legend Bernardo Brito...an absolute masher.

[DPK]

Have to feel for guys like tells you how hard it is to make the big leagues, much less stay there. It's also unfair how teams just keep getting top prospects chance after chance while good grinders who show improvement are just buried.

Baseball.

[Nomah]

The average person doesn't understand how insanely talented the worst player on your favorite team was in high school. Or that a lot of Major League pitcher's could out hit the best player on the local high school team. Baseball is one of those sports that's extremely hard to advance to the next level and most of the guys don't make it. Hell I went to college with three guys that I thought were going to do something and never made it above A ball or high A and these were phenomenal baseball players in college

[coyotebillkc]

Has anyone ever heard of a guy named Tyrone Horne? I saw him play in Low A ball in the late 90's for the Kane County Cougars. I kind of remember he was something like 27 years old and mostly played DH, but he had some amazing power. I mean he hit insanely hard. I retrieved a foul ball that he hit once, and I guess it's possible that Low A minor league balls aren't up to snuff, but one side of this ball was flat. He was cut after the season. The next time I heard his name, he was playing in AA the next year and he apparently hit 4 home runs in one game but he actually homered for the cycle in that game. A solo shot, a 2 run, a 3 run and a grand slam. The 90's were a long time ago and my memory ain't what it used to be, but if anyone out there reading this remembers this guy, please correct me if I am wrong.

[TheImapotato]

No Spider Baum? Frank Schellenbeck (Was banned from using spitball after 1919 because he was in the minors and not grandfathered) or Buzz Artlett? Buzz only got a shot with the Phillies due to injuries but they only used him as a PH due to his age and poor fielding due to his age and weight gain, he retired as PCL HR leader. Phil Nadeau is also a good one, I recall him because of Out of the Park Baseball and recreating 1901 baseball and putting in the PCL. Nadeau always is the man in PCL in the 1st ten years. Oh and Henry Schmidt! Won 20+ games for the woeful Brooklyn Superbras but decided he disliked the East Coast and went west. Only season in the Majors

[roberthudson]

First of all, the story about the pitcher who threw 110-115 needs to be debunked. The fastest pitch ever measured was 105.8, by Aroldis Chapman. Second, what a player actually does ceases to matter once they are labeled a "non-prospect." Willie Mays started his career 0-12, but stayed in the lineup. Pete Rose, Jr. was 2-14 over 11 games, and never played in the majors again.

[davidjohnson]

Outstanding research and video as always. You started me back with my love affair with baseball.