No way to catch a break

Joe Sprinz with Cleveland

Joe Sprinz. You probably never heard of him, right?

Well, you likely will not soon forget him after absorbing this tale of woe about poor Joe, who suffers through a couple of incredibly forgettable days during his baseball career.

Well, certainly forgettable for him.

Most memorable, though, to historians, who note that 95 years ago today Sprinz is the Cleveland Indians’ catcher who falls victim to not one, but two triple steals in the same 1930 game during the Philadelphia Athletics’ 14-1 victory on a Friday afternoon at League Park.

Playing in only his sixth game in the majors, Sprinz watches the Athletics’ Al Simmons, Bing Miller and Dib Williams pull off a triple steal in the first inning before Mickey Cochrane, Simmons and Jimmie Foxx duplicate the feat in the fourth.

Sprinz suffers more misery on another ballfield exactly nine years and nine days later.

Joe Sprinz after 1939 stunt

While playing for San Francisco in the Pacific Coast League during the 1939 season, Sprinz – on his 37th birthday, no less – tries to break the altitude record for catching a baseball.

The first four baseballs falling 800 feet from a blimp elude Sprinz and harmlessly plop to the turf.

Sprinz gets his mitt on the ball in the fifth attempt, which actually gets more of Sprinz than he gets of it as the ball glances off his glove and hits him in the face.

Sprinz collapses to the turf.

The impact of ball to face knocks out Sprinz, who when he awakens learns that he is missing five teeth while also fracturing 12 bones in his face.