Member-only story
The MLB Pitcher with a Fenway Park ERA of 162.00
Fenway Park has always been known as a hitter’s paradise, but this was particularly true for one pitcher
Andy Hawkins was a roughly average major league pitcher. The big right-hander was 84–91 with a 4.22 ERA, winning as many as 18 games in a single season and had double digit wins on four separate occasions. This was enough to keep him in the big leagues for 10 seasons (1982–1991). However, his career would have apparently been much shorter if he had to pitch more frequently at Fenway Park in Boston, where for some inexplicable reason, he had an ERA of 162.00 across three starts. This was a result of allowing 18 runs in a combined total of one inning. What happened?!
Game 1:
The first time Hawkins toed a rubber at Fenway was September 26, 1989 while he a member of the New York Yankees. In the last week of the regular season, and with both teams going nowhere, he matched up against rookie Eric Hartzel.
The Yankees jumped out to a 1–0 lead in the top of the first inning, but it was not destined for them to hold that advantage for long. Wade Boggs led off the home half of the inning by singling up the middle and the game was now afoot.
