The Most Unfortunate Career in Baseball History

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2500 innings, 2200 strikeouts, a shade under 150 wins, 13 years in the league, 11 playoff starts. James Shields’ impressive career all boiled down to basically two unfortunate moments.
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[@JollyOlive]

Use code JOLLY50 to get 50% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/42s9mrJ!

[@t.o.double9497]

We need a Hugh losing pitcher mulcahy vid now.

[@coreygilliam8533]

99% humans who put on cleats hopes to have half the career he had. Thanks for the video and reminder of how good he was

[@gabrielv.2647]

Yes sir! I would have been happy with just making it to the show and having a one day career lol.

[@brohemianclapsody5509]

Relax fruit loop

[@peterparker642]

​@@brohemianclapsody5509you're embarrassing yourself

[@Keough.]

Preferably the good half

[@coreygilliam8533]

@@brohemianclapsody5509 and what's ur problem with me? Small peeper so you gotta be mean to random people on KZbin lol

[@dannovikoff8454]

James shields had an amazing career. Dude got to pitch in the show for 13 years and made $100 mil in the process. Can’t imagine a better way to live your life

[@channelmar15]

Yep

[@fortynights1513]

Fun fact: Shields is the last pitcher to date to complete ten games in a season.

[@joshuapatrick682]

my sentiments exactly, even after taxes and agent's cut you're still taking home 60,000,000 and can enjoy the prime years of your adulthood as a top .1 percenter.

[@alexparker3277]

"Most Unfortunate Career"🙄

[@timmacsweet1]

You can’t imagine a better way to live your life? You must have a poor imagination.

[@TheLuiscelaya]

The question has to be asked: If Bartolo Colon never hit that homer against James Shields, would Fernando Tatis Jr still be on the Padres?

[@mony4124]

It was a Canon event bud

[@bmac4]

I still have Gary Cohen's call etched into my brain on the Bartolo home run. HE DRIVES ONE, DEEP LEFT FIELD, BACK GOES UPTON, BACK NEAR THE WALL, ITS OUTTA HERE! BARTOLO HAS DONE IT! THE IMPOSSIBLE HAS HAPPENED!

[@gabepollock1641]

That call is iconic, IMO.

[@kingslayer3796]

There’s a reason this man had the nickname “Big Game James”! People only want to remember his last couple years but this man was a true #1 starter in the AL East for YEARS!

[@jimwerther]

He was a disaster in big games for mosy of his career

[@elijahcademartori9854]

​@@jimwertherthis video just showed that to be untrue

[@jimwerther]

@@elijahcademartori9854 It certainly did not. He received the moniker "Big Game James" early on, but that only lasted through the first few years of his career. Through the rest of his career he was lousy in big games. Do you actually believe that Shields was as good a pitcher as Madison Bumgarner? Because he wasn't anything close. And this video did not claim that he was, nor did it claim that he remained a big game pitcher throughout his career.

[@cdog2584]

3-6 with 5.46 ERA in October. Nothing big game about that. @@elijahcademartori9854

[@kiefdemon1979]

I remember when James Shield came up, I was so hyped for someone to be joining Carl Crawford on such a bad team. Him and Longoria changed my Devil Rays into an actual team.

[@OH_MY_DOGGG]

I just found a guy on Baseball References named Matt Luke who played just two seasons in 1998-1999 and in 1998 he spent two non-consecutive stints with the Dodgers. Waived him in early June and he got claimed by the Indians where he appeared in two games. Subsequently returning to the Dodgers by mid June and actually finishing with 12 Home Runs. Thats gotta be pretty rare. And made one cameo appearance for the Yankees in 96

[@enjordaneer7321]

my high school economics teacher was and still is friends with james shields from high school. he’s a good dude to his roots and still buys dinners.

[@unkledoda420]

Wait, so why is your highschool economics teacher buying dinner?

[@iamdillyj]

​@@unkledoda420how did you misunderstand that comment so badly? James in the subject of the comment so obviously that last sentence is referring to james as a good guy and still buys dinner. I could see if it was random people but come on we are talking about a rich baseball player you should be able to get enough context to figure that out

[@awetzel]

As a Royals fan, I can say that Big Game James dramatically changed the culture and mindset of the Royals’ starting rotation and bullpen, which contributed mightily to the Royals 2015 World Series championship, even though he was no longer on the team. Royals fans should look back with gratitude on Shields’ time with the club.

[@nomercyinc6783]

players arent important because of their culture. the way teams are ran isnt culture at all

[@kylestephens4133]

@@nomercyinc6783 Tell that to the teams that Milton Bradley played for

[@robertelledge6568]

In Kansas City, the “James Shield trade” turned into the “Wade Davis trade” too.

[@thegreatcharcoal4668]

Highly Recommend his autobiography “September Nights,” about the rise of the rays and his career. I have a signed copy

[@jamesesterline]

As a Rays fan who was born in the early 2000s I will never forget James Shields

[@vinnydiaz6959]

complete game james!!!

[@tylerwilliams4224]

Same here, that Price Garza Shields rotation was incredible looking back

[@armageddonsports6196]

As a Royals fan I will never forget Big Game James. He was a huge part of the culture shift in Kansas City when he was there.

[@danield9003]

I was in attendance for his 2 hit CGSO against the Rangers, but that was best remembered for BJ Upton hitting 3 homers

[@thegreatcharcoal4668]

I was also there

[@fortynights1513]

Fun fact: Shields is the last pitcher to date to complete ten games in a season.

[@axe2grind244]

And will be the last for many, many more.

[@unkledoda420]

That's a sad fact, not a fun one.

[@thAnrax_]

The Modern Baseball reference was immaculate Jolly

[@FREEM1ND]

You could say, it came completely out of left field...kinda like the Bartolo homer.

[@shermanngjazz]

Never forget that after Shields left the Royals, they immediately won the 2015 World Series. Talk about bad timing.

[@theunwelcome]

as a longtime Cleveland fan, I can say he was consistently one of the opposing pitchers I liked watching the least, he always seemed to have amazing games against us

[@CharmCityGamer]

Big Game James, wish he had a bit better finish to his career. Thanks Jolly!

[@mxmschae]

11:15 the Nats pitcher was Mike Bacsik. He was a journeyman who, prior to that season in 2007, hadn't played in the majors since 2004 with Texas. Crazy thing is that season with the Nats would be his final, and since the Bonds home run was relatively late in the season, that was probably one of Bacsik's final appearances of his career.

[@gw163]

Now he's enjoying his post baseball career on sports talk radio and Bally's post game show for the Rangers. TOLO

[@BendyDH]

Big fan of the Modern Baseball band shoutout, I see you Jolly, now to find a place to put American Football, good luck!

[@VACATETHE48]

Big Game James was that dude for Tampa. I certainly will never forget him or what he did. Shields, Kazmir, Garza, Price, Sonnanstine could've been incredible if it was ever able to materialize. Shame everyone's career completely fell apart in one way or another.

[@thepogfrog1061]

losing pitcher is insane💀💀

[@PrinceJoshTheGreat]

I get there’s recency bias with these videos cuz they’re made by young kids who just started watching baseball but when you say James Shields had the “most unfortunate career in baseball history” over the 3 mlb players killed in World war II, Munson, Clemente, and even the dozens of great players pre ‘93 who never went to the postseason. That’s pretty ridiculous.

[@slaugmromni6743]

Yes. The premise of this video is laughably stupid. Produce a retrospective about Shields’s career - I’d love to see it because I loved watching the dude pitch in his prime. But saying that Shields had the most unfortunate career in MLB history is almost too stupid for words.

[@iskander0725]

I laughed for probably way longer then I should have at learning there were two players nicknamed Boob. Thanks for that, Jolly.

[@milesian1]

As usual, Jolly puts together a banger of a video putting this player's career in crystal clear perspective. And indeed, how "unfortunate" to have pitched at the highest level and been rewarded with over $114M in salary. I could probably get over Bartolo's sexy home run off of me if I never had to work another day in my life.

[@asdfaeou]

This was such good work, and gave me multiple viewpoints I had never considered. Thank you for it.

[@TheDuder151]

MODERN BASEBALL REFERENCE THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU

[@nicholasjamele3327]

The guy who gave up the home run to Bonds was Mike Basic, he does pre and post game for the Rangers and does sports radio in DFW. Dude is freakin hilarious, one of the best.

[@gabrielv.2647]

Big game james!!! The first ace for some of those amazing pitching staffs that the rays seems to grow in the tree the have in the back lol. He was a solid num 1 gor a good portion of his carrer

[@levijamesvstheworld]

Big game james. Absolute bulldog. As a rays fan this is a guy that helped get us over the hump

[@matbettez3495]

Mike Trout is the most unfortunate ever. Theres mo way he could know the owner of the Angels Arte Moreno would be completely content to use the team as a money making machine and never once put a good roster around Trout. Ugh

[@slaugmromni6743]

More unfortunate than Jose Fernandez?

[@spoonsz]

As a royals fan I can't thank James shields enough the man is a leader of men and we don't win the fall classic without him the year prior. He gave the royals their flare. He's a legend in KC

[@andrewfarelli9241]

About his velo, it had come back after the 04 or 05 season (memory is a little fuzzy) thanks to a workout regimen Aaron Rowand taught him and the Rays would later teach their pitchers going forwards (I recall reading it in a Sports Illustrated article years ago)

[@ILoveMisty1985]

That's some serious Mike Bacsik disrespect. Now you have to do a Mike Bacsik video for penance.

[@tylermccann848]

Big Game James had a great career. Still highly respected in Tampa Bay, as evident by the roaring standing-o he got when he threw the first pitch on opening day. The vast majority of players would want his career, so idk if I'd call it "unfortunate" by any means.

[@milesian1]

Nice one putting that footage of Lucas Duda in a Royals' uniform with a home run off Shields at 10:45!

[@robertcrist6059]

I'm a benefit of Big Game James in KC. What a stud. Also in KC they do a hot dog race, like the Washington presidents, or brats in Milwaukee. Well I was Relish once, won, busted the Usain Bolt, and while jogging back past the dugout to the exit area I was pointing at the Royals, locked eyes with James, he was chewing seeds, threw one at me, and the hot dog costume has large white golves and the seed bounced right off - another special James momemt haha

[@joshuapatrick682]

I'm sure shields will take the 114,000,000 as a consolation prize...sucks he didn't stay in KC one more season tho..

[@ibrown3KC]

As a lifelong diehard Royals fan I love James Shields and Wade Davis who came over from the Rays (and yeah, I know, it's been especially tough being a Royals fan this year as we've been historically bad all around be it pitching, hitting, fielding, and especially hitting.) Anyways, I love James Shields as well as Wade Davis as they both came to the Royals from the Rays, and their arrival in 2013 coincided with the best stretch of baseball Kansas City has seen in the last 37-plus years. 2013 was our first season over .500 since 2003, and before that we hadn't been over .500 since the early 90s. Anyways, Shields helped lead us to our first playoffs in 30 seasons back in 2014 even if he wasn't effective in the playoffs/World Series. And I agree it's a shame he didn't get to come along for the 2015 World Series ride. But his buddy Wade Davis was! Lol

[@MastahUsername]

I absolute loved the quick reference to Modern Baseball! Lmao

[@bananaperson7372]

the fight he had with coco crisp & bartolo colon are the first two things I think of when shields comes to mind

[@briansteele9863]

Love a story about my favorite Rays pitcher, and a nice Modern Baseball reference.

[@ba.diecast24]

James Shields was one of my favorite players, I always tried to get him on my fantasy roster. Not sure why but my top 5 favorites were Utley, Mauer, Shields, Cliff Lee and Raul Ibañez. That’s right I bet it’s been a hot minute since you’ve heard Raul Ibañez’ name

[@t.o.double9497]

Smiling cherry you can't something like Hugh "losing pitcher" Mulcahy when someone's i couldn't stop laugh. Hell i still haven't stopped. Took 10 minute to write this.

[@andyscamberg501]

Another unfortunate James Shield stat is he has allowed the most home runs to players in their MLB debut. 3 hitters in their big league debut hit a bomb off him. J.P. Arencibia in 2010 (who hit two homers in his MLB debut), Franklin Barreto in 2017, and Ryan O'Hearn in 2018.

[@JonathanMartin884]

As a Padres fan, I have probably only seen that Colon homer like three times, one during this video, one during the actual game, and maybe one other time. Every time it starts I usually just look away. Still can't bring myself to look, even if it did eventually net us Tati.

[@pepitocuentos5276]

This is why I have subscribed to you for years

[@YankeesFan0620]

11:45 - The pitcher is Mike Basick (i had to look it up but i remember him from MLB the SHow

[@MightyMattTM]

His 2 Seam was NUTS. I saw it plenty since he seemed to always pitch great against my Orioles. I saw it plenty and it was nasty 90 percent of the time. Don’t get me started on his 2014 run with the Royals. He was great, again against the Orioles in the ALCS.

[@jp-hl5dr]

completely forgot bro was on a world series team

[@gabepollock1641]

I remembered the ‘08 Rays but I completely forgot he pitched for the ‘14 Royals.

[@codygurnick6405]

Think about how great an offensive season 246 hits, 117 runs, and 34 bombs would be? And Big Game James allow that in a year and still had a job😂

[@dylanlenn7836]

I definitely put him in the "oh yeah that guy was pretty good" category

[@jcallaway1617]

I tried to draft Shields in every fantasy baseball league I had back in day. Innings eater who would get you 7-9 Ks each game. Very underappreciated... except in my league, where I rode him to 3 league championships

[@JakeC222]

Rays fan here. I'll never forget "Big Game" James!

[@octohoover]

Gotta do Khalil Greene next please!!!

[@TheGilchrist707]

I used to love pitching with james shields in mlb the show

[@nicklee6431]

Padres fan here. I celebrate the moment he gave up the HR to Colon. That was the last straw for him in SD and triggered the trade for Tatis. Thanks to Colon and the white Sox!😊

[@ghostofyou9721]

I knew exactly what play Bartolo. Colon hits the bomb and I tear up a little every time I see it and I’m not even a Mets or Padres fan.

[@GetRidOfCivilAssetForfeiture]

As for the HR by Colon, any given player at any given time (much like pro football’s “On any given Sunday”). Here is my case in point when someone asks how could a pitcher be considered even good, let alone great, when said pitcher gives up a HR to a “nobody”. It is May 30, 1969, top of the 10th and 2 outs and bases empty. Who comes up to bat? A relief pitcher who coming into the game is 12 for 87 with 4 BBs lifetime. All of his hits have been singles. He hits a HR to not only put his team ahead 4-3 but he closes out the game and gets the win. Who was the pitcher? Bob Gibson, still very much in his prime. Who was the batter? Clay Carroll, a pretty good relief pitcher in his day and that would not only be the only HR of his batting career but the only XBH of his career. I couldn’t find out if Gibson played some chin music to the next batter or if Carroll ever faced Gibson again as a batter. It was only one of two times that Gibson gave up a HR to a pitcher. Since this happened over 40 years before Shields gave up the HR to Colon and well before the interwebz, social media and 24/7 news of any sort, this incident is not well known. But it is always a good example of how the best of pitchers can give up that untimely HR to the worst of hitters, even by the standards of a pitcher. And imagine how Nelson Briles must have felt when he gave up that HR to Mickey Lolich in the World Series for Lolich’s only HR of his MLB career.

[@CrackpotSports]

As a Padres fan, I'll never forget James Shields

[@joshholiman4623]

Love the Modern Baseball picture!

[@DannyJ-zi6ib]

Thank you for resurfacing the fact that the only pitcher in mlb history with my last name has the worst nickname in mlb history. Also, he didn’t get his nickname from his teammates, he got it from journalists and box score keepers. Since he was so often on the losing side of games, in the paper they’d write “the losing pitcher, Mulcahy” and it just stuck with him for his career.

[@austinwagner536]

Dude SHOVED for YEARS. As a Padres fan thanks for Tati "eyes"

[@alexander_winston]

This video is fantastic!

[@jontafferofficial]

finally someone makes a video about james shields

[@Shoegazi21]

Nothing could have prepared me for that Modern Baseball edit😂

[@adamcontreras1486]

Love that Modern Baseball reference!

[@keithqueen352]

Shields was awesome. Extremely efficient as a pitcher.

[@salvadorsanchez9533]

Let us not forget the pitcher Boof Bonser

[@mtverv]

As a Royals fan I don’t care about the last few years of his career lol. He was absolutely amazing for us and was the exact guy they needed at the time. Only sorry we didn’t bring it home in 2014 so he’d at least have a ring…

[@af5013]

Nothing sums up the entire Chicago White Sox history more than trading a future MVP for a bad pitcher to make a playoff push only to then finish the season 6 games below .500.

[@YellowLegoSpaceman]

Ah good friend Complete Game James I remember how great he was growing up in the bay area

[@gizmoman2388]

Another Pitcher with a higher fWAR that never even made the playoffs would be Felix Hernandez, though it was self inflicted since he stayed loyal to the Mariners

[@EpicGamer14_]

Thank ypu Mr.Olive for informing us of the 2 players with the nickname boob

[@astralflick]

Shields had a good career I always felt bad for him in the 2014 World Series having to go against madbum

[@doctornonsense4726]

"Losing Pitcher" might be funniest nickname ever.

[@aaronkimball7092]

Liked seeing polanco in the hey those guys are good category

[@joshweisz9185]

Haven’t watched but already know it’s a banger

[@DaveTseng]

He did fight Coco Crisp way back in 2008 which I think most people has forgotten about

[@mxcokoko]

As a White Sox fan: I seriously never really minded the Shields trade outside the obvious "WHAT DID WE CREATE" memes. At the time, no one knew what Tatis would be, and he was a lottery ticket that simply looked interesting to the Padres. He was their golden ticket, after hundreds of thousands of busted and broken prospects. Odds are he might've never developed in the Sox system (hell, he never even played a GAME in the White Sox system according to baseball reference). Kudos to San Diego for finding that diamond in the shitpile known as the Sox farm system.

[@micahcopeland400]

The Modern Baseball nod was nice to see

[@NoahEurich]

0:45 Great shoutout for Plácido Polanco

[@Baseball_Boi20]

Funny thing. The rando guy who gave up the Bonds homer was Mike Bascick my friends dad

[@jacobrice3242]

When i think of unfortunate careers i always think of Tulo

[@llorona7847]

As an SF fan, I remember being pissed SD got him. I wanted him for our rotation so bad. Dude was seriously talented. Just crazy how players’ careers take so many turns.

[@thetempest33ify]

Can you do a video on Troy Glaus? He had such a short, great prime. Masher

[@kaiangus2049]

i remember james shields always being a solid arm until the padres and white sox days

[@matiamrobbins3036]

Honestly glad to learn for his sake that he had a successful career. My only knowledge of James shields up to this point was as a white Sox fan. I swear while he was on the team I went to five or six home games he started, and he gave up 5+ runs and at least one homer in the first inning every time like clockwork.

[@BenJohnson-tt5ed]

I live for big game James content

[@thunderhawk358]

And Bartolo drives one, deep left field.... THE IMPOSSIBLE HAS HAPPENED

[@moisesdelarosa751]

I saw that Modern Baseball photo. I like you already

[@backyardbaseball2006]

Lmao who are these people that just dont remember Big Game James being good Jolly??😂 or am i just getting old

[@TheTEN24]

He did have a really good career but I’ll never forget that bartolo homer lol

[@alex36burbidge]

Absolutely LOVED James when he was a Royal

[@bradm4493]

Got his own happy ending. Nice. Musta got the Robert Kraft connection

[@nathanhartline9159]

Mike Leake has to be the most mid MLB player to ever make $100 million in their career

[@draneym2003]

I've always wanted to meet James so i could point to my chin and say "hey dude, you've got some crap here"

[@crewkid52]

“Also in my research I found out that two separate players had the nickname ‘Boob’. I’m not really sure what to do with this information but I thought you guys should definitely know.” Thank you Jack for informing us of something so important