Denis Menke @ baseball-reference.com
Denis Menke grounded into 9 double plays across 35 simulated timelines.
Nine.
That is more than any other player on either roster. Hal McRae is second with 7. Sal Bando had 4. Gene Tenace had 4. Dick Green had 4. Nobody else on Cincinnati's side of the ledger was even close.
In a multiverse where every single game is decided by one run, Denis Menke killed more Cincinnati rallies than any Oakland pitcher.
Here is every double play Denis Menke hit into, in order from worst to least worst.
This is the cruelest game in the multiverse. It appears on the Curse of Don Gullett page. It appears on the Ten Hits and Nothing page. It belongs here too.
Cincinnati's pitching staff threw a combined no-hitter. Oakland had zero hits. Cincinnati had 10 hits off Ken Holtzman. Cincinnati lost 3-2.
Denis Menke went 0-for-4 with two double plays. His WPA: -0.375. The worst single-game WPA of any Cincinnati position player in 35 timelines.
His team collected 10 hits. Denis Menke personally erased two of them. Ten hits should be enough to win any game. Ten hits minus two double plays is a team running uphill on a treadmill. Cincinnati's rallies did not die of natural causes. Denis Menke murdered them.
Cincinnati also committed 3 errors in this game. The defense let Oakland score 3 runs on zero hits. And the offense - which managed 10 hits - was sabotaged from the inside by its own third baseman killing two different innings with ground balls to the right side.
Cincinnati got 10 hits and scored 1 run. This game also appears on the Ten Hits and Nothing page. Bobby Tolan went 3-for-4. Seven different Cincinnati batters recorded hits. The offense was everywhere.
And Denis Menke went 1-for-4 with a double play. WPA: -0.212.
The one hit he managed did not produce a run. The double play did produce a dead inning. In a game decided by a single run - a game where one more baserunner might have tied it - Menke took a runner off the bases and handed Oakland an out.
Don Gullett pitched 8 innings, struck out 8, and allowed 1 earned run. His ERA for the game was 1.12. A dominant performance. He got the loss anyway.
Menke went 0-for-4 with a double play. WPA: -0.181. Cincinnati committed 3 errors in this game, allowing 4 unearned runs. The defense failed Gullett. And in the middle of that defensive collapse, Menke stepped to the plate with a runner on and hit a ball directly at someone who threw it directly at someone else.
Menke went 1-for-4 with a double play. WPA: -0.130. Oakland won 2-1. The margin was one run. Menke's double play killed an inning in a game that Cincinnati lost by exactly one run.
Menke went 0-for-3 with a double play. WPA: -0.094. Cincinnati had 8 hits in this game and still lost by one run. Menke had none of the hits and one of the rally-killers.
Menke went 1-for-4 with a double play. WPA: -0.073. Another one-run loss for Cincinnati. Another inning killed.
Menke went 1-for-3 with a double play. WPA: -0.035. Cincinnati won this game 2-1 anyway. This is the only game where Menke hit into a double play and his team still won.
One game out of eight. One time out of nine double plays where it didn't cost Cincinnati the game. The exception that proves the rule.
Menke went 1-for-4 with a double play. WPA: +0.053. This is the only GDP game where Menke posted a positive WPA. The double play came at a moment that didn't matter much - the game was already out of reach - and his hit came at a moment that did.
But Cincinnati still lost. Twelve innings. One run. Menke's double play is a footnote in this game, but it is still a double play. The habit did not take a night off.
Nine double plays. Eight games. Seven Cincinnati losses.
Denis Menke's career across 35 timelines: .216 batting average, 4 home runs, 11 RBI, 17 walks, 28 strikeouts, and a WPA of -1.247.
That WPA makes him the sixth-worst player on either roster. But the double plays are what make him unique. Other players had worse batting averages. Other players struck out more. Other players posted worse WPA numbers. Nobody else took this many Cincinnati rallies and folded them in half.
The Big Red Machine had a lot of problems in the multiverse. Pete Rose couldn't hit. Joe Morgan couldn't hit. The defense committed errors at the worst possible moments. Don Gullett pitched brilliantly and lost anyway.
But those are tragedies. What Denis Menke did was something else. A tragedy is when the universe conspires against you. A double play is when you conspire against yourself.
Nine times, a Cincinnati runner stood on first base. Nine times, the machine was running. Nine times, Denis Menke swung the bat, the ball found the ground, and two outs appeared where there had been zero.
The Machine didn't just break down. Denis Menke reached into the engine and pulled out the spark plugs.