Joel Youngblood Gets Hits for Two Teams in Two Cities on the Same Day

On August 4, 1982, Joel Youngblood became the first and only player in major league history to collect base hits for two different teams in two different cities on the same day. He started the afternoon as a New York Met in Chicago and ended the evening as a Montreal Expo in Philadelphia.

Youngblood was the starting center fielder for the Mets in the afternoon game at Wrigley Field against the Cubs. In the third inning, he singled off future Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins and drove in two runs. He was on deck in the next inning when a coach called him back to the dugout. Manager George Bamberger told him he had been traded to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later.

The Expos were shorthanded and asked Youngblood to get to Philadelphia for their game against the Phillies that night. He grabbed his gear, caught a flight to Philadelphia, and arrived at Veterans Stadium during the sixth inning. Expos manager Jim Fanning inserted him as a pinch hitter, and Youngblood singled off another future Hall of Famer, Steve Carlton. The play was scored a hit when Phillies second baseman Manny Trillo could not cleanly field the grounder.

In one day, Youngblood had recorded hits off two of the greatest pitchers of the era, in two different ballparks, wearing two different uniforms. He faced Jenkins and Carlton, who combined for 580 career victories and two Cy Young Awards.

The feat required a specific alignment of circumstances that made it nearly impossible to replicate. The Mets needed to play a day game, the trade needed to happen midgame, the acquiring team needed to be playing a night game within flight distance, and the player needed to enter the game and produce a hit. No one has matched it in the four decades since.