NewsFormer pitcher Blass aces a pair
Righty sinks two holes in one at Pirates alumni golf outing
Steve Blass (left) exchanged jerseys with Arnold Palmer (right) and Peter Jacobsen Tuesday. (AP)
By Tom Singer / MLB.com
09/11/09 4:00 PM ET
Perhaps Steve Blass, the former right-hander whose pitching career ended prematurely once he developed a strange inability to throw strikes, should have used a pitching wedge to try to get the ball over the plate. Blass, now 67, stole the Pirates alumni's annual golf outing on Thursday by sinking two holes in one in a span of 11 holes at Greensburg Country Club. With Blass' fivesome starting play on the back nine, ace No. 1 came on the 154-yard, par-three 15th hole, which he found with an eight-iron. Ace No. 2 came with a seven-iron on the 175-yard, par-three seventh hole. Two holes in one in the same round? Golf numbers-crunchers estimate the odds at 67 million-to-one. Or, roughly the same as his chances of not walking the batter during the final two, inexplicable seasons of his abridged 10-year career. In 1973-74, Blass issued 91 walks in 93 2/3 innings, which forced him into retirement at 31. Adding to the mystery, in 1972 he had his finest season for the Bucs, with a 19-8 record complemented by a 2.49 ERA. That season, he totaled 76 unintentional walks in 249 2/3 innings. In 1971, Blass picked up two wins as the Pirates took Baltimore in a seven-game series, including a complete-game four-hitter in Game 7.Tom Singer is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
