THE MILLION DOLLAR DINGER

Author

Matthew Garringer
October 05, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Leonardo DiCaprio loves dating women under the age of 25.

Today’s story is about a grand slam that made a fan a millionaire.

Back in ‘99, the Arizona Diamondbacks were pretty damn good.

In their second year of existence, they won 100 games and the city of Phoenix was super fired up about the team.

Gylene Hoyle was one of those excited fans.

A local radio station, KNIX, was running a radio contest that gave fans an entry into the “Grand Slam Sunday” promotion backed by Shamrock Farms; one fan would get picked each week.

Gylene entered and won.

As a result, she attended a game between the D-Backs and the Athletics where she would have the opportunity to predict which Arizona ballplayer would hit a grand slam that day.

She had to predict the player AND the inning that the grand slam would happen.

The odds of this getting this right are less than .1%.

That year, Jay Bell was having a career-high season - putting up a .289/.374/.557 slash line - so Gylene picked him, and said it would go down in the bottom of the sixth.

Going into the bottom of the sixth, it wasn’t looking good - Jay Bell was due up seventh in that inning.

On top of that, Jay Bell was 0-12 up to that point in the series against Oakland.

But by some divine miracle, they got Bell to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs - here’s the sequence:

  • Steve Finley: double

  • Travis Lee: groundout, runner advances

  • David Dellucci: double, tie ball game

  • Damian Miller: walk

  • Omar Daal: sac bunt

  • Tony Womack: walk

So Bell comes to the plate with two down, bases juiced, and a million dollars on the line.

A teammate had actually tipped Bell off about the promo, so going into the at-bat he felt more pressure than ever knowing that his next swing could change someone’s life.

He worked the count to 3-2 and then did THIS.

Gylene Hoyle became an instant millionaire that day, and Jay Bell says this is “by far” his favorite moment of his entire 18-year career in the big leagues.

RAISE A GLASS

You don’t have to win in the Post Season to celebrate like a big leaguer.

These knob shots from Dugout Mugs are Major League quality and today, they cost less than a beer at the ballpark.

The shot glasses are on the house, all you have to cover is shipping and handling ($8.95).

All 30 MLB teams available.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Ole Buttons played for Chicago, back when the team was called "The Orphans."

Might be one of the worst team names in sports history.

His career wasn't much to write home about, but what's interesting is that he played for a few years, went MIA for like six years, then came back and played another two-season stretch in 1904 and 1905.

Which, by the way, he absolutely dominated; dude threw over 400 innings and had an ERA just above 2.

Imagine getting diced up by a guy named Buttons; tough look.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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