Nobody’s perfect

The eighth inning of this game starts well enough for the Washington Senators, who already are leading Oakland 11-0 when Athletics’ leadoff hitter Bert Campaneris sends a harmless grounder to second baseman Tim Cullen.

Cullen fields the ball and throws out Campaneris, cutting to five the number of outs the Senators need to finish off Oakland 54 years ago today in front of a Saturday afternoon crowd of 10,553 at RFK Stadium.

Then the fun starts for, well, everyone not named Tim Cullen.

After Campaneris bounces out to Cullen, Jose Tartabull follows with another grounder to Cullen, who bobbles the ball as it hits his right forearm and then deflects on his chin.

Tartabull is safe at first. Error on Cullen, who actually enters the game only an inning before as a defensive replacement.

Reggie Jackson follows with yet another grounder toward Cullen, who this time has the ball go off his left forearm and again deflect off his chin.

E-4, the Sequel.

“Hit a rock,” Cullen claims 24 years later in a 1993 interview with the Greensboro News and Record.

Undeterred, Senators reliever Bob Humphries continues to throw grounders with Sal Bando, Oakland’s next batter, obligingly bouncing another ball toward – you guessed it – Cullen.

This time, Cullen fields the ball and decides to try for a double play.

Naturally, his throw to cut down Jackson heading to second base sails by Washington shortstop Ed Brinkman.

“The guy out in Section 104 had a better chance at the ball than Eddie had,” Cullen says.

So, yes, that would be another E-4 with all three miscues coming on three consecutive batters. And, yes, that ties a major league record.

Cullen’s trio of errors lead to three unearned runs, cutting Washington’s already commanding lead to 11-3, the eventual final score.

Historians note that Cullen leads off the bottom of the eighth inning and promptly reaches safely as Oakland first baseman Tito Francona mishandles Cullen’s grounder to him for yet another error in the inning.

After reaching first, Cullen turns toward Francona and empathetically says, “Hang in there, Tito.”