Routine Moments in Baseball History: Bob Zupcic Does Nothing

Welcome back to Routine Moments in Baseball History, a running weekday feature that looks back at plays that have been ignored by the history books because history books only talk about things that are important or interesting. Today's installment is "Bob Zupcic Does Nothing."

On this day 21 years ago, August 18, 1993, Boston Red Sox outfielder Bob Zupcic entered a game against the Chicago White Sox in the eighth inning and didn't do anything.

OK, so he must have done something in the two innings he was playing right field as a defensive replacement. The 27-year-old would have been following the action closely, watching the ball come off the bats, making sure he was properly positioned, and so on, but he didn't bat or touch the ball. He just kinda stood out there, looking tall and well built and square-headed and American, a baseball player off the assembly line, then jogged back to the dugout after the Red Sox wrapped up their 5-0 win.

Zupcic played three years with Boston and split the 1994 season, which was cut short by the players' strike, between the Red Sox and the White Sox. He was a good fielder but didn't hit well enough to stay in the majors after that, and as he said in an interview, "There's always that day where you have to make the decision if it is all still worth your time, and that point at thirty years old you can see the writing on the wall." (According to Wikipedia, he played for a succession of minor league teams all over North America until a back injury forced him to retire.) He basically had three highlight-worthy moments in that short career: two grand slams, both hit during his rookie season, and a great catch on a what would have been a home run from the Detroit Tigers' Mickey Tettleton. These moments are documented in a YouTube video and in a weirdly exhaustive wiki entry that notes that, "Alphabetically, Zupcic appears last on the all-time list of Boston Red Sox players"—apparently, there's a big Zupcic fan somewhere out there on the internet making sure the outfielder's accomplishments are not forgotten.

Anyway, no accomplishments for Zupcic on the day in question in 1993. He just came in, hung out in right field, and left, which is pretty nice work if you can get it. It was, incidentally, his birthday, and I hope he had a nice time after the game.

This has been Routine Moments in Baseball History. Follow Harry Cheadle on Twitter.