September 8, 1965: The 1st Man to Play All 9 Positions In an MLB Game

Bert Campaneris, after the A's moved to Oakland

September 8, 1965: Against the California Angels at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, Dagoberto "Bert" Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics becomes the first player to play all 9 positions in the same game, as part of a special promotion featuring the popular 23-year-old Cuban, whose main position is shortstop.

He began the game at shortstop and played, in order for the next 8 innings: 2nd base, 3rd base, left field, center field, right field, 1st base, pitcher (giving up a run on a hit and 2 walks) and catcher. With the game tied at 3-3 after 9 innings, manager Haywood Sullivan (later better known as the general manager of the Boston Red Sox) sent Rene Lachemann in to replace Campaneris, who was injured in a collision at the plate with Ed Kirkpatrick to end the top of the 9th.

The Angels scored 2 runs in the 13th inning, and defeated the A's 5-3. Attendance: 21,576, meaning there were about 13,000 empty seats, so the promotion didn't exactly work.

There appears to be no surviving footage of this game, but Campaneris survived the last 3 seasons in Kansas City, and the 1967-68 move to Oakland, to help the A's become a dynasty in the 1970s. He only batted .259 lifetime, but had 2,249 hits stole 649 bases, led the American League in stolen bases 6 times, made 6 All-Star Games, and reached the postseason 6 times: 5 straight AL Western Division titles with the A's, including 3 straight World Series in 1972, '73 and '74; and the 1979 AL West title with the California Angels. As of September 8, 2022, he is still alive.

Through the 2022 season, there have been 5 players to play all 9 positions in a major league game. No player has also managed to be a designated hitter in the same game, to make it 10.

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September 8, 1965 was a Wednesday. These other baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Yankee Stadium. Jim Bouton started, but the elbow he injured earlier in the year, which ended up ruining his career, left him in too much pain to pitch effectively. (He had not yet started using a knuckleball.) The Senators tied the game in the top of the 9th, but in the bottom of the 9th, Elston Howard singled home a rookie named Roy White with the winning run.

Mickey Mantle did not play. The Yankees got home runs by Archie Moore (no relation to the boxing champion of the same name) and Ray Barker. Rookie Bobby Murcer went 0-for-4. The Yankees had won the last 5 Pennants, and 29 of the last 44. But age and injuries caught up with them this season. By the time they won another Pennant in 1976, White would be the only one left from this team.

* The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 11-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The Reds knocked Carlton Willey out of the box in the 1st inning with 4 runs. Frank Robinson and Deron Johnson hit home runs for the Reds. Jim O'Toole went the distance for the win.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Tony Horton hit a home run, with Tony Conigliaro on base, in the top of the 10th inning. Conigliaro had homered earlier. Both Tonys would see their career come to sad ends, in Horton's case with the Indians. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.

* A doubleheader was split at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 2-0. Steve Barber pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Hank Aguirre. Apparently, Barber's arm was neither sore nor a little stiff. (A reference to a line in Ball Four, the book by the aforementioned Jim Bouton.)

The Detroit Tigers won the nightcap, 5-0. Dave Wickersham pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Darold Knowles. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 0-for-6 with a walk, and Al Kaline went 2-for-6 with a walk.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Harmon Killebrew did not play. The Twins were about to win their 1st Pennant under that name, the franchise's 1st since they were "the old Washington Senators" in 1933.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Braves, 6-5 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Dick Stuart, the slugger who was so bad a fielder that even putting him at 1st base wasn't safe, to the point where he was nicknamed "Dr. Strangeglove" and "Stonefingers," hit a home run for the Phillies. Hank Aaron and Joe Torre hit them for the Braves.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at the 1st Busch Stadium (formerly the last Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 12-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays hit 2 home runs, Willie McCovey 1.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers were not scheduled. They started a series in Los Angeles the next night, and Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game for the Dodgers.