Aug. 4: Joel Youngblood Day

As an old-school baseball who lives by the antiquated notion that the job is Job One, I celebrate Joel Youngblood Day with the same fervor that today's baseball nerds worship WAR, BABIP and wRC+.

Joel Youngblood Day — August 4 — celebrates the work ethic of former Reds-Cardinals-Mets-Expos-Giants-Reds handy man Joel Youngblood, whose dedication to his job on Aug. 4, 1982 earned him a distinction that still stands today. He's the only player in major-league history to play for two different teams in two different cities on the same day. And it came with a well-deserved bonus: Youngblood singled off two future Hall of Fame pitchers in the process. His historic day was not just about hustle.

Playing for the Mets at Wrigley Field that day, Youngblood started the 1:30 p.m. (CDT) game at Wrigley Field and hit a two-run single off Jenkins in the third inning to give the Mets a 3-1 lead en route to a 7-4 victory.

The Sun-Times' coverage of Joel Youngblood playing for the Mets and Expos on the same day on Aug. 4, 1982.

But he wasn't around for the finish. Youngblood was traded to the Expos during the game and pulled off the ultimate baseball hustle move. He left Wrigley Field in the bottom of the third inning, took a cab to his former team's hotel (only to have to return to Wrigley to retrieve a glove he had left at the ballpark), made reservations for a flight to Philadelphia — where the Expos were playing the Phillies that at 6:40 p.m (CDT) — and took another cab to O'Hare.

Youngblood, who had picked up nine games in the NL East standings, made his flight by 20 minutes, ate on the plane, took a cab to Veteran's Stadium, and arrived in the third inning of the Expos-Phillies game. He replaced Jerry White in right field in the bottom of the sixth inning — with the Expos trailing 5-3 — and singled off Carlton in the seventh.

"When I was told to go upstairs to the clubhouse during the game in Chicago, I new I had been traded," Youngblood told reporters in Philly. "And since I was then a member of the Montreal Expos, I wanted, if at all possible, to make myself available to them as soon as possible."

Joel Youngblood's busy day was featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Youngblood was on deck when Tim Raines flied out to right field to give the Phillies a 5-4 victory. But even if he didn't get the storybook ending, Youngblood still made an indelible mark in history that lasts to this very day, when players who are traded can sometimes take multiple days to join their new team.

Youngblood, who came up with the World Champion Reds in 1976, hit .265 in 14 seasons in the big leagues, but mostly as a platoon/part-time/utility player. Even when he made the All-Star team with the Mets in the strike-shortened 1981 season, he was being platooned with newly acquired Ellis Valentine despite leading the National League with a .359 average.

Youngblood's double-duty performance in 1982 wasn't the first time a player had played for different teams on the same day. On May 30, 2022, the Cubs traded outfielder Max Flack to the Cardinals for outfielder Cliff Heathcote between games of a doubleheader at Cubs Park (now Wrigley Field). The players merely switched sides and played for the other team in the second game of the twin-bill.

And just last Tuesday, Orioles pitcher Seranthony Dominguez was traded to the Blue Jays between games of an Orioles-Blue Jays doubleheader. Dominguez also just went to the other clubhouse for the night-cap. Dominquez, though, did not play in both games. He did not pitch for the Orioles in Game 1. But he pitched a 1-2-3 inning in relief for the Blue Jays in Game 2.

The Cliff Heathcote/Max Flack trade from the Chicago Tribune on May 31, 1922.

Box scores from the doubleheader in which the Cubs Max Flack was traded to the Cardinals for Cliff Heathcote between games of a doubleheader. They went 0-for-7 in Game 1 and 3-for-8 in Game 2.