Flashback Friday: Todd Stottlemyre’s Bloody Chin

Long before Curt Schilling made it heroic to pitch with a bloody appendage in the World Series, Todd Stottlemyre was the original pioneer of visible post-season battle scars.

For this week’s Flashback Friday, we take a trip back to revisit Todd Stottlemyre’s bloody chin from Game Four of the 1993 World Series.

How did it get bloody you ask? Well, it wasn’t due to some super rough stock trading, and it wasn’t because John Kruk rubbed his face up against him (although that would probably do it).

The Toronto Blue Jays starting pitchers were at a severe disadvantage once the series shifted to Philadelphia and the National League rules.

However, in his first at bat of his major league career, Stottlemyre started off the top of the second inning of Game Four with a lead off walk, hoping one of his teammates would bring him home.

Maybe Todd was a little anxious because on a two-out single up the middle from Roberto Alomar, instead of holding up at second base, Stottlemyre ignored the signs from the third base coach Carlos Tosca and tried to leg it out and go first to third on the play.

The Phillies successfully hit the cutoff man, and Stottlemyre was thrown out by a mile. To add insult to injury, Stottlemyre slid head first into the third base bag, and somehow ended up scraping his chin on the play.

Subsequently, he came out the next inning with a blood-covered chin.Stottlemyre didn’t fare very well the next inning, and surrendered four runs to the Phillies, giving them a 7-6 lead.

That would be all for Todd Stottlemyre that night, and it was not kind to pitchers at all. Of course, the Blue Jays would go on to eventually win 15-14 in the highest scoring game in post-season history.

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