Back to Walking, Kellogg's Baseball Cards, Relief Pitchers and The Downfall of Civilization

On this day in 1951, for the first time in baseball history White Sox relief pitcher Marv Rotblatt becomes the first pitcher to skip the walk in from the bullpen.  Instead, he was driven to the mound.

The Greatest Generation would respond to this by saying that's why kids are soft today, why the USA can't manufacture goods any longer, why foreign companies are controlling lives in the USA and why kids today are overweight, out of shape and not capable of running a mile in P.E. class.

All I can say is yes.  We should never let a relief pitcher get a ride to the mound.  Since no one has found a more concrete reason for the demise of the USA, I'm going to assume that this is the reason.

John Franco, Trevor Hoffman and Kent Tekulve all appeared in more than 1,000 games without being the starting pitcher in any of them.  I'm not sure if they were driven to the mound, but I plan to look into this sometime.  I have no idea how to research this, but that's what will make it fun.

Tekulve pitched well in the late 1970s and early 1980s without managing to get a Kellogg's card.

Dan Quisenberry, Sparky Lyle and Bruce Sutter were the only relief pitchers with a Kellogg's card who never started a game.  We should ask them if walking to the mound is okay.