The Golden Sombrero

[Centerfield]

Kelly Johnson's afternoon got me wondering. I understand that 0 for 4 with 4 K's is a Golden Sombrero, 0 for 5 with 5 K's will earn you a platinum. But what if you are 0 for 4 with 4k's and then you get a hit your last time up at bat? Have you still earned a Golden Sombrero? How about if you are 1 for 5 with 4 K's, but hit a HR in your third at-bat? What if you strikeout 4 times, but then walk your fifth time up?

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Call it what you like, but 4 K's in a game is a pretty bad day at the plate. Unless you get a game winning hit in your fifth at bat, it's still a very bad day.

[Guest iramets]

Nomenclature is unstable. Sombrero, golden sombrero, a Horn (named after Sam, who once struck out an ungodly number of times in a game, maybe 5,) and a Horn of Plenty (which would be one more, naturally)--alll these terms have some unclarity and some overlap.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Sombrero, to my understanding, is a reference to a hat trick, as in a repetition of three. Once the total is reached, it can't be backed up from an undone.

A guy who fans three times with a grand slam still has a sombrero; it's just not all he has.

[Theoldmole]

He's 1 for 4, with 4 RBIs.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Let's clarify. Three is a hat trick. Four is a sombrero. Keith also may be suggesting that a hit clears you of the tag

Strawberry caps off our lackluster batting by posting the team's first sombrero of the year. That's 0-4, with four strkeouts. Five strikeouts is the rare and not coveted golden sombrero. A mere three is the hat trick

Hitter clerly recall their sombreros. I've had four in the big leagues, the first one off Tom Seaver in 1975, a year I started with the Cards before being sent down. Two of the strikeouts were with the bases loaded. I almost cried.

Candelaria did it to me in 1979, when I was hot and winning the batting championship. I was overmatched that day.

The two I can still taste were late in teh following season. After a collision with Bill Buckner at first base, a mild concussion kept me out of three games. I tried to come back too soon and my first game was a sombrero. I went 3-for-24 for the week.

A few weeks alater we faced Bill Gullickson in MOntreal. It was 28 degrees in late September and the wind chill factor was 5. I was trailing the same Buckner by two points for the batting title, and I wanted my second crown in a row. The Cards were out fo the race, so I had nothing to do at the time but hit.

I was frozen at the plate; four times Gullickson sent me back to the dugout to thaw.

I still get angry recalling that collison. It coust me the title.

---Hernandez, Keith and Mike Bryan,

If at First

, McGraw-Hill (New York), 1985. Pp 23-24.

[nymr83]

i think FOUR is the golden sombrero, 5 is platinum. it doesnt matter what you do in your non-K ABs, you still have the sombrero.