Cubs: Frank Schwindel makes MLB history on the mound, and not in a good way

Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel set a record for the slowest pitch ever turned into a home run during an unfortunate spell on the mound.

Position players who get up on the mound to finish out a game are thrown into a tough spot. They’re doing their best.

Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel tried to do that but his best against the Yankees landed him in the MLB record books for the wrong reason.

He has now thrown the slowest pitch to ever be hit for a home run.

Frank Schwindel made MLB history on the mound for the wrong reason

Kyle Higashioka hit his second home run of the day off of Schwindel’s 35.1 mph pitch in the eighth inning. That’s the kind of slow pitch you’d only see at the batting cages. Hitting a home run (which would have been in the stands in all 30 MLB ballparks) off that takes pure power off the bat.

It’s a good thing Higashioka did that against this Chicago team because White Sox manager Tony La Russa might have incited a riot over that swing in a 17-4 game.

Who could blame Higashioka though? He’s been trying to get it going all season after hitting a career-best 10 home runs last year. He had zero going into Sunday’s game. He left with two.

As for Schwindel, he’s now part of a cool piece of MLB trivia. And it’s not like he disgraced himself up there. After Higashioka, he faced Joey Gallo, Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton and lived to tell the tale.

The first baseman was only pitching because the game got so out of hand by the seventh inning. Already up 12-4, New York generated five more runs in the bottom of the seventh. The Cubs essentially conceded and gave their pitching staff a rest for the remaining innings.