Baseball History

[67RedSox]

Frank Elmer Smith, known during his playing days as the "Piano Mover" because he used to boast that he could "carry a baby grand up four flights of stairs without a rest," was a mainstay of the Chicago White Sox pitching staff between 1904 and 1909, winning 104 games for the club during that span. Relying on a drop ball (now referred to as a sinker), curve, and occasional spitball, Smith hurled two no-hitters for the White Sox, the only pitcher in franchise history to do so, and led the American League in both innings pitched and strikeouts in 1909. It was on this date in 1908 that Smith tossed his 2nd No-Hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics. The game was scoreless going into the bottom of the 9th inning and was decided in dramatic fashion when the White Sox shortstop ,Freddy Parent, while being walked intentionally by Eddie Plank, reaches out and pokes a shallow sac fly to right field. The unexpected sacrifice scores the game’s only run in the White Sox 1-0 victory over Philadelphia. Smith’s first No-Hitter, three years earlier, a 15-0 drubbing of the Tigers, remains the most one-sided no-hitter in American League history.

It was on this date in 1953, 60 years ago today Ernie Banks hits his first ML Home Run in a game played in St. Louis which the Cardinals won 11-6. Three future HOF’ers in the Cardinal dugout watched it sail out…Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter and Red Schoendienst. I wonder if they had any idea what they were seeing the beginning of?

It was on this date in 1968 that Mickey Mantle hit the last of his 536 Home Runs…a shot off of Jim Lonborg to RF in Yankee Stadium.

Hoyt Wilhelm was a late bloomer and that was pretty much because of WWII. At the age of 20 he was playing D ball when the War came calling. He spent three years in the service, seeing a lot of combat in Europe and receiving the Purple Heart for wounds he received at the Battle of the Bulge. When he returned stateside he started again in Class D ball and it wasn’t until just shy of his 30th birthday, in 1952, that he made his debut in the Majors pitching for the NY Giants and very well at that…he won the ERA crown with a mark of 2.43, led the Majors in Winning % at .833 going 15-3 and led the NL in Games Pitched with 71, all in relief (160 innings). He would spend 21 years in the Majors and end up in the Hall of Fame.
It was on this date in 1958 that Hoyt Wilhelm of the Baltimore Orioles pitched a 1-0 no-hitter against the New York Yankees at Memorial Stadium. During Wilhelm's ML career the attention he received usually focused on his freak pitch-a knuckleball-which he likely threw better than any man in history. Wilhelm was asked thousands of times how he learned to throw a knuckleball, and usually claimed that he taught himself in high school after seeing a picture of Dutch Leonard gripping a baseball. Emil "Dutch" Leonard was then pitching for the Washington Senators, who were the closest major league team to North Carolina. Leonard dug his index and middle fingers into the ball's seam-he did not use his knuckles. Wilhelm began experimenting with the pitch and soon could throw it pretty well. Before Wilhelm, the knuckleball was an old pitcher's pitch, something a veteran might turn to at the end of his career to eke out another year or two. A pitcher who threw it would do so along with his usual assortment of pitches-its slower speed and unusual movement made it a fine "changeup."
Wilhelm broke both molds-he threw it as a teenager, and he threw it nearly every pitch. Most young kids give up on the knuckleball quickly because the pitch cannot be thrown to a location, which is how a pitcher is taught to throw. Wilhelm soon discovered that he could just aim the ball right down the middle of the plate, knowing full well that it would end up somewhere else, but maximizing his chances of keeping it in the strike zone. Catching his knuckleball was a continual problem. In Wilhelm's first 16 seasons (1952-1967), his team led its league in passed balls in every year but one (1953). The Giants' Ray Katt was charged with four passed balls in a single inning catching Wilhelm in 1954. The catchers of the 1958 Indians (mainly Russ Nixon and Dick Brown) allowed a league-leading 35 passed balls. The next year, without Wilhelm, the same catching corps was charged with six.
There were several other excellent knuckleball pitchers whose careers overlapped Wilhelm's, including Eddie Fisher, Phil Niekro, and Wilbur Wood. None of them had the consistent problems with catchers that Wilhelm had, an indication that Wilhelm's knuckleball moved much more than theirs did. Ted Williams, who knew a thing or two about pitchers, once stated categorically: "Don't let anybody tell you they saw a better knuckleball than Wilhelm's". In 1985, Wilhelm became the first relief pitcher to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. It took him eight tries to be voted in.

It was on this date in 1959 that the San Francisco Giants play their last game at Seals Stadium and lose to the Dodgers 8-2. The transplanted New York team, which compiled an 86-68 record in their two-year stay in the former PCL park, will move to the newly constructed Candlestick Park for the 1960 season.

It was on this date in 1961 that in a 13-inning contest, Sandy Koufax goes the distance beating the Cubs, 3-2, in the last regular season game to be played at the LA Memorial Coliseum which was originally built for the 1932 Olympics. Dodger Stadium awaits for the 1962 season.

It was on this date in 1988 that Wade Boggs became the first player the 20th century to get 200 hits in six consecutive seasons (he would have a seventh) as the Boston Red Sox pounded Toronto 13-2. Boggs also joined Lou Gehrig as the only players to get 200 hits and 100 walks in three consecutive years.

It was on this date in 1998 that Cal Ripken took himself out of the starting lineup and did not play in the Baltimore Orioles' loss to the New York Yankees, ending his consecutive-game streak at 2,632 games. After nearly 16 years, Ripken said he decided the time was right to end the streak, which began on May 30, 1982.

 

[67RedSox]

I spent last night at a concert by a local Soda Shoppe group who did nothing but music from the 1950’s and 1960’s with some tunes from the 1970’s thrown in. It was as good as it gets. Still have some of the tunes in my head so my Post today will only include stuff from those three decades. So for those who dread the Dead Ball Era stuff I usually throw in you get a break…there won’t be any.

There was only one player in all of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s who drove in at least 150 runs in a season. Who was the player…answer at the bottom.

Don Newcombe (1956), Sandy Koufax (1966) and Steve Carlton (1972) all won 27 games in a single season during the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s period. There was only one NL pitcher who won more than 27 games in a season during those decades. One baseball writer said this of him, "He never bothers with fancy stuff but makes do with what he has: a dinky curve, a sneaky but unspectacular fast ball, and a frustrating change of pace. He offers no single dramatic talent -- he has no counterpart of Carl Hubbell's spectacular screwball, Walter Johnson's terrifying fastball, Bobby Feller's strike-out touch. Pitch for pitch, many of his contemporaries have what the trade calls 'more stuff,' pitches that are harder, faster, or trickier. But better than any of them now on the mound, he can put the ball where he wants. There is one precious-diamond word for him -- control." Roberts' slow deliberate windup and delivery was so fluid that hitters could not wait for the pitch to come. It looked so easy; then the ball would explode over the plate, astonishing the hitters. Warren Spahn, Ferguson Jenkins and he are the last ML pitchers to have 6 consecutive 20 Win seasons and they are all in the HOF. Answer at the bottom.

The Boston Braves play their final game on this date in 1952 and lose to the Dodgers 8-2. After 82 years playing in Boston the franchise moves to Milwaukee in 1953 and then Atlanta in 1966.

The NY Giants win their last ballgame on this date in 1957 by a score of 9-5 in Pittsburgh. They still have 4 games to play but will lose them all. Ruben Gomez was the winning pitcher. In the game Gail Harris hit the last HR ever by a NY Giant. Ruben Gomez was the second pitcher from Puerto Rico to reach the majors ( Hiram Bithorn was the first ) and the first to start and win a World Series Game. He led the New York Giants to a 6-2 win in Game Three at Cleveland on October 1, 1954. A limber 6 feet even and 170-175 pounds, Gomez was amazingly durable. He pitched in just 10 big-league seasons – but no one is even close to his 29-year career in the Puerto Rican Winter League (PRWL). From 1947 through 1977, he amassed 174 regular-season wins and 27 post-season wins there. These are marks that will never be broken. All told, “El Divino Loco” – the Divine Crazy – won over 400 games as a pro.

There have been 21 rookie pitchers in the Majors to toss No-Hitters. It was on this date in 1970 that Vida Blue became the 11th rookie to toss one. Not bad that 21 rookies have tossed No-Hitters considering that there are nine 300-game winners—Grover Cleveland Alexander, Kid Nichols, Lefty Grove, Early Wynn, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens and Tom Glavine—who failed to pitch a No-Hitter.

Speaking of rookie pitchers the Yankees had a pretty good one in 1954…Bob Grim, who wins his 20th game on this date in 1954. It just happened to be in front of the smallest crowd ever to watch a game in the old Yankee Stadium…1,912.

When you here 440 what do you think of. If you’re a car enthusiast you would think the 440 cu. In. engine Chrysler made from 1966 to 1978 and put in their Dodge Magnum and Plymouth Super Commander. The early versions cranked out 375 h.p. and the later version 420 h.p. If you saw The Blues Brothers movie they drove what was referred to as the Bluesmobile with a 440 engine under the hood. However, this is a Baseball Board so enough about car engines. The only thing I can think of when it comes to 440 in baseball is the number of fans in attendance at Wrigley Field on this date in 1966 when the Cubs host and defeat the Reds 9-3, behind Ken Holtzman.


Tommy Davis had 153 RBIs in 1962.

Robin Roberts had 28 Wins in 1952

 

[67RedSox]

It all started on an August day in 1890 when Cy Young made his ML debut with the Cleveland Spiders of the National league. It was on this date in 1911 that Young won his 511th and final ML game pitching for the Boston Braves…called the Rustlers that one season in 1911. In between those two dates he tossed over 7,300 innings and faced just under 30,000 batters. Compare that with say, Nolan Ryan, who pitched a record 27 seasons and his numbers are about 2,000 fewer innings and 6,000 fewer batters faced. Baseball instituted the pitching award that still bears his name in 1956, a year after his death.

Burleigh Grimes was the last pitcher officially permitted to throw the spitball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964 after a career that spanned from 1916 to 1934 and included 270 Wins, most while toiling for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1981 Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included Grimes in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. Clearly the election to the HOF and being included as one of the greatest 100 players speaks of the calibre of baseball player that he was. What it does not speak of is his reputation as an ornery battler that hitters hated and sometimes feared to face. Grimes chewed slippery elm in order to better load up the ball. He sliced the bark right off the tree, and put the fiber from inside on the ball. However, he said the juice from the wood irritated his sensitive skin, so he refrained from shaving on the mornings of the days he was scheduled to pitch (and perhaps on the day before as well). The dark growth of stubble on his face gave rise to his nickname, Ol’ Stubblebeard. It also added to his menacing appearance, The New York Times reported that he was a pitcher who frightened the hitters. “When he pitched,” the Times reporter wrote, “he always had a two-day black stubble on his face. He walked with a swagger that infuriated batters, and when he measured a hitter from the mound he would peel back his lips to show yellow teeth in a snarl. He often threw at the batters’ heads without the slightest hesitation.” Someone once said that Burleigh’s idea of an intentional walk was to throw four straight fastballs at the batter’s head.
At the plate with a bat in his hands is another story…although he had 380 career basehits he didn’t do much at the plate on this date in 1925 except to help the other team’s cause when the Cubs beat Grimes and the Dodgers 3-2 in 12 innings. Grimes accounts for seven outs in just three plate appearances. The Dodger pitcher hits into two double plays, then into a triple play.

How fast can a player circle the bases? Billy Hamilton the speed demon rookie for the Reds hit an inside-the-park-homerun in the Minors last year and circled the bases in 13.8 seconds. The record is 13.3 seconds but that wasn’t in a game at any level. It was set by Evar Swanson at Columbus, Ohio in 1929 during a contest that was held on September 15, 1929 between baseball games of a doubleheader. His average speed around the bases was 18.45 mph. Well, on this date in 1926 At Ebbets Field, the aging 18-year veteran outfielder Zack Wheat hits his last homer as a Dodger, but severely pulls a muscle nearing second. The future Hall of Famer needs to rest nearly five minutes before completing his trip to home plate making it the longest home run trot in Major League history.

On this date in 1953 the Brooklyn Dodgers tie the record (154 game season) for the most Wins in a home park, beating Pittsburgh 5-4. They go an incredible 60-17 at Ebbets Field, tying the record of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1942. Only the 61 wins of the San Francisco Giants in 1962 in a 162 game season will surpass the mark. I believe the Rockies best season at Home saw them with a record of 52-29.

One of my pet peeves about baseball today at the ML level is that pitchers don’t know how to pitch and batters don’t know how to hit. At-Bats drag on forever because pitchers will either miss the plate or if they do get it over it’s not in a location to get the batter to swing and miss and batters, more times than not, couldn’t hit a ball squarely if their life depended on it. So many At-Bats last 6-7-8 pitches with nothing but balls and foul balls with the batter stepping out after every pitch. Consequently, games go on forever. Here’s an example of a player who knew how to hit and didn’t waste everyone’s time. On this date in 1948, for the 4th time in the season, Stan Musial has five hits in five at-bats setting a National League record, and tying Ty Cobb's ML record. The hits 'Stan the Man' collects come off five different pitchers, on five consecutive pitches. No fooling around. No wasting everybody’s time.

How is this for a ML debut. You’re 23 years old, you’re pitching for the Brooklyn Dodgers and there are four games left in the season. You’re facing the NY Giants who have clinched the NL Pennant and are going to the World Series and as luck would have it your mound opponent that day just happens to be the best pitcher in the NL that year, Johnny Antonelli who has 21 Wins and will lead the League with a 2.30 ERA. Tough assignment but on this date in 1954 Karl Spooner blanks the Giants, 3-0 while striking out 15, including six straight. The 23-year old lefty's strikeout total is the most ever recorded in a rookie's first appearance breaking the record of 13 set by the Giants’ Cliff Melton on April 25, 1937. Another debut game record set that day was his six consecutive strikeouts. It gets even better. Spooner’s next outing four days later on the last day of the season added more hot stove excitement to the “Wait ’til next year” chant of Dodger fans. He struck out 12 Pirates, giving him 27 strikeouts in two successive games. This was a senior circuit record (not just for rookies) and was second only to Bob Feller’s 28 on the major league list. Shutouts in his first two major league starts also placed him in rare company.
Spooner had the world on a string. His home town gave a parade in his honor, and he served as King of the 1955 Winter Carnival in Old Forge, New York.
The future looked exciting but his flame quickly faded following a shoulder injury during spring training 1955, and he struggled through the season with a record of 8-6 in only 99 innings.. A member of the only Brooklyn Dodger team to win a World Series, his ML career came to a humiliating end in Game Six of the 1955 Fall Classic. The Dodgers faced the New York Yankees for the fifth time in nine years. Spooner appeared twice, both in losing efforts. Any thoughts that he might start in an early Series game vanished in Game Two as Alston brought him on in relief. The Yankees scored four runs off starter Billy Loes in the fourth inning and were leading by what would turn out to be the final score of 4-2. Spooner entered the game in the bottom of the fifth; in three innings, he struck out five – Gil McDougald, Joe Collins, Billy Martin, Jerry Coleman, and McDougald again – with three groundouts and a walk, keeping the Dodgers in contention. Tommy Byrne was too much for the Dodgers’ lineup that day, however, going all the way. This outstanding middle relief outing would prove to be Karl Spooner’s last quality pitching performance but it did earn him a start in Game 6. The Dodgers now led the Yankees 3 games to 2. Had he performed as well as he had in relief in Game Two, and had his 2B Junior Gilliam performed to his capabilities, Karl Spooner, not Johnny Podres, may have been carried off the field by the World Series champion Dodgers. But in the first inning at Yankee Stadium, Spooner walked Phil Rizzuto. Billy Martin struck out while Rizzuto easily stole second – Gilliam was late covering the base. Then, after Gil McDougald walked, Gilliam let a possible double-play ball from Yogi Berra get by him for a single which scored Rizzuto. Hank Bauer then singled in McDougald, and Bill Skowron homered, knocking Spooner out of the box. Karl Spooner had exploded onto the baseball scene with a record-setting performance only one year, 12 days earlier. His Major League Baseball career ended at age 24 with that home run ball, which gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead in the first inning. Spooner tried to hang on for three more years but never made it back to the Majors.

It was on this date in 1993 that the Rockies establish the ML home attendance record with 4,483,350 patrons attending games at Denver's Mile High Stadium. The expansion team averages 55,350 fans per game in their inaugural season. On the same day Nolan Ryan tosses his last ML pitch.

It was on this date in 1957 that Duke Snider’s 39th and 40th home runs are the last that will be hit at Ebbets Field. The Duke of Flatbush ties Ralph Kiner's National League mark of hitting at least 40 home runs in five consecutive seasons.

On this date in 1976 Don Sutton wins his 20th of the season as the Dodgers beat the Giants 3-1. Despite winning 324 games in his career this will be his only 20 win season.

 

[67RedSox]

If you are under the age of 50 you may not appreciate just what sort of rivalry once existed between the Dodgers and Yankees. The two teams met 11 times in the World Series, more times than any other pair of teams from the American and National Leagues. The initial significance was embodied in the two teams' proximity in New York City, when the Dodgers initially played in Brooklyn. After the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958, the rivalry retained its significance as the two teams represented the dominant cities on each coast of the United States, and since the 1980s, the two largest cities in the United States. It has been over 30 years (1981) since the two teams last met in the post-season but the old rivalry would quickly boil over if they ever meet in the World Series again. Over the years there have been 199 players play for both the Dodgers and Yankees. Among them is a guy by the name of John Miller…but I’ll get to him later.
The first to wear both uniforms was Norwegian-born, John Anderson. He played in Brooklyn in the 1890’s and for the Yankees in 1904 and 1905. The most recent are two 37 year olds… Jerry Hairston and Ted Lilly who both wore the Dodger blue this season…but back to John Anderson for a moment. From 1894 to 1908, Anderson played for six different franchises in seven different cities. He played for winners, such as the pennant winning 1899 Brooklyn (101-47), and losers, such as the dreadful 1907 Washington Senators (49-102). Throughout his baseball travels, Anderson may have accumulated more nicknames than any other player of his generation. He was known as "Honest John," because he rarely protested umpires' calls, "Long John," because of his 6'2" frame, the "Swedish Apollo," for his Scandinavian roots, handsome appearance and muscular build, and also "Big John," in case anyone had forgotten that he was one of the tallest players in the game. A consistent hitter who typically batted fourth or fifth in the lineup and who once led the National League in slugging percentage, Anderson was also an aggressive base runner--his 39 stolen bases tied for the American League lead in 1906. Unfortunately Anderson's reputation took a hit in 1903, when he reportedly attempted to steal an already-occupied second base. Although the evidence shows he was merely picked off first base, stealing an already occupied base--or any other mental blunder--became known as pulling a John Anderson.
Now, back to John Miller…who played in 2 ML seasons. In 1966 he was a member of the NY Yankees and next played in the Majors with the 1969 Dodgers. They were the only two teams he played for. It was on this date in 1969 in his last ML at-bat, Miller homers making him the only player in history to have hit a home run in his first and last plate appearance in the Major Leagues. In 1966, as a Yankee, he went deep in the first of only 61 Big League career at-bats in which he would collect only 10 hits, including the two memorable round-trippers to start and end his 32-game career.

From the mid 1960’s until the mid 1970’s there were few players who could dominate a game like Lou Brock. He played in 3 World Series…1964, 1967 and 1968 all 7 game Series and all superb from a fan’s perspective. He saved the best for the Big Show as in those three Series he collected 34 basehits and hit .391. It was on this date in 1979 that he steals his 938th and final base a total surpassed only by Rickie Henderson.

10 years ago today, on this date in 2003 The Rockies pound out 17 hits on their way to a 20-9 trouncing of the Diamondbacks. Ron Belliard ties a franchise record with 8 RBI for the night.

Sparky Anderson was what he was but on this date in 1984 he becomes the first ML Manager to guide his team to 100 Win seasons in both the National and Americam Leagues when the Tigers win their 100th of the season. He had earlier turned the trick 3 times with the Reds.

During the 2013 season there were only 2 pitchers active who had at least 100 basehits in their career. They both have played for and collected basehits with the Rockies…Jason Marquis and Roy Oswalt.

Jim Baumer’s 1st year in the Majors was 1949 when he played Shortstop for the Chicago White Sox. His last year in the Majors was 1961 when he played 2B for the 1961 Cincinnati Reds. Funny thing about Baumer’s career is that those were the only two years he played in the Majors. He’s the only player to play in the 1940s & 1960s but not the 1950s. Brief playing career but he did go on to become the GM of the Milwaukee Brewers and a V.P. with the Phillies.
Another guy like Bauman who played in two different decades separated by a third was Al Epperly. In 1938 he pitched for the Cubs and in 1950 for the Brooklyn Dodgers. In between those two years he did not pitch in the Majors spending it in AA and AAA ball.

The 1939 NY Yankees were the first ML team to have all eight position players hit double-digit Home Runs. All but one of those eight players had more Walks than Strikeouts that year. Only their Shortstop, Frank Crosetti had more K’s (81) than Walks (65). Sadly there are 8 players who played at least 20 years in the Majors without going to the World Series. Frank Crosetti can’t relate to that. He has 17 WS rings… he went to the WS 23 times as a player or coach and was on the winning side 17 times.
In 1942 Ted Williams won the Triple Crown in the AL with numbers of .356-36-137. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting to Joe Gordon of the NY Yankees…yes that’s correct, Joe Gordon whose numbers were .322-18-103. The previous year in 1941 he also finished 2nd in the MVP voting despite hitting .406. The message the Baseball writers were sending to him was…be nice to us or we won’t vote for you. Back to his 1942 season when he hit .356 he hit .356 at home and .356 on the road going 93 for 261 in 75 games at home and 93 for 261 in 75 games on the road.

 

[67RedSox]

On this date in 2001 the Colorado Rockies led by Walker and Helton decided to flex their muscles against the Padres so they went out and scored in every inning to defeat the Padres 15-11 at Coors Field. Helton was a single shy of hitting for the cycle and Walker banged out 2 HRs in the 20 –hit attack. It was the second year of Helton’s back-to-back 100 extra base hit seasons when he hit .336 with 49 HRs and 146 RBIs with a Gold Glove tossed in and all that got him was 9th in the MVP voting.

On this date in 1993 the Rockies defeat the Reds‚ 9-2‚ setting a new NL record for wins by an expansion team with 65.

It was on this date in 1974 that Al Kaline collects his 3,000th basehit, a double, off Dave McNally of the Orioles. Kaline is one of nine HOF players who debuted in Major League Baseball without playing minor league baseball. The others are Sandy Koufax, Mel Ott, Dave Winfield, Bob Feller, Frankie Frisch, Catfish Hunter, Harmon Killebrew and George Sisler.

It was on this date in 1957 in the last game at Ebbets Field‚ 6‚702 fans watch Dodgers lefty Danny McDevitt prevail over the Pirates 2-0. Gil Hodges has the last RBI. Sandy Koufax‚ in relief‚ gets a chance to hit for the 12th time this year and strikes out for the 12th straight time‚ a NL record.

This time we go to Chicago’s Wrigley Field for another small crowd record. It was on this date in 1943 that the Cubs host the Phillies and defeat them 7-4 in Andy Pafko’s ML debut. The crowd totals 314…the smallest in Wrigley Field history. Here’s a shot of Wrigley circa 1943…imagine 314 spread out around the park which, in 1943, had a seating capacity of 38,396. Who is Andy Pafko you say…He is a permanent part of baseball lore. He played for the Chicago Cubs in the 1945 World Series, their last appearance in the Fall Classic. He stood with his back against the left-field wall as Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ’round the world” flew over his head and out of the Polo Grounds to give the Giants a victory over his Dodgers and clinch the 1951 National League pennant. He was the starting rightfielder for his home-state Milwaukee Braves in 1953 and 1954. He lost his starting job in 1955 to a young outfielder, Hank Aaron although he did play in the outfield for the Braves in both the 1957 and 1958 World Series. He played in four World Series for three different teams in his 17-year career.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=wrig...s%2Fsports%26id%3D5871323%26photo%3D1;600;338

and before we leave small crowds…it was on this date in 1928 a Monday afternoon of crowd of only 404 watches the Tigers blank the last-place Red Sox, 8-0. The meager amount of fans at Navin Field ( aka Tiger Stadium / Briggs Stadium) is the lowest American League attendance ever recorded in Detroit. Capacity at the time was 30,000.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=navi...A%2F%2Fwww.squidoo.com%2Ftigerstadium;480;308

It was on this date in 1940 at Shibe Park, Red Sox first baseman Jimmie Foxx blasts his 500th career home run off A's pitcher George Caster. Foxx, was another of baseball’s celebrated heros while playing but whose life became a tragedy because of alcohol afterwards.

It was on this date in 1932 that the NY Yankees close out the season and set a new ML record by scoring in every game of the season. The feat would not be matched until the 2000 Cincinnati Reds did so.

There are those who will argue that Lefty Grove was the best pitcher in the history of MLB. If not the best he would be among the best. It was on this date in 1930 Lefty wins his 31st of the year as the Athletics belt the Red Sox‚ 9-4. It means Grove will lead the League in Wins and Saves‚ the last pitcher to do so.

It was on this date in 1992 that Dave Winfield, born in St. Paul, Minnesota and the DH for the World Champion Blue Jays, becomes the oldest player in ML history to drive in 100 runs in a season at age 40. After the season Winfield would leave Toronto to play for his home-town Minnesota Twins. Toronto would sign free agent Paul Molitor, born in St. Paul, Minnesota, as Winfield’s replacement. In 1993 Molitor, at age 37 would become the oldest player in ML history to drive in 100 runs for the first time and the Blue Jays repeat as World Champions. Like Winfield, Molitor would eventually leave the Blue Jays to play for his home-town Minnesota Twins.

 

[67RedSox]

If I say the name Carlos Delgado most people will know the name but not much else…unless you’re a Blue Jay fan. He was one of the most under-appreciated ML’ers of his time. He came up to the Majors to stay in 1996 and for the next 13 years played at 1B almost exclusively…9 seasons with Toronto, 1 with Florida and 3 with the Mets. Over that 13 year period he averaged .282 – 36 – 112, with an OBP of .380 and a Slugging % of .550. He was the model of consistency and never had a bad season. He was selected as the ML Player of the Year in 2000. The only thing he couldn’t do was steal a base unless you count 1 a year as being a base stealer.
What I find an interesting stat about the guy is this… on this date in 2003 he becomes the 15th player in history to hit 4 HRs in a game. His 1st homer of the game is also the 300th of his career. He has shown a progression of power as he's reached home run milestones: he hit one homer in a game for his first career dinger‚ hit a pair in a game for his 100th‚ hit a threesome to reach 200 and hit 4 to reach 300.

On this date in 2001 Tim Raines joins the odd couple of Ted Williams and Rickey Henderson as the only players in ML history to steal a base in 4 different decades. The latter two are HOF’ers and it’s a shame Raines isn’t.

On this date in 2000 the Indians play the 2nd 3-team doubleheader since 1900 at Jacobs Field in Cleveland. The Tribe defeats the Chicago White Sox‚ 9-2‚ in the opener‚ then loses the 2nd game to the Minnesota Twins‚ 4-3. The last 3-team doubleheader was September 13‚ 1951.

45 years ago, on this date in 1968 Mickey Mantle plays his last game in Yankee Stadium and a good thing he did otherwise Luis Tiant would have No-Hit the Yankees. Mantle slices a two-out first inning single off Cleveland's Tiant‚ the only hit for the Yankees. El Tiante tosses his 9th shutout of the year‚ tops in the AL‚ to win‚ 3-0. El Tiante's ERA drops to 1.60, also tops in the AL but despite those numbers and his 21 Wins he doesn’t get a single vote for the Cy Young Award. Of course, McLain winning 31 that year might have had something to do with it.

HOF’er Miller Huggins received his Law Degree from the University of Cincinnati but chose to play baseball rather than practice law and was a very good ballplayer (2B) during his 13 years in the Majors, 1904-1916, but he isn’t remembered as a player but as a Manager for 17 seasons first with the Cardinals as a player-manager and then with the Yankees from 1918 until his sudden death on this date in 1929. With the Yankees he won 6 Pennants and 3 World Championships. As a player, Huggins was adept at getting on base. He stood 5’6” and weighed 140 pounds. He was an excellent fielding 2nd Baseman, earning the nicknames "Rabbit", "Little Everywhere", and "Mighty Mite" for his defensive prowess and was later considered an intelligent manager who understood the fundamentals of the game. Despite fielding successful teams for the Yankees in the 1920s, he continued to make personnel changes in order to maintain his teams' superiority in the AL.
Huggins fell ill on September 20, 1929, and checked into Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center for erysipelas, an acute streptococcus bacterial infection of the upper dermis and superficial lymphatics. His condition was complicated by the development of influenza with high fever. The Yankees' club physician, in consultation with other doctors, decided to administer blood transfusions. But despite their best efforts, Huggins died at the age of 50 on this date in 1929 of pyaemia…it was almost universally fatal before the introduction of antibiotics. The American League canceled its games for the following day out of respect, and the viewing of his casket at Yankee Stadium drew thousands of tearful fans.

I mentioned Al Kaline yesterday and will again today. It was on this date in 1955 that he becomes the youngest batting champ in history, as he takes the American League crown at age 20.

If you had a map and looked really, really hard you would eventually find the town of Havana, Arkansas but it would take you awhile. It is almost mid-way between Memphis and Oklahoma City…population about 300. If you were to take the I-40 and drive for about 1,400 miles you’d find Yankee Stadium. The road to Yankee Stadium from Brooklyn on the other hand is about 35 minutes in traffic. Well, on this date in 1917 two stalwarts of the Yankee juggernaut team of the early 1950’s were born…Johnny Sain in Havana and Phil Rizzuto in Brooklyn.
Rizzuto is , of course, in the Hall of Fame and although Sain is not he was one of the most respected pitchers and then pitching coaches in Baseball during his time. In 1942 he reached the Majors and got 97 innings in before Uncle Sam came calling. After spending three years training pilots during the War he returned to the Majors and was one of the best pitchers in all of Baseball, some will argue he was the best. Between 1946-1950 he won 20 games 4 out of 5 seasons and was certainly the best pitcher in all of Baseball in 1948 when he won 24 games. Shoulder woes then set in for Sain and his career as a dominating pitcher was over. One of many keys to the Yankees’ phenomenal success from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s was a genius for resurrecting the careers of players thought to be finished. Johnny Hopp, Johnny Mize, and Enos Slaughter had several productive years added to their careers, and Johnny Sain was a chief beneficiary among the pitching fraternity. How the Yankees did it was brilliant in its simplicity, and one wonders why nobody else figured it out. They made him a spot starter and reliever so that a bit fewer than half of his appearances were starts -- 16 of 35 in 1952 and 19 of 40 in 1953. He completed half of his starts, 8 in 1952 and 10 in 1953, and relieved superbly the rest of the time. In 1954, his last full year in pinstripes, all 45 of his appearances were in relief, and he saved a league-leading 22 games to become just the second pitcher (after Ellis Kinder of the Red Sox turned the trick the year before) to win 20 games in one season and save 20 in another. Wilbur Wood, Dennis Eckersley, John Smoltz, and Derek Lowe are the only other pitchers to accomplish the feat.
That’s just the pitching side of the Sain ledger. An outstanding contact hitter, Johnny had always helped himself with the bat. He sported a .245 career average, led the league with 16 sacrifice hits in 1948 (the first pitcher to lead his league in an offensive category), led his league’s pitchers in runs batted in five times, and struck out a mere 20 times in 774 lifetime at-bats. Those 20 strikeouts are extraordinary, the fewest for all hitters with between 500 and 800 at-bats from 1910 (when the National League began keeping strikeout records) and 1913 (when the American League followed suit) to the present.
The last pitcher to face Babe Ruth and the first to face Jackie Robinson, Johnny Sain became a pitching coach and didn’t stop until he tutored sixteen 20-Game winners in the Majors.

 

[67RedSox]

His ML career began as a pitcher with the NY Giants in 1890. He was a flop going 3-10 with an ERA north of 5.00. The good news is that his failure as pitcher allowed him to re-focus his baseball talents and become one of the greatest hitters the Game has seen…Jesse ‘The Crab’ Burkett. Believe me, his nickname aptly describes his personality.
Burkett was a crafty hitter and disputatious competitor who won 3 NL won three National League batting titles from 1895 to 1901 before finishing his 16-year-career in the American League. On this date in 1896 he gets three hits to finish the season at .410. The 'Crab' becomes the first player to hit .400 in consecutive seasons, a feat later duplicated by Ty Cobb and Rogers Hornsby.
Burkett stands larger in the record books than he did in real life. Upon his election to the Hall of Fame in 1946, one writer called the left-handed Burkett a "terrible and fearsome foe," adding, "We've often wondered what he would have done had they used in his day that rabbit ball with which Babe Ruth set his records." But the 5'8", 155-pound Burkett bore a closer resemblance to Wee Willie Keeler than Ruth, and his offensive accomplishments owed themselves to finesse, not brute strength. Burkett was a master at fouling off pitches, and was thought by many observers to be the Era's greatest bunter. In that Era before fouls counted as strikes, Burkett became a master at fouling off pitch after pitch until he found an offering to his liking, or worked a walk (he ranked among the league's top ten in free passes 12 times during his career). Indeed, as one commentator later observed, Burkett seemed to take special pleasure in fouling off tough pitches: "He would do a snappy little jig after tipping off a good pitch, or snapping one on a low line into the left field section of the grandstand or the left field bleachers, very well pleased with himself."
Of his 2,850 career hits, nearly 80 percent were singles, hardly the mark of a powerful slugger but when he retired he did so with a career BA of .3382, identical to another left-handed batter who’s in the HOF that you may be more familiar with, Tony Gwynn. In the history of the game that ranks 18th overall.
On and off the field, "The Crab"--as his Cleveland Spiders teammates dubbed him--was cranky and unsociable, prone to challenging opponents with his fists and insulting fans and umpires with strings of expletives so creative that sportswriters of the day could only reprint his repartee by omitting all the bad language, which usually made his harangues incomprehensible. But the hot-tempered, sharp-tongued Burkett could also become easily unsettled by opposing players, fans, and umpires who delighted in getting his goat. During his major league career, Burkett was once benched for throwing a baseball at a crowd of hecklers in the stands. On the field, "The Crab" was regarded by many as the meanest player on the infamously rowdy Cleveland Spiders, "and Crab Burkett's claws were in every rhubarb," one writer recalled. "Even when he was hitting .400, he played ball with a perpetual scowl." On August 4, 1897, the Spiders were forced to forfeit the opening game of a doubleheader to the Louisville Colonels after Burkett refused to leave the field following his ejection from the game. In the second game of the doubleheader, Burkett was again ejected for arguing with the umpire, who then called two policemen to have Burkett forcibly removed from the grounds. Despite such incidents, Burkett continued to excel as one of the game's best hitters.

In 2013 Clayton Kershaw, Jordan Zimmerman and Adam Wainwright are the NL leaders in Shutouts for the season with 2, yes just 2. Shutouts are a rare sighting in the Major Leagues today. On this date in 1908 Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs tossed 2 Shutouts in one afternoon…the only pitcher to throw two shutouts in a doubleheader…beating the Brooklyn Superbas 5-0 and 3-0.

On this date in 1916 Walter Johnson’s season ends. Despite playing for the 7th place Washington Senators ( 8 team League in those days ) that finishes 1 game under .500 at 76-77 he leads the AL in Wins with 25 and Strikeouts with 228. He completes 36 of the 38 games he starts and leads the League in Innings Pitched with 370. The most amazing of his stats is the number of HRs he gave up…or should I say didn’t give up. He did not give up a single HR all season setting a record which I’m sure will never be topped.

It’s almost unheard of for a game to be completed in 2 hours and 7 minutes today. On this date in 1926 the St. Louis Browns sweep a doubleheader from the Yankees‚ 6-1 and 6-2‚ in a total time of 2 hours‚ 7 minutes‚ a ML record for a twinbill.

It was on this date in 1932 that Chuck Klein closed out the 1932 season with 38 home runs and 20 stolen bases and becomes the only player of the lively-ball era (1920 and after) to lead his League in these two departments. Ty Cobb (1909) and Jimmy Sheckard (1903) did it in the Dead Ball Era.

On this date in 1971 Jim Palmer becomes the 4th member of the Orioles 1971 pitching staff to notch his 20th victory (Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally)‚ shutting out the host Indians‚ 5-0. Only one other team in ML history, the 1920 White Sox, boasted four 20-game winners.

Finally, what’s the chances you know something about Johnny Hodapp. He was born on this date in 1905 and played in the Majors for 9 seasons. He was a pretty good hitter with a lifetime BA of .311. In 1930 he led the AL in basehits (225) and doubles (51), drove in 121 and hit .354 to boot. His baseball career was a mere sideline almost as his real career was 40 years as a mortician. I’m thinking there aren’t too many players today who are looking forward to being a full-time mortician when their playing days are over.

 

[67RedSox]

Viet Nam, Singapore, Lithuania, Guam, China, the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. How about Saudi Arabia, Spain, Aruba and a total of 47 in Ireland. You can pick just about any spot on the globe whether it’s desert, mountains or the ocean and someone of the over 18,000 who have played in the Majors was born there. Yet, in a city or a District with a population of over 600,000 it was not until on this date in 2007 that Ryan Hanigan becomes first person born in Washington, D. C. to play in the Major Leagues. Stuff like that just blows my little mind. ( as tempted as you might be to comment on that last sentence it would be appreciated if you didn’t )

For those who remember Tiger Stadium…or Briggs Stadium as it was called before 1961… saw the last ML game played there on this date in 1999 in front of 43,356. The Tigers won the game 8-2. Detroit catcher Robert Fick hits the last round tripper, a grand slam, in the home team's 8-2 victory over the Royals. It was the 6,873rd ML contest played at the historic 87-year old park. What you may not remember about Tiger Stadium is that its 125’ flagpole was in play on the Warning Track just on the LF side of straight-away Center Field close to 440’ from home plate. There were a few old ballparks where the flag pole was on the playing field. I mention Tiger Stadium’s flagpole because when the stadium was demolished the intent was to move the flagpole to the new stadium, Comerica Park. However, for some reason it was left exactly where it was and it is there to this day. The site is now a park area where you can still play ball. Photos of the flagpole as part of Tiger Stadium and as it is today are below:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tige...com%2Fphotos%2Fstofza%2F5019830096%2F;640;451

https://www.google.ca/search?q=tige...iger-stadiums-rebirth-stunted-by.html;940;697


On this date in 1963 Colt .45s skipper Harry Craft starts an all rookie team which includes future stars such as Joe Morgan, Rusty Staub, Jimmy Wynn, and Jerry Grote. The freshman team, whose average age is 19-years and 4 months old, loses to the Mets, 10-3, with 17-year old starting pitcher Jay Dahl making his only major league appearance.

On this date in 1961 Sandy Koufax breaks the National League mark for strikeouts in a season, surpassing Christy Mathewson's mark of 267 established in 1903. Koufax would end the season with 269 and eventually set the record at 382 in 1965. Unlike the turmoil caused by commissioner Ford Frick’s edict of having to hit 61 homers by the 154th game in the extended 162-game schedule to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record, little was made of the Dodgers southpaw’s 268th punch-out which occurs in the 151st game of the season, compared to the 142-game schedule played early in the century. Ironically on this date in 1973, exactly 8 years to the date Koufax set the record at 382 Nolan Ryan surpasses Koufax's mark for strikeouts in a season when he throws three fastballs past Rich Reese, the last batter of the game, for his 383rd of the year.

On this date in 1959 Phillies second baseman Sparky Anderson goes 0-for-3 and is caught stealing in a 5-2 loss to Milwaukee at County Stadium. The season finale marks the end of the 25-year old infielder's playing career, but the future Hall of Fame manager's participation in 152 contests will establish a record for the most games ever played by someone who spent only one year in the Major Leagues.

It was on this date in 1951 that Bill Sharman, recently called up from Fort Worth, is one of 15 Dodgers who are ejected by umpire Frank Dascoli for bench jockeying after a close call at home plate. The future basketball Hall of Famer will never play in the Big Leagues, and thus he will become the only player to be ejected from a ML game without ever appearing in one.

In total, 28 players have reached the 3,000 hit mark in MLB history. Of these, 14 were right-handed batters, 12 were left-handed, and 2 were switch hitters. Ten of these players (and the only active member of the 3,000 hit club…Derek Jeter) have played for only one ML team. The Cleveland Indians are the only franchise to see three players reach the milestone while on their roster: Lajoie (while the franchise was known as the "Naps"), Tris Speaker, and Eddie Murray. Four players—Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Murray, and Rafael Palmeiro—are also members of the 500 home run club. At .367, Cobb holds the highest career batting average among club members, while Cal Ripken, Jr. holds the lowest at .276. Jeter and Wade Boggs are the only players to hit a home run for their 3,000th hit and Paul Molitor is the only player to hit a triple for his 3,000th; Biggio and Jeter are the only players to join the club in a game where they had five hits. It was on this date in 1914 that Cleveland's Napoleon Lajoie doubles against the Yankees for his 3000th hit to become the second modern ML’er to reach the milestone…Honus Wagner achieving the mark earlier in the same season.

It was on this date in 1936 that Walter Alston played in his only Major League game, as a late-inning substitute at first base for Johnny Mize of the St. Louis Cardinals. He made one error in two chances and struck out his only time at bat.

It was on this date in 1923 that Lou Gehrig hit his first homer in the Majors, off Bill Piercy of the Boston Red Sox. On the same date 15 years later, he hit his 493rd and last off Dutch Leonard of the Senators.

It was on this date in 1919 that Babe Ruth played his last game as a member of the Boston Red Sox. In fact it was a doubleheader in Washington and Allen Russell started and lost both games for the Red Sox but Ruth’s 29th HR is his first of the year in Washington he is the first player to hit a HR in every park in the League in one season.

Happy Birthday to Mike Schmidt who turns 64 today having been born on this date in 1949

 

[67RedSox]

Two David Wrights have played in the Majors. The current version who plays for the Mets when not injured was preceded by over 100 years by a NL pitcher…Dave Wright. On this date in 1897 he made his only start in the Big Leagues. Perhaps that was because over the 7 innings he pitched he gave up 17 basehits and 14 runs. But, he won the game… Wright of the Chicago Colts (Cubs) wins his first and only major league game. The 21-year old Dennison, Ohio native is the beneficiary of Chicago’s 11-run fifth inning when the club beats the Pirates, 15-14. His 1 start in the Majors is a 7 inning complete game. He retires with an ERA of 18.00 but a perfect record of 1-0.

On this date in 1920 eight White Sox players are indicted by the grand jury on charges of fixing the 1919 World Series against the Reds. The eight members involved in the 'Black Sox Scandal' will be cleared of the charges by the court, but on the same day, they will be banned for life from baseball by Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's first Commissioner.

On this date in 1924 Zack Wheat of the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) hits .375 yet finishes a whopping 49 points behind Rogers Hornsby for the Batting Crown…Hornsby only hit .424 that year. I guess Todd Helton can relate to how Wheat must have felt. In 2000 and 2001 he puts up great numbers in all offensive categories except base stealing yet he’s virtually ignored in the MVP voting.

On this date in 1930 it’s the final game of the season for the NY Yankees and they’re playing the Red Sox in Boston. It’s been 9 years since he last pitched in the Majors so you think he’d be a bit rusty. Not so. Babe Ruth is the starting pitcher and pitches a complete game victory as the Yankees defeat the Red Sox 9-3.

Pretend you are Ted Williams. On this date in 1941 you are batting .399955 going into the final day of the season. You are playing a doubleheader and if you want you can sit and claim a .400 BA for the season. Do you elect to sit or play? Ted Williams elects to play in that doubleheader against the A's rather than to back into the coveted .400 average because the number is rounded up. The 'Splendor Splinter' comes through by going 6-for-8 in the twin bill to finish the season with a .4057 mark (.406).

Dixie “The People’s Cherce” Walker won a Batting Crown for the Dodgers when he hit .357 for the Dodgers in 1944. He was a perennial .300 hitter in the Majors. His younger brother Harry “The Hat” Walker played for the Cardinals and every off-season when they went home to Birmingham I’m betting Harry had to put up with some good-hearted ribbing from his older brother so on this date in 1947 he does something about it by winning the NL Batting Crown with an BA of .363 playing for the Phillies (the Cardinals traded him to the Phillies on May 3rd…wonder if they regretted doing that)

There seems something right about the World Series being played in late September/early October and on this date in 1955 the Yankees win Game 1 of the World Series as Whitey Ford beats Don Newcombe‚ 6-5. In 2013 the first game of the World Series is not played until October 23rd, about the same time we’re all dusting off our copy of (hope you have it) the Drifters version of White Christmas in time for the Holidays…yikes!

It was on this date in 1957 that by going 7-for-11 to end the season, Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams becomes the first 40-year old to lead the League in hitting and wins his sixth and final Batting Crown. The 'Splendid Splinter's' .328 batting average beats out his teammate Pete Runnels, who goes 0-for-4 and ends up the campaign with a .322 mark. Runnels and Williams hit in the 2 and 3 spots in the Boston line-up. Not to feel too bad for Runnels as he’ll win the AL Batting Crown in both 1960 and 1962.

Something happened in MLB on this date in 1962 that had never happened before…in front of only 595 fans at Wrigley Field, the Cubs (58-101) beat the Mets (39-118) in the first meeting between two 100-loss teams.

In 1966 Larry Jaster was a rookie pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1966 the Los Angeles Dodgers were the best team in the NL winning 95 games. Unfortunately, Larry Jaster had to make 5 starts against the Dodgers that year. What a welcome to the Major Leagues. On this date in 1966 he faced future HOF’er Don Sutton. Jaster did O.K. though as he threw complete game Shutout and beat Sutton 2-0. He also through Shutouts in his other 4 starts against the Dodgers beating another HOF’er, Don Drysdale twice and Claude Osteen twice, a pretty good pitcher in his own right. So 5 starts, 5 Shutouts against the best team in the League…not too shabby. Those 5 Shutouts were enough to lead the NL for the year.

On this date in 1993, after 3 unsuccessful attempts‚ Dennis Martinez of the Expos picks up his 100th NL victory‚ defeating the Marlins‚ 3-2. He becomes the 7th pitcher in history to win 100 games in each League‚ joining Cy Young‚ Nolan Ryan‚ Gaylord Perry‚ Ferguson Jenkins‚ Jim Bunning. and Al Orth.
On this date in 1995 Greg Harris becomes the first post-1900 Major Leaguer to pitch ambidextrously. The Expos reliever, in his ninth inning appearance blanks the Reds facing four batters, two as a right-hander, his natural side, and the other two as a southpaw.

On this date in 1997 Tony Gwynn does something pretty special, he equals Honus Wagner's record by winning his eighth National League Batting Crown when he finishes the season with a .372 batting average. The Padres outfielder becomes the first player to win four consecutive NL Batting Crowns since Rogers Hornsby accomplished the feat with the Cardinals, winning six straight titles between 1920 and 1925.

It was on this date in 1998 that the Rockies give the boot to Don Baylor, the only Manager they had had up to that point in time. The horror of that is that he was replaced by Jim Leyland who was a shameful disaster.

 

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On this date in 1996 the Rockies beat the Giants‚ 12-3‚ as Andres Galarraga has 3 hits‚ 3 runs and 3 RBIs. He finishes the season with 150 RBIs, the first to reach that mark since Tommy Davis in 1962‚ and his 47 homers leads the NL. Dante Bichette collects his 141st RBI giving the Rockies two players with 140+ RBIs, the first time 2 teammates have topped the mark since the Red Sox of 1950. Vinnie Castilla hits his 40th HR‚ joining Ellis Burks and Galarraga as the 2nd team (Braves - Davey Johnson (43), Darrell Evans (41), and Hank Aaron (40) ) to have 3 teammates reach that mark. The Rockies are the first team to score 900 runs since the 1953 Dodgers.

Well if you happened to be at Griffith Stadium on this date in 1934 you would have caught the 659th and last HR that Babe Ruth hit with the Yankees. The HR comes off rookie Syd Cohen‚ who wins his 1st ML game. Cohen’s ML pitching experience wasn’t a long one. He pitched in 55 games over 3 seasons and pitched his last game in the Majors on September 9, 1937 ending up with a record of 3-7. His older brother, Andy played for three years with the NY Giants in the late 1920’s. The Cohens were from EL Paso, Texas and in 1990 the City honoured them by naming the 9,725 seat baseball stadium after them. Not bad for a couple of journeymen baseball players.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=cohe...ity-considering-cohen-stadiums-future;600;401

On this date in 1943 Vern Stephens becomes the first player to hit two extra-inning home runs in the same game. The Browns shortstop puts St. Louis ahead with a solo shot in the 11th, and after the Red Sox tie the score in the bottom of the frame he goes deep again in the 13th with the eventual winning run in the team's 4-3 victory at Fenway Park. The Red Sox covet Stephens to play in Fenway Park and he will eventually play and star for them in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. In his first 3 seasons with the Red Sox Stephens will drive in 440 Runs or an average of 147 a season leading the AL in both 1949 and 1950 with 159 and 144. In 1949 Stephens slugged a career-high 39 home runs, a record for shortstops later broken by Ernie Banks, and drove in a 159 runs, a total not surpassed in the major leagues for 50 years. The 1940s witnessed a special group of ML shortstops, including the likes of Lou Boudreau, Phil Rizzuto, Marty Marion, Pee Wee Reese and Johnny Pesky. During his own career, Vern "Junior" Stephens was considered to be as good or better than any of his illustrious peers, yet within a few years after his retirement, he had been largely forgotten.

On this date in 1951 Don Newcombe becomes the first black pitcher to win 20 games in a season. "The Black Aces" — a group started by Jim "Mudcat" Grant and comprised only of African-American pitchers who have won 20 games in a season now stands at 15…with David Price being the most recent to join. In addition to Price and Newcombe the group includes Grant, C.C. Sabathia, Vida Blue, Al Downing, Bob Gibson, Ferguson Jenkins, Dwight Gooden, Sam Jones, Mike Norris, J.R. Richard, Dave Stewart, Earl Wilson and Dontrelle Willis.

Two things happened on this date in 1954, one which is remembered and one probably remembered only by those who were there to witness it. Everyone remembers Willie Mays’ spectacular over-the-shoulder grab of a ball hit to deep to center field, robbing Vic Wertz of an extra hit in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. How many remember Dusty Rhodes hitting a 260', 3-run walk-off pinch-hit HR in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Giants a 5-2 win. Rhodes was 4 for 6 in the Series with 2 HRs and 7 RBIs. Highlights of the entire Game 1 follow:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayrzg8RFHe4]1954 World Series Game 1: Indians vs Giants - YouTube[/ame]

On this date in 1957, with 1895 manager Jack Doyle among the 11,606 looking on, the Giants lose their last game at the Polo Grounds 9-1. Bucs rookie John Powers hits a home run in the top of the ninth, the last homer and RBI at the Polo Grounds. This game is played on the 77th anniversary of the first Polo Grounds baseball game.

On this date in 1959 the Dodgers win Game Two of the playoff, 6-5, and take the National League pennant. Los Angeles overcomes a 5-2, ninth-inning deficit to tie the game they win it in the 12th inning when Gil Hodges scores from second on Felix Mantilla's off-balance heave past first base after a difficult chance on Carl Furillo's grounder. The Dodger win denies the Braves of going to the WS for the third year in a row.

On this date in 1963, 50 years ago today, Stan Musial plays his last game in the Majors and helps the Cardinals beat the Reds, 3-2 at Busch Stadium getting two hits in his final three at-bats. The 'Man' will retire with 3,630 hits, during his 22-year tenure with the Redbirds, collecting 1,815 in St. Louis, and the other 1,815 on the road. Five years later on this date in 1968 another Cardinal, Roger Maris, plays his final ML game and is honoured in a pre-game ceremony…something the Yankees never did for him. Maris died 28 years ago while Musial died only earlier this year at the age of 92.

1968 was considered the Year of the Pitcher and rightly so. It was on this date in 1968 that Carl Yastrzemski maintains a .3005 batting average to win his second straight Batting Crown (3rd overall ) with the lowest championship average ever. Yaz is the American League's only .300 hitter; Oakland's Danny Cater is second with .290.

It was on this date in 1976 that Walter Alston steps down as Dodger Manager to be replaced by Tommy Lasorda.

On this date in 1986 Mike and Greg Maddux become the first rookie siblings to start a game against one another. In the rookie match-up, Cubs' righty Greg beats his older brother and the Phillies in the 'City of Brotherly Love', 6-3.

Ouch, ouch and ouch. On this date in 2001… on three consecutive pitches, Astros' starter Dave Mlicki gives up homers to Fred McGriff, Rondell White and Todd Hundley. The back-to-back-to-back homers enable the Cubs to beat Houston, 6-2.

 

[67RedSox]

With 13 victories in the last 14 games of the season, the Rockies beat the Diamondbacks on this date in 2007 to force a one-game play-off with the Padres to determine the National League wild card team. San Diego loses to the Brewers as they did the day before after being one strike away from clinching a post-season berth. The two teams finish the season with the same record, 89-73.

It was on this date in 2001 with a 3rd inning double against Milwaukee, Todd Helton becomes the first player in ML history to have consecutive 100 extra-base hits seasons. Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Chuck Klein also had two 100 extra-base hits seasons, but did not accomplish the feat in successive years.

It was on this date in 1927 that Babe Ruth smacked his 60th HR of the season to break his own record. His 60 HRs were more than every AL team’s total other than the Yankees from Cleveland who banged out 26 HRs led by Johnny Hodapp with 5 to the Philadelphia Athletics who hit 56 led by Al Simmons who had 15.

Ralph Branca, the Brooklyn Dodgers right-hander, was involved in two of the biggest moments in baseball history, which were also prominent moments in the fabric of American culture. One was the integration of baseball by Jackie Robinson in 1947 (on Opening Day 1947, which was also Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut, Branca lined up on the field beside Robinson, while other players refused), and the other was as the man who threw the pitch hit for a home run by Bobby Thomson that won the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants. In 1947 the twenty-one-year-old Branca became the second youngest National Leaguer to win twenty games and on this date in 1947 he becomes the youngest player to start a World Series opener at 21-years and 9 months. The game is on a pretty big stage…Yankee Stadium and the Yankees defeat the Dodgers 5-1. It has been almost 60 years since he last pitched in the Majors but Branca is alive and well at 87.

The AL Washington Senators came in two versions. The first version played in the AL from the inception of the AL in 1901 until 1960 when they packed their bags and moved to the greener pastures of Minnesota to become the Twins. There was such furor in Washington that the Nation’s capital would not be represented by a ML baseball team that a number of politicians threatened a review of the anti-trust laws. Baseball responded by granting Washington an expansion team (along with the Angels ) for the start of the 1961 season. The new version of the Senators didn’t last long. In 1971 they packed their bags and moved to greener pastures in Texas to become the Rangers. It was on this date in 1971 that the second version of the Washington Senators played their last game. Don Mincher played in that game and holds the distinction of being the only player to be on that team as well as being on the first version of the team that left town in 1960.

Speaking of last games…it was on this date in 1966 that Roger Maris played his last game as a NY Yankee. In his last at-bat he clubs a 2-run HR in the 9th inning at Comiskey Park in Chicago. It was on this date in 1972 that Roberto Clemente starts his final game for the Pirates and becomes only the 11th player to collect 3,000 basehits…a double off of Jon Matlack of the NY Mets. It was on this date in 1979 that Ed Kranepool, in his final ML at-bat, pinch hits a double off Bob Forsch in New York’s 4-2 win over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The 35-year old veteran, who broke in with the Mets as a 17-year old in 1962, is the last of the ‘original’ Mets to play to the Majors. It was on this date in 1990 that Frank White played his last ML game in which he and fellow infielder George Brett establish a new mark when they appear their 1,914th game together, the most by any American League teammates. It was also on this date in 1990 that the final game is played at old Comiskey Park with the White Sox edging the Mariners, 2-1. It opened in 1910 and when it closed it was the oldest ballpark in use in the Majors. On this date in 1999 the largest regular-season crowd in Candlestick Park history, 61,389 fans, watches the Dodgers beat the home team, 9-4 in the last baseball game to ever be played at the 'Point'. Giant greats help mark the occasion with Juan Marichal tossing out the ceremonial first pitch before the game and Willie Mays throwing out the ballpark's final pitch after the game.

Do you remember who led the NL in Wins in 1979. If you said Phil Niekro you’d be correct. If you said Joe Niekro you’d be correct as well. It was on this date in 1979 that the Niekro brothers each win their 21st game and tie for the NL lead in wins. Phil wins for the Braves‚ 7-2‚ over the Reds‚ while Houston's Joe tops the Dodgers‚ 3-2. Phil Niekro (21-20) is the only pitcher in the 20th century to lead the League in Wins and Losses the same season.

On this date in 1984 the NY Yankees play their final game of the season. Don Mattingly who hits 3rd in the Yankee line-up and teammate Dave Winfield, who bats 4th, are both vying for the AL Batting Crown. Winfield has the edge .341 to .339. Mattingly goes 4 for 5 while Winfield goes 1 for 4. Mattingly wins his only batting title with a mark of .343 to Winfield’s .340.

It was on this date in 1992 that George Brett becomes the 18th member of the 3,000 hit club when he singles off the Angels Tim Fortugno…then promptly gets picked off.

It was on this date in 1998 that Dan Quisenberry dies of brain cancer at the age of 45.

September 30 is the birthday for 51 current and former MLB players including Seth Smith who once plied his trade for the Rockies, Johnny Podres who went 4-1 with an ERA of 2.11 in 4 World Series with the Dodgers, Robin Roberts whose 28 Wins in 1952 is the most in the NL since 1935 and to one of my favourite names in MLB history, Gabby Street. Street was a Catcher in the Dead Ball Era, managed the Cardinals in the 1930’s and took them to two World Series and was a broadcaster for them after WWII. He holds the record for the longest gap between Major League games - 19 years (1912–1931).

 

[Villain]

Vin Scully video tribute to Todd Helton - True Blue LA

 

[67RedSox]

Villain, thanks for posting Scully's tribute...I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

 

[Villain]

 

[67RedSox]

On this date in 1995, by beating the Giants,10-9, the Rockies win the first wild card in the National League and becoming the first team to make the post-season before their seventh year in existence. Colorado posts the best ever record for a third-year team finishing ten games over .500 (77-67, .535).

It was on this date in 2007 the NL play-off game ends abruptly in the bottom of the 13th inning at Coors Field as Matt Holliday of the Rockies scores on a bang-bang play at home on a shallow Jamey Carroll sac fly, the third and winning run given up in Trevor Hoffman's blown save. Having won 14 of their last 15 games, the 9-8 comeback victory over the Padres, who were one strike away from clinching a post-season berth two games ago, makes Colorado the improbable NL wild card.

It was on this date in 2009 the Rockies defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-2 and assures them of a wild card berth in the post-season. The Rockies will lose the League Division Series to the Phillies, 3-1 after the Phillies win the last two games in the 9th inning at Coors Field. Despite that the Rockies establish a team record with a 92 Win season.

Well, I associate October with the World Series and although we are still more than three weeks away from the Big Show this year it was on this day in 1903 that the very first World Series game was played. It was the NL’s Pittsburgh Pirates facing off against the upstart American Leaguers, in their first year of existence, represented by the Boston Americans…it wouldn’t be until Year 8 (1908) that they would adopt the nickname of the Red Sox. The Americans played at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in the pre-Fenway days and the Pirates at Exposition Park in the pre-Forbes Field days. It was a Best of 9 affair and Game 1 was played at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston in front of 16,242. The Pirates take Game 1 by a score of 7-3 and take 3 of the first 4 games but the Bostonians would the last 4 games to take the Series. The Americans were heavy underdogs in some corners going into the Series but the Pirates went into the Series riddled with injuries and plagued by bizarre misfortunes. Otto Krueger, the team's only utility player, was beaned on September 19 and never fully played in the series. 16-game winner Ed Doheny left the team three days later, exhibiting signs of paranoia; he was committed to an insane asylum the following month. Sam Leever, their best pitcher and 25 game Winner had been battling an injury to his pitching arm which he made worse by entering a trapshooting competition and worst of all, Honus Wagner, who had a sore thumb throughout the season, injured his right leg in September and was never 100 percent in the Series. The Series brought the new American League prestige and proved its best could beat the best of the National League, thus strengthening the demand for future World Series competitions. Below are photos of the overflow crowd at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds prior to Game 3 of the 1903 World Series and then a shot of Exposition Park in Pittsburgh built so close to the Allegheny River that when the river flooded so did the ballpark:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=hunt...ipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F1903_World_Series;648;428

https://www.google.ca/search?q=expo...digs.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F46837212474;1280;537

It was on this date in 1932 in Wrigley Field that Babe Ruth “called” his home run against Chicago's Charlie Root in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the World Series. Coincidently, the player who would become the next great Yankee outfielder was making his professional debut on the same day 1,852 miles to the West in San Francisco. Eighteen-year old Joe DiMaggio makes his professional debut at the end of the San Francisco Seals campaign playing shortstop for the team. Next year, the future Yankee superstar will hit .340 with 169 RBI’s and 28 home runs in his first full season in the Pacific Coast League.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=babe...w-york-yankees-in-the-fifth-inni.html;275;235

On this date in 1961 Roger Maris hit his 61st home run against Tracy Stallard of the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The homer eclipsed Babe Ruth's 34-year-old single-season home run record. The Yankees won, 1-0.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hSNO_PhSnI]Roger Maris 1961 - 61st Home Run as Called by Red Barber, WPIX-TV, 10/1/1961 - YouTube[/ame]

After they both retire today, Burt Shotton of the Dodgers and the A's Connie Mack will become the last Managers to wear street clothes. Although no edict that specifically mandates a skipper must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that a person not wearing a uniform, except medical personnel, isn't allowed on the field of play during a game. Below Mack is on the left and Shotten on the right. Shotten almost always in addition to wearing street clothes almost always added his team's cap and jacket:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=burt...2Fespn%2Fpage2%2Findex%3Fid%3D5114247;905;568


It was on this date in 1955 that Bill Virdon of the Cardinals was selected as the NL Rookie of the Year. He must have been good because he beat out his teammate, 3B Ken Boyer, for the honour. However, for some reason, the Cardinals traded him to the Pirates early the next season and Virdon played the rest of his career there including their Championship year in 1960. Virdon scored a run and drove in 2 more in the decisive Game 7 won by Mazeroski’s 9th inning HR. Virdon played 12 seasons and managed for 13 more in the Majors. In 1980 he was the NL Manager of the Year with the Astros. He was the Manager of the NY Yankees in 1974 and 1975 yet never managed a single game in Yankee Stadium…the reason was because Yankee Stadium was undergoing major renovations and for those two seasons the Yankees played out of Shea Stadium.

It was on this date in 1961 that Roger Maris eclipse Babe Ruth single season HR record by hitting his 61st off Tracy Stallard of the Red Sox in the final game of the season in front of 23,154 fans at Yankee Stadium. On the same day Wrigley Field, West after providing a venue for the PCL's Angels from 1925 through 1957 and the 1st year home of the ML expansion team of the same name will host its last professional baseball game. The Halos are defeated by the Cleveland Indians 8-5 in front of 9,868 fans at the 36-year old ballpark.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hSNO_PhSnI]Roger Maris 1961 - 61st Home Run as Called by Red Barber, WPIX-TV, 10/1/1961 - YouTube[/ame]

https://www.google.ca/search?q=wrig...F04%2Fwrigley-field-overflow-crowd%2F;970;453

In April of this season the Red Sox streak of sell-outs ended at 820 games. The average cost of a ticket in Boston this year was $53.00 and for a family of 4 to go to a game it would set you back $337.00. Makes one wonder just who goes to a ballgame in Boston on a regular basis any more. The other side of the spectrum occurred on this date in 1964 when the smallest reported crowd ever to attend a game at Fenway Park watches the Red Sox, en route to their sixth consecutive losing season, beat Cleveland, 4-2, to snap a six-game slide. The crowd of 306 paid patrons is less than half of the previous low at the Boston ballpark when only 674 fans showed up for a game against Kansas City in 1963. The 5 game homestand to close out the season drew a total of 7,300 including 934 for a doubleheader.
In Colorado the average cost of a ticket/family of 4 is $24.00 / $ 197.00

It was on this date in 2006 that Joe Mauer becomes the first Catcher to lead the Majors in hitting when he wins the AL Batting Crown with a mark of .347 which tops Freddie Sanchez’ NL mark of .344. Also, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays close out their dreadful 101 Loss season but become the first ML team to lose 100 games and have a winning season at Home (41-40). Their road record a woeful, 20-61.

Rod Carew was born on this date in 1945 on a train in the Panama Canal Zone. A physician traveling on the train, Dr. Rodney Cline, delivered the baby. In appreciation for this, Carew’s mother named him Rodney Cline Carew.

 

[67RedSox]

Since the advent of play-off games in the post-season I consider most post-season records meaningless other than World Series records which are gold. The one game wildcard games like the Pirates and Reds last night are ridiculous although I’m sure Russell Martin, Francisco Liriano and the Pirates would disagree with that after their first post-season anything since 1992. What Baseball used to have that I miss is the three game play-off to determine the Pennant winner in the event teams were tied at the end of the regular season. To me they were priceless, just a notch below the World Series for excitement. The last and only one I remember was the three game play-off to decide the NL Pennant in 1962. I admit it was 50+ years ago, that geographically I’m 2,965 miles from Los Angeles and 3,045 miles from San Francisco so I have zero first-hand knowledge of the Series other than what I read about it because although TV was around it was rare to see a game televised other than for NBC’s Game of the Week on Saturday or the World Series and that I was just a kid more than a couple of years away from even being a teenager. All of that means I may not have a clue as to what I’m talking about but to me I was just discovering the game of Baseball and all of the wonders of it and that play-off was certainly one of those early Baseball occurrences that was decisive in my becoming a fan for life so it was important however I remember it.

The Dodgers and Giants whether they like it or not have been joined at the hip since 1890 in the City of New York until 1957 and ever since in California. It would be tough to name a fiercer rivalry. For its first six decades, the NL decided its champion on the basis of regular-season record. Not once in that time had extra games been needed to decide the title. But the League’s brain trust recognized that a flat-footed tie was theoretically possible, and thus amended the NL constitution to provide for a “series of games” to be played in the event of a tie. In 1946, that tie finally happened when the Cardinals and Dodgers finished the season deadlocked. A best-of-3 series was called for by National League President and future Hall of Famer Ford Frick, and St. Louis defeated Brooklyn in two games to advance to the World Series. Just two years later, the American League faced a similar quandary when Boston and Cleveland finished the 154-game season in a tie. But the AL by-laws called for only a one-game play-off, which was won by the Indians. The NL, however, continued under the three-game play-off rules. The Giants defeated the Dodgers 2-games-to-1 in the unforgettable 1951 play-off, then the Dodgers defeated the Braves 2-0 in the league’s third play-off series in 1959. By 1962, the NL had expanded to 10 teams and played a 162-game schedule. But the three-game play-off rule was still in force, and the Giants and Dodgers fought to a 101-61 tie through six months of brilliant baseball.

Aided by the expansion Houston Colt .45s and New York Mets - the latter a team that would set a 20th Century record for futility - and the Cubs, who somehow ended up being worse than the Colts, there were plenty of wins to be had in the National League in 1962. The wins were so plentiful that the defending league champion Reds, who won 98 games, were mere spectators in one of the most famous pennant races of all time. Just like in 1951, the Dodgers spent most of the summer in first place. In 1962, though, the gap was much smaller, with the Giants staying around a handful of games off the pace. Nine years earlier, it had been an incredible hot streak that pushed the Giants into first place. This time, it was a Dodgers collapse.

On September 22, the Dodgers had a record of 100-55 and had a four-game lead on San Francisco. From there, the Dodgers closed the season on a 1-6 slide, including getting shut out against St. Louis in the final two games of the season. The Giants, meanwhile, closed on a 5-2 run, getting an eighth inning home run from Willie Mays in the final game of the season to draw into a dead heat with the Dodgers.
The Dodgers won a coin flip and with it the right to choose to host Games 2 and 3 if necessary, so Game 1 would be played at Candlestick Park. Game 1 featured Sandy Koufax going against the Giants' Billy Pierce. Koufax had been good in 1962, but he was still a year away from being the unhittable pitcher everybody remembered and he had battled circulatory ailments in his pitching fingers all season. He allowed three runs on home runs by Mays and Jim Davenport before being lifted from the game in the second inning. It was all the runs Pierce would need en route to a three-hit shutout and an 8-0 win.

Game 2 was played the very next day in Los Angeles, but a heavy layer of smog limited the crowd at brand-new Dodger Stadium to 25,321. Amidst the watery eyes and blurred vision, the Dodgers – who had been shut out the three previous games finally erupted. The Giants took an early lead in Game 2 and seemed well on their way to the National League pennant when they took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth. But the Dodgers ended their 26 inning scoreless streak in a big way, plating seven runs to take a 7-5 lead. The Giants tied the game in the eighth, only to see the Dodgers win in the bottom of the ninth when Maury Wills scampered home on Ron Fairly’s sacrifice fly. I can clearly remember the headline and write up in the sports section of the newspaper of that game. I had it in a baseball scrapbook that, alas, was tossed out in a house move a few years later. At the time, the four-hour, 38-minute contest was the longest nine-inning game in big league history. For Wills, it was another electric moment during a season in which he stole a record 104 bases and won the NL Most Valuable Player Award. Wills appeared in 165 games that season (all 162 in the regular season and three in the playoff), setting a record that still stands and might never be broken. The first two games having decided nothing, the 1962 season ended up the way most people thought it was destined to: in a Giants vs. Dodgers, winner-take-all matchup.

In the decisive Game 3 the Giants took a 2-0 lead in the third inning but with 1 in the fourth, 2 in the sixth and 1 in the seventh the Dodgers took a 4-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning. It would be a painful inning for the Dodgers…After a leadoff single, Harvey Kuenn hit a lazy double-play ball to short, but the Dodgers only got one out. Then came two straight walks to load the bases. Of course Willie Mays was up next. The inning was already painful enough, and a run hadn't even scored yet. Mays hit a rocket right up the middle, and here's where fate played a cruel trick on the Dodgers. Pitcher Ed Roebuck could have caught the ball for an out, maybe even fired to a base to get the game-ending double play. Or it could have deflected off his glove to a waiting infielder, who could have found somewhere to get an out. Or the ball could have missed Roebuck entirely, only to be scooped up by a middle infielder for a double play. But of course, none of those things happened. The ball ricocheted off Roebuck allowing a run to score and keeping the bases loaded. Out came Roebuck, in came Stan Williams. He did a good job, getting Orlando Cepeda to hit a lazy flyball for an easy out but with only one out it became a game-tying sacrifice fly. About here is where the inning moved into "when will it end" territory for the Dodgers. Mays hadn't moved up to second on the sacrifice fly, but a wild pitch helped put him there. Ugh. With first base open, the Dodgers then walked Ed Bailey to reload the bases and set up the double play ... only Williams then walked Jim Davenport to force in the go-ahead run. Double ugh. Enter Ron Perranoski, who did a good job by getting a grounder ... only that grounder was manhandled by second baseman Larry Burright for an error, allowing yet another run to come home. Triple ugh. The pennant race was over, then. The Giants brought in Pierce, who had been brilliant in Game 1, to close the door, and he put the Dodgers down in order to send the Giants to their first World Series on the West Coast.


Although Sandy Koufax faltered in the first game of the ’62 play-off he had his A-Game going on this date in 1963 when he fans the first 5 batters he faces and becomes the first pitcher to fan 15 in a World Series game. Johnny Roseboro's three-run home run is the difference as Los Angeles beats the Yankees 5-2 at New York. Exactly five years later, on this date in 1968 Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals tops Koufax’s mark striking out 17 Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the World Series.

 

[67RedSox]

On this date in 1993 the Rockies conclude their initial ML season and become the fourth National League team, the only one in the 20th century not to record a shutout during the season. The other clubs to achieve this dubious distinction include the 1898 Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 1898 St. Louis Browns, 1898 Washington Senators, and the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. In 1994 the Rockies would record 1 shutout thanks to the combined efforts of David Nied, Bruce Ruffin and Darren Holmes.

On this date in 1897 HOF’er Cap Anson, Baseball’s first superstar, closed out a remarkable 27-year career that started in the National Association in 1871. He hit two home runs against St. Louis. At 46, he was the oldest player to homer in the Majors. He retired with 3,435 basehits the most by a longshot at the time but since surpassed by Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and Tris Speaker.

It was on this date in 1924 at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl, the Kansas City Monarchs of the ***** National League beat the Eastern Colored League’s Hilldale Giants (PA), 6-2, in the opening game of the first Colored World Series. The ten-game event, in which KC will capture the crown winning 5 games to 4 with one tie, features games played in Chicago, Kansas City, and Baltimore. The World Series was a best-of-nine match-up between the ***** National League champion Kansas City Monarchs and the Eastern Colored League champion Hilldale. In a ten-game series, the Monarchs narrowly defeated Hilldale 5 games to 4, with one tie game. It was the first World Series between the respective champions of the NNL and ECL. It was the second year of existence for the ECL, but no agreement could be reached in 1923 for a post-season series, owing primarily to unresolved disputes between the leagues. Five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame participated in the series: Biz Mackey, Judy Johnson, and Louis Santop played for Hilldale, while Bullet Rogan and José Méndez played for the Monarchs. In addition, Monarchs owner J.L. Wilkinson was also inducted into the Hall.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1924...%2Fwiki%2F1924_Colored_World_Series;8771;1632

On this date in 1947 Bill Bevens, in his last ML start, comes within one out from pitching the first no-hitter in World Series history despite giving up a Series record ten walks.. The Yankee hurler loses his claim to fame and the game when Cookie Lavagetto, pinch-hitting for Eddie Stanky, hits a two-out ninth-inning double giving the Dodgers a 3-2 improbable victory.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=bill...pnr%2Fbaseball%2Fbevans%2Fbevans.htm;1097;587

One of the most famous of all HRs was hit on this date in 1951…In Game 3 of National League play-off series at the Polo Grounds, Bobby Thomson's shot heard around the world beats the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth and… the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrI7dVj90zs]The Shot Heard 'Round The World - YouTube[/ame]

Victor Pellot a.k.a. "Vic Power" was the second Puerto Rican of African descent to play in Major League Baseball and the first Puerto Rican to play in the American League and one of the finest fielding First basemen of our time winning 7 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1958-1964 . He used the name Vic Power during his 12-year Major League career, but played as Victor Pellot when he played winter baseball in Puerto Rico. He’s considered by many Puerto Ricans to be one of the island's greatest baseball players, a legend only surpassed by Roberto Clemente. In 2000, the Cleveland Indians honored him by declaring him to be among its 100 all-time greatest players. Pellot's unorthodox and often flashy approach to fielding 1B proved over the years to be very influential. Although at the time he was often criticized by the press and his peers for fielding the ball using only one hand instead of two, stating it was "flamboyance", this would later become his trademark move. More importantly, it anticipated a change in how the position is played: nowadays, virtually all first basemen field the ball one-handed (this because it increases their reach and provides for greater flexibility). On this date in 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium, the Angels first baseman ends his 12-year ML career going 1-for-5 with a RBI single in a 5-2 loss to the Twins. The .284 career hitter will have the distinction of being the last active player to have worn a Philadelphia A's uniform (1954).

https://www.google.ca/search?q=vic+....com%2F2008%2F11%2F442-vic-power.html;420;296

It was on this date in 1972 Roberto Clemente plays game # 2,433 for the Pirates tying him with Honus Wagner for the most games played in a Pirate uniform, a record that remains intact today. It was the final game of the season and in less than three months he would die in a plane crash. When Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, was affected by a massive earthquake on Saturday December 23, 1972, Clemente, who had visited Managua three weeks before the quake immediately set to work arranging emergency relief flights. He soon learned, however, that the aid packages on the first three flights had been diverted by corrupt officials of the Somoza government, never reaching victims of the quake. Clemente decided to accompany the fourth relief flight, hoping that his presence would ensure that the aid would be delivered to the survivors. The airplane he chartered for a New Year's Eve flight, a Douglas DC-7, had a history of mechanical problems and sub-par flight personnel, and it was overloaded by 4,200 pounds. It crashed into the ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on Sunday December 31, 1972. A few days after the crash, the body of the pilot and part of the fuselage of the plane were found. An empty flight case apparently belonging to Clemente was the only personal item recovered from the plane. Clemente's teammate and close friend Manny Sanguillén was the only member of the Pirates not to attend Roberto's memorial service. The Pirates catcher chose instead to dive into the waters where Clemente's plane had crashed in an effort to find his teammate. Clemente's body was never recovered. Tom Walker helped Clemente load the plane, but either because of the plane's weight load or because he wanted Walker, who was single, to go enjoy New Year's, Clemente told him not to join him on the flight. Walker's son is Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman, Neil Walker.

It was on this date in 1974 Frank Robinson becomes the first black manager in the major leagues, as the Indians name him to replace Ken Aspromonte for the 1975 season.

It was on this date in 1976 Hank Aaron singles in his last ML at-bat for hit # 3,771 and drives in his 2,297th run as the sixth-place Brewers lose to the Tigers, 5-2.

On this date in 1990 George Brett becomes the first player to win a Batting Crown in three different decades. Brett went 1-for-1 in Kansas City's 5-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians to win the American League title with a .329 average to go with his 1976 and 1980 Crowns.

On this date in 1993 The Toronto Blue Jays became the first team in American League history to have teammates finish 1-2-3 in the batting race. John Olerud led the league with a .363 batting average. Paul Molitor finished at .332 and Roberto Alomar closed the year at .326.

 

[67RedSox]

I still love to listen to a ballgame on the radio so I’ll mention this…it was on this date in 1922 that for the first time, the entire World Series will be broadcast over the radio. Writer Grantland Rice does the announcing of the Giants-Yankees Series for station WJZ, Newark, whose signal is relayed to WGY in Schenectady.

As it should be…it was on this date in 1924 at Griffith Stadium, Calvin Coolidge becomes the first U.S. President to attend a World Series opener. The Giants edge the hometown Senators in 12 innings, 4-3. I think the President should be required to throw out the ‘first pitch’ on every Opening Day and at every World Series. A simple amendment to the Constitution would be all that it takes.
At 18 years, 10 months and 13 days HOF’er Freddie Lindstrom played in that World Series. In doing so he became the youngest player ever to appear in a World Series, a distinction he still holds. He lead off and played 3B for the Giants collecting 7 hits in back-to-back games including 4 hits off Walter Johnson, who many considered the greatest pitcher in the Game at the time, and 10 overall in the Series. The Series wasn’t all good for the 18 year old. It was in Game 7 that Lindy gained his infamy. With the best-of-seven series tied three games apiece, this was the game for the world championship. In the eighth inning the Giants were leading 3-1. Then the Senators loaded the bases with two outs. Washington’s playing manager Bucky Harris slammed a sharp grounder toward third base. Just as Freddie was about to field it, the ball took a wicked hop right over his head and two runs scored to tie the game.
He was known as the “boy wonder” of the Major Leagues. His rise to fame was meteoric, and like a meteor his flame burned out quickly. For several years his star shined brightly in the National League. When his stardom faded, the afterglow was strong enough to secure the election of Freddie Lindstrom to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, despite the objections of his detractors.
Freddie, born in 1905 on Chicago’s South Side, grew up a White Sox fan and reportedly was devastated when his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson, was implicated in the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Lindstrom recovered quickly from the World Series disaster in 1924. In 1925 he had what Bill James called the second best season ever by a 19-year-old third baseman. He got even better over the next several years. From 1926 through 1931 Freddie hit .300 or better every single year. In 1928 he led the league with 231 hits and matched that total two years later to become only the second player in National League history to have two seasons with more than 230 hits. He came in second to Sunny Jim Bottomley in the voting for the NL Most Valuable Player Award in 1928. In 1930 Lindstrom became the first third baseman in the twentieth century to hit twenty home runs in a season. In that year he had a personal high with a .379 batting average. This is somewhat less impressive than it may seem, for 1930 was the year of probably the liveliest ball ever used in the Major Leagues. The batting average for the League as a whole, including pitchers, was .303. Lindstrom’s average was fifth best in the circuit, as Bill Terry became the last National Leaguer to hit .400 in a season. Although not generally regarded as an outstanding defensive third baseman, Lindstrom was more than adequate at that position.
When John McGraw retired as manager of the Giants in 1932, Lindstrom had played his entire Major League career in the shadow of Coogan’s Bluff. He thought he was Mac’s favorite player and that he should succeed the Old Man as skipper. When the position went to Bill Terry, Freddie was bitter. Worse, he was outspoken in his reaction. “It was the worst mistake I ever made,” Lindstrom told a reporter a quarter of a century later. “I know that now. The only trouble is you don’t get wise until you get old….If I could have just accepted that setback it’d have worked out in time. I’m sure I’d have managed some club. It was just a matter of waiting. But I fouled the whole thing up—forever.” After his tirade against the Giants for not giving him the managerial post, Lindstrom was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had a good year in 1933, hitting over .300 for the seventh and last time in his career. After the 1934 season he was traded again, this time to the Chicago Cubs, where he hoped to play out his career. But it was not to be. After an injury to his knee and an ineffective season at Wrigley Field, he was released by the Cubs in January 1936. A week later he was signed as a free agent by the Brooklyn Dodgers. After playing only a few games for the Dodgers, Lindstrom asked for and received his release. He played his last major league game on May 1, 1936 at the age of 30 and died on this date in 1981.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1924...game.com%2F1924-baseball-history.html;691;621

It was on this date in 1944 the first World Series played entirely west of the Mississippi River opens when the visiting St. Louis Browns defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1. Since both teams used the same ballpark, Sportsman’s Park, it’s dubbed the Streetcar Series. The Cards prevail in six games.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1944...bc-d6a8-11e1-a17f-0019bb30f31a.html;1024;1402

On this date in 1955 in Game 7 of the World Series the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the NY Yankees 2-0 behind a shutout from Johnny Podres to win their only World Series.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=1955...yn-dodgers-become-world-champions%2F;1162;947

WWII got in Hank Bauer’s way to the Major Leagues. He had graduated from High School and was playing Class D ball in Wisconsin. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Bauer enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. While serving in the Pacific Theater, Bauer contracted malaria on Guadalcanal, but he recovered from that well enough to earn 11 campaign ribbons, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts (for being wounded in action) in 32 months of combat. Bauer was wounded his second time during the Battle of Okinawa, when he was a lieutenant in command of a platoon of 64 Marines. Only six of the 64 Marines survived the Japanese counterattack, and Bauer was wounded by shrapnel in his thigh. His wounds were severe enough to send him all the way back to the United States to recuperate. He missed 4 seasons of playing ball and didn’t get to the Majors to stay until 1949 but boy was he rewarded for his wait. In his first 10 years in the Majors as the Yankees’ right-fielder he played in 9, yes 9 World Series and collected 7 Rings. He would collect an 8th Ring when he guided the Orioles to a World Series victory over the Dodgers. Despite the Orioles winning that Series in 4 straight and the Dodgers not scoring a run after the 2nd inning of Game 1 it was, in my opinion, a very good World Series. Perhaps Dodger fans won’t agree but I stand by my opinion. Back to Bauer…it was on this date in 1958 with his 3-for-4 performance in Game 3, Bauer establishes a ML record by collecting at least one hit in 17 consecutive World Series games.

On this date in 2001 the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox are playing out the string in a game at Camden Yards in a season that sees both teams playing under .500. However, for two players on the field it’s an incredibly important game and the almost 34,000 fans in the park get to see something that is extremely rare. The Orioles CF’er that day is Tim Raines and playing beside him in LF is Tim Raines Jr. They become the second father-son combination to play for the same team on the ML level. Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. both played for the Mariners in 1990.

To show just how ridiculous MLB has become and how dictatorial Television has become it was on this date in 2002 that the St. Louis Cardinals and Arizona Diamondbacks have to start a play-off game at 10:00 PM. Why?...because TV and Bud Selig do not want two games going on at the same time.

 

[Silas]

I could have done without the "shot heard round the world piece"! Lol

 

[67RedSox]

I could have done without the "shot heard round the world piece"! Lol

Funny how the Giants and Dodgers end up in those NL Pennant play-offs. Next time, I'll find a way to work in the 1959 play-off which most people forget about.