BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

1972 In his final appearance, 29-year-old right-hander Denny McLain, who will finish his ten-year career with a 131-92 record, loses when he gives up three runs in the ninth inning without retiring a batter in the Braves' 7-5 loss to Cincinnati at Atlanta Stadium. The last batter the one-time 30-game winner, rumored to have been involved with gambling and bookmaking, will face is Pete Rose, who will receive a lifetime ban from the game for wagering on the game.

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1974 Mike Schmidt hits an eighth-inning three-run bomb, his 36th home run and final one this season, off Jerry Reuss in Philadelphia's 6-4 comeback victory over the Pirates at Veterans Stadium. The 24-year-old third baseman becomes the first Phillies player to lead the league in home runs since Chuck Klein hit 28 round-trippers in 1933.

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1976 At age 53, Minnie Minoso becomes the oldest player to get a hit in a regular-season game as he singles in three at-bats as the designated hitter for the White Sox. Angels' southpaw Sid Monge gives up the historic safety.

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1979 Carl Yastrzemski, in a 9-2 Red Sox victory over the Yankees, collects his 3000th hit, an eighth-inning single off Jim Beattie at Fenway Park. After Captain Carl's milestone marker, the game pauses for a lengthy on-field celebration of the historic moment.

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1984 Mets right-hander Dwight Gooden breaks the season strikeout record for a rookie when he whiffs Marvell Wynne in the sixth inning of his 2-0 complete-game victory over the Pirates at Shea Stadium. By whiffing 16 Bucs, Doc's total of 251 is six more than Herb Score's 1955 mark.

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1985 Both New York teams host their rivals in close pennant races, thanks to a rare oddity of scheduling that has the clubs playing at home on the same day. On Baseball Thursday in the Big Apple, the Mets go into first place with a 7-6 victory over the Cardinals at Shea Stadium, and the second-place Yankees beat the Blue Jays in the ballpark in the Bronx, 7-5, cutting Toronto's lead to a game and half.

1987 Eddie Murray, passing Boog Powell, becomes the Orioles' all-time home run leader when he hits his 304th round-tripper for Baltimore in a 4-3 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Cal Ripken will move past his buddy for first-place honors, hitting his 334th four-bagger in 1996.

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1995 During a WGN pregame radio broadcast at Wrigley Field, Harry Caray remarks to the team's skipper Jim Riggleman, "Well, my eyes are slanty enough, how 'bout yours?" referring to Hideo Nomo, the Japanese rookie hurler scheduled to start for the Dodgers. The veteran announcer, known for not backing off his on-the-air off-handed comments, does issue an apology, calling the incident "unfortunate."


1996 Alex Rodriguez, in an 8-5 win over the Royals, sets a major league shortstop record with his 88th extra-base hit. The Mariners infielder's first-inning double off Chris Haney in the Kauffman Stadium contest establishes the new mark.


1996 Bernie Williams drives in eight runs with two homers and a single, helping the Bronx Bombers defeat Detroit, 12-3. The Yankee center fielder will celebrate his 28th birthday tomorrow, hitting .305 for the eventual World Champs.

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1998 Cubs' slugger Sammy Sosa becomes the fourth major leaguer to hit 60 home runs in a season when he blasts a seventh-inning three-run shot off Milwaukee's Valerio de Los Santos in a 15-12 victorious slugfest at Wrigley Field. The Chicago right-fielder joins Babe Ruth (1927 Yankees), Roger Maris (1961 Yankees), and Mark McGwire (1998 Cardinals) in reaching one of baseball's most cherished milestones.


2000 Dave Hansen breaks the 1932 record for pinch-hit home runs in a single season with his seventh round-tripper coming off the bench on the same date Johnny Frederick established the mark sixty-eight years ago. The Dodger pinch-hitter's historic homer, a seventh-inning three-run blast off Diamondback right-hander Curt Schilling, isn't enough to prevent the team's 5-4 loss to Arizona at Bank One Ballpark.


2002 A jury, not a judge or umpires, will decide whether Alex Popov controlled Barry Bonds' record-setting 73rd home run in his glove. Popov, who lost possession of the ball valued at approximately $1 million after being mobbed by fans, claims the historic horsehide should belong to him, not Patrick Hayashi, the person who ended up with the valuable souvenir.

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2005 Making his season debut with just 20 games left in the regular schedule, Barry Bonds returns to the Giants lineup with a bang, lining a double in his first at-bat and barely missing hitting his 704th career homer. The 41-year-old slugger spent time on the disabled list due to an infection following knee surgery.

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2006 The Braves are mathematically eliminated from the division race as the Mets beat the Marlins, 6-4. The New York victory ends Atlanta's streak of fourteen straight division titles, the longest run for any professional sport.

2006 Luis Gonzalez becomes the oldest player at 39 years and nine days old to hit 50 doubles in one season. The Diamondbacks outfielder, who also holds the club's record for two-baggers, surpasses Hall of Famer Tris Speaker, who was 38 years, 107 days old when he last legged a hit to second.

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2008 In the 2-1 victory over the Nationals, Jorge Cantu goes deep in the fourth inning, making the Marlins the first team in big league history to have four infielders hit 25 home runs in the same season. The Florida third baseman joins first baseman Mike Jacobs (32), second baseman Dan Uggla (30), and shortstop Hanley Ramirez (29) in accounting for 116 of the Fish's 188 big flies this year.

2015 Atlanta loses its 11th consecutive home game, dropping a 6-4 decision to the Mets at Turner Field. The defeat matches a franchise mark established in 1931 when the team played at Braves Field in Boston.

2015 After hitting a homer in the first inning, David Ortiz goes deep again in the fifth frame to become the 27th member of the 500 home run club. The Red Sox 39-year-old designated hitter's two round-trippers, both off Matt Moore, contribute to the team's 10-4 victory over the Rays at Tropicana Field.

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2017 The Twins set a Target Field record for most homers in a game in the eight-year-old ballpark, going deep seven times in the team's 16-0 pounding of the Padres. The septet of round-trippers blasted by Brian Dozier, Jorge Polanco, Jason Castro (2), Eddie Rosario, Eduardo Escobar, and Kennys Vargas marks the first time in history that a team hits a home run in each of the first seven innings.

2017 Behind Corey Kluber's complete-game performance, the Indians extended their winning streak to 20, beating the Tigers at Progressive Field, 2-0. The Tribe's winning ways, which began on August 24th against the Red Sox in Boston, tie the American League record mark the team now shares with 2002 A's.


2019 Kyle Lewis becomes just the second player in baseball history to homer in his first three games when he goes deep off Lucas Sims in the Mariners' 11-5 loss to the Reds at T-Mobile Park. The Seattle outfielder joins Rockies shortstop Trevor Story, who accomplished the feat at the start of the 2016 season.


2021 Max Scherzer becomes the 19th player to reach the 3,000-strikeout plateau with a fifth-inning punch out of Eric Hosmer, who will break up the right-hander's bid for a perfect game with a one-out double in the eighth of LA's 8-0 victory over the Padres. The three-time Cy Young Award winner whiffs nine batters in the Dodger Stadium gem, including his third career immaculate inning, tying a major league mark shared by Sandy Koufax and Chris Sale.

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268,822

 

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Randy Myers. Rob Dibble. Frying pan a flame
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In the 9th inning of a 1919 game Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Ray Caldwell was struck by lightning. After a few minutes Caldwell regained consciousness…and completed the game. His uniform was said to be smoldering
17 days later he tossed a no-hitter #baseball
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"Don’t dig in against Bob Gibson, he’ll knock you down. He’d knock down his own grandmother if she dared to challenge him. Don’t stare at him, don’t smile at him, don’t talk to him. He doesn’t like it. If you happen to hit a home run, don’t run too slow, don’t run too fast. If you happen to want to celebrate, get in the tunnel first. And if he hits you, don’t charge the mound, because he’s a Gold Glove boxer.’" Hank Aaron to Dusty Baker "I’m like, ‘Damn, what about my 17-game hitting streak?’ That was the night it ended.” Dusty Baker

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SEPTEMBER 13 BASEBALL BIRTHDAYS
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1945 Rick Wise pitcher, 1964-82, 2X All-Star (Philadelphia Phillies no hitter, St. Louis Cardinals, and 3 other teams)


1968 Bernie Williams outfielder (World Series 1996, 98–2000; ALCS MVP 1996; 5 × MLB All-Star; NY Yankees)


1968 Denny Neagle pitcher (MLB All Star 1995, 97; NL wins leader 1997; Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves)


1980 Daisuke Matsuzaka pitcher, Mets, Boston


1982 Rickie Weeks, Infielder Brewers, Rays,DBacks


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Today in Baseball History
September 13th​

1883 Cleveland's one-arm pitcher Hugh Daily no-hits Philadelphia, 1-0. The fireballing Irish right-hander lost his left hand to a gun accident earlier in his life.

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1902 Johnny Evers, acquired to replace second baseman Bobby Lowe, who broke his ankle, joins shortstop Joe Tinker and first baseman Frank Chance on the Chicago infield, marking the first time the three Cubs' infielders have played together. Franklin Pierce Adams' poem, "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," better known as "Tinker to Evers to Chance," immortalizes the legendary double-play trio.

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1909 Tigers' outfielder Ty Cobb hits his ninth round-tripper, all of the inside-the-park variety, to win the home run crown. The Georgia Peach will hit 117 round-trippers during his 24-year career but leads the league only this season.

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1925 In the first game of a twin bill, Robins' starter Dazzy Vance no-hits the Phillies at Ebbets Field, 10-1. The Brooklyn hurler had one-hit the team from the City of Brotherly Love five days earlier.

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1932 With their 100th victory, the Yankees clinch the AL pennant when George Pipqras beats the Tribe at Cleveland Stadium, 9-3. Yankee skipper Joe McCarthy, who captured a flag with the 1929 Cubs, becomes the first to win pennants in the American and National League.


1933 White Sox veteran hurlers Sad Sam Jones (41) and Red Faber (44) are the starting pitchers in a doubleheader split with the A's at Philadelphia's Shibe Park. It will be another 53 seasons before another pair of 40+-year-old teammates (Yankees Tommy John and Joe Niekro) start both ends of a twin bill.
Sam Jones (41) and Red Faber

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1936 Indians' teenage pitching phenom Bob Feller sets a new American League record by striking out 17 batters when he two-hits the A's at Shibe Park, 5-2. After the season, the 17-year-old will return to his Van Meter, Iowa home to graduate from high school.​

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1945 Only 281 patrons attend the Crosley Field contest to watch the hometown Reds beat New York, 3-2. The Thursday crowd will be the smallest gathering of fans during the 58-year history of the Cincinnati ballpark.

1946 Taking advantage of the left fielder's shallow positioning due to the Boudreau shift, Ted Williams hits his lone career inside-the-park home run, which proves to be the difference in the Red Sox' 1-0 victory over the Indians. The win clinches Boston's first American League pennant since 1918.

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1948 Indian right-hander Don Black, while batting in the second inning of the Cleveland Stadium contest against St. Louis, suffers a cerebral hemorrhage and is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. The 32-year-old hurler will survive, but his major league career is over.


1949 Ralph Kiner hits four consecutive homers for the second time in his career. After homering in his last two at-bats in the previous game played two days ago, the 26-year-old Pirates slugger goes deep in his first two plate appearances in today's 11-6 victory over Philadelphia at Forbes Field.

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1950 Giants' right-hander Sal Maglie's consecutive scoreless inning streak ends at 45 when Pirates' outfielder Gus Bell hits a 257-foot pop fly that barely clears the Polo Grounds wall for a home run. The Barber's accomplishment falls four outs shy of the National League record established in 1933 by Carl Hubbell.

1951 At Sportsman's Park, the Cardinals split a three-team twin bill, beating the Giants 6-4 in a re-scheduled afternoon game due to rain the day before, and then the Redbirds are blanked by the Braves in the regularly scheduled night game, 2-0. The games mark the first time since 1883 that a three-team twin bill takes place.

1953 Bob Trice becomes the first black player to appear for the A's. The former Homestead Grays hurler will pitch in only three games for Philadelphia this season, compiling a 2-1 record, finishing his brief three-year stint in the major leagues with a 9-9 mark.

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1954 Ted Kluszewski sets a National League record by scoring at least one run in seventeen consecutive games when he crosses the plate in the fourth frame of the Reds' 6-5 loss to the Pirates at Forbes Field. In 1939, Yankees' third baseman Red Rolfe established the major league mark with 18, later equaled in 2000 by Indians' outfielder Kenny Lofton.

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1956 Pirates' reliever Elroy Face appears in his ninth consecutive game, setting a major league record surpassed by Mike Marshall (1974) and Dale Mohoric (1986), who both had 13. The record-setting outing will prove less than memorable when the 28-year-old right-hander blows the save and the loss after giving up three ninth-inning hits to the only three batters he faces in the team's 5-4 defeat to the Reds at Forbes Field.

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1960 The Dodgers end their historic affiliation with the Montreal Royals, citing low attendance as a factor for leaving the city where Jackie Robinson famously broke the color barrier in 1946. Next season, after an effort to keep the team in the City of a Hundred Steeples, the Canadian franchise relocates to New York, playing as the Syracuse Chiefs, a farm team for the Minnesota Twins.

1960 In the top of the fifth inning at Crosley Field, Danny Murphy hits a two-out, three-run home run in an 8-6 loss to the Reds. The 18-year-old right-fielder becomes the youngest Cubs player ever to homer.

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1963 On Friday the 13th, hard-luck hurler Roger Craig, en route to his 21st loss of the season, allows the game's lone run to score after getting the first two outs in the ninth inning of the Mets' 1-0 loss to Houston at the Polo Grounds. The defeat marks the fifth time the New York right-hander has dropped a 1-0 decision this season.

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1964 The Cardinals become only the second team in major league history this century to score at least one run in every inning as they rout Chicago, 15-2. A dropped pop-up in the top of the ninth secures St. Louis' place in history.

1965 Facing right-hander Don Nottebart, 34-year-old Giant outfielder Willie Mays becomes the fifth player in major league history to collect 500 career home runs, blasting a 440-foot shot over the Astrodome's centerfield wall. The 'Say Hey Kid' will hit a league-leading and career-high 52 home runs en route to his second MVP season.

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1968 Jerry Koosman ties the National League rookie record when he hurls his seventh shutout, blanking Pittsburgh on three singles. The left-hander's 2-0 victory, the Mets' 67th win of the season - a franchise high, equals the mark shared by Irving Young (Braves, 1905) and Grover Cleveland Alexander (Phillies, 1911).

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1969 Bobby Bonds, with his first-inning two-run homer in the Giants' 6-4 defeat to the Reds at Candlestick Park, becomes the fourth player in major league history to steal at least 30 bases and hit at least thirty home runs in the same season. The other members of the 30/30 club are Ken Williams (1922-Browns), Willie Mays (1956 & 1957-Giants), and Hank Aaron (1963-Braves).