BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

2018 Players from the 2004 Red Sox World Championship team throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the Fall Classic, with David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Kevin Millar, Tim Wakefield, Jason Varitek, Keith Foulke, and Alan Embree doing the honors. The team did not reach out to their former ace Curt Shilling, best remembered for his bloody sock heroics that season, now well-known for expressing his views on Breitbart News, a far-right opinion and news organization.

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2020 Randy Arozarena sets the record for most playoff home runs in a single postseason after going deep for the ninth time, belting a fourth-inning round-tripper in the Rays' 8-7 victory in Game 4 of the World Series against the Dodgers at Globe Life Field. The Tampa Bay DH surpasses the eight compiled by Barry Bonds (Giants, 2002), Carlos Beltran (Astros, 2004), Nelson Cruz (Rangers, 2011), and Corey Seager (Dodgers, 2020).

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OCTOBER 25 BASEBALL BIRTHDAYS
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1889 'Smoky' Joe Wood, pitcher/outfielder (World Series 1912, 15, 20; MLB wins leader 34–5 1912; pitched no-hitter 1911; Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians)


1917 Lee MacPhail Hall of Fame executive (AL President 1974-83; Baltimore Orioles, NY Yankees)

1923 Bobby Thomson baseball player


1924 Bobby Brown third baseman (NY Yankees; World Series 1947, 49–51) and executive (president American League 1984-94)


1955 Danny Darwin pitcher (Pittsburgh Pirates)


1965 Steve Decker catcher (SF Giants)

1969 Larry Thomas pitcher (Chicago White Sox),

1971 Pedro Martínez HOF pitcher (8 × MLB All-Star; World Series 2004; Cy Young Award 1997, 99, 2000; Triple Crown 1999; Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox),

1979 Tony Torcato

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Today in Baseball History
October 25th​

1911 Larry Doyle scores on a sacrifice fly in Game 5 of the World Series at the Polo Grounds to give the Giants a 4-3 victory over the A's. According to home plate umpire Bill Klem, commenting after the game, the Giants' second baseman, in his jubilation about scoring the winning run, really never touched home, with the A's not appealing, failing to notice the gaffe.


1927 Garry Herrmann, citing poor health and deafness, resigns as the Reds' president and will be replaced by C.J. McDiarmid, the club's secretary. During the 68-year-old baseball executive's 25-year tenure, Cincinnati won only one pennant and World Series (1919) but finished in the first division 13 times.

1939 With 15 of the 24 first-place votes cast by the writers, Yankee outfielder Joe DiMaggio wins his first American League MVP award, easily out-distancing runners-up Jimmie Foxx and Bob Feller. The 24-year-old All-Star, who posted a major-league-leading .381 batting average, will also capture the prestigious prize again in 1941 and 1947.

 

1955 Joe L. Brown replaces Branch Rickey, who stepped down as the Pirates' general manager. During the five-year tenure of 'Mahatma,' Pittsburgh endured three 100-loss seasons, but his contributions helped lead the team to a World Championship in 1960.


1955 The Indians trade Larry Doby, the first black to play in the American League, to the White Sox for Chico Carrasquel and Jim Busby. The future Hall of Fame outfielder, who will hit .275 during his two seasons in Chicago, will return to the Tribe in 1958.


1956 Al Lopez replaces Marty Marion, who recently resigned as the manager of the White Sox. Chicago's new skipper will pilot the Pale Hose to an 840-650 (.564) record and an American League pennant during his 11-year Hall of Fame tenure in the Windy City.

 

1960 Gabe Paul announces his decision to leave the Reds to become the general manager of the Colt .45s, an expansion team scheduled to begin play in 1962. After clashing with majority owner Roy Hofheinz, the experienced baseball executive will leave Houston nearly a year before the team plays an official game.


1961 The Mets sign their first player with major league experience when they ink free-agent Ted Lepcio. During spring training, the expansion team will cut the 32-year-old middle infielder, who compiled a .245 batting average playing with five teams during his ten-year career.


1965 The Cubs end their college of coaches experiment by hiring Leo Durocher, who signs a three-year deal and is given complete authority on the field. The Lip's assessment that Chicago is "not an eighth-place ball club" will prove correct when his team finishes tenth next season.

 

1973 The Cubs trade six-time 20-game winner Ferguson Jenkins to the Rangers for utility player Vic Harris and rookie third baseman Bill Madlock, who will win two batting titles during his three-year tenure in Chicago. Fergie will continue winning with Texas, posting a 25-12 (.676) record in the first year with Texas, averaging 15½ victories a season in his six-year stay in the Lone Star State.


1978 The BBWAA selects Gaylord Perry (21-6, 2.72) as the National League Cy Young Award recipient. The Padres right-hander, who copped the honor with the Indians in 1972, becomes the first hurler to win the prestigious pitching prize in each league.

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1981 In Game 5 at Dodger Stadium, Pedro Guerrero's and Steve Yeager's back-to-back solo home runs in the seventh inning off Yankee southpaw Ron Guidry give Los Angeles a 2-1 win, their third victory in the Fall Classic. Guerrero, Yeager, and teammate Ron Cey will be named the World Series MVP award co-recipients.
1986

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"If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series." - Vin Scully, describing the aftermath of the play after a long silence.
One strike from defeat, the Mets tie the game on a wild pitch and then, thanks to Bill Buckner's error, win Game 6, knotting the World Series at three games apiece. The hobbled first baseman, who graciously handles the fallout from one of the most memorable moments in baseball history, becomes the scapegoat for the frustrated Fenway Faithful, who wrongly believed his play alone was responsible for Boston's demise in the Fall Classic.

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1987 In a series in which each team never loses a game in its home park, the Twins win the World Championship when they beat the Cards, 4-2, in Game 7. The franchise's last championship came in 1924 as the Washington Senators when Bucky Harris's team defeated the Giants, led by John McGraw.

 

2000 Mike Piazza becomes the first player to hit a World Series home run at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. The backstop's third-inning homer off Denny Neagle will account for the only two runs the Mets will score in a 3-2 Game 4 defeat to their crosstown rivals.


2003 In Game 6, the Marlins, behind Josh Beckett's five-hit complete-game shutout, win their second World Series in six seasons, defeating New York at Yankee Stadium, 2-0. Florida becomes the first opposing team to capture the Fall Classic at the Bronx ballpark since the Dodgers accomplished the feat in 1981.

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2005 The first World Series game in Texas proves to be memorable when Geoff Blum's 14th-inning solo home run (30th MLer to hit an HR in first WS AB) becomes the beginning of the end of the longest Fall Classic contest ever played. The 7-5 victory, which gives the White Sox a commanding 3-0 advantage over the Astros, takes 5 hours and 41 minutes to complete, with the 14 frames equaling the number of innings the Red Sox needed to beat the Dodgers in Game 2 of the 1916 series.

2005 Mark Buehrle becomes the first pitcher to start and save consecutive World Series contests. After receiving a no-decision starting Game 2, the 26-year-old southpaw gets the final out in the 14th inning of Game 3 to record a save as the White Sox beat the Astros, 7-5.

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2007 Hideki Okajima becomes the first Japanese-born player to pitch in the World Series. The former Nippon Ham Fighters hurler comes out of the bullpen in relief of Curt Schilling and retires seven straight Rockies, including Kazuo Matsui, making it the first time Japanese natives have faced one another in the Fall Classic.

 

2009 The Indians sign 40-year-old Manny Acta to a three-year deal as their 40th manager in franchise history. The former Nationals' field boss, fired in July, is the first Cleveland skipper to be hired outside the organization since John McNamara piloted the club in 1990.


2009 Yusei Kikuchi, who had interested scouts from the Yankees and nine other clubs, decides not to entertain offers from American major league teams, opting to start his professional career in his native Japan. The 18-year-old left-handed flamethrower would have been the first Japanese high school student to travel directly to the United States to play pro ball.

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2009 With a 5-2 victory over the Angels at Yankee Stadium, New York wins its 40th American League pennant. The Bronx Bombers, after a six-year absence from the Fall Classic, will play the Phillies in quest of their 27th World Championship and the first since they beat the Mets in 2000.

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2010 John Farrell emerges from the 18 candidates interviewed by Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos to replace recently retired manager Cito Gaston. The former Boston pitching coach's reputation of working well with youthful hurlers is considered a real asset for the team's new skipper, given Toronto's talented young rotation.

2011 Canada wins its first major baseball tournament when Team Canada defeats the United States, 2-1, at the Pan American Games in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico. Jimmy Van Ostrand's sixth-inning double, driving in Chris Robinson and Tim Smith, who both had two-out singles to start the rally, proves to be the difference in the gold medal game.

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2014 Mo'ne Davis throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the Giants' 11-4 victory in Game 4 of the Fall Classic against the Royals at AT&T Park. The 13-year-old pitching phenom, the first girl to hurl a shutout in the Little League World Series, continues her mastery on the mound, firing a strike right down the middle of the plate.

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2016 Corey Kluber became the first pitcher in World Series history to record eight strikeouts in the first three innings of a game, surpassing the mark by one previously shared by Bob Gibson, Randy Johnson, and Orlando Hernandez. The Indians' ace, who throws six scoreless innings, accomplishes the feat in the team's Game 1 victory, a 6-0 win over the Cubs, at Progressive Field.

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2016 The Mets announce that Mike Piazza, considered by many to be the best offensive backstop in baseball history, will have his number 31 retired during the season. The Cooperstown-bound catcher's digits will join Tom Seaver (41), Casey Stengel (37), and Gil Hodges (14) above the left-field wall at Citi Field.

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2019 In Game 3 of the Fall Classic, the Astros beat the Nationals, 4-1, thanks to two run-scoring singles by Michael Brantley and Robinson Chirinos' foul-pole clanging solo home run. The game marks the first World Series contest played in Washington, DC, since 1933 when the Nationals, aka the Senators, dropped a ten-inning 4-3 decision to the Giants at Griffith Stadium.

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Ruth paying his final respects to Lou Gehrig
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