The Knickerbocker club at a reunion, 1862,
17 years after they "invented baseball."
October 6, 1845: The 1st recorded baseball game using
Alexander Cartwright's rules, the basis for the game we have today, is
played between members of the Knickerbocker Club, of which he is a member. It was, as we would say today, an intrasquad game. In a way, this could mean that October 6 is baseball's birthday.
Only
14 players participate as Duncan Curry's team defeats Cartwright's team
11-8, in a shortened game of only 3 innings. The Knickerbocker Club will play at least
14 recorded games during the fall of 1845.
October 6, 1868: In a match that decides the Championship
of amateur baseball for the year, the Atlantics of Brooklyn pound the
Unions of Morrisania (now part of The Bronx)‚ 24-8‚ at Morrisania. The Atlantics
win the best-2-out-of-3 from the defending Champions.
October 6, 1880: The Cincinnati Red Stockings refuse
to accede to the restrictions approved by the NL 2 days earlier: No
alcohol sold at games, and no games on Sundays. They are thrown out of the
NL. This leads directly to a new club in Cincinnati that founds the American
Association, nicknamed "The Beer and Whiskey League." They will also
sell tickets for 25 cents, half the cost of NL games.
October 6, 1882: In the 1st postseason matchup between AA
and NL Champions -- nobody is calling it "the World Series" or even
"the World's Series" -- the AA Champion Cincinnati Red Stockings shut out the NL Champion Chicago White
Stockings (forerunners of the Cubs) 4-0 behind Will White.
The next day, Chicago returns
the favor by blanking Cincinnati 2-0. At this point Cincinnati‚ under pressure
from the AA‚ reluctantly cancels the exhibition series to avoid expulsion from
the league. So, with the NL still the unquestioned superior league, the White
Stockings are the unofficial World Champions, for the 3rd year in a row.
October 6, 1886: After pitching 3 1-hitters and 4 2-hitters
earlier in the season‚ 20-year-old lefthander Matt Kilroy finally gets a
no-hitter‚ beating the Pittsburgh Alleghenys 6-0. Pitching for the Baltimore
Orioles, who are in last place in the AA, "Matches" still manages
a won-lost record of 29-32.
Kilroy was still
officially a rookie in 1886. He struck out 513 batters, still a record for
a pitcher. It should be noted that the distance from the pitcher's mound to
home plate was 50 feet, not reaching 60 feet, 6 inches until 1893. By that
point, he was already in decline, and was not with the Orioles when they joined
the NL in 1892 and won Pennants in 1894, '95, '96 and nearly again in '97. He won
141 games against 136 losses, mostly for bad teams, and was never a serious
candidate for the Hall of Fame.
A Philadelphia native,
he died there in 1940, age 74, and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery at the
city's northern edge, as are Connie Mack, 1910s Red Sox star Steve Yerkes,
1970s Mayor Frank Rizzo and Olympic rowing champion John B. Kelly Sr. (father
of Olympic rowing champ Jack Kelly and actress-princess Grace Kelly).
The Alleghenys will
join the NL in 1887, and the franchise officially traces its birth to that
season, not its actual debut with the founding of the AA in 1882. In 1890, with
the game in flux because of the establishment of the Players' League, the
Alleghenys sign 2nd baseman Lou Bierbauer of the AA's Philadelphia Athletics (not
the later AL team). That Athletics publicly claim the move was "piratical." The
Pittsburgh club just goes with this, renaming themselves the Pirates for the
1891 season, and claims that the Athletics did not reserve him, making him a
free agent and fair game to sign. An arbitrator agreed.
That was the last
season of the AA, and the Orioles joined the NL at that time, as did the Reds,
and the St. Louis team that would become the Cardinals.
*
October 6, 1904: The Pirates beat the Cardinals 10-1. In
spite of the loss, the Cards' Jack Taylor hurls his 39th consecutive
complete game of the season, still a major league record under the 60 &
6 distance. His streak started on April 15th and totals 352 innings
pitched.
October 6, 1905, 110 years ago: Helen Newington Wills is born in Fremont, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was the most dominant female tennis player of the 1920s and '30s. In those days, not many tennis players (male or female) made the long trip to Australia to play their Open. If she had, she might have won the Grand Slam, because she won the other 3 in 1928 and 1929.
Between 1923 and 1938, she won Wimbledon 8 times (a record until Martina Navratilova surpassed it in 1990), the U.S. Open 7 times, and the French Open 4 times -- but never entered the Australian Open. When tennis was an Olympic sport in Paris in 1924, she won the women's Gold Medal. On 7 occasions, a Grand Slam Final came down to "The Two Helens," with Helen Wills Moody (she used her married name from 1930 onward) beating Helen Hull Jacobs in 6 of them.
She wrote an instruction manual in 1928 (titled simply Tennis), a mystery novel in 1939 (with more imagination, titled Death Serves an Ace), and articles for The Saturday Evening Post, and painted up until her death in 1938. Both Jack Kramer and Don Budge -- who lived long enough to see Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles -- called her the best female tennis player ever.
October 6, 1906: Not one of the best-known games between the teams now known as the Yankees and the Red Sox, due to the passage of over a century, but it deserves to be mentioned. The New York Highlanders beat the Boston Americans 5-4 at Hilltop Park, behind the pitching of Long Tom Hughes.
October 6, 1905, 110 years ago: Helen Newington Wills is born in Fremont, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. She was the most dominant female tennis player of the 1920s and '30s. In those days, not many tennis players (male or female) made the long trip to Australia to play their Open. If she had, she might have won the Grand Slam, because she won the other 3 in 1928 and 1929.
Between 1923 and 1938, she won Wimbledon 8 times (a record until Martina Navratilova surpassed it in 1990), the U.S. Open 7 times, and the French Open 4 times -- but never entered the Australian Open. When tennis was an Olympic sport in Paris in 1924, she won the women's Gold Medal. On 7 occasions, a Grand Slam Final came down to "The Two Helens," with Helen Wills Moody (she used her married name from 1930 onward) beating Helen Hull Jacobs in 6 of them.
She wrote an instruction manual in 1928 (titled simply Tennis), a mystery novel in 1939 (with more imagination, titled Death Serves an Ace), and articles for The Saturday Evening Post, and painted up until her death in 1938. Both Jack Kramer and Don Budge -- who lived long enough to see Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles -- called her the best female tennis player ever.
October 6, 1906: Not one of the best-known games between the teams now known as the Yankees and the Red Sox, due to the passage of over a century, but it deserves to be mentioned. The New York Highlanders beat the Boston Americans 5-4 at Hilltop Park, behind the pitching of Long Tom Hughes.
But Charles Sylvester
"Chick" Stahl, the 33-year-old center fielder and manager for Boston,
hits a 2-run homer off Hughes in the top of the 8th. It's not enough, but it
does turn out to be the last at-bat of his career. He remains the most notable
player to hit a home run in his last major league at-bat, until
another Red Sox star does it in 1960: Ted Williams.
The 1907 season will be
the 1st one for the club under the Red Sox name. But Stahl will not be there.
Not as a player (he had already announced his retirement), and not as
manager. Back in his native Indiana, where he was conducting spring
training, he committed suicide by drinking carbolic acid on March 28.
A star of the Boston
club's 1903 and '04 Pennant winners, he was despondent about something, and
told his teammates, "Boys, I just couldn't help it. It drove me to
it." No one has been able to determine what he was talking about, although
it was known that he had cheated on his wife Julia, and it has been retroactively
suggested that he was dealing with mental illness. It has also been suggested that he was depressed about having to dismiss his predecessor and ex-teammate, future Hall-of-Famer Jimmy Collins.
A year and a half later, on
November 15, 1908, Julia died, too, under circumstances that have never been
explained.
Although Jake Stahl was also a prominent Red Sock of the pre-Curse of the Bambino years, he and Chick were not related.
October 6, 1909: Christy Mathewson pitched for the Yankees?
Not officially. The Highlanders and Tigers play a postseason benefit game for
Sam Crane, a sportswriter and former big-league 2nd baseman who had recently
recovered from a severe illness, and had been unable to pay his medical bills.
Mathewson pitched for
the Yankees, while his former Giant teammate Iron Joe McGinnity came out of retirement
to pitch for the Tigers. This was likely arranged by Hughie Jennings, the Tiger
manager, who was a teammate of Giant manager John McGraw on the 1890s Orioles.
Jennings, for the last time in a brilliant baseball career, played shortstop, a
position at which he was so good that he might have gotten into the Hall
of Fame had he never managed a game. (He had just clinched the Tigers' 3rd
straight Pennant, and probably viewed this as not just a good deed for an old
friend, but as a good warmup for the World Series.)
Oddly, I can't find a result for this game anywhere. I did, however, find out how much money was raised: $7,000, equivalent to about $168,000 today.
Oddly, I can't find a result for this game anywhere. I did, however, find out how much money was raised: $7,000, equivalent to about $168,000 today.
Crane's
playing career ended in 1890, when he was arrested after having an affair
with the wife of a fruit dealer and stealing $1,500 from the husband -- about
$40,000 in today's money. But he became a better writer than a player, and
lived until 1925, age 71.
A few years
later, there would be another infielder named Sam Crane, whose
amorous difficulties got him in even hotter water. This one was a
shortstop who played for 4 teams, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, from 1914 to
1922. "Red" Crane (he was a redhead, and the accusations against him
do not include Communism) was convicted of the jealous murder of his
ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend on August 3, 1929, and was sentenced
to 18 to 36 years in prison. He proved to be a model prisoner. His former
manager Connie Mack argued for his parole for 15 years, and he finally got
it in 1944, and he lived in comparative tranquility until 1955.
*
October 6, 1911: Cy Young appears in his last major league
game, starting for the Boston Rustlers (forerunners of the Braves, named for
their owner, William H. Russell). It doesn't go so well. The Brooklyn Superbas
(forerunners of the Dodgers) win, 13-3. The old Cyclone goes 6 1/3 innings, giving
up 11 hits. Here are the results of his last 8 at-bats: Triple, 4 straight
singles, 3 straight doubles.
Young retired at age 44,
with all-time records for wins (511), losses (316), appearances by a pitcher
(906), innings pitched (7,356), batters faced (29,565), starts (815), complete
games (749), hits allowed (7,092), runs allowed (3,167), earned runs allowed
(2,147), and strikeouts (2,803). His records for appearances, runs (but not
earned runs) and strikeouts have been broken. The rest still stand, 103 years
later. His ERA+ was 138, and his WHIP was 1.130, so he wasn't just lasting a
long time amassing some big stats, as has been leveled against more recent
pitchers like Nolan Ryan, Gaylord Perry and Don Sutton: He was great even by
the standards of his own time.
Five hundred and eleven
wins. The next-closest pitcher is Walter Johnson, with 417 -- 94 less. The
winningest living pitcher is Greg Maddux with 355. The winningest active
pitcher is Bartolo Colon with 218. (Tim Hudson has 222, but he's announced his retirement.) So unless there's a change in baseball as
radical as that of the Dead Ball Era to the Lively Ball Era in 1920, Young's 511 wins, and his other still-standing records, are as safe as a
record can be.
Young, who lived until
1955, age 87, was interviewed in 1945 by Chicago Daily News sports
editor John P. Carmichael for his anthology My Greatest Day
In Baseball. His choice was his 1904 perfect game for the Boston Americans
(Red Sox). He added, "In my last game, I was beaten 1-0 by a kid
named Grover Cleveland Alexander." Alexander was a rookie in
1911, but if he did beat Cy Young 1-0 that season, it wasn't Young's last game.
October 6, 1912: In Cincinnati‚ Pirates right
fielder Owen "Chief" Wilson hits a 9th inning 3-run triple off
the Reds' Frank Gregory, but, in trying to stretch it into a home
run, he is nipped at the plate. The Pirates roll‚ 16-6. It is his 36th
triple of the season, a still-standing record.
On the same day, the
Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-3. Cubs 3rd baseman Heinie
Zimmerman, goes 0-for-3, and has had just 2 hits in the last week. But he
holds on to win the Triple Crown‚ leading by one in HRs and RBI. Or so it
was then thought: Years later‚ a recount of the totals will drop Zim from 103
RBIs to 99‚ and cost him the Triple Crown.
October 6, 1919: Game 5 of the World Series,
following a Sunday rainout. Reds pitcher Hod Eller pitches a 3-hit shutout
against the Chicago White Sox. In the 2nd and 3rd innings, he strikes out 6
players in a row: Chick Gandil, Swede Risberg, Ray Schalk, opposing pitcher Lefty
Williams, Nemo Leibold and Eddie Collins.
In addition, the Reds score 4 runs in the 6th on, among other things, bad throws by Shoeless Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch. Schalk gets thrown out of the game arguing a safe call on a slide into the plate by the Reds' Heinie Groh.
In addition, the Reds score 4 runs in the 6th on, among other things, bad throws by Shoeless Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch. Schalk gets thrown out of the game arguing a safe call on a slide into the plate by the Reds' Heinie Groh.
The Reds win, 5-0, and
go up 4 games to 1 in this best-5-out-of-9 Series. One more win,
and the Reds take the title.
Jackson, Felsch, Gandil,
Risberg and Williams will later be found to be on the take. Eddie Cicotte did
not appear in the game. Fred McMullin, usually a backup, did not appear, and of
course Buck Weaver ended up being suspended for not reporting the fix, not
because he was part of it (he wasn't). So of the 7 players in on it, 5
appeared, and all had something to do with the defeat.
*
October 6, 1920: Hal Chase and the aforementioned Heinie
Zimmerman are indicted on bribery charges, as an aftermath of the investigation
into the previous year's World Series. New York Giants manager John McGraw
would end up testifying that he released them after the 1919 season for
throwing games, and for trying (apparently, without success) to entice Fred
Toney, Rube Benton and Benny Kauff to join them.
Zimmerman denies the
charges. Chase ignores them. Both will be banned for life from baseball by
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis when he becomes Commissioner.
Game 2 of the World
Series is played on the same day as the indictment. Wheeler Johnston
pinch-hits for the Cleveland Indians in the 9th inning. His brother Jimmy
Johnston is playing 3rd base for the Brooklyn Robins (forerunners of the
Dodgers). They thus become the first brothers to take opposite sides in a
World Series. The Robins win, 3-0, on a shutout by spitballer Burleigh Grimes,
and tie the Series 1-1. But this will be the high point of World
Series play for the Brooklyn franchise until 1947.
October 6, 1921: Game 2 of the World Series. Waite Hoyt pitches a 2-hit shutout, and the Yankees beat the New York Giants 3-0, taking a 2 games to 0 lead. The talk is that the style of Babe Ruth (power, power and more power hitting) has supplanted that of Giant manager John McGraw (strategy, strategy and more strategy), especially since McGraw had ordered starting pitcher Art Nehf to "unintentionally-intentionally walk" Ruth, and he did so, 3 times.
But Ruth tried to foil this strategy by stealing 2nd and 3rd base after one of the walks. When he slid into 3rd, he scraped his elbow, and, in those pre-antibiotic days, it got infected. It didn't end up killing him (though it sure could have), but he had to leave Game 3 early, and the wound was lanced, rendering him unable to swing a bat for the rest of the Series. It was the 1st time a baserunning miscalculation by the Babe had cost the Yankees a World Series. It would not be the last.
October 6, 1922: Game 3 of the World Series. Neither the Yankees nor the controversial ending to yesterday's game can stop the Giants momentum, as Jack Scott pitches a 4-hit shutout, and singles and scores the Giants' 1st run in the 3rd inning, as the Giants win 3-1.
Also on this day, Joseph Filmore Frazier is born in Liberty, North Carolina. An ordinary outfielder in the major leagues from 1947 to 1956, he became a manager, and won Pennants with 5 different minor-league teams, including the Tidewater Tides, the Mets' top farm team, in 1975. He was then promoted to Mets manager for 1976, and led them to a 3rd place finish.
But he lost 30 of the 1st 45 games in 1977, and he was fired. Joe Torre, then still playing, was hired to replace him. Frazier (white and no relation to the boxing champion of the same name) managed in the Cardinal organization afterward, and died in 2011, age 88.
October 6, 1923: In a regular-season game, Ernie Padgett of the Boston Braves, in only his 2nd major-league appearance, pulls off an unassisted triple play in a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies. It is the 1st such play in NL history.
October 6, 1921: Game 2 of the World Series. Waite Hoyt pitches a 2-hit shutout, and the Yankees beat the New York Giants 3-0, taking a 2 games to 0 lead. The talk is that the style of Babe Ruth (power, power and more power hitting) has supplanted that of Giant manager John McGraw (strategy, strategy and more strategy), especially since McGraw had ordered starting pitcher Art Nehf to "unintentionally-intentionally walk" Ruth, and he did so, 3 times.
But Ruth tried to foil this strategy by stealing 2nd and 3rd base after one of the walks. When he slid into 3rd, he scraped his elbow, and, in those pre-antibiotic days, it got infected. It didn't end up killing him (though it sure could have), but he had to leave Game 3 early, and the wound was lanced, rendering him unable to swing a bat for the rest of the Series. It was the 1st time a baserunning miscalculation by the Babe had cost the Yankees a World Series. It would not be the last.
October 6, 1922: Game 3 of the World Series. Neither the Yankees nor the controversial ending to yesterday's game can stop the Giants momentum, as Jack Scott pitches a 4-hit shutout, and singles and scores the Giants' 1st run in the 3rd inning, as the Giants win 3-1.
Also on this day, Joseph Filmore Frazier is born in Liberty, North Carolina. An ordinary outfielder in the major leagues from 1947 to 1956, he became a manager, and won Pennants with 5 different minor-league teams, including the Tidewater Tides, the Mets' top farm team, in 1975. He was then promoted to Mets manager for 1976, and led them to a 3rd place finish.
But he lost 30 of the 1st 45 games in 1977, and he was fired. Joe Torre, then still playing, was hired to replace him. Frazier (white and no relation to the boxing champion of the same name) managed in the Cardinal organization afterward, and died in 2011, age 88.
October 6, 1923: In a regular-season game, Ernie Padgett of the Boston Braves, in only his 2nd major-league appearance, pulls off an unassisted triple play in a doubleheader sweep of the Phillies. It is the 1st such play in NL history.
Born in Philadelphia in
1899, the infielder would only last 5 seasons in the majors, and died in 1957
in East Orange, New Jersey.
October 6, 1926: Game 4 of the World Series, at Sportsman’s
Park in St. Louis. Someone got a message to Babe Ruth, asking him to hit a home
run for a sick kid in a hospital.
He hit one. And another.
And another. It was the 1st time a player had hit 3 home runs in a World Series
game. The Yankees win, 10-5, and tie up the Series with the Cardinals.
The boy’s name was
Johnny Sylvester. He got well, later met the Babe, and lived to be 74. In legend, the boy was
dying, and the Babe visited him in the hospital, and promised him he’d hit a
home run for him, and ended up hitting 3, and, hearing the game on the radio, little Johnny instantly began to get well. The truth is great enough, is Ruthian enough.
October 6, 1927: Game 2 of the World Series. The Yankees score 3 runs in the 2nd inning and 3 more in the 8th, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2. They lead the Series 2 games to 0 as it heads to New York.
Also on this day, Wilbur King (no middle name) is born in Bloomington, Illinois. Better known as Bill King, he began his broadcasting career in World War II, on the Armed Forces Network. He broadcast high school and college sports until 1958, when the San Francisco Giants hired him.
Frank Mieuli, a minority owner of the Giants, bought the Philadelphia Warriors in 1962 and moved them to San Francisco, and in 1971 to Oakland where he renamed them the Golden State Warriors. He hired King to broadcast for the Warriors as well. In 1966, he began doing the Oakland Raiders' games, and in 1981 made himself all Oakland by switching from the Giants to the Athletics.
He went to Los Angeles with the Raiders in 1982, and left the A's and the Warriors after 1983. Raider owner Al Davis fired him in 1992, and didn't take him back when they returned to Oakland in 1995. In all, he called 7 World Championship teams: The 1972, '73 and '74 A's; the '75 Warriors; and the '76, '80 and '83 Raiders. He died in 2005, having hidden his age for many years, but his son Michael confirmed that he was 78.
*
October 6, 1933: Game 4 of the World Series. Carl Hubbell
of the Giants outduels Monte Weaver of the Washington Senators, winning 2-1 in
11 innings. The winning run is scored when Blondy Ryan singles home Travis
Jackson, who led off with a surprise bunt and was then sacrificed to 2nd. The
Senators' Heinie Manush is thrown out of the game by umpire Charlie Moran, for
pulling on his bow tie during an argument.
October 6, 1934: The Tigers defeat
the Cardinals, 10-4 at Navin Field in Detroit (later renamed Briggs Stadium and
Tiger Stadium). Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean – or Jerome Herman “Dizzy” Dean,
depending on which story Ol’ Diz liked to tell on any given day – inexplicably
runs onto the field when player-manager Frankie Frisch calls for a
pinch-runner, and is hit in the head by a throw. He is taken to a hospital,
examined, and released.
He tells the press,
apparently without realizing what he’s saying, “They examined my head, and they
didn’t find anything.” A newspaper says the next day, “X-rays of Dean’s head
show nothing.” Dean will have the last laugh, though.
October 6, 1935, 80
years ago: Bruno Leopoldo Francesco Sammartino is born in Pizzoferrato, Abruzzo, Italy. He was malnourished as a result of living in Italy under Benito Mussolini's fascist regime and the conditions of World War II. When the family moved to Pittsburgh in 1950, his new classmates teased him for it. He built himself up and learned to fight and wrestle, became a local strongman, and then a professional wrestler.
Bruno Sammartino is the greatest professional wrestler
of all time. If there were an all-time battle royal, with each of them in their
prime getting into the ring, he could have kicked the asses of all the serious
challengers who came after him: Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, Dwayne (The
Rock) Johnson, John Cena and C.M. Punk. And the ones who came before him, like
Frank Gotch, Ed “Strangler” Lewis and Bronko Nagurski (yes, the football legend
– wrestling paid better back then). He certainly beat the best of his own time,
like Nature Boy Buddy Rogers, Gorilla Monsoon, Killer Kowalski, Ernie Ladd (who, like Nagurski, became famous as a football player first) and Rocky Johnson (The Rock's father).
Bruno also became a promoter, making
sure everybody – good guys and bad guys, big names like himself and smaller
names – got paid on the cards on which he fought. He still makes appearances at wrestling events.
October 6, 1936: The New York Yankees defeat the New York
Giants in Game 6 of the World Series, 13-5 at the Polo Grounds, and clinch
their 5th World Championship. It remains the most runs scored by a team in a
Series-clinching game.
At this point, the
following teams have won 5 World Series: The Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, and
the Philadelphia Athletics. (The A’s wouldn’t win another until 1972, by which
point they were in Oakland. The Red Sox have never won another. Not without
cheating, anyway.)
By beating the Giants,
who have 4, the Yankees move ahead of the Giants into 1st place in New York,
and they have never relinquished it. Now, they are tied with the Sox and A’s
for 1st among all teams. They have never been 2nd again. Nor will they be.
Frank Crosetti was the last survivor of the '36 Yanks, living until 2002.
Frank Crosetti was the last survivor of the '36 Yanks, living until 2002.
October 6, 1937: Game 1 of the World Series. Hubbell isn't
so lucky this time: The Yankees torch him, and 2 other pitchers, for 7 runs in
the top of the 6th at the Polo Grounds: 5 singles, 3 walks and 2 errors. Lefty
Gomez pitches superbly, and the Yankees beat the Giants 8-1. The Giants never
recovered in the Series, and wouldn't win another Pennant for 14 years.
October 6, 1938: The Yankees defeat the Cubs, 6-3 at
Wrigley Field, and take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the World Series. Dean, now
with the Cubs following an arm injury that will ultimately end his meteoric
career at age 31, takes a 3-2 lead into the 8th inning, but Frank Crosetti’s
homer gives the Yanks a lead they will not relinquish. Joe DiMaggio added a
homer in the 8th. It becomes known as Dizzy Dean's Last Stand, although he did pitch another 3 seasons.
The winning pitcher
is Gomez, making him 6-0 in World Series play. Although he appears in 3
more Series with the Yankees, this will be his last Series decision. But
although Whitey Ford with 10 and Bob Gibson with 7 will win more Series games,
Gomez has the best winning percentage in Series history to this day.
*
October 6, 1941: The Yankees beat the Dodgers, 4-1, and win
their 9th World Series, clinching in 5 games at Ebbets Field. The Brooklyn
Eagle’s headline reads, “WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR.” A catchphrase is
coined.
It will take another 14
years, and several agonizing close calls including 4 more World Series losses, all
to the Yankees, before “Next Year” finally arrives for Brooklyn. In an
unfortunate twist, the Brooklyn Eagle went out of business,
publishing its last edition on January 29, 1955 -- just 9 months and
change before Dem Bums finally dooed it.
This is the last Major
League Baseball game before World War II, although some players, including
Detroit Tiger Hall-of-Famer Hank Greenberg, are already in the U.S. armed
forces. Not until April 16, 1946 will baseball again be played without players
missing due to military service.
This is also the first
Yankees-Dodgers World Series. There have now been 11: 7 all-New York
“Subway Series,” 4 Coast-to-Coast N.Y./L.A. series. There hasn’t been one in
34 years, and as long as Don Mattingly — a.k.a. Donnie Regular Season Baseball
— is managing the Dodgers, there will never be a 12th.
October 6, 1943: Robert Cooper, father of Cardinal pitcher
Mort Cooper and their catcher Walker Cooper, dies. A telegram reaches
Yankee Stadium to inform the brothers before Game 2 of the World Series.
But they play on: Walker goes 1-for-3 at the bat, and Mort pitches the Cards to a 4-3 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
Mort leaves for
home, Independence, Missouri (outside Kansas City), after the game. (He
wouldn't have been asked to start again until at least Game 5,
anyway.) The Yankees win the next 3 games to take the Series, at which
point Walker goes home, too.
October 6, 1944: Game 3 of the
World Series. Five singles and a wild pitch by the Cardinals' Fred Schmidt give
the Browns 4 runs in the 3rd inning. With Jack Kramer (no relation to the
tennis great of the same name) striking out 10 Redbirds, the Browns
win 6-2, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead.
This is the all-time
high-water mark for the St. Louis Browns: Not until 1966, as the Baltimore
Orioles, would they ever win 3 games in a World Series, much less 4.
On the same day, Boris Petrovich Mikhailov is born in Moscow. He was a left-wing right-winger, playing for the Soviet hockey team from 1962 to 1981, as captain the last few years. Playing for the Army team, CSKA Moscow, he scored 427 goals, a career record in the Soviet league at the time. He won Olympic Gold Medals in 1972 and 1976.
Alas, he's best known for a game he lost. In the buildup to the U.S.-U.S.S.R. game at Lake Placid, New York on February 22, 1980, U.S. coach Herb Brooks said, "Boris Mikhailov looks like Stan Laurel." In the game in question, he played as if he was built like Laurel's comedy partner, the corpulent Oliver Hardy, and "We beat the Russians!" 4-3. The Soviets still won the Silver Medal, while we won the Gold.
He has since coached some teams, including CSKA Moscow, which, since the fall of the Soviet Union and the transition to the Russian Federation, is no longer affiliated with the Red Army. At 71, he now looks a bit like American talk-show host Dennis Prager -- who's right-wing in politics rather than in sports.
On the same day, Boris Petrovich Mikhailov is born in Moscow. He was a left-wing right-winger, playing for the Soviet hockey team from 1962 to 1981, as captain the last few years. Playing for the Army team, CSKA Moscow, he scored 427 goals, a career record in the Soviet league at the time. He won Olympic Gold Medals in 1972 and 1976.
Alas, he's best known for a game he lost. In the buildup to the U.S.-U.S.S.R. game at Lake Placid, New York on February 22, 1980, U.S. coach Herb Brooks said, "Boris Mikhailov looks like Stan Laurel." In the game in question, he played as if he was built like Laurel's comedy partner, the corpulent Oliver Hardy, and "We beat the Russians!" 4-3. The Soviets still won the Silver Medal, while we won the Gold.
He has since coached some teams, including CSKA Moscow, which, since the fall of the Soviet Union and the transition to the Russian Federation, is no longer affiliated with the Red Army. At 71, he now looks a bit like American talk-show host Dennis Prager -- who's right-wing in politics rather than in sports.
*
October 6, 1945, 70 years ago: Game 4 of the World Series is held at
Wrigley Field. William “Billy Goat” Sianis is the owner of the Billy Goat
Tavern, across from Chicago Stadium, home of the NHL’s Blackhawks and the
Midwest’s premier boxing venue. He has a goat as his bar’s mascot, and he buys 2 tickets to this game, one for himself and one for the goat.
At the time, there is no
rule against this. But fans around him complain to the ushers that the goat
smells bad, and Sianis and his goat are kicked out of the ballpark.
A Greek immigrant and a
superstitious man, Sianis puts a curse on the Cubs. The Tigers win the game,
4-1, all their runs coming in the 4th inning, after Sianis and the goat are
kicked out. The Tigers win the Series in 7, and afterward, Sianis sends a
telegram to Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley, asking, “Who stinks now?”
In 1963, Sianis would
move his bar, a precursor to today’s sports bars, to its current location on
Michigan Avenue, just north of the Loop, near the Tribune Tower and the
Sun-Times Building, making it a popular watering hole for journalists. He died
in 1970, about a year after the Cubs’ 1969 September Swoon.
His nephew Sam Sianis has
run the place ever since, and when William Wrigley Jr. sold the Cubs to the
Tribune Company in 1981, Sam offered to lift the Curse of the Billy Goat. A
number of times, Cub management has allowed Sam to take his bar’s current
mascot onto the field in an attempt to lift the Curse. It hasn’t worked:
Apparently, Billy’s curse is stronger even than his own flesh and blood.
The Cubs haven’t been back to the World Series in 70 years — over 2/3rds of a century without a Pennant, by far MLB’s record. The next-longest drought: The crosstown Chicago White Sox going 46 years without one, 1959 to 2005.
The Cubs haven’t been back to the World Series in 70 years — over 2/3rds of a century without a Pennant, by far MLB’s record. The next-longest drought: The crosstown Chicago White Sox going 46 years without one, 1959 to 2005.
Is the goat the reason?
Well, let’s put it this way: In 1945, the Cubs had already not been World
Champions for 37 years, and had already had a number of weird things happen to
them in Series play, including a 10-run inning by the A’s in 1929, Babe Ruth’s
alleged “called shot” in 1932, and Stan Hack leading off the 9th with a triple
with what would be the tying run and then getting stranded there to lose Game 6
and the Series to the Tigers in 1935. The goat curse doesn’t explain any of
that.
So what’s the real
reason the Cubs haven’t won the World Series in 107 years now? Your guess is as
good as mine.
Shortstop Lennie Merullo died this past May 30, at 98 years old. He was the last living man to have played for the Chicago Cubs in a World Series.
*
October 6, 1946: Game 1 of the World Series. The
Cardinals' Whitey Kurowski is awarded home plate on a controversial
obstruction call after he gets tangled up with Red Sox 3rd baseman Pinky
Higgins, giving the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the 8th inning.
The Red Sox tie the game in the 9th when a seemingly easy grounder takes a freak bounce, and goes through the legs of Marty Marion, the Cardinals' All-Star shortstop, a man known as The Octopus for snaring so many grounders it seems like he has 8 hands. Rudy York homers off Howie Pollet in the top of the 10th, and the Sox win 3-2.
The Red Sox tie the game in the 9th when a seemingly easy grounder takes a freak bounce, and goes through the legs of Marty Marion, the Cardinals' All-Star shortstop, a man known as The Octopus for snaring so many grounders it seems like he has 8 hands. Rudy York homers off Howie Pollet in the top of the 10th, and the Sox win 3-2.
It looks bad for Marion,
but he will not be the shortstop anyone remembers from this Series. Indeed, a
case can be made that both he and Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky belong in the
Hall of Fame.
October 6, 1947: Game 7 of the World Series, the Bronx Bombers and
Dem Bums at Yankee Stadium. The Dodgers threaten in the top of the 9th, but
catcher Bruce Edwards grounds into a double play -- shortstop Phil "the
Scooter" Rizzuto to 2nd baseman George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss to
1st baseman George McQuinn (no nickname that I can find) -- which clinches the 5-2 win for the Yankees
in Game 7 of the World Series. It is the Yankees’ 11th World Championship. The
next-closest team is the just-dethroned Cardinals with 6.
This was the 1st World
Series on television, on NBC, although it wasn’t the 1st set of baseball games on
coast-to-coast TV. That wouldn’t happen until the 1951 Giants-Dodgers Playoff.
President Harry Truman had received the 1st TV set to be installed in the White
House the previous day (and had delivered the 1st televised State of the Union
Address the preceding January 6). Though a big baseball fan (he never missed an Opening Day as President, and threw out the first ball at the 1st major league game in Kansas City in 1955), he admitted his
skipped the last innings.
This was also the 1st
integrated World Series, with Jackie Robinson playing for the Dodgers. However,
it was Italians who were the major figures in the Series: Yogi Berra for
hitting the 1st pinch-hit home run in Series history in Game 3, Cookie
Lavagetto for breaking up Bill Bevens’ no-hitter with 1 out to go in Game 4,
Joe DiMaggio for coming through for the Yankees again with a homer in Game 5,
Al Gionfriddo for robbing DiMaggio with a spectacular catch in Game 6,
and Rizzuto for starting the game-ending twin killing in Game 7.
An interesting note is
that, while Bevens, Lavagetto and Gionfriddo were the biggest heroes of in this
Series, and all played in Game 7, none of them would ever play another major
league game. With Yogi's death, Yankee Bobby Brown and Dodger Ralph Branca are the only surviving players from the rosters of this World Series, 68 years later.
October 6, 1948: Game 1 of the World Series. For the 1st
time in a career that dates back 12 years (but included nearly 4 years missed
due to World War II), Bob Feller is pitching in the Fall Classic, pitching for
the Indians against Johnny Sain of the Boston Braves at Braves Field.
As could be guessed with
such great starting pitchers, the game was scoreless in the bottom of the 8th.
But Feller walked catcher Bill Salkeld, and manager Billy Southworth (who was
managing in his 4th World Series, having taken the Cardinals there 3 times)
pinch-ran Phil Masi, also a catcher, for him. Mike McCormick bunted him over to
2nd, and Feller walked Eddie Stanky intentionally to set up a double play.
Southworth sent in another pinch-runner, Sibby Sisti.
Then Feller tried to
pick Masi off 2nd, and Lou Boudreau, the Cleveland shortstop and manager,
appeared to tag him out. But umpire Bill Stewart called him safe. Tommy Holmes
singled Masi home, and the Braves won 1-0.
The next day, the
picture taken by an Associated Press photographer showed that Masi was out.
Now, there's no guarantee that the Braves wouldn't have won the game anyway --
after all, it was still scoreless at the time. But there was quite a to-do
about the play and Stewart's call. It would probably be remembered much more,
along the lines of the Don Denkinger play in the 1985 World Series, if the
Braves had gone on to win the Series, but they didn't.
Masi was actually a pretty good player, a good-fielding catcher who batted a decent .264 and made 4 All-Star Games. He died on May 29, 1990 at the age of 74. Upon his death, his will revealed that he knew he really was out on the pick-off play. He deserves to be known for more than that.
Masi was actually a pretty good player, a good-fielding catcher who batted a decent .264 and made 4 All-Star Games. He died on May 29, 1990 at the age of 74. Upon his death, his will revealed that he knew he really was out on the pick-off play. He deserves to be known for more than that.
Stewart got a bum rap. Actually, he was one of the larger sports figures of his time. This was his 3rd World Series, and he would be assigned to a 4th, in 1953. He had also umpired in his 3rd All-Star Game in 1948, and was assigned to a 4th in 1954. He was also named crew chief for the 1951 Dodgers-Giants Playoff series. He had been behind the plate for Johnny Vander Meer's 2nd straight no-hitter in 1938.
And that wasn't the biggest thing he did that year: The native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, who had been a pro baseball and hockey player, coached the Chicago Blackhawks to the 1938 Stanley Cup, making him the 1st American-born coach to win it. He also refereed in hockey, and lived until 1964, age 70.
And that wasn't the biggest thing he did that year: The native of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, who had been a pro baseball and hockey player, coached the Chicago Blackhawks to the 1938 Stanley Cup, making him the 1st American-born coach to win it. He also refereed in hockey, and lived until 1964, age 70.
October 6, 1949: Game 2 of the World Series. After
yesterday's 1-0 duel between Allie Reynolds of the Yankees
and Don Newcombe of the Dodgers, Preacher Roe pitches a shutout and
wins 1-0, to tie up the Series. But the Dodgers won't win another Series game
for 3 years.
*
October 6, 1950: Game 3 of the World Series. The Phillies
lead the Yankees 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, but Ken Heintzelman runs out of
gas and control, and walks the bases loaded. Jim Konstanty comes in, and gets Bobby Brown to ground to short, but Granny Hamner misplays it, and the game is tied. The Yankees load the bases again in the bottom of the 9th, and
Jerry Coleman singles home the winning run, 3-2.
The Phils had now played
3 games in this Series, and lost each of them by 1 run. Rotten luck, to be sure, but
a champion finds a way to win those games. The Yankees did.
October 6, 1951: The World Series returns to the Polo
Grounds for the 1st time in 14 years. In the bottom of the 5th, Rizzuto tries
to turn a double play, but Eddie Stanky, the former Dodger and Braves playing his
last games before retiring, kicks the ball out of the Scooter's glove. This
opens the door to a 5-run inning, highlighted by Whitey Lockman's 2-run homer.
The Giants win 6-2, and take a 2-games-to-1 lead in the Series.
The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff continues... but it stops the next day.
The Miracle of Coogan's Bluff continues... but it stops the next day.
October 6, 1952: Game 6 of the World Series. Duke Snider hits 2 home runs, becoming the 1st man other than Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig to hit 4 of them in a single Series. The 1st one puts the Dodgers up 1-0 in the 6th. The Dodgers are 9 outs away from their 1st Series win.
But Dodger starter Billy Loes falls apart in the top of the 7th. He gives up a game-tying home run to Yogi Berra and a single to Gene Woodling singles, and then he balks Woodling over to 2nd. Vic Raschi, the opposing pitcher, hits the ball off Loes, and it goes into right field, scoring Woodling. Loes would later say, "I lost it in the sun."
How do you lose a ground ball in the sun? Believe it or not, he wasn't trying to be funny: The way Ebbets Field was built, the setting autumn sun came through the decks, and got in his eyes.
Mickey Mantle leads off the top of the 8th with a home run, his 1st in Series play. There would be more. Snider hits his 2nd homer of the game in the bottom of the 8th, but Casey Stengel calls on Allie Reynolds to relieve, and he slams the door, giving the Yankees a 3-2 win, and sending one of the best World Series ever to a decisive Game 7 at Ebbets Field tomorrow.
October 6, 1956: Game 3 of the World Series. Billy Martin sure did love hitting against the Dodgers, and he comes through with another home run. Enos Slaughter hits one, Whitey Ford pitches a complete game, and the Yankees win, 5-3.
The Dodgers still lead the Series, 2 games to 1, but the Yankees are back in it.
October 6, 1957: Game 4 of the World Series. Eddie Matthews
becomes the 1st National Leaguer to hit what we would now call a “walkoff” home
run in a World Series game, and the 1st player in either League to do it in
extra innings, hitting one out of Yankee pitcher Bob Grim in the bottom of the
10th, to give the Milwaukee Braves a 7-5 win, and even the World Series at 2
games apiece.
This was the Shoe Polish
Game, in which Braves pinch-hitter Vernal Leroy “Nippy” Jones claimed to have
been hit on the foot by a Tommy Byrne pitch, and a smudge of polish on the ball
revealed him to be telling the truth, leading to a Brave run.
Nippy, who had been sent
up to pinch-hit for Warren Spahn, was replaced by pinch-runner Felix Mantilla,
who was sacrificed to 2nd by Red Schoendienst, and then came Mathews’ blast.
Like Jones, Schoendienst
had played on the 1946 World Champion Cardinals. Mantilla, later an original
1962 Met, should not be confused with Felix Millan, also a Met 2nd
baseman and a member of their 1973 Pennant winners.
Another World Series
shoe-polish incident would occur in favor of the Mets in 1969, with Cleon
Jones – although they are not related, as Nippy was white and Cleon is black.
Cleon's hit-by-pitch was also followed by a home run, by Donn Clendenon,
although it was the 6th inning, and the Mets had yet to take the lead -- but
they did.
Players from this game
who are still alive, 58 years later: From the Braves, Schoendienst, Mantilla,
Hank Aaron and Del Crandall; from the Yankees: Tony Kubek (a Milwaukee native who didn't have a major league team while growing up there) and Bobby Shantz. Whitey Ford is still alive, but
did not appear in this game.
Also on this day, Bruce David Grobbelaar is born in Durban, South Africa, and grows up in neighboring Rhodesia. He was good cricket player in his youth, and was offered a baseball scholarship in the U.S. But soccer was his first love, and the civil war in his homeland was his first duty. He saw things no man should see, and his side lost.
Rhodesia had a white-supremacist government (not that it was Grobbelaar's fault), and, when the black majority won, the country became Zimbabwe. The new President, Robert Mugabe, was hailed around the world for defeating a murderous regime. But his own has been just as bad, and he's still in power.
Grobbelaar did come to North America, following the opposite path of many players in his time: First the North American Soccer League, then stardom in Europe. He was a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps team that won the 1979 NASL title, although he made just 1 appearance (not in the title game, a.k.a. the Soccer Bowl). He was the starting goalkeeper in 1980.
From 1981 to 1994, he played for Liverpool F.C., winning the following: 6 League titles, 3 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, and the 1984 European Cup. He was on hand for the 2 great Liverpool-connected tragedies of the 1980s. First, the Heysel Stadium Disaster on the night of the 1985 European Cup Final, which Liverpool lost to Juventus when he couldn't save a dubiously-awarded penalty kick from Michel Platini. Before the game, Liverpool fans had charged at the Italians who had come to Brussels, Belgium to support Juventus. Had they stood their ground, they would have at least survived. But they ran, and crashed into a stadium wall that collapsed, killing 39 of them.
On April 15, 1989, Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Semifinal, on neutral ground at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. Someone opened the wrong gate, and there was a crush of fans, and 96 people died. It was not immediately clear that this was not a "pitch invasion" by hooligans, and so the media didn't get it at first. As soon as Grobbelaar "got it," his military training kicked in, and he ran to help. But the police, who had already made a bad situation a horrible one, made it worse by not letting him help. He could have saved some lives.
He continued to play regularly until 1997, and made the occasional one-off appearance until 2007. He is now back in Canada, as goalkeeping coach for the Ottawa Fury.
October 6, 1958: Game 5 of the World Series. Bullet Bob Turley, about to become the 1st Yankee to win the Cy Young Award, comes up with one of the great clutch performances in team history, pitching a 5-hit shutout. Gil McDougald hits a home run, and the Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves, 7-0.
The Series goes to a Game 6 in Milwaukee, and the Yankees have turned the Braves' momentum around.
Also on this day, Bruce David Grobbelaar is born in Durban, South Africa, and grows up in neighboring Rhodesia. He was good cricket player in his youth, and was offered a baseball scholarship in the U.S. But soccer was his first love, and the civil war in his homeland was his first duty. He saw things no man should see, and his side lost.
Rhodesia had a white-supremacist government (not that it was Grobbelaar's fault), and, when the black majority won, the country became Zimbabwe. The new President, Robert Mugabe, was hailed around the world for defeating a murderous regime. But his own has been just as bad, and he's still in power.
Grobbelaar did come to North America, following the opposite path of many players in his time: First the North American Soccer League, then stardom in Europe. He was a member of the Vancouver Whitecaps team that won the 1979 NASL title, although he made just 1 appearance (not in the title game, a.k.a. the Soccer Bowl). He was the starting goalkeeper in 1980.
From 1981 to 1994, he played for Liverpool F.C., winning the following: 6 League titles, 3 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, and the 1984 European Cup. He was on hand for the 2 great Liverpool-connected tragedies of the 1980s. First, the Heysel Stadium Disaster on the night of the 1985 European Cup Final, which Liverpool lost to Juventus when he couldn't save a dubiously-awarded penalty kick from Michel Platini. Before the game, Liverpool fans had charged at the Italians who had come to Brussels, Belgium to support Juventus. Had they stood their ground, they would have at least survived. But they ran, and crashed into a stadium wall that collapsed, killing 39 of them.
On April 15, 1989, Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Semifinal, on neutral ground at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. Someone opened the wrong gate, and there was a crush of fans, and 96 people died. It was not immediately clear that this was not a "pitch invasion" by hooligans, and so the media didn't get it at first. As soon as Grobbelaar "got it," his military training kicked in, and he ran to help. But the police, who had already made a bad situation a horrible one, made it worse by not letting him help. He could have saved some lives.
He continued to play regularly until 1997, and made the occasional one-off appearance until 2007. He is now back in Canada, as goalkeeping coach for the Ottawa Fury.
October 6, 1958: Game 5 of the World Series. Bullet Bob Turley, about to become the 1st Yankee to win the Cy Young Award, comes up with one of the great clutch performances in team history, pitching a 5-hit shutout. Gil McDougald hits a home run, and the Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves, 7-0.
The Series goes to a Game 6 in Milwaukee, and the Yankees have turned the Braves' momentum around.
October 6, 1959: A crowd of 92,706, still the largest ever
for a baseball game that counts, plows into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
for Game 5 of the World Series. Dick Donovan shuts out the Dodgers, and Sherm
Lollar grounds into a double play that forces home a run, and the White Sox
win, 1-0, with Bob Shaw outdueling Sandy Koufax (not yet a star). This will
remain the last World Series game won by a Chicago team for 46 years.
Players from this game
who are still alive, 55 years later: From the Dodgers: Sandy Koufax, Maury
Wills, Joe Pignatano, Wally Moon, Don Demeter, Ron Fairly, Chuck Essegian and
Stan Williams (Don Zimmer died earlier this year); from the White Sox: Luis
Aparicio, Jim Landis, Jim Rivera, Billy Pierce and Jim McAnany.
Also on this day, Dennis
Ray Boyd is born. The Red Sox pitcher will be nicknamed “Oil Can,” because
that’s what people in his native Meridian, Mississippi called a can of beer.
Despite helping them to the 1986 World Series, Boyd will be remembered for his
eccentricities more than his pitching, which led to a career record of 78-77.
He recently wrote a
memoir detailing his drug use during his career, and played Satchel Paige
in 42, the movie about Jackie Robinson -- a nod to his father,
Willie Boyd, who pitched in the Negro Leagues.
*
October 6, 1960: Game 2 of the World Series. The Pirates'
Game 1 victory seems like a lifetime ago as the Yankees pound them 16-3. Mickey
Mantle hits 2 home runs, and a 7-run 6th inning knocks the Bucs off.
The pattern for the
Series is set: The Yankees win their games in blowouts, the Pirates win their
games close, but they count just the same.
October 6, 1963: Game 4 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mickey Mantle hits a home run off Sandy Koufax, his 15th in Series play, tying Babe Ruth's record. It ties the game in the top of the 7th inning.
But in the bottom of the inning, Jim Gilliam hits a high hopper to 3rd baseman Clete Boyer. He leaps to make the grab, and fires to 1st base. But 1st baseman Joe Pepitone can't see the white ball against the white-shirted crowd background. The ball hits him in the arm and rolls down the right field line, allowing Gilliam to get to 3rd. He scores on Willie Davis' sacrifice fly, and the Dodgers win 2-1, and take the Series in 4 straight. Koufax had also won Game 1, with 15 strikeouts.
This is the 1st time the Dodgers have ever won a World Series at home -- in Brooklyn or Los Angeles. The Dodgers used just 4 pitchers: Koufax, 1955 Series hero Johnny Podres, Don Drysdale and Ron Perranoski, and they gave up just 4 runs in the 4 games.
The Yankees had come into this 1st West Coast version of Yankees vs. Dodgers having won 104 games, but would not win another until next April. It is also the 1st time the Yankees have ever been swept in a Series, having done it to St. Louis in 1928, the Cubs in 1932 and 1938, Cincinnati in 1939 and Philadelphia in 1950. The Reds would get revenge for 1939 by sweeping the Yankees in 1976.
This was also the 1st-ever Finals meeting, in any sport, between New York and Los Angeles. The Yankees would beat the Dodgers in 1977 and 1978, but the Dodgers would win in 1981. (The Mets and Angels have never met in a World Series, though 1986 was a very close call.) The Knicks beat the Lakers in the 1970 and 1973 NBA Finals, and the Lakers beat the Knicks in 1972. The Los Angeles Kings beat the Devils in the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals and the Rangers in 2014, but the Devils beat the Anaheim Ducks (if you want to count that as "New York" vs. "Los Angeles") in 2003. Neither the Giants nor the Jets have ever played a Los Angeles team in an NFL (under the Super Bowl name or before) or AFL Championship Game.
The baseball gods -- if such beings exist -- were kind to Willie Davis on this day, allowing him to drive in the winning run of the World Series under weird conditions. They will turn on him 3 years later, in the same stadium, also under weird conditions.
October 6, 1965, 50 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota — the 1st World Series game ever played in that State. Koufax, being Jewish, does not pitch today, because it is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. So he is pushed back to Game 2, and Don Drysdale is started. No problem, right? Big D is also a future Hall-of-Famer, right?
Not today: Don Mincher
and soon-to-be AL MVP Zoilo Versalles (who hit only 2 homers in the regular
season, and got the MVP for his contact hitting, speed and defense) hit home
runs off Drysdale, and when manager Walter Alston comes to take him out in the
3rd inning, Drysdale says to him, “I bet you wish I was Jewish, too!”
Jim “Mudcat” Grant
allows only one hit, a home run by Ron Fairly, and the Twins, in the 1st World
Series game in their history (unless you count their Washington Senators days,
in which case it’s their first in 32 years), win 8-2.
To make matters worse
for the Dodgers, Koufax loses Game 2 as well. The Dodgers will come back,
though, and win the
Series in 7 games. The Twins will not get this close to a World Championship
again for another 22 years.
Also on this day, Rubén Angel Sierra García is born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. A 4-time All-Star, he starred in right field with the Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics, leading the AL with 119 RBIs in 1989. At the time, he was arguably the best player in Ranger history, especially if you consider that Fergie Jenkins and Nolan Ryan had spent most of their careers elsewhere. He helped the A's win the AL West in 1992.
In 1995, the A's traded Sierra to the Yankees for Danny Tartabull. He hit a tremendous blast for a home run in Game 2 of the AL Division Series, followed immediately by Don Mattingly's "hang onto the roof" homer, and later by Jim Leyrtiz' walkoff shot. But he batted just .174 in that series, which the Yankees lost.
Joe Torre was hired as manager the next season, and he didn't like Sierra's attitude, so he was traded to the Tigers for Cecil Fielder, and that made a big difference come October. Apparently, lots of other people didn't like his attitude, as he played for 6 different teams in 4 seasons from 1995 to 1998.
He must have changed his attitude, because in 2001, he was back with the Rangers, and won AL Comeback Player of the Year. Torre apparently approved, because the Yankees reacquired Sierra in 2003, and he finally played in a World Series. He helped the Yankees win the AL East in 2004 and '05, and the Twins win the AL Central in 2006, and then hung 'em up.
He finished his career with 306 home runs, and the Rangers elected him to their team Hall of Fame. As far as I know, he is not currently employed in baseball, and has never returned to Yankee Stadium (old or new) for Old-Timers' Day.
October 6, 1966: Game 2 of the World Series. Dodger
outfielder Willie Davis, having trouble seeing a white baseball against the
smog-gray L.A. sky, commits 3 errors in one inning, enabling the Baltimore
Orioles to win 6-0, and take both World Series games at Dodger Stadium, and
head back to Memorial Stadium with a 2-0 lead. Jim Palmer, days short of his 21st birthday, outduels Koufax, who
struggles with the Oriole bats, Davis’ fielding, and the pain in his elbow.
Koufax hasn't told very many people yet, but he's already decided that this is his last major league game. He is not yet 31. This could be called a “generational hinge” game.
On this same day, LSD is
declared illegal throughout the United States.
Also on this day, Niall
John Quinn is born in Dublin, Ireland. Most Americans don’t know who he is. He
was a soccer forward played on Arsenal’s 1987 League Cup-winning
team, and, phased out in favor of Alan Smith, was a reserve on their 1989
League Championship team.
He moved on to
Manchester City, where he became a star, and even performed admirably in an
emergency stint it goal. But on their 1992 preseason tour in Italy, he got in
an altercation with teammate Steve McMahon, who had been on the other side when
Arsenal beat Liverpool in the season finale that decided that League
title. McMahon looked like a fool that night, signaling to his teammates
that there would be just 1 minute of injury time, when there turned out to be
2, with Michael Thomas scoring the winning goal in said 92nd minute. But Quinn
didn’t play in that game.
After their fight on that preseason tour, Quinn pulled off his T-shirt, stained with McMahon’s blood, so he wouldn’t be denied entry into a dance club, danced his arse off (as they’d say in the British Isles), and, seen wearing only a pair of cutoff jeans by a Man City fan who was in the club, heard that fan sing, to the tune of “The Stars and Stripes Forever,”…
Niall Quinn’s disco
pants are the best!
They go up from his arse
to his chest!
They are better than
Adam and the Ants!
Niall Quinn’s disco
pants!
Quinn, who has called it
“the song that will follow me to the end of my career,” admits that he no
longer has those pants. However, they can’t possibly fail to be better than
Adam and the Ants. They sucked.
Quinn finished his
playing career for Sunderland A.F.C., saying, "I learned my trade at
Arsenal, became a footballer at Manchester City, but Sunderland got under my
skin. I love Sunderland." He then went into management, eventually
buying a part-ownership of the Sunderland team and being made its chairman. He
has since sold his stake in the team, and has returned to color commentary on
soccer games (or, should I say, “colour commentary on football matches”).
In 2006, Sunderland,
then in English football’s 2nd division, were playing away at Cardiff City,
along with Swansea City one of two teams from Wales in the 92-team English
Football League. Sunderland won, and Quinn got on the plane that was to take
him, the players, and a few fans back to Sunderland. Already, there was a
problem, as Cardiff’s airport wasn’t willing to take them. They had to go 40
miles across a bay to Bristol, England. Recognized by some fans, who’d already
had a few drinks that night, they started singing “Niall Quinn’s Disco Pants.”
At the top of their lungs.
A few of the other
passengers complained, and the pilot had 80 people thrown off the plane. The
airline, EasyJet, told them they could have seats on the first plane out the
next morning, at no extra charge — but wouldn’t give them a place to spend the
night. They were really in a bind.
Quinn pulled out the
club checkbook – since it’s Britain, I should say “chequebook” – and hired
taxis. He paid 8,000 pounds, about $15,000 at the time, to take them up
Britain’s M5 Motorway, from Bristol in the southwest of England to Sunderland
in the northeast — about 300 miles, or roughly the distance from New York to
Portland, Maine. Or from Philadelphia to Boston.
This would have been
chump change for a big club like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester
United (or, now, Manchester City). But for Sunderland, it was a pretty penny.
Sunderland fans – a.k.a. “Mackems” – have never forgotten this act of
generosity, and adapted the song, including taking a pot-shot at Freddy
Shepherd, then owner of their arch-rivals, Newcastle United, a.k.a. the Magpies
or Mags (and since replacing him with Mike Ashley, current Newcastle owner):
Niall Quinn’s taxi cabs
are the best!
So go shove it up your
arse, EasyJet!
Fat Freddy/Fat Ashley
wouldn’t do it for the Mags!
Niall Quinn’s taxi cabs!
I don’t like Sunderland,
but, using the U.K. vernacular, Niall Quinn is a top man.
*
October 6, 1968: Game 4 of the World Series. Bob Gibson of
the Cardinals earns his 7th straight Series win: After losing Game 2 to
the Yankees in 1964, he then won Games 5 and 7, and Games 1, 4 and 7 in 1967,
before his 17-strikeout masterwork in this year's Game 1, and now this. He has
lived up to the hype of his 1.12 ERA regular season.
Denny McLain of the
Tigers, however, has not lived up to the hype of his 31-6 season, having now
been beaten by Gibson twice. Lou Brock misses the cycle by a single, and his
stolen base gives him 7 in the 1st 4 games. The Cardinals win 10-1, and need 1
more win to wrap up the Series. If they can't do it in Game 5 in Detroit
tomorrow, Games 6 and 7 will be at home in St. Louis.
Before the game,
Detroit's own (well, Motown Records' own, since he's actually from Washington,
D.C.) Marvin Gaye sings the "The Star-Spangled Banner." An
overtly sexy black man singing the National Anthem? In 1968, the year of Martin
Luther King's assassination and the accompanying race riots? The man who chose
Detroit's anthem singers must have had some real guts.
The man chosen to choose
the anthem singers for the Tiger Stadium games had guts, all right. He was a
World War II Marine. True, he never saw combat, but was still a Marine. He was also
an ordained minister. And a published songwriter. And a Tiger broadcaster, so
he was qualified on any level to choose the Tigers' anthem singers. He was
Ernie Harwell.
Marvin sings the Anthem straight, gets a nice hand, and no one seems to object. That will not be the
case with tomorrow's singer. When Marvin, in the midst of an ill-fated
comeback, sings the Anthem before the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, it will be a very
different performance.
October 6, 1969: Tommie Agee, Ken Boswell and Wayne Garrett
all hit home runs, leading the Mets to defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-4
at Shea Stadium, and sweep the 1st-ever National League Championship Series. As
they did after the NL Eastern Division clincher on September 24, the Met fans
storm the field.
It is the 1st Pennant
won by a New York team in 5 years. A long time by New York standards. But for
Met fans, the children of a “shotgun wedding” between 2 groups of fans who
once hated each other, to use the late scientist and former Giant fan Stephen
Jay Gould’s phrase, “with that love that only hate can understand,” it is the
1st Pennant in either 13 years (Dodgers) or 15 years (Giants).
After 7 bad years, 5 of
them absolutely horrible, in Year 8 the Mets have won the Pennant. It is the
fastest any team has reached the World Series since the early days of the
competition. It will be 1980 – or 1973, if you count the Mets’ 2nd Pennant –
before a team other than one of the “Original 16” reaches the World Series
again.
The 1st-ever American
League Championship Series also ends in a sweep today. Paul Blair gets 5 hits
and Don Buford 4, as the Baltimore Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins 11-2 at
Metropolitan Stadium. The Series is set: The heavily-favored 109-win Orioles
will face the surprising 100-win "Miracle Mets."
*
October 6, 1970: Darren Christopher Oliver is born in Kansas City, Missouri, where his father, Bob Oliver, was then a 1st baseman for the Kansas City Royals. Darren grew up in Rio Linda, California, outside Sacramento, and became a pitcher. He reached the postseason with the 1996 Rangers, the 2004 Astros, the 2006 Mets, and the 2007, '08 and '09 Angels, before returning to the Rangers and helping them win their 1st Pennants in 2010 and '11.
He last pitched with Toronto in 2013, ended his career with a record of 118-98, and now works in the Rangers' front office.
October 6, 1973: Game 1 of the NLCS. Both the Mets and the
Reds have something to prove: The Mets, that their 1969 "Miracle"
wasn't a fluke; and the Reds, that they could win the big one, after losing the
World Series in 1970 and '72.
Tom Seaver goes the
distance for the Mets. Perhaps manager Yogi Berra left him in for too long: Johnny Bench takes him deep for a walkoff home run, and the Reds win 2-1. The
big hits of this series have begun -- and they won't all be with the bats.
Also on this day, Rebecca Rose Lobo is born in Hartford, Connecticut, and grows up in nearby Southwick, Massachusetts. In 1995, she led the women's basketball team at the University of Connecticut to a 35-0 record and the National Championship. She then won a Gold Medal with the U.S. team at the 1996 Olympics.
The WNBA then started, and she starred for the New York Liberty, but never won a title. She is now an announcer for ESPN. She married Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin at the Basketball Hall of Fame, of which she is (unfairly) not yet a member. They have 3 children.
Also on this day, Ioan Gruffudd is born in Cardiff, Wales. His name is pronounced like "Ian Griffith." He played football (soccer) in school before going into acting. He played Sir Lancelot in the 2004 Clive Owen version of King Arthur, Prime Minister Tony Blair in Oliver Stone's W., and Dr. Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards in the 2000s Fantastic Four films. He now plays an immortal doctor on the ABC drama Forever.
October 6, 1974: Per Anders Kenny Jönsson is born in Ängelholm, Sweden. The defenseman led his country to Olympic hockey Gold Medals in 1994 and 2006, and was a 1999 NHL All-Star with the Islanders. He is now back in Sweden, an assistant coach for Helsingborg.
October 6, 1976: Freddy Antonio García is born in Caracas, Venezuela. The pitcher has had quite a career, reaching the postseason with the 2001 Seattle Mariners (winning 116 games before falling to the Yankees in the ALCS), the 2005 Chicago White Sox (winning the World Series), the 2007 Philadelphia Phillies, the 2011 and '12 Yankees, and the 2013 Atlanta Braves.
The Braves released him in 2014, and he spent the season playing in Taiwan. The Dodgers signed him in this year's spring training, but released him after 4 bad starts at Triple-A. But he's fooled people before: The Mets had signed him in 2009, and let him go after he was no good in Triple-A. He might not be done. He was an All-Star in 2001 (leading the AL in ERA) and '02, and his career record currently stands at a fine 156-108.
October 6, 1977: Game 2 of the ALCS. After being embarrassed by Paul Splittorff yesterday, the Yankees need a big-game pitcher. For the 1st time, Ron Guidry proves to be one, scattering 3 hits as the Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2. The series is even as it heads to Kansas City.
Also on this day, Daniel Jean-Claude Brière is born in Gatineau, Quebec, outside Ottawa. The center captained the Philadelphia Flyers into the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals, and recently announced his retirement after 19 seasons, 2 All-Star appearances and 309 goals.
October 6, 1978: Game 3 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium.
The winner will take a 2-1 lead in the series. George Brett of the Royals
hits 3 home runs off Catfish Hunter, still the only 3-homer performance in LCS
play in either league.
But in the bottom of the
8th, with the Yankees trailing 5-4, Thurman Munson steps up against Royals
reliever Doug Bird, and crushes a pitch 470 feet to left-center field. On ABC,
Howard Cosell, who admired Munson a lot, laughs: “Ho-ho! The damaged man!”
Goose Gossage finishes
it off for Catfish, and the Yankees win, 6-5. Reggie Jackson had also homered,
his 2nd of this series, after taking KC closer Al “the Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky
deep in Game 1 at Royals Stadium.
This is what I love most
about Munson: At the moment when the Yankees most needed him to hit a home run,
the banged-up Captain hit the longest home run of his career. Appropriately, it
went into Monument Park. At this point, the only players honored there were the
big 4: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle – along with owner Jacob Ruppert,
general manager Ed Barrow, managers Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel,
and the plaque honoring the Mass delivered by Pope Paul VI.
The next plaque to be
dedicated would be the one for the Mass delivered by Pope John Paul II, but the
next one for a Yankee would be, sadly, for Munson himself.
Also on this day, Richard John Hatton is born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. He's been Light Welterweight and Welterweight Champion of the World. In 2005, The Ring magazine, "the Bible of Boxing," named him Fighter of the Year.
Ricky hasn't fought in 3 years, and only once in 6, but he's only 37, and the only thing that makes a boxer permanently retired is death.
October 6, 1979: Game 4 of the ALCS. Pat Kelly (not the later Yankee 2nd baseman) hits a home
run and drives in 3, Scott McGregor pitches a shutout, and the Orioles beat the
California Angels 8-0 to take the Pennant. It is Baltimore's 5th flag in the
last 14 seasons, but their 1st in 8.
The Angels' 1st trip to
the postseason, after 19 years of trying, is a disappointment, although
their Don Baylor (later a Yankee) will edge the O's Ken Singleton (now a Yankee broadcaster) for
the AL Most Valuable Player award.
*
October 6, 1980: Having lost 3 straight to
the Dodgers, the Houston Astros must now play them in a one-game Playoff
to decide the NL West title, and at Dodger Stadium, no less.
No problem: Art Howe
drives in 4 runs (which is more than the Astro 2nd baseman ever did for
the Mets as their manager), and Joe Niekro knuckleballs his way to his 20th win
of the season, and the Astros win, 7-1. In what is unofficially the 1st
postseason game in their 19-year history, they officially advance to the
Playoffs for the first time.
October 6, 1981: Game 1 of the AL Division Series, forced
by the strike season's split-season format. Billy Martin, now managing the
Oakland Athletics, becomes the 1st manager to take 4 franchises into the
postseason: 1969 Twins, 1972 Tigers, 1976 & '77 Yankees, 1981 A's.
The A's are facing the Royals, in Kansas City, and due to his exile there from the Yankees in 1957 and his 1976 and '77 Playoff battles against them, he hates Kansas City, and, more than usual, wants to win there.
The A's are facing the Royals, in Kansas City, and due to his exile there from the Yankees in 1957 and his 1976 and '77 Playoff battles against them, he hates Kansas City, and, more than usual, wants to win there.
No problem: Mike Norris
tosses a 6-hit shutout, and the A's win 4-0, their 1st win in a postseason game
in 7 years.
On the same day, Game 1
of the NL Division Series is played. Alan Ashby, a light-hitting catcher, hits
a walkoff home run to give the Astros another big win over the Dodgers, 3-1.
The pitcher who gave up the home run was Dave
Stewart. Both he and the Dodgers would have more luck as the postseason went
on, first together, then apart.
October 6, 1982: Reggie Jackson may now be back on the West
Coast, and no longer wearing Pinstripes, but he's still Mr. October. He hits a
home run, and the Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2. The Halos are now 1
win away from their 1st Pennant in 22 seasons of trying.
October 6, 1983: Orioles rookie
Mike Boddicker ties the LCS record with 14 strikeouts in a 4-0
shutout of the White Sox. The ALCS is tied 1-1.
October 6, 1984: A dark day in the
long, gray history of the Chicago Cubs, 39 years to the day after the Day
of the Goat. Leading the NLCS 2 games to 1, needing only 1 more win to take
their first Pennant since 1945, they are tied with the San Diego Padres in the
bottom of the 9th at Jack Murphy Stadium. But closer Lee Smith gives up an
opposite-field homer to former Dodger “hero” Steve Garvey, and the Padres win,
7-5, to tie up the series.
Fans of lots of teams
hated Garvey, due to his smugness and, as it turned out, his hypocrisy. But I
think Cub fans hate him even more than Philadelphia and Cincinnati fans do.
Certainly, they hate him more than Yankee Fans do – and that’s a lot.
October 6, 1985, 30 years ago: With the Yankees having been eliminated
from the AL East race the day before, manager Billy Martin sends 46-year-old
knuckleballer Phil Niekro (Joe's brother) out to pitch an otherwise meaningless
game at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. He allows only 4 hits, becoming the
oldest pitcher ever to pitch a complete-game shutout – top that, Nolan Ryan!
Mike Pagliarulo, Henry Cotto and Don Mattingly hit home runs, and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0 at Exhibition Stadium. Niekro has his 300th career win.
The Yankees finish 2 games behind the Jays in the American League Eastern Division, their closest finish to 1st place between 1981 and 1996 (not counting strike-shortened 1994). They win 97 games, the most they won in any season from 1980 to 1998. Yet, with the MLB setup of the time, they do not reach the postseason.
*
Mike Pagliarulo, Henry Cotto and Don Mattingly hit home runs, and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-0 at Exhibition Stadium. Niekro has his 300th career win.
The Yankees will release him after the season, despite his having won 16 games for them at age 45 and again at 46. He will pitch 2 more seasons, with his home-State Cleveland Indians, the Blue Jays, and 1 more game with his original team, the Braves – he is the last active player who had played for the Braves in Milwaukee – reaching 318 wins for his Hall of Fame career.
That makes him 16th on the all-time list, but among pitchers who’d spent most of their careers in the post-1920 Lively Ball Era, only his ex-Brave teammate Warren Spahn, and the still-active Ryan, Steve Carlton and Don Sutton had more wins before him. He has since also been passed by Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux.
With Joe having won 221, the Niekro brothers are the winningest brother combination in MLB history, with 539 wins between them. Phil also struck out 3,342 batters, then 8th all-time and now 11th. In 1973, he pitched the 1st no-hitter in Atlanta history. It took 5 tries before he was finally elected to the Hall of Fame.
The Yankees finish 2 games behind the Jays in the American League Eastern Division, their closest finish to 1st place between 1981 and 1996 (not counting strike-shortened 1994). They win 97 games, the most they won in any season from 1980 to 1998. Yet, with the MLB setup of the time, they do not reach the postseason.
*
October 6, 1991: The final game is played at Memorial
Stadium in Baltimore. The Orioles lose to the Tigers, 7-3. Afterward, while the
music from Field of Dreams plays, Brooks Robinson trots back
out to his old position of 3rd base, followed by Frank Robinson into right
field, Jim Palmer to the pitcher’s mound, and so on, until Cal Ripken goes to
shortstop as the last player, and Earl Weaver gives one last lineup card (no
doubt with little room on it) to an umpire.
This ceremony paves the
way for many ballpark closing ceremonies since, including the farewell to the
old Yankee Stadium (which, neatly, was against the Orioles).
The Orioles moved into Oriole Park at Camden Yards the following April, and the NFL’s Ravens played their first 2 seasons (1996-97) at Memorial before moving into their own stadium at Camden Yards. Memorial Stadium, built in 1954, is demolished in 2002. Senior citizen housing was built on the site.
The Orioles moved into Oriole Park at Camden Yards the following April, and the NFL’s Ravens played their first 2 seasons (1996-97) at Memorial before moving into their own stadium at Camden Yards. Memorial Stadium, built in 1954, is demolished in 2002. Senior citizen housing was built on the site.
The same day that Memorial
Stadium hosted its last baseball game, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia hosts
an interesting and troubled one. With a policeman watching his every move from
the Met dugout, and the fear of being arrested at any moment due to rape
allegations (which were later proven false), David Cone ties a National League
mark for strikeouts as he fans 19 Phillies, en route to a 7-0 victory in the
season’s finale.
In spite of the charges
against him having come to nothing, the Mets let him get away in the off-season,
and, except for a brief comeback in 2003, he never pitched for them again. He
did, however pitch for another New York team, and far more successfully than he
ever did for the Mets.
That 1991 season remains the last one in which the Mets finished with a better attendance than the Yankees. And only twice since have they had a better record, in 2000 and 2015. (In 2000, the Yankees beat them in the World Series. 2015?)
October 6, 1992: Chuck Rayner dies at age 82. The Hall of Fame goaltender played for both of New York's old hockey teams, starting with the Americans. In 1950, he won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, and helped the Rangers reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
In other hockey news, the long-awaited NHL debut of Eric Lindros happens at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. He scores a goal, but so does Mario Lemieux, and Lindros' Philadelphia Flyers and Lemieux's Pittsburgh Penguins finish in a 3-3 tie.
October 6, 1993: The Florida Panthers make their NHL debut, at Chicago Stadium. They get goals from their 1st Captain, Brian Skrudland, and also from Andrei Lomakin, Scott Mellanby and Gord Murphy. It's not enough, as they finish in a 4-4 tie with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Also on this day, something happens of greater concern to the usual denizens of Chicago Stadium: Michael Jordan retires from basketball for the 1st time, after 3 straight NBA Championships, at the age of 30. He says he has "lost his desire" for basketball.
The speculation at the time was that he was distraught over the death of his father, James, murdered in North Carolina the previous summer. Jordan would later confirm this. The speculation now is that his gambling debts put him in trouble with organized crime, and NBA Commissioner David Stern, having to punish him but not willing to throw away the greatest meal ticket his league will ever have, asked Jordan to compromise: Step away from the game for a while, in such a way that it looks like your decision, and settle things.
Whatever the truth was, on March 18, 1995, he announced, "I'm back."
October 6, 1995, 20 years ago: Game 3 of the ALDS, the 1st postseason game ever played in Seattle. Bernie Williams becomes the 1st player to hit a home run from each side of the plate in a postseason game. But Randy Johnson shuts the Yankees down, and the Seattle Mariners win 7-4, for their 1st-ever postseason victory.
Also played today is
Game 3 of the NL Division Series. The Colorado Rockies win a postseason
game for the 1st time, defeating the Braves 7-5 in 10 innings at Coors
Field, to stave off elimination.
October 6, 1997: Johnny Vander Meer dies of an abdominal aneurysm at his home in Tampa. He was a few days short of turning 83. The native of Midland Park, Bergen County, New Jersey was a 4-time All-Star, a member of the 1940 World Champion Cincinnati Reds, and, on June 11 and 15, 1938, the only man ever to pitch back-to-back no-hitters.
October 6, 1998: Mark Belanger dies of lung cancer in New York. He was 54. He was the Orioles' shortstop from 1965 to 1981, including the 1966 and '70 World Champions, and the Pennant winners of 1969, '71 and '79. He was a 1976 All-Star and an 8-time Gold Glove winner.
October 6, 1999: The Sovereign Bank Arena opens in Trenton, New Jersey. It is now known as the Sun National Bank Center. The 8,600-seat arena was home to minor league hockey's Trenton Titans from 1999 to 2013, and has hosted high school and college basketball, professional "wrestling" and concerts.
Earlier this year, along with my mother and my 8-year-old twin nieces, I saw the Harlem Globetrotters there. Mom and I had previously seen the Globies at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands in 1985 and 1986. Contary to my previous belief, she had not seen them with her parents at the old Madison Square Garden in the 1950s.
*
October 6, 2000: The Minnesota Wild make their NHL debut, at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Marian Gaborik scores their 1st goal, but they lose 3-1 to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
October 6, 2001: Another farewell in Baltimore. At Camden
Yards, in front of a full house including Orioles notables both Robinsons,
Palmer and Weaver, as well as Commissioner Bud Selig and former President Bill
Clinton, Cal Ripken plays his 3,001st and final game. After a hitless night for
the 41-year-old, the final out of the 5-1 loss to Red Sox is made as Cal
watches from the on deck circle.
In Seattle, with their
116th win, the Mariners tie the 1906 Cubs as the winningest team in major
league history. Bret Boone’s 37th home run of the season and the shutout
pitching of 5 Seattle pitchers prove to be the difference in the 1-0 historic
win over the Texas Rangers. But the Yankees will prove to the M’s that 116
don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that ring.
At Shea Stadium, with
his 151st career pinch hit, Lenny Harris breaks the major league mark
established by Manny Mota. Coming off the Met bench to bat for Rey Ordonez, he
lines a 1-2 pitch off Expo starter Carl Pavano for a single to become the
career leader in pinch hits.
October 6, 2003: Game 5 of the ALDS. The Red Sox beat the
A's 5-4, and complete the overcoming of a 2-games-to-none deficit to win. They
will face the Yankees in the ALCS.
Also on this day, Joe Baker dies of a heart attack in Wishaw, Scotland, at age 63. He and his brother Gerry Baker were professional soccer players, and they were Scottish through and through. However, because of the rules of the time, neither of them played for the Scotland national team.
Because Gerry was born in 1938 in New Rochelle, New York, where their parents were living at the time. And Joe was born in 1940 in the Woolton section of Liverpool. Joe had to play for the England team, and in 1959 he made his debut with them, becoming the 1st player for England who had never yet played for an English club side. (Owen Hargreaves, then playing for Bayern Munich but later for Manchester United, is the only other player for whom this has been true.) To make matters worse, when he flew into London, he told a taxi driver to take him to the England training ground. Hearing Joe's accent, the driver though he was a spy for Scotland, and refused to take him. And, despite his talent, Joe was not selected for England for the 1962 or 1966 World Cup.
Which is too bad, because he was a sensational striker despite being only 5-foot-7. He starred for Edinburgh club Hibernian, a.k.a. Hibs. After a brief stay at club Torino, where he became the 1st great British "footballer" to not play well in Italy (Wales' John Charles had succeeded at the other Turin club, Juventus, so others were tried, with no success), he was signed by North London's Arsenal, and starred for them for 4 years.
But Arsenal were at a low point while he was there: They had a great attack, but a lousy defense, and were nearly relegated in 1966. Joe worked his way back north, to Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, and back to Scotland with Hibs and Raith Rovers. He briefly managed Albion Rovers, ran a pub, and was what we would now call a "gameday ambassador" for Hibs before his death.
As for Gerry, also a forward, he also played for Hibs, though not at the same time; and for Scottish clubs Motherwell and St. Mirren, and for English clubs Manchester City, Ipswich Town and Coventry City. Forced to play his "international football" for the U.S., he played 7 times in the 1968-69 season, for the last time on May 11, 1969, in a 1-0 loss to Haiti at Balboa Park in San Diego, that eliminated the U.S. from a shot at qualifying for the 1970 World Cup -- the closest the U.S. came to qualifying between 1950 and 1990. Gerry later worked for Jaguar Cars, and lived until 2013.
Also on this day, Joe Baker dies of a heart attack in Wishaw, Scotland, at age 63. He and his brother Gerry Baker were professional soccer players, and they were Scottish through and through. However, because of the rules of the time, neither of them played for the Scotland national team.
Because Gerry was born in 1938 in New Rochelle, New York, where their parents were living at the time. And Joe was born in 1940 in the Woolton section of Liverpool. Joe had to play for the England team, and in 1959 he made his debut with them, becoming the 1st player for England who had never yet played for an English club side. (Owen Hargreaves, then playing for Bayern Munich but later for Manchester United, is the only other player for whom this has been true.) To make matters worse, when he flew into London, he told a taxi driver to take him to the England training ground. Hearing Joe's accent, the driver though he was a spy for Scotland, and refused to take him. And, despite his talent, Joe was not selected for England for the 1962 or 1966 World Cup.
Which is too bad, because he was a sensational striker despite being only 5-foot-7. He starred for Edinburgh club Hibernian, a.k.a. Hibs. After a brief stay at club Torino, where he became the 1st great British "footballer" to not play well in Italy (Wales' John Charles had succeeded at the other Turin club, Juventus, so others were tried, with no success), he was signed by North London's Arsenal, and starred for them for 4 years.
But Arsenal were at a low point while he was there: They had a great attack, but a lousy defense, and were nearly relegated in 1966. Joe worked his way back north, to Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, and back to Scotland with Hibs and Raith Rovers. He briefly managed Albion Rovers, ran a pub, and was what we would now call a "gameday ambassador" for Hibs before his death.
As for Gerry, also a forward, he also played for Hibs, though not at the same time; and for Scottish clubs Motherwell and St. Mirren, and for English clubs Manchester City, Ipswich Town and Coventry City. Forced to play his "international football" for the U.S., he played 7 times in the 1968-69 season, for the last time on May 11, 1969, in a 1-0 loss to Haiti at Balboa Park in San Diego, that eliminated the U.S. from a shot at qualifying for the 1970 World Cup -- the closest the U.S. came to qualifying between 1950 and 1990. Gerry later worked for Jaguar Cars, and lived until 2013.
October 6, 2006: After failing to advance past the 1st
round of the AL Playoffs in their previous 5 postseason appearances, the
Oakland Athletics beat the much-favored Minnesota Twins, 8-3, to complete a
3-game ALDS sweep. The victory, which was the team’s 10th opportunity to win a
clinching game, puts Oakland in ALCS for the 1st time since 1992.
This remains the only
postseason series ever won by a team with Billy Beane as its general manager.
He's been the A's GM for 19 seasons, and has never won a Pennant -- indeed, has
never won an ALCS game. Explain to me again how Beane is a “genius”?
Also on this day, Negro Leagues legend John "Buck" O'Neil dies at age 94. A few weeks earlier, the star 1st baseman and manager of the old Kansas City Monarchs had suited up for an "independent" minor-league game in Kansas City, Kansas, becoming the oldest pro baseball player ever. (His former Monarch teammate, Satchel Paige, remains the oldest major league player, at 59.) He drew a walk, made it to 1st base, and was removed for a pinch-runner.
By appearing in Ken Burns' 1994 Baseball miniseries, and by founding the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Buck had essentially been the voice of the Negro Leagues since then, and was among the most beloved men in the game. Yet he still hasn't been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Also on this day, Negro Leagues legend John "Buck" O'Neil dies at age 94. A few weeks earlier, the star 1st baseman and manager of the old Kansas City Monarchs had suited up for an "independent" minor-league game in Kansas City, Kansas, becoming the oldest pro baseball player ever. (His former Monarch teammate, Satchel Paige, remains the oldest major league player, at 59.) He drew a walk, made it to 1st base, and was removed for a pinch-runner.
By appearing in Ken Burns' 1994 Baseball miniseries, and by founding the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Buck had essentially been the voice of the Negro Leagues since then, and was among the most beloved men in the game. Yet he still hasn't been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
October 6, 2007: The Bug Game! Has it really been 8 years? In Game 2 of the ALDS at Jacobs Field, the Indians score the tying
run on a wild pitch thrown by a bug-covered Joba Chamberlain. A rare
infestation of Lake Erie Midges, which appeared en masse in the 8th inning,
impacts the rookie Yankees reliever, who suffers his 1st blown save of the
season.
We may never know why
Joe Torre didn’t tell the umpires, “Stop play until the bugs are gone, or I’m
pulling my team off the field and taking my chances with the Commissioner’s
office!” Would John McGraw have put up with that kind of shit? Would Leo
Durocher? Would Casey Stengel? Would Earl Weaver? Would Billy Martin? Would
they hell! But Torre did.
The Yankees lost the
game, 2-1, as several players — not just Alex Rodriguez — seemed to forget how
to hit. So it wasn’t just the bugs.
Also played today is
Game 3 of the NLDS. With their 17th win in 18 games, the Rockies beat the
Phillies at Coors Field, 2-1, completing a 3-game sweep to advance to
their 1st-ever NLCS. The Wild Card team will have to beat the Arizona
Diamondbacks, the NL Western Division Champions, to win the Pennant and
earn a trip to the World Series.
Among all
the disappointments in Phillies history, this one is usually given a pass.
The Phils had come from 7 games back with 17 to go, and even entered the
last day of the regular season not even assured of a Wild Card berth, but won
the NL East. It was a thrilling season that marked the beginning of the
greatest period in club history.
October 6, 2009: With one out in the bottom of the 12th
inning in the AL Central tiebreaker, the Twins beat the Tigers, 6-5, when Alexi
Casilla’s single plates Carlos Gomez from 2nd base with the winning run.
The Metrodome victory
finishes an amazing comeback by Minnesota, going 17-4 in the final month to
close a 7-game deficit, and completes a colossal collapse for the Tigers, who
become the 1st team in big league history to surrender a 3-game lead with only
4 contests to play. This, just 3 years after the Tigers blew a 15 1/2-game AL
Central lead over the Twins, the biggest Division (or pre-1969 League) choke
ever. Of course, the Tigers won the Wild Card and ended up beating the
A’s, who’d beaten the Twins, for the Pennant. And, while they won the Pennant
in 2006 and 2012, they've won just 1 World Series game in 30 years. They've now
made the Playoffs in each of the last 4 seasons (2011-14), but haven't won a
World Series game in that stretch.
Some people have taken
to calling the post-2000 Yankees "the Atlanta Braves of the American
League." Maybe they should take a closer look at the Tigers.
The result of this game -- which, for statistical purposes, is still counted as part of the regular season -- also mean that Twins catcher Joe Mauer wins his 3rd batting title, becoming the
1st player to accomplish the feat in consecutive seasons since Nomar
Garciaparra lead the AL in 1999-2000. His .365 mark establishes a
major league record for the highest batting average by a backstop.
October 6, 2010: At Citizens Bank Park, Phillies
right-hander Roy Halladay throws the 2nd no-hitter in postseason history, and becomes the 1st NL hurler to do it, when he beats the Reds, 4-0, in Game 1 of
the NLDS. He had also thrown a no-hitter in the regular season.
October 6, 2012: The 1st-ever win-or-go-home Wild Card
Playoff games are played in each League. In the AL, Orioles eliminate the
2-time defending League Champion Texas Rangers, 5-1. The victory sends the
surprising Baltimore team into the Playoffs for the first time in 15 years, a
best-3-out-of-5 ALDS against the Yankees.
But the NL play-in game
is a riot -- almost literally. The visiting Cardinals beat the Braves
6-3, in a game that will be best remembered for a disputed infield fly rule
call in the 8th inning. The irate Turner Field fans show their displeasure with
the umpires' decision on what appears to be a key Redbird error on a dropped
pop fly in the outfield by littering the playing field with debris, causing a
19-minute delay while the ground crew cleans up the assorted trash.
It is the 1st such
reaction by baseball fans since Red Sox fans hurled garbage onto the field
during Game 4 of the 1999 ALCS, when the Yankees, aided by some umpiring
mistakes, turned a 3-2 9th inning lead into a 9-2 win.
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