October 5 Baseball Anniversaries

October 5, 1941: A baseball game was played at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn that made the home fans shudder.

Arnold Malcolm Owen, better known as Mickey Owen, was a four-time National League All-Star as catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, was elected a County Sheriff, and ran the Mickey Owen Baseball School, and for the last 64 years of his life was decent enough to field questions about the one part of his life that everyone seems to remember.

I saw an interview once, with a Dodger fan, whose name I’ve forgotten, citing a far more important, and more traumatic, event that happened just two months later: “I was there. I remember that like I remember Pearl Harbor.”

It was Game 4 of the World Series. The Yankees led the Dodgers 2 games to 1, but trailed the Dodgers 4-3 in the top of the 9th. Two out. Reliever Hugh Casey was on the mound for the Dodgers, and Tommy Henrich came to bat for the Yankees. Casey got two strikes. Then he threw…

He said it was a curveball. Henrich also thought it was a curveball. But many observers, including the Yankees’ rookie shortstop, Phil Rizzuto, thought it was a spitball.

Henrich swung and missed. Strike three. Ballgame over. Dodgers win, and the World Series is tied at 2 games apiece.

Except… Owen didn’t catch the third strike. The ball tailed away from him, and he couldn’t hold onto it. It rolled all the way to the screen. Henrich saw this, and ran to first, and Owen didn’t even time to throw.

It is the most famous passed ball in baseball history, but if it was a spitball, which was and remains an illegal pitch anyway, then it should be the most famous wild pitch, and Casey rather than Owen should be faulted.

No matter. Casey only needed to get one more out. Even if Henrich represented the tying run and the next batter represented the winning run. Just one more out.

The batter was Joe DiMaggio.

Uh-oh, you don’t give DiMaggio a written invitation to keep a game alive. Especially not in 1941, when he had his 56-game hitting streak and had become the most celebrated athlete in America, ahead of Ted Williams and his .406 average, ahead of football stars Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman and Don Hutson, ahead of even heavyweight champion Joe Louis.

DiMaggio singled to left. Now the tying run was on 2nd, the potential winning run on 1st. But there were still two outs. If Casey could get the next batter, it would still end with a Dodger victory.

The batter was Charlie Keller. At this point in his career, before a back injury curtailed it, he looked like he was headed to the Hall of Fame. And he did nothing to dispel that in this at-bat: He rocketed a Casey delivery off the right-field wall, and Henrich and DiMaggio scored.

Keller would later say, “When I got to second base, you could have heard a pin drop in Ebbets Field.” The noisiest, most raucous ballpark of his time had been stunned into silence.

The Yankees scored two more runs in the inning, won 7-4, and won the World Series in the next day’s Game 5.

Keller would also say that, having won their first Pennant in 21 years, and having gotten past the arch-rival New York Giants to do it — the Giants’ last Pennant had been 4 years earlier and their last World Series win 8 — Dodger fans were talking about “taking over New York,” that they were now more popular than the Giants (probably true), and that soon they would beat the Yankees and were already more popular.

Sound familiar? It was just as stupid then as it has been in recent years when coming from Met fans, the children and grandchildren of the Dodger and Giant fans of the Forties and Fifties.

But don’t blame Owen for losing the ’41 Series:

* It was Dodger manager Leo Durocher who messed up the pitching rotation that had won the Pennant — he admitted it, a rare occasion when Leo the Lip didn’t blame someone else, such as an umpire or a dirty player on the other team, and didn’t try to claim credit solely for himself.

* It was Yankee pitcher Marius Russo who, the day before, had not only pitched brilliantly but hit a line drive off the knee of his opposite number, Giant pitcher and Dodger nemesis turned Dodger hero Fred Fitzsimmons, literally knocking him out of the game and the Series.

* It was Henrich who was alert enough to realize he could take first, and it was DiMaggio and Keller who followed it up with key hits.

* And, frankly, it was the Yankees. They were just the better team. Certainly, with many of the men on that ’41 team having played on World Championship teams of ’39, ’38, some ’37 and ’36, a few even in ’32, they were much more experienced. The Dodgers had finished 2nd in ’40 and 3rd in ’39, but before that the team hadn’t been in a Pennant race since ’24 or a World Series since ’20. Only Durocher, Joe Medwick (both ’34 Cardinals), Fitzsimmons (’33 and ’36 Giants), Billy Herman (’32, ’35 and ’38 Cubs), Johnny Allen (’32 Yankees) and a washed-up Paul Waner (’27 Pirates) had appeared in a World Series before.

*

Despite America’s entry into World War II, Owen never went into the service. I wonder if some Dodger fans said, “Mickey Owen is such a bum, even the Army don’t want him!”

I wonder if a lot of the accolades that would later come the way of Roy Campanella were due to “Mickey Owen’s Muff.” That Campy might have been cheered not just for what he was, a fantastic player and a good guy, but for what he wasn’t: Owen.

It’s not fair to Owen. He was widely respected prior to the ’41 Series, and most Dodger fans didn’t go on to hate him. Certainly, he escaped the scorn that was heaped on Ralph Branca after 1951. And neither one of them got the kind of treatment that Bill Buckner got from Boston fans after 1986.
Which is a good thing. Nobody deserves that. Well, maybe not nobody… But certainly not Buckner, nor Branca, nor Owen.

Owen died on July 13, 2005, in his home town of Mount Vernon, Missouri. He was 89. Henrich died on December 1, 2009, as the last survivor of this game. He was also the last surviving person who had been a teammate of Lou Gehrig. Herman Franks, who later helped steal a Pennant from the Dodgers as a 1951 New York Giant, had died earlier in 2009 as the last surviving ’41 Dodger.

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October 5, 1888: James “Pud” Galvin of the Pittsburgh Pirates defeats the Washington Nationals, 5-1, and becomes the first pitcher to win 300 games in a career. His career win total eventually reached 364, including 2 no-hitters, although it should be pointed out that he retired after the 1892 season, a year before the pitching distance became standardized as 60 feet, 6 inches.

As for his potentially giggle-inducing nickname, it was said that Jim Galvin “made the hitters look like pudding.”

October 5, 1889: New York wins the pennant on the final day by beating Cleveland 5-3 while Boston loses in Pittsburgh 6-1. Yet another New York edges out Boston story. Except this might be the first, the League is the National, the New York team is the Giants, and the Boston team is the Beaneaters, who would later be renamed the Braves.October 5, 1910: Philadelphia Athletics manager/co-owner Connie Mack inserts his son Earle Mack behind the plate in a game against the New York Highlanders. This appears to be the first time a manager father put his player son in a game.

Earle‚ who hit .135 in 26 minor league games this year‚ responds with a single and triple while catching Eddie Plank and Jack Coombs. The Highlanders beat the A’s 7-4, but it was hardly Earle’s fault.

Earle will mop up in late-season games next year and again in 1914‚ and serve for 25 years as his father’s coach, before moving into the front office. His brother Connie Jr. would also play for the A’s.

In 1950, Earle, Connie Jr. and their other brother Roy would finally maneuver their 88-year-old father out of the day-to-day operations of the club. No manager would again put his son into a game until 1985, when Yogi Berra played his son Dale with the Yankees.

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October 5, 1942: The St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series over the Yankees in 5 games, taking the last 3 at Yankee Stadium after splitting the first 2 in St. Louis. It is the only World Series the Yankees will lose between 1926 and 1955. It beings a 5-season stretch in which the Cards win 4 Pennants and 3 World Championships. The year they will miss the World Series will be 1945 — the first full season since his arrival that Stan Musial was not in Cardinal red. (He was in Navy blue instead.)

October 5, 1949: Game 1 of the World Series. Allie Reynolds of the Yankees and Don Newcombe of the Dodgers pitch a scoreless game, taking it to the bottom of the 9th.

Tommy Henrich leads that inning off for the Yankees, and shows why Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen nicknamed him “Old Reliable.” Or maybe he just liked hitting against the Dodgers. Or maybe he liked October 5 – it was, after all, the 8th anniversary of his benefit of Mickey Owen’s Muff. Henrich hits a home run into the right-field stands, and the Yankees win, 1-0.That was pretty much the Series: Despite putting together one of the best teams in franchise history, the Dodgers couldn’t beat the Yankees, winning only Game 2 on a shutout by Preacher Roe. Henrich’s shot is the first game-ending home run in the history of postseason baseball, the first October “walkoff.”Newcombe is the only Dodger still alive who played in this game, 62 years later. Yogi Berra and Jerry Coleman are the last surviving Yankees from it.
On this same day, Bill James is born. He would later be known as the author of the Bill James Baseball Abstract, beginning the serious study of baseball statistics. Later still, he would join the front office of the Boston Red Sox, where he would become a cheater by association.

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October 5, 1950: Game 2 of the World Series. An exhausted Robin Roberts somehow manages to hold the Yankees to a 1-1 tie for the Phillies, into the top of the 10th inning. But DiMaggio hits a home run into the left-field stands at Shibe Park, and the Yankees win, 2-1.The first three games of this Series are all close, so the Phillies did have their chanes. And it should be noted that their second-best pitcher, behind the future Hall-of-Famer Roberts, was Curt Simmons, and he had been drafted to serve in the Korean War. But the Yankees would sweep the Series.

Still alive from this game, 61 years later: Berra and Coleman for the Yankees; for the Phillies, 2 reserves, Ralph “Putsy” Caballero, and Jackie Mayo, who was a defensive replacement for Sisler in the bottom of the 10th. Whitey Ford would start and win Game 4, and is still alive, but did not appear in Game 2.

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October 5, 1953, 60 years ago: Game 6 of the World Series. Billy Martin singles up the middle in the bottom of the 9th, his record-tying 12th hit of the Series, driving in Hank Bauer with the winning run.
It is the Yankees’ 16th World Championship, and their 5th in a row. Three in a row has been done since, but not four, and certainly not five. The Montreal Canadiens would soon start a streak of five straight Stanley Cups, but they were unable to make it six. The Boston Celtics would later win eight straight NBA Titles, but basketball didn’t exactly get the best athletes then.

This was the last World Series, and the last Pennant in either League, won by an all-white team. The next season, the Yanks would lose the American League Pennant to the well-integrated Cleveland Indians, and the argument of, “Why integrate? We’re winning with what we’ve got” goes by the boards. Elston Howard becomes the first black man to play for the Yankees the following April, and the team wins 9 Pennants and 4 World Series in the next 10 years.

Still alive from this game, 58 years later: Yankees Berra and Ford, and Dodgers Carl Erskine and Bobby Morgan. (Newcombe was in the Army for the Korean War in 1952 and ’53, as Ford was in ’51 and ’52.)

October 5, 1957: The first World Series game in the State of Wisconsin is played. The Yankees beat the Milwaukee Braves 12-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium in Game 3.

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October 5, 1966: In the first World Series game in Baltimore Orioles history, Polish-born reliever Moe Drabowsky has to bail out Dave McNally, and sets a Series record with 11 strikeouts in relief. Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson both hit first-inning home runs, and the Orioles beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-2. They would go on to sweep, with McNally redeeming himself by winning the clinching game.

McNally and Drabowsky, and Dodger starter Don Drysdale, have died. Still alive from this game, 47 years later: Orioles Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, John “Boog” Powell, Luis Aparicio (though better-known as a Chicago White Sock), Russ Snyder, Andy Etchebarren, future Yankee World Series hero Paul Blair, and future Met manager Davey Johnson; and Dodgers Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Lou Johnson, Jim Lefebvre, Wes Parker, Ron Fairly, Joe Moeller, Jim Barbieri, and Fair Lawn, New Jersey native Ron Perranoski.

Future Hall-of-Fame pitchers Sandy Koufax and Jim Palmer, both still alive, would start Game 2; it would be Koufax’s last, though only he and a few others knew it at the time, while Palmer was just getting started.

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October 5, 1985: The Yankees went into a season-ending series at Exhibition Stadium against the Toronto Blue Jays needing to sweep to win the AL East.  A win by the Jays in any of the 3, and the Jays would win it. But after Butch Wynegar’s home run in the 9th inning won the Friday night game, it looked like the Yankees might take it.

But it was not to be.  Billy Martin, who had done one of his best managing jobs, started Joe Cowley, and he didn’t make it out of the 3rd inning, giving up home runs to Ernie Whitt, Willie Upshaw and Lloyd Moseby.  (The 2nd and 3rd were understandable, as Upshaw and Moseby were good hitters, but Whitt was a good-field-no-hit catcher.) Getting out of the 3rd required Cowley, Bob Shirley and Rich Bordi, while getting out of the 4th required Bordi and Dennis Rasmussen.  Neil Allen pitched 4 1/3 shutout innings, but it was too late.

Doyle Alexander, whom the Yankees had let go twice, pitched a complete game, allowing a double to Ken Griffey Sr., and singles to Dave Winfield (RBI), Don Mattingly, Willie Randolph and Don Baylor.  No walks.  Alexander was 35.

The Jays won, 5-1, and clinched their first-ever 1st place finish.  The Yankees would win the meaningless finale the next day, for their 97th win of the season, but, with the format then in place, would miss the Playoffs —  aside from 1954, when 103 wasn’t enough to overcome Cleveland’s then-AL record of 111, their most wins in any season without making the Playoffs.
I was 15 going on 16, and I thought this was the year.  It wasn’t.  This one hurt.

*

October 5, 2001: At what was then known as Pacific Bell Park (now AT&T Park), Barry Bonds hits his 71st and 72nd home runs of the season, to set a new major league single-season record… which we now know is bogus. The first-inning homer, his 71st, is off Dodger pitcher Chan Ho Park. But the Dodgers win the game, 11-10, and, to make matters worse, both clinch the NL West and eliminate the giants from Playoff eligibility.

Bonds will raise his total to 73*. With teammate Rich Aurilia’s 37 (as far as I know, his are legit), they set a (tainted) NL record for homers by teammates, 110. The real major league record remains 115, by Mickey Mantle (54) and Roger Maris (still the legit record of 61) in 1961.

Brooklyn Triumphant and Other October 4 Anniversaries

October 4, 1955: The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the New York Yankees, 2-0, in Game 7 of the World Series.

(This is a previous post, updated.)

After losing the World Series to Boston in 1916, to Cleveland in 1920, and to the Yankees in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953; blowing Playoffs for the National League Pennant to St. Louis in 1946 and to the New York Giants in 1951; and blowing Pennants on the last weekend of the season to St. Louis in 1942 and Philadelphia in 1950, the Dodgers had finally won their first undisputed World Championship in 55 years, since they finished the 1900 season as National League Champions, with no postseason series available.

But in 1955, it all seemed to come together. True, the Dodgers had traded away two of the beloved players who would later be known, in the title of the book that Roger Kahn wrote in remembrance of his days covering them for the New York Herald Tribune, as “The Boys of Summer”: Pitcher Elwyn “Preacher” Roe and third baseman Billy Cox.

The team was in transition: Jackie Robinson was still a factor, but his replacements had arrived in Jim “Junior” Gilliam and Don Zimmer. Ralph Branca, the goat of the 1951 Playoff, had retired, but the Dodgers still had Don Newcombe and Carl Erskine, and they were joined by a hotshot lefty named Johnny Podres.The Dodgers won their first 13 games of the ’55 season, and finished 13 games ahead of the preseason favorites, the Milwaukee Braves.

But the Yankees took the first two games of the World Series, despite Robinson’s steal of home plate in Game 1. But the Dodgers took the next three at Ebbets Field. Then the Yankees tied it up. In fact, the home team won each of the first 6 home games.

October 4, 1955. Game 7 of the World Series. Yankee Stadium. The Boys of Summer were getting old. The younger Dodgers didn’t quite seem ready. The team was in transition, and it did seem like it had been a seamless one; but for veterans like shortstop Pee Wee Reese, first baseman Gil Hodges, center fielder Duke Snider and catcher Roy Campanella — along with Robinson, all but Hodges are in the Hall of Fame and he damn well should be — it was now or never.

Podres was the choice of manager Walter Alston, having won Game 3. Yankee manager Casey Stengel, with ace Whitey Ford having pitched brilliantly in Game 6, had to go with Tommy Byrne, a lefty who was occasionally wild, but had come up big for Stengel in several big games.

The Dodgers scored a run in the 4th and another in the 6, to take a 2-0 lead. But the Yankees got two men on in the bottom of the 6th. And Yogi Berra, as much a “Mr. October” as the Yankees have ever had, was coming up. Yogi had delighted in hitting Series homers off the Dodgers, and would again. To hell with the lefty-on-lefty matchup: Yogi had no fear. And, despite usually being a pull hitter, Yogi hooked the ball down the left-field line, into the corner.

Left field had long been a troublesome position for the Dodgers. Gene Hermanski. Cal Abrams. George “Shotgun” Shuba. Andy Pafko had played it well, but for whatever reason they got rid of him. Now Zimmer was the usual left fielder, though he was a natural infielder. But Alston had pinch-hit Gilliam for Zimmer, and put Gilliam in at second, replacing the righty-throwing Zimmer in left with lefty-throwing Sandy Amoros, a Cuban whose English was halting but whose play, on this day, changed baseball history.

A righthanded fielder, like Zimmer, never could have caught this ball, no matter how fast he was. But Amoros was fast and lefthanded, and he stuck out his right hand and caught the ball. Then he wheeled it back to the infield. Reese relayed it to Hodges, and Gil McDougald was unable to get back to first in time. Double play end of threat.

Doris Kearns was a 12-year-old girl living in Rockville Centre, Long Island at the time. Years later, award-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin would cite Amoros’ robbery of Berra and the ensuing rally-killing double play as a sign that the Dodgers would win. “There’s always these omens in baseball,” she said. Translation: If the Dodgers could get Yogi out in a key situation, then that was it, the Yankees would not threaten again.

Bottom of the 9th. Two out. Podres has pitched a stomach-churning game: Eight hits, but no runs. The last batter is Elston Howard. Six months earlier, Howard had become the first black man to play in a regular-season game for the Yankees, and was now the left fielder and Yogi’s backup at catcher. In 1959, they would switch positions, and Ellie would become one of the game’s best catchers. In 1955, he was a 26-year-old “rookie,” having played in the Negro Leagues for a while.

Howard grounded to short. It was so appropriate that it went to Harold Henry Reese, the Dodgers’ Captain and senior player. Pee Wee threw it to Gil Hodges, and Hodges, perhaps the best-fielding first baseman of his era, had to trap it on the ground to keep it from being an error and bringing the tying run to the plate. But he got it.

Ballgame over. World Series over. With Red Barber having been chased out of Brooklyn by team owner Walter O’Malley after the 1953 season, it was Vin Scully who got to make the announcement over the airwaves: “Ladies and gentlemen, the Brooklyn Dodgers are the World Champions of baseball.”

Not exactly how Mel Allen, Phil Rizzuto or John Sterling would have described it.

It had been 55 years — or 52 years if you count only from the first World Series forward. The 0-for-7, and 0-for-5 against the Yankees, no longer mattered.

“Please don’t interrupt,” Shirley Povich wrote for the next day’s Washington Post, “because you haven’t heard this one before: The Brooklyn Dodgers are World Champions of baseball.” (Povich wrote for the Post from 1924, when Walter Johnson finally pitched them to the World Series, until his death in 1998. His son is the TV journalist Maury Povich.)

And they did it at Yankee Stadium, no less. They never clinched a World Championship at Ebbets Field — although the Yankees had, in ’41, ’49 and ’52, and would again in ’56. Not until ’63 would the Dodger franchise clinch a World Series win on their home field.

The party in Brooklyn was the biggest since V-J Day ended World War II 10 years earlier. Scully told the story for Ken Burns’ miniseries Baseball: “When we were riding through Manhattan, it was fall. Football was in the air. We came out the other end of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, and it was New Orleans chaos!”

No more “Wait ‘Til Next Year,” as the Brooklyn Eagle -- which had, sadly, gone out of business a few months too soon to report on the Dodgers' title -- had first blared in a headline after the 1941 Series.  This was Next Year.

The next day’s New York Daily News had a new famous headline, “WHO’S A BUM!” Willard Mullin, who had drawn the “Dodger Bum” cartoon character, drew him again, a big nearly-toothless smile, for that front page, consisting only of that headline and that drawing.

Two personnel notes should be made. One is that Mickey Mantle was injured and unable to play in Game 7 for the Yankees. Does that mean the one and only World Series won by the Brooklyn Dodgers should have an asterisk? No: There’s no guarantee that Mickey would have made the difference, even though he had hit the Dodgers hard in the ’52 and ’53 Series, and would again in ’56. Although he was one of the true Mr. Octobers, he didn’t always have a good Series, and in fact went only 2-for-10 in the 3 Series games he did get into in ’55, even if one of those hits was a homer off Podres in Game 3.

The other personnel note is that Jackie Robinson was not put into the lineup in Game 7. The noblest character in the history of baseball was deemed unworthy of this moment by his manager. Alston was not a Jackie Robinson fan. Neither was owner O’Malley. But on the highlight film, you can see Number 42 running onto the field. After all he’d been through, at 36 he still had enough energy to be one of the first men into the celebratory pile, if not enough energy to persuade his manager to put him into the lineup. But can we really argue with the decision? After all, it worked.

There are still 7 living members of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. Zimmer and Shuba are the only 2 who played in the game, plus Carl Erskine, Roger Craig, Ed Roebuck, and two lefthanded pitchers worth mentioning.

One was a chunky guy from outside Philadelphia who had starred for the Dodgers’ Triple-A farm team, the Montreal Royals, but his entire big-league career consisted of 4 games for Brooklyn in both the ’54 and ’55 seasons, then 18 more the next season for the Kansas City Athletics. Despite his pitching for that team, he never got on the Kansas City/Bronx shuttle. Maybe it was because, in '56, he got into a fight with Yankee 2nd baseman Billy Martin.

In the middle of the ’55 season, he was told by Dodger general manager Emil “Buzzie” Bavasi that he was being sent back down to Montreal. He objected. Bavasi said, “If not you, who should we send down?” The portly portsider said to send down the other lefty, because he had no control. Bavasi told him that the other lefty couldn’t be sent down, because he was a “bonus baby,” and under the rules of the time, he had to stay on the major league roster for 2 full seasons, no matter what — a rule designed to discourage teams from just throwing big (for the time) sums of money at prospects.

The bonus baby was a local boy, a Brooklyn kid who had made his major league debut that season, appearing in 12 games, nothing remarkable yet. He wanted to be an architect, and had so studied at the University of Cincinnati. He also preferred basketball to baseball.

The fat lefty insisted that he was a better pitcher than the bonus baby — and, 58 years later, he still insists that, at the time, he was better.

Eventually, the bonus baby would get his pitching straightened out, and become one of the very best men ever to mount a pitcher’s mound. His name was Sandy Koufax.

The hefty lefty? His name was Tommy Lasorda. In 1977, he and his former antagonist Billy were shaking hands in World Series pregame ceremonies, as fellow, mutually-admiring, Pennant-winning Italian-American managers.

Ironically, it was Lasorda’s Dodgers who went back to his old stomping grounds of Montreal and ended the one and only postseason run ever made by the Royals’ National League successors, the Expos.

There are 8 living members of the 1955 New York Yankees. Berra and Bob Cerv played in Game 7. Also on the roster were Ford, Jerry Coleman, Don Larsen (still a year away from his moment in time), Johnny Kucks (a Hoboken, New Jersey native whose moment came 2 days after Larsen’s), Irv Noren and Tom Carroll (a Queens native who was a defensive replacement in 2 games and only played 64 games in the majors).

October 4, 1955, 3:43 PM Brooklyn Standard Time. Dem Bums had finally dooed it.

Two years later, it would all be over. And only one man had imagined such a blasphemy.  Unfortunately, the blasphemer was the caretaker of the faith, Walter Francis O’Malley.

In 1962, the Metropolitan Baseball Club of New York — that was the original corporate name of the team we know as the Mets — did something that had previously been done only by hatred of the Yankees: United the fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the fans of the New York Giants. Until 1996, including even the Yankees’ quasi-dynasty of 1976-81, the Mets were New York’s most popular team.

That is no longer the case, and a person would have to be at least 60 years old to have any memory of the previous National League teams of New York; more like 65 to remember such events as the ’55 win and Willie Mays’ catch in ’54, nearly 70 to accurately remember Bobby Thomson’s homer in ’51, 75 to remember Jackie Robinson’s debut season in ’47, about 80 to remember the ’41 season that began the Dodgers’ renaissance, and at least 85 to remember the Giant teams that won 3 Pennants in the 1930s.

Long time passing.

*

October 4, 1867: At Brooklyn’s Satellite Grounds‚ two black teams play a match called “the championship of colored clubs” by the Daily Union newspaper. The Philadelphia Excelsiors outscore the Brooklyn Uniques‚ 37-24‚ in a game called after 7 innings on account of darkness.

October 4, 1880: At a special NL meeting in Rochester‚ the league prohibits its members from renting their grounds for use on Sundays and from selling alcoholic beverages on the premises. These rules are aimed at the Cincinnati club‚ which has sold beer and rented out the park to amateur teams for Sundays.

October 4, 1892: Amos Rusie of the New York Giants pitches 2 complete-game victories over the Washington Nationals (no connection to the current NL team with the name) at the Polo Grounds‚ winning 6-4 and 9-5.

The next season, the pitching distance will be extended from 50 feet to 60 feet, 6 inches, making achievements in pitching durability a lot harder. Many star pitchers of the time will never be the same, although Rusie will remain successful through the rest of the 1890s.

October 4, 1905: Just one point apart in the batting race on the final day of the season, Cincinnati Reds centerfielder Cy Seymour and Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Honus Wagner played against each other in a doubleheader. Seymour entered the last day of the season with a league leading .365 average, and Wagner was in 2nd place, batting .364. A very good day at the plate for Honus combined with a poor one for Cy would have reversed their positions.

Seymour had 4 hits in 7 attempts to end up with the NL batting title (.377), while Wagner collected 2-for-7 to end up in 2nd place (.363). Don’t weep for Honus, though: He won 8 batting titles.
A newspaper account of the day stated “…10,000 were more interested in the batting achievements of Wagner and Seymour than the games…cheer upon cheers greeted the mighty batsmen upon each appearance at the plate…”

October 4, 1906: The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-0, and notch their 116th win of the season. It remains a major league record, although it was tied in 2001 by the Seattle Mariners. But the Cubs’ winning percentage of .763 remains a record for either of the current major leagues.
Both the 1906 Cubs and the 2001 M’s found out that it doesn’t mean a whole lot if you don’t win the World Series.

October 4, 1913, 100 years ago: Washington Senators manager Clark Griffith uses 8 pitchers — unheard-of in that era — in an end-of-season farce game with the Boston Red Sox‚ including 5 in the 9th inning. At age 43‚ the former Chicago Cubs hurler pitches an inning himself‚ and coach John Ryan‚ also 43‚ catches. Griffith also plays RF‚ where he plays one off his head and misplays Hal Janvrin‘s liner into an inside-the-park homer.

On the other end of the scale‚ 17-year-old Merito Acosta – a white Cuban who was one of the first Hispanic players in the American major leagues — plays left field alongside Walter Johnson in center field. Johnson then comes in the 8th inning to lob pitches to 2 hitters. Both batters‚ Clyde Engel and Steve Yerkes, lace hits to send Johnson back to center. Then‚ in relief‚ Nats catcher Eddie Ainsmith‚ in his only major league pitching appearance‚ gives up 2 triples to allow the baserunners to score.

The Sox score in the 9th on Hal Janvrin‘s 2nd inside-the-park homer of the game. Joe Gideon‚ in his only pitching appearance, retires the last 2 batters as Washington wins‚ 10-9‚ beating Fred Anderson who goes the distance.

The 2 runs “allowed” by the Big Train will have historical repercussions: His ERA for the season goes from 1.09 to 1.14‚ and Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in 1968 will put Johnson’s ERA in 2nd place on the all-time list (in the post-1893 60-feet-6-inches era, anyway). The 8 pitchers sets a ML record that won’t be matched until the Dodgers do it on September 25‚ 1946.

October 4, 1923, 90 years ago: John Charles Carter is born in Wilmette, Illinois.  We knew him as Charlton Heston -- and as historical figures Moses, Marc Antony (in 3 films), John the Baptist, El Cid, Michelangelo, King Henry VIII, Michelangelo, Cardinal Richelieu, William Clark (of Lewis & Clark), Andrew Jackson (in 2 films), General Henry Hooker, Buffalo Bill Cody and General Charles "Chinese" Gordon; and fictional characters Judah Ben-Hur, Peer Gynt and Robert Neville.

He played Ron Catlan, an aging quarterback, in the 1969 film Number One.  In 2010, with the demolition of the original Yankee Stadium complete, I knew -- especially in a city still hurting from the 9/11 attacks -- it would have been wrong, but I wanted to yell his line as Colonel George Taylor, at the end of Planet of the Apes: "Oh my God.  I'm back.  I'm home.  All the time, it was... We really, finally did it.  You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

October 4, 1935: Game 3 of the World Series is a wild one. Chicago Cubs manager Charlie Grimm and 2 of his players, 3rd baseman Woody English and outfielder Tuck Stainback, are thrown out of the game for bench-jockeying. Coach Del Baker of the Detroit Tigers is also thrown out, for arguing a pickoff play at 3rd base. That’s 4 uniformed men thrown out of 1 World Series game — and none was actually playing in the game!

The game goes to 11 innings, and is won 6-5 by the Tigers, on Jo-Jo White’s single scoring Marv Owen.

October 4, 1937: The St. Louis Cardinals trade shortstop Leo Durocher to the Brooklyn Dodgers for Johnny Cooney‚ Joe Stripp‚ Jim Bucher‚ and Roy Henshaw. Durocher, first as shortstop, then as manager, will become the face of the Dodgers for the next 10 years.

October 4, 1941: In the 7th inning of a scoreless tie‚ Yankees pitcher Marius Russo bats against Dodger pitcher Fred Fitzsimmons, and launches a line drive off Fat Freddie’s kneecap. The ball caroms to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who throws him out to end the inning. The Yankees score 2 in the 8th off reliever Hugh Casey to win 2-1.

On the official World Series highlight film, Fitzsimmons is shown limping off the field, but it’s not clear how bad the injury is. It turns out that the kneecap is broken. Once an All-Star for the Giants, who seemed to specialize in beating the Dodgers, he had crossed town to be welcomed by the Flatbush Faithful, and they wouldn’t have won the 1941 Pennant without him. But he will pitch in just one game in 1942 before retiring to the coaching ranks.

October 4, 1944: The first all-St. Louis World Series opens with the Browns‚ as the official visiting team (both teams play at Sportsman’s Park)‚ beating the Cardinals 2-1 on George McQuinn‘s homer. Denny Galehouse is the winning pitcher, while Mort Cooper loses despite allowing just 2 hits.
It is the first Series in which all the games are played west of the Mississippi River. The Series is dubbed the Streetcar Series (as opposed to a Subway Series), and is played with no days off.

October 4, 1948: In a one-game playoff for the AL Pennant at Fenway Park‚ the Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox 8-3, behind 30-year-old rookie knuckleballer Gene Bearden, who wins his 20th game.

It was the year of a lifetime for Bearden: He had never been that good before, and he never would be again. Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy, who had won so much with the Yankees, ignores the well-rested rotation pitchers Ellis Kinder and Mel Parnell to go with journeyman Denny Galehouse, who was 8-7. It wasn’t a totally crazy pick: Galehouse had helped the St. Louis Browns win the 1944 Pennant. With the score 1-1 in the 4th‚ Ken Keltner hits a 3-run home run over the left-field fence. Indians shortstop-manager Lou Boudreau gets 4 hits‚ including a pair of homers‚ and finishes the year with just 9 strikeouts.

Who is still alive from this game, 65 years later? For the Indians, no one: Allie Clark, a South Amboy, New Jersey native whom the Yankees had traded with Joe Gordon to get Allie Reynolds, was the last survivor, dying in 2012. For the Red Sox, only Bobby Doerr and Tom Wright.

That same day, in St. Louis‚ Taylor Spink‚ publisher of The Sporting News, writes in a Baltimore newspaper that Baltimore will have an AL team within two years: “You can put a clothespin in this: Baltimore will be in the American League‚ if not next year‚ then surely in 1950.”

In spite of his deep knowledge of the way the game had been working, including no franchises moving to a different city since 1902, he turned out to be off by only 4 years. It was his hometown Browns who became the new major-league version of the Baltimore Orioles, following previous major- and minor-league teams with those names. Spink and the NL’s Cardinals were tight, and he didn’t particularly care whether the Browns moved.

October 4, 1950: With his ace Robin Roberts exhausted, and his Number 2 starter Curt Simmons having been drafted into the Korean War, Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer rolls the dice and starts Jim Konstanty in Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees at Shibe Park. It’s not quite the gamble that it seems: Konstanty, about to become the first relief pitcher ever to be named his league’s Most Valuable Player, had pitched long relief during the season, including one game where he went 9 innings.

The gamble nearly paid off, as Konstanty pitched 8 innings, allowing only 1 run (on a double by Bobby Brown and 2 sacrifice flies) on 4 hits and 4 walks. But Vic Raschi of the Yankees was even better, tossing a shutout with 2 hits and 1 walk, and the Yankees win, 1-0.

The next day, Sawyer starts Roberts on a full 4 days’ rest, and he, too, is magnificent in defeat. The Phils lose the first 3 games of the Series, all by 1 run.

October 4, 1951: The Giants have no time to really celebrate their amazing Pennant wno the day before, as the World Series gets underway. Monte Irvin steals home in the 1st inning (and, unlike Jackie Robinson 4 years later, the film definitively shows that he was safe) and collects 4 hits. The Giants defeat Allie Reynolds and the Yankees 5-1, with Dave Koslo going all the way at Yankee Stadium.

With Don Mueller missing the World Series due to the ankle he broke in the climactic inning the day before‚ homer hero Bobby Thomson switches to 3rd base, and the Giants field the first black outfield in a World Series: Irvin in left, Rookie of the Year Willie Mays in center, and Hank Thompson in right.

Thompson and Irvin had been the first black players for the Giants, both debuting on July 8, 1949 (Thompson as a starter, Irvin as a pinch-hitter).

October 4, 1953, 60 years ago: In Game 5 of the World Series at Ebbets Field‚ Mickey Mantle hits a 3rd inning grand slam off Russ Meyer‚ and the Yanks hold on to win 11-7 in a game that features 25 hits and 47 total bases.

October 4, 1959: Game 3 of the World Series is played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, in front of a record crowd of 92,394. It is the first World Series game played in Los Angeles, in the State of California, indeed anywhere west of St. Louis. The Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1.

October 4, 1962: Game 1 of the World Series is played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the first World Series game played in Northern California. The Yankees beat the Giants, 6-2. Whitey Ford is the winning pitcher for a record 10th time in Series play, but it will be for the last time, and his record scoreless inning streak of 33 2/3 innings is stopped.

October 4, 1964: The Phillies bomb the Reds 10-0. The 2 teams then sit in the visitors’ clubhouse listening to a radio, hoping that the Cardinals lose, which would force a 3-way tie for the Pennant. The Mets take a 3-2 lead into the 5th inning‚ but St. Louis scores 3 runs to regain the lead. The Mets score once more but the Cardinals complete their scoring with 3 in the 8th to win 11-5. Bob Gibson wins in relief.

For St. Louis‚ it is their 1st Pennant since 1946. For Cincinnati, it is a crushing defeat, as they wanted to win for their manager, Fred Hutchinson, who was dying of cancer. For Philadelphia, it is even more devastating: The Phils had led by 6 1/2 games with 12 to play, but went on a 10-game losing streak to blow it. The Phillie Phlop would define the franchise for a generation — even fans who lived long enough to see the titles of 1980 and 2008 remain scarred by it.

October 4, 1969: The first League Championship Series games are played in Atlanta and Baltimore. The Mets survive homers by Hank Aaron andTony Gonzalez off Tom Seaver, and score 5 runs off Phil Niekro in the 8th to coast home 9-5. Paul Blair‘s 12th-inning squeeze bunt gives the Orioles a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins.

October 4, 1972: Ted Williams manages his final game as the Texas Rangers lose to the Kanas City Royals 4-0. Williams will be replaced by Whitey Herzog. It is the last game as Royals manager for Bob Lemon, and the last game played at KC’s Municipal Stadium, which opened as a minor league park in 1923.

October 4, 1980: Mike Schmidt‘s 2-run home run in the top of the 11th inning gives the Phillies a 6-4 win over the Montreal Expos‚ clinching the NL East title.

The home run is Schmidt’s 48th of the season‚ breaking Eddie Mathews‘s single-season record for 3rd basemen set in 1953. Alex Rodriguez would break that record, and Ryan Howard would break Schmidt’s franchise record for homers in a season.

The Yankees clinch their 4th AL East title in 5 seasons‚ beating Detroit 5-2 in the first game of a doubleheader.  Reggie Jackson hits his 41st home run of the season, and will share the AL home run crown with Milwaukee’s Ben Oglivie.

In a 17-1 rout of the Twins‚ Kansas City’s Willie Wilson becomes the first ML player ever to be credited with 700 at-bats in one season. Wilson will post 705 at bats‚ the highest this century. He also sets the AL record for singles in a season with 184‚ eclipsing the mark Sam Rice set in 1925.
Wilson also becomes only the 2nd player in history to collect 100 hits from each side of the plate‚ matching the feat accomplished by Garry Templeton in 1979. The loss ends Minnesota’s club-record 12-game winning streak.

The Dodgers break a 1-1 tie on a 4th inning HR from Steve Garvey to beat the Astros 2-1. Loser Nolan Ryan goes 11-10‚ while Jerry Reuss wins his 18th. Houston now leads by 1 game with 1 to play.

LaMarr Hoyt (9-3) of the White Sox stops California‚ 4-2‚ but the big attraction is DH Minnie Minoso‚ 57 (or 54‚ according to his autobiography). Facing Frank Tanana for the 2nd time in 5 years‚ Minnie goes 0-for-2. Minoso’s appearance‚ thanks to Bill Veeck‚ puts him with Nick Altrock as a 5-decade man in the ML. His next appearance will be for another Veeck team‚ St. Paul‚ in 1993.

October 4, 1981: The Mets fire manager Joe Torre and his entire coaching staff. You can’t win without the horses, and, at the time, the Mets did not have the horses.

October 4, 1985: The Yankees begin a season-ending 3-game series against the Blue Jays at Exhibition Stadium. They have to sweep the series to win the AL East, or else the Jays win it for the first time.

The first game is tied in the top of the 9th, when catcher Butch Wynegar homers off Toronto closer Tom Henke, sailing over the right field fence and bouncing on the artificial turf of the football field past the pathetic little high school-style scoreboard the Big X had. The Yankees win, 4-3.

Rod Scurry got the win in relief of the ineffective Ed Whitson, and Dave Righetti got the save. Jimmy Key had started for the Jays, and would end up winning a World Series for each team — but neither does so this season.

October 4, 1986: On the next-to-last day of the season‚ Righetti saves both ends of the Yankees‘ doubleheader sweep of the Red Sox, to give him a ML-record 46 saves. Bruce Sutter and Dan Quisenberry had shared the record with 45.

The record is now 62 by Francisco Rodriguez in 2008, for a lefthander it’s 53 by Randy Myers in 1993, and for a Yankee it’s 53 by Mariano Rivera in 2004.

October 4, 1987: On the last day of the regular season‚ Detroit beats 2nd-place Toronto 1-0 at Tiger Stadium to win the AL East title. The Tigers were one game behind the Blue Jays entering their 3-game season-ending showdown‚ and won each game by a single run (4-3‚ 3-2‚ and 1-0). Frank Tanana outduels Jimmy Key in the finale‚ and Larry Herndon‘s 2nd-inning home run provides the game’s only run.

The Jays had been up by 4 with 7 to go, and blew it. This collpase, on top of their choke in the 1985 ALCS, gives them the nickname “Blow Jays,” and they will take until 1992 to get rid of it.

October 4, 1995: One of the wildest games in Yankee history. It starts at 8:10 PM, and ends at 1:22 AM, in the rain, in the bottom of the 15th inning. It features home runs by Ken Griffey Jr. and Vince Coleman for the Seattle Mariners; and, for the Yankees, by Ruben Sierra, Don Mattingly, Paul O’Neill, and, to walk off, Jim Leyritz. It is the first postseason walkoff at Yankee Stadium since Chris Chambliss, 19 years earlier.

The Yankees lead the M’s 2 games to 0, and need just 1 win in Seattle to take the series. But they won’t get it.

October 4, 1999: The Mets whitewash the Reds‚ 5-0‚ to become the NL’s wild card team. Al Leiter hurls a complete game 2-hitter for the win.

October 4, 2001: Rickey Henderson hits a home run for the San Diego Padres, allowing him to score his 2,246th career run, passing Ty Cobb as baseball’s all-time leader. The Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium.

On the same day, Tim Raines Sr. plays left field for the Baltimore Orioles, while Tim Raines Jr. plays center field for them. It is only the 2nd time, and there has never been a 3rd, that a father and son have played in the same major league game. The first was Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr. in 1990. The Orioles lost to the Red Sox, 5-4 at Camden Yards.

October 4, 2002: The Yankees blow a 6-1 lead as the Angels bounce back for a 9-6 victory and a 2 games to 1 lead in their division series. Tim Salmon and Adam Kennedy homer for Anaheim, and Francisco Rodriguez again gets the win in relief.

October 4, 2003, 10 years ago: The Red Sox beat the A’s, 3-1, on Trot Nixon’s walkoff homer in the 11th inning. This forces a 5th game in their ALCS.

October 4, 2010: The Mets fire field manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya. Firing Minaya was something they should have done at least 2 years earlier.

October 4, 2012: At the conclusion of their worst season in 47 years, the Red Sox fire Bobby Valentine as manager. He had restored his reputation by managing in Japan, but had ruined it again with the Red Sox.  Somehow, I don’t think he’ll ever get hired to manage another team… at least, not on this continent.

Happy Thomson-Winfield Day

October 3, 1951: Bobby Thomson hits a home run that wins the National League Pennant for the New York Giants, 5-4 over the Brooklyn Dodgers, at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan.

"Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead. Reality has strangled invention. Only the utterly impossible, the inexpressibly fantastic, can ever be plausible again."
-- Red Smith, in the next day’s New York Herald Tribune. If Red wasn't the greatest sportswriter ever, this paragraph certainly shows why he’s a contender for the title.

Thomson died on August 16, 2010, at age 86. The home run ended the most amazing Pennant race that New York City, perhaps any city, has ever seen.

The pitcher who gave up the home run, Ralph Branca, is now 87, and recently wrote a memoir, A Moment In Time. In spite of the scorn he’s received for giving up that home run, he admits he's had a pretty good life.

And, besides, he's remembered. Larry Jansen, the Giant pitcher who relieved Sal Maglie in that game, ended up as the winning pitcher in a game that’s on the short list for the title of "greatest game ever played," would have won the NL Cy Young Award had it existed then, and was a member of the Giants' 1954 World Champions as well; yet when he died in 2009, I didn't hear of it immediately. Jansen was forgotten; Branca is remembered. Alternately a blessing and a curse.

For this worldwide coverage, it was called "The Shot Heard 'Round the World," after the description in poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson of the musket shot that began the War of the American Revolution on the Lexington Green, outside Boston, in 1775.

Round the world? It was beamed around the U.S.A. in the first nationally-televised (NBC) broadcast of any non-World Series game, and the Armed Forces Radio Network played it for every U.S. military base.

Including London. The writer George Plimpton claimed to have heard it while studying at England's Cambridge University.

Including Korea, where a war was raging that would soon claim as draftees Willie Mays, the Giant batter who was on deck, and Don Newcombe, the Dodger pitcher who'd nearly won the game before being relieved. (Yankees Whitey Ford, Jerry Coleman and Billy Martin would also serve in that war.) This was reflected in an episode of the TV show M*A*S*H.

There are 6 men who played in that game, 62 years ago today, who are still alive: Giants Willie Mays, Monte Irvin and Alvin Dark; and Dodgers Branca, Newcombe (whom Branca relieved) and Andy Pafko (over whose head in left field the ball traveled). Giant pitcher George Spencer did not appear in the game, but was on their roster and is also still alive; so are Dodger reserves Carl Erskine, Rocky Bridges, Tommy Brown and Wayne Terwilliger.

UPDATE: Andy Pafko died on October 8, 2013.  He was 92.  That leaves just Mays, Irvin, Dark, Branca and Newcombe alive among those who played in the game.

*

The same day Thomson hit that homer, 1,200 miles to the northwest, David Mark Winfield was born in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dave Winfield would star for the San Diego Padres and the Yankees, help them to a Pennant in 1981 but infamously go just 1-for-22 in the World Series, fall short with the Yanks in the Division races of 1985, '86, '87 and '88; lead George Steinbrenner to (unfairly) tag him as "Mr. May," hire a criminal to dig up dirt on him, and finally exile him to the California Angels; finally win a World Series as he got the game-winning hit for the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6 in 1992, collect his 3,000th career hit with his hometown Minnesota Twins, and retire with the Pennant-winning Cleveland Indians of 1995.

His Number 31 was retired by the Padres, but while the Yankees gave him a Dave Winfield Day following his Hall of Fame election in 2001, he has not yet received a Plaque in Monument Park, and his Number 31 has been worn by some rather mediocre Yankees:

Brian Dorsett, Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens, Mike Humphreys, Xavier Hernandez, Brian Boehringer, Dan Naulty, Ben Ford, Glenallen Hill, Steve Karsay, Jason Anderson (the first former member of the Staten Island Yankees to reach the majors), Aaron Small (he of the 10-0 record in 2005 but 0-1 in the ALDS and was soon rightfully gone from the majors), Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, Josh Phelps, Michael Dunn, Pedro Feliciano, and the second, unwanted coming of Javier Vazquez.

But it has also been worn by some good players; all of these were former or future All-Stars, regardless of what they did as Yankees: Bob Wickman, Frank Tanana, Lance Johnson, Ian Kennedy, the execrable Vazquez, Rafael Soriano, current wearer and future Hall-of-Famer Ichiro Suzuki, and a man who should one day join Big Dave and Ichiro in the Hall of Fame, Tim Raines, a contributor to the 1996 and 1998 World Champions.

So why hasn't Dave gotten his number retired and his Plaque? Could there still be a grudge held by George Steinbrenner’s children, after all this time?

*

October 3, 1900: The Dodgers, then known as the Superbas, beat the Boston Braves at the South End Grounds to win the NL Pennant -- and, with the setup then in place, the unofficial World Championship of baseball. They would not win another for 55 years, but, then, it would be official.

The last surviving player from that Dodger team was pitcher Harry Howell, soon to be an original 1903 New York Highlander (Yankee), who lived on until 1956, aged 79.

October 3, 1947: Floyd "Bill" Bevens takes a no-hitter into the bottom of the 9th in Game 4 of the World Series. He gets to within 1 out of the 1st World Series (and thus 1st postseason) no-hitter ever. But 10 walks put him in danger, and Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto pinch-hits a double-off the right-field wall at Ebbets Field, and the Dodgers win, 3-2.

Two days later, Al Gionfriddo will rob Joe DiMaggio with an amazing catch to preserve the Dodgers' lead in Game 6, but the Yankees win the Series in Game 7. By a weird twist of fate, neither Bevens, nor Lavagetto, nor Gionfriddo will ever play in the major leagues again.

Who is still alive from this Series, 66 years later? For the Yankees, just Yogi Berra and Bobby Brown. For the Dodgers, no one: Duke Snider was the last survivor, and Gene Hermanski was the last survivor of the Dodgers who actually played in this Series.

October 3, 1962: The Giants beat the Dodgers in a Playoff for the Pennant again -- this time on the West Coast. At Dodger Stadium, San Francisco wins the rubber game of the Playoffs beating Los Angeles, 6-4 as Don Larsen (yes, the hero of 1956 bedevils the Dodgers again) gets the win in relief of Juan Marichal.

Thanks to the extended season, Maury Wills sets a major league record for the most games played in a season, appearing in 165 games. This was the year he stole 104 bases, setting a new major league record.

October 3, 1968: Mickey Lolich picks a great time to hit what turns out to be the only home run of his career. The Detroit Tiger pitcher hits it off Nelson Briles, to aid his own cause, as the Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-1 at Busch Stadium, and tie up the World Series at 1 game apiece.

October 3, 1972: Roberto Clemente plays in his 2,433rd career game, breaking the Pittsburgh Pirates team record set by Honus Wagner.  In the 9th inning, he replaces left fielder Gene Clines, as Vic Davalillo moves from right field to left field to open up Clemente's usual position, and doesn’t come to bat. The Pirates win, 6-2. But it turns out to be Clemente's last regular season game.

October 3, 1974: The Cleveland Indians hire Frank Robinson, currently playing for them, as the 1st black manager in Major League Baseball. It has been almost 2 years since a dying Jackie Robinson, making his final appearance at a ballpark during the World Series, announced to the crowd he wanted to see a black manager. Frank, no relation, said his only regret was that Jackie didn't live to see the day.

Indians manager Ted Bonda knew that Frank had already been the Captain of the Baltimore Orioles teams that had won 4 Pennants between 1966 and 1971, and that he had already been considered for 2 different managerial posts. Bonda knew that if he didn't hire Frank, somebody else might. He knew that, racial history aside, Frank was qualified. So he did the right thing for history, as well as the right thing for his team.

Actually, Frank wasn't nearly as good a manager as he was a player. Only once, in a managerial career that lasted from 1975 to 2006, did he take a team into a genuine Pennant race, the 1989 Orioles. But he still deserved the chance. He was also the 1st black manager in the NL, hired by the Giants in 1981.

October 3, 1976: Hank Aaron plays his last game. In his last at-bat, playing for the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium, where he had previously played for the Milwaukee Braves, he singles off Dave Roberts of the Tigers -- the same pitcher who, for the Houston Astros, had given up his 712th and 713th career home runs. Hank retires with 755, but the Brewers lose, 5-2.

On the same day, on the last day of the season, the Kansas City Royals' George Brett and Hal McRae and the Minnesota Twins' Rod Carew are separated by .001 for the AL batting title. Brett, who goes 3-for-4, edges his Royals teammate (.333 vs .332) for the crown with the the deciding hit, an inside-the-park home run. Outfielder Steve Brye misplayed a line drive, leading McRae to believe the lack of effort was intentional and racist.

October 3, 1982: On the last day of the season, the Brewers celebrate their AL East title-clinching victory on the field at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, after beating the Orioles, 10-2, to edge Baltimore by 1 game in the final standings. The O's had been 4 games down with 5 to play, and had won 4 straight to forge a tie after 161 games, but the Brewers did their jobs. This turns out to be the only Division title the Brew Crew ever won in the AL. (They have since won one in the NL.)

The 51,642 hometown fans, although disappointed by the results, stay after the game and give retiring manager Earl Weaver a heartfelt, tremendous 45-minute series of ovations for his 15-year tenure as the Birds' skipper. He would, however, return in 1985 and '86, but it would not be the same.

October 3, 1990: George Brett strikes again. He pinch-hits a 5th-inning RBI sacrifice fly, and then singles in the 7th inning, to end the season winning the batting title with a .329 batting average. Having already won in '76 as stated earlier, and having batted .390 in 1980 to forge the highest single-full-season batting average any player has had since 1941, he is the only player to win batting crowns in 3 different decades.

October 3, 1993, 20 years ago: Despite winning 103 games, the Giants are eliminated from the Western Division race when the Dodgers derail their division dreams, 12-1. Catcher Mike Piazza, who will be named the league's Rookie of the Year, hits two home runs in the game.

The Braves, who will be moved over to the NL East the next season, win 104 games to complete an amazing comeback, having been 10 games back on July 22 and 7 1/2 games back on August 22, before winning 22 of their last 27.

The Giants won 103 games and still didn’t make the postseason. (The record is 104, for the 1942 Dodgers, as the Cardinals won 106.) Since the Wild Card began the next season (well, the one after, due to the Strike of '94), the most games any team has won without officially making the Playoffs is 96, the 1999 Cincinnati Reds. (They lost a play-in game with the Mets, but that is officially counted as a regular season game.)

On the same day, the Indians play their last game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, with Mel Harder, who won the 1st game there in 1932, throwing out a ceremonial last pitch. No such luck for the Tribe this time, as they lose 4-0 to the Chicago White Sox.

And the last game is played at Arlington Stadium, with Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers and George Brett of the Royals, both retiring, exchanging the lineup cards. Again, the visiting team spoils the fun, the Royals winning 4-1.

October 3, 1999: In the final regular-season game ever to be played at the Astrodome, Mike Hampton of the Houston Astros raises his record to a whopping 22-4 as the ‘Stros beat the Dodgers, 9-4. The victory clinches the division title as the Astros finish 1 game ahead of the Reds in the National League Central.

October 3, 2000: Against the Braves, Cardinal rookie starter Rick Ankiel sets a modern day major league record by uncorking 5 wild pitches in the 3rd inning of Game 1 of NLDS. He joins Buffalo’s Bert Cunningham, who accomplished the same feat in the 1st inning in an 1890 Players League contest.

Ankiel was a great pitching prospect, but, soon, his pitching days will be over.  He will, however, be converted into an outfielder. Hey, it worked for the Cardinals when they did it for Stan Musial 60 years earlier.

October 3, 2001: Barry Bonds walks 3 times, breaking Babe Ruth's major league record established in 1923 of 170 bases on balls in a season. Astros' reliever Nelson Cruz gives up the historic walk in the 6th, and the Giants left fielder will finish the season with 177 walks.

October 3, 2004: On the last day of the season, Blue Jays television announcer John Cerutti is found dead in his SkyDome hotel room. The death of the 44-year old Albany native, who had pitched for the Jays, is due to natural causes with foul play not being suspected.

On this same day, at the site of the franchise's 1st regular season game in 1969, the Montreal Expos, who are scheduled to move to Washington, D.C. next season, play their last game in their 36-year history, losing to the Mets at Shea Stadium, 8-1.

October 3, 2012: The greatest moment in Washington Nationals "Racing Presidents" history. After getting off to a slow start in the regular-season finale against Philadelphia, Teddy Roosevelt finally beats George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Tom Jefferson to the finish line, winning the race for first time since it made its debut at RFK Stadium in 2006.

The victory, the mascot's 1st in over 500 tries, is assured when a green furry creature, who bears a striking resemblance to a phony Phillie Phanatic, waylays the other 3 Presidential contenders in right field.

On the same day, in other dubious baseball action, Ranger center fielder Josh Hamilton's 4th inning-error opens the floodgates that allow the A's to erase a 5-run deficit when they score 6 times, en route to their 12-5 victory at the Oakland Coliseum.

The A's had been 13 games out of 1st place on June 30, and 6 games out on August 25. But their hot streak and the Rangers' nosedive leaves the A's as Division Champions, and puts the Rangers into the new 1-game AL Wild Card contest, against the Orioles.

This comes after the Rangers' pathetic performance in the 2010 World Series and their embarrassing chokejob in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series. They do not yet have the choke reputation of, say, the Red Sox, the Cubs, or the Indians -- but they should.

In positive baseball news, Miguel Cabrera clinches the AL Triple Crown, becoming the 1st player to do so since 1967 when Carl Yastzemski accomplished the feat with Boston. The Tigers' 3rd baseman and eventual MVP led the circuit in average (.330), home runs (44), and RBIs (139) playing with the American League champs.

Happy Bucky Dent Day!

This is a revision of a piece I did a year ago.

In the movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays Ray Kinsella, who builds a baseball field on his Iowa farm, and sees the eight banned Chicago White Sox players from the 1919 World Series come back to life. James Earl Jones plays Terence Mann, a reclusive writer. (In the novel it was based on, Shoeless Joe, author W.P. Kinsella makes it the real-life writer J.D. Salinger.)

They go to Chisholm, Minnesota to meet Dr. Archibald Graham, who, under the nickname Moonlight Graham, played 1 inning in right field, without coming to bat, for the New York Giants in 1922.  But they find out he died in 1972, 16 years before the film takes place. Yet taking a walk outside his hotel, Ray meets Graham, played by Burt Lancaster.

(The book reflects the real-life truth: Graham’s single game was in 1905, he died in 1965, and they knew that before they ever set out, having read it in The Baseball Encyclopedia – the seven-pound, 2,000-plus-page record book that we used before Total Baseball and then the creation of the great website Baseball Reference.)

Ray asks Graham’s ghost if he thought it was a tragedy that he only got to be a big-league ballplayer for 5 minutes, and never got to bat.  Graham tells Ray, “If I’d only gotten to be a doctor for 5 minutes, now that would have been a tragedy.”

(In real life, on June 29, 1905, Graham actually played 2 innings, the 8th and 9th, against the Dodgers at Washington Park in Brooklyn, and was on deck when the 3rd out was made in the top of the 9th, so he almost got to bat.  He played in the minors from 1902 to 1908, and took his medical degree and hung out his shingle in Minnesota, although he was from North Carolina.)

Ray: “So now, I don’t know what we’re doing here.”

Terence: “Maybe it was to see if one inning could change the world.”

Ray: “You think it did?”

Terence: “It did for these people.  If he’d gotten a hit, he might’ve stuck with baseball.”
And he while he might have gone on to have a good career, and gone on to do something good after baseball, he would’t have been able to do all the good he did for the people of Chisholm.

*

October 2, 1949: The Yankees played the Boston Red Sox, in the last game of the season, and the winner was going to win the AL Pennant (in the pre-Divisional play era).  The Yankees led 1-0 going into the top of the 8th, when Joe McCarthy, who’d led the Yankees to 7 World Championships but was now managing the Red Sox, sent up Tom Wright to pinch-hit for pitcher Ellis Kinder (in the pre-Designated Hitter era).  This proved to be a mistake, as Mel Parnell and Tex Hughson — pretty good starting pitchers for Boston — let in 4 more runs in the bottom of the 8th.  The Sox pulled 3 back in the top of the 9th, but the Yankees held on to win, 5-3.

Among the Yankees who played in that game, 63 years ago, only Yogi Berra and Jerry Coleman are still alive.  From the Red Sox, only Wright and Hall of Fame 2nd baseman Bobby Doerr survive.

Yes, one inning can change a season.  Red Sox fans know this well:

October 2, 1972: The Sox began a 3-game series with the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium, which would decide the AL East.  (Only 2 Divisions per League back then.) Whoever won 2 out of 3 would win the Division.

In the top of the 3rd, Carl Yastrzemski doubled off Mickey Lolich.  Tommy Harper, who was on 3rd base, scored easily.  Luis Aparicio, the legendary shortstop of the Chicago White Sox, was on 1st for the Red Sox and should have scored easily.  And yet…

If you made a list of the Top 10 players in the history of baseball known for baserunning, Aparicio might be on that list.  But he tripped rounding 3rd, and had to hold there, and Yaz was thrown out trying to stretch his double to a triple.  Reggie Smith then struck out to end the inning.  The game was tied 1-1, but should have been at least 2-1 Red Sox.  The Tigers ended up winning 4-1, and won the next night to win the Division.

Yes, one inning can change a season.  Red Sox fans know this well:

On October 2, 1978, the Yankees and Red Sox played that famous one-game Playoff at Fenway Park, the Boston Tie Party.  When the top of the 7th began, the Sox led 2-0 and Mike Torrez was pitching a 2-hit shutout.

Think about it: Today, Torrez would probably have been told he’d pitched a great game, and let the bullpen handle it from here.  Although, to be fair, Sox fans generally don’t blame Torrez for what happened next.  They blame manager Don Zimmer.

But Torrez was left in.  He got Graig Nettles to fly to right, but allowed singles to Chris Chambliss and Roy White.  Jim Spencer pinch-hit for Brian Doyle, who was subbing at 2nd base for the injured Willie Randolph.  (Fred “Chicken” Stanley took over at 2nd the rest of the way).  Spencer flew to left.

And then up came Bucky Dent.  You know what happened: As Yankee broadcaster Bill White said on WPIX-Channel 11: “Deep to left, Yastrzemski will… not get it! It’s a home run! A three-run home run for Bucky Dent, and now, the Yankees lead it by a score of 3-2!”

Then Torrez walked Mickey Rivers, and then Zimmer pulled him for Bob Stanley.  Mick the Quick stole 2nd.  Thurman Munson doubled him home, before Stanley finally ended the rally by getting Lou Piniella to fly to right.  It was 4-2, and the Yanks would win, 5-4.

Yes, one inning can change a season.  Red Sox fans know this well.

Happy Bucky Dent Day!

*

October 2, 1908:  In a wild 3-team American League race, every bit as tight as the 3-team race going on in the National League at the same time, the AL has perhaps its greatest pitching dule ever, between 2 future Hall-of-Famers, at League Park in Cleveland.

Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox strikes on 15 batters, which will be an AL record for 30 years.  But it’s not enough, as Addie Joss of the Cleveland Indians pitches a perfect game, and the Indians win, 1-0.

And yet, neither team wins the Pennant.  The Detroit Tigers do, the Indians finishing half a game behind, the White Sox 1 1/2 behind: Detroit 90-63, Cleveland 90-64, Chicago 88-64.  Why wasn’t the Tigers’ missing 154th game made up? I don’t know.

It’s the 2nd of 3 straight Pennants for the Tigers.  The ChiSox had won in 1901 and 1906.  The Indians will not get this close to a Pennant again until they win it all in 1920.  Speaking of that year…

October 2, 1920: The only tripleheader ever played in the 20th century, forced by rainouts, is played at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.  The Cincinnati Reds win the first two games, 13-4 and 7-3, with the Pittsburgh Pirates avoiding the sweep in the finale, 6-0. Peter Harrison is the home plate umpire for all three games.

October 2, 1932: The Yankees win their 12th consecutive World Series game and sweep the Fall Classic for the 3rd time, for their 4th World Championship overall. At Wrigley Field, the Bronx Bombers (the nickname has now replaced “Murderers’ Row”) bang out 19 hits as they club the Chicago Cubs, 13-6.

October 2, 1936: In Game 2, the Yankees even the World Series at a game apiece by routing the Giants at the Polo Grounds, 18-4. The lopsided win is the largest margin of victory in the history of the Fall Classic.
The last out of the game has the Yankees’ rookie center fielder, Joe DiMaggio, catching a fly ball, and his momentum carrying him up the steps of the center-field clubhouse.  He stays at the top, as a special guest of the Giants, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is helped to a special car on the field, and it drives off.

October 2, 1938, 75 years ago: Cleveland Indians fireballer Bob Feller, just 20 years old, fans 18 Detroit Tigers at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, establishing a modern major league record for strikeouts in a game.  But Rapid Robert loses the contest, 4-1.

Twice, Hank Greenberg is a victim.  Greenberg finishes the season with 58 home runs, the 3rd time someone has come close to Babe Ruth’s record of 60 set in 1927.  (Jimmie Foxx, who hit 50 this year, had hit 58 in 1932.  Hack Wilson had hit 56 in 1930.) Some people argue that, due to Greenberg being Jewish, he was frequently walked (intentionally or “not”) so that he wouldn’t break the Babe’s record.  Hank would go to his grave insisting that pitchers had pitched to him fairly.

*

October 2, 1947: In Game 3 of the Fall Classic, Yogi Berra hits the first pinch-hit home run in World Series history. The historic homer comes off Ralph Branca in the 7th inning at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.  But the Dodgers win the game anyway, 9-8.

October 2, 1952: Carl Erskine, owner of perhaps the best curveball of his generation, strikes out 14 Yankees in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, to establish a new World Series mark. The Dodger hurler’s performance bests the record of Howard Ehmke, who struck out 13 Cubs for the Philadelphia Athletics in Game 1 of 1929 Fall Classic.

Still alive from this game, 61 years later: For the Dodgers, Erskine and left fielder Andy Pafko; for the Yankees, only Yogi Berra.  (EDIT: Andy Pafko died on October 8, 2013, after this was originally posted.)

October 2, 1954: The Giants complete the World Series sweep of the Indians, when Don Liddle beats Bob Lemon, 7-4. The Tribe, who had not lost four consecutive games this year, completed the regular season with a 111-43 record, establishing an American League mark for victories.  It will be the last World Championship for the Giants in New York, the last for the franchise for 46 years.

Four Giants are still alive from their ’54 World Series roster: Center fielder Willie Mays, left fielder Monte Irvin, shortstop Alvin Dark and pitcher Johnny Antonelli.

October 2, 1961: Coming out of retirement, former Yankee skipper Casey Stengel agrees to manage the Mets, New York’s National League expansion team.  Actually, he goofs, and says, “I’m very pleased to be managing the New York Knickerbockers.” I guess nobody told him the real name of the team — which, since it hadn’t played a game yet, was partly responsible.

*
October 2, 1963, 50 years ago: Game 1 of the World Series.  Ten years to the day after Erskine struck out 14 Yankees for the Brooklyn edition of the Dodgers, Sandy Koufax strikes out 15 Yankees for the Los Angeles edition. Both records were set at the old Yankee Stadium.  The 15 Ks are no longer a Series record, but it is still a Series record for lefthanders.

“I understand how he won 25 games,” Yogi says after the game. “What I don’t understand is how he lost 5.”

Still alive from this game, 50 years later: From the Dodgers, Koufax, shortstop Maury Wills, right fielders Frank Howard and Ron Fairly, left fielder Tommy Davis and 2nd baseman Dick Tracewski; from the Yankees, pitchers Whitey Ford and Stan Williams, 1st baseman Joe Pepitone, 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson, shortstop Tony Kubek, and pinch-hitters Hector Lopez and Phil Linz.  Yogi was on the roster, but did not play in the game.

October 2, 1965: Winning 14 of their last 15 games, the Dodgers clinch the National League Pennant on the next-to-last day of the season at Dodger Stadium. Sandy Koufax gets his 26th victory defeating the Braves in the clincher, 2-1.  Koufax allowed only 4 hits, while Milwaukee hurler Tony Cloninger allowed only 2.

October 2, 1968: Bob Gibson establishes a new World Series mark by striking out 17 batters, as the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the Fall Classic, 4-0.

October 2, 1969: Only 5,473 patrons attend the Pilots’ last game in Seattle, as the last place team is defeated by the Oakland Athletics 3-1, for their 98th loss of year. The AL expansion franchise attracts only 677,944 fans for the season — an average of 8,370 per game — and will play in Milwaukee as the Brewers next season.

October 2, 1972: Bill Stoneman throws the 2nd of his 2 no-hitters when he holds the Mets hitless in the Expos’ 7-0 victory at Jarry Park. The Montreal All-star right-hander, who also accomplished the feat in 1969 against the Phillies in Philadelphia in just his 5th major league start, becomes the 1st major league pitcher to toss a no-hitter in Canada.

October 2, 1973, 40 years ago: Scott David Schoeneweis is born in Long Branch, New Jersey, and graduates from Lenape High School in Medford.  He won a World Series with the Anaheim Angels in 2002, but he was also a member of the Met teams that collapsed in 2007 and ’08.  But he was released by the Red Sox in 2010 and hasn’t pitched since.

He used steroids and developed cancer.  Yeah, that kind.  However, his 577 major league appearances are the most among Jewish pitchers, and he’s probably the greatest player who ever wore the Number 60 in the majors.

October 2, 1974: In his last National League at-bat, Henry Aaron homers off Rawly Eastwick of the Reds for his 733rd round-tripper which is also the his 3600th career hit.

Also on this day, Texas Rangers manager Billy Martin elects not to use a designated hitter, and allows starting pitcher Ferguson Jenkins to bat for himself.  It works: Fergie gets a hit in the Rangers’ 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins at Metropolitan Stadium.

October 2, 1975: Charlie Emig dies in Oklahoma City, at the age of 100.  He was from Cincinnati and a lefthanded pitcher, who made 1 big-league appearance, for the Louisville Colonels of the NL, against the Washington Senators (not the later AL team with the name), at Boundary Field in Washington (Griffith Stadium would be built on the site in 1911), on September 4, 1896.

He started and pitched 8 innings, and got clobbered, although it was hardly all his fault: He allowed 17 runs, but only 7 were earned.  He allowed 12 hits and 7 walks, against only 1 strikeout.  The Colonels lost the game, 17-3, and then completed the doubleheader sweep by losing the nightcap.

Emig never made a second appearance, but it was enough.  When he died, he was not only the last surviving Louisville Colonel, but also the last surviving man who had played a Major League Baseball (as we would now call it) game in the 19th Century.  He died on October 2, 1975, age 100. 

*
October 2, 1983, 30 years ago: Carl Yastrzemski plays in his 3,308th and final game, 5 years to the day after popping up to end the Bucky Dent Game.  Playing left field for Boston, he collects a hit, the 3,419th of his career, which includes 452 home runs.  Among human beings still alive in 2013, only Pete Rose and Hank Aaron have more hits.  (Assuming he doesn’t get hurt again, Derek Jeter should surpass him next summer.)

After the Red Sox’ 3-1 victory over Cleveland, Yaz takes a lap of honor around Fenway Park, and stays to sign autographs on Yawkey Way for over an hour.

No player, in the history of North American major league sports, has appeared in more games without winning a World Championship.  But Yaz is still one of the all-time greats, and he just had a statue of him dedicated outside Fenway.

October 2, 1985: Darrell Evans becomes the first player in major league history to hit 40 home runs in a season in both Leagues. The Detroit Tigers first baseman, who had hit 41 with the Atlanta Braves in 1973, goes deep off Toronto Blue Jays’ hurler Dave Stieb to reach 40 on the last day of the season.  He ends his career with 407 home runs.

October 2, 1986: Yankee 1st baseman Don Mattingly establishes a new team record, collecting his 232nd hit of the season, breaking the mark set in 1927 by Earle Combs. ‘Donnie Baseball’ will finish the season with a league-leading 238 hits.

October 2, 1988, 25 years ago: In St. Louis, Mets’ outfielder Kevin McReynolds establishes a major league record swiping 21 bases without being caught stealing during the season. The A’s Jimmy Sexton had set the record in with 16 stolen bases without being thrown out in 1982.

October 2, 1991: The Toronto Blue Jays clinch the American League East title, beating the Angels 6-5, in their last home game of the season.  The sellout crowd of 50,324 allows them to become the first sport franchise in history to draw four million fans in one season: 4,001,527.

Yes, the Blue Jays used to sell out.  No, I’m not kidding.

October 2, 1995 In a one-game playoff for the American League West title, Seattle Mariners’ southpaw Randy Johnson throws a three-hitter and beats the Angels, 9-1. The ‘Big Unit’ finishes the season with an 18-2 record to establish a new AL mark for winning percentage by a lefthander, of .900, surpassing the record set of .893 by Ron Guidry in 1978.  (Guidry still has the mark for lefty AL pitchers winning at least 20 games.)

The Angels led the Division by 11 games on August 9, and 6 games on September 12.  But a 9-game losing streak, and a 7-game winning streak by the Mariners, doomed the Halos.

October 2, 2005: In a recorded message shown at the start of the last regular season game at the 1966 edition of Busch Stadium, Joe Buck, unable to be in attendance due to calling a NFL game on national television, asks the crowd to honor his late father by singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” a cappella. A stirring rendition fills the ballpark when 50,000 voices join in unison to sing the National Anthem, a fitting tribute to the late and beloved Cardinal broadcaster.

In the top of the 6th inning, Ozzie Smith emerges from the gate in right field wall in an open convertible. After touring warning track, the former Cardinal shortstop removes the digit “1″, his old uniform number, which is affixed to the outfield wall, revealing a “0,” to indicate the number regular-season games left to be played in the stadium.

The Cards beat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-5.  But the Cards win the NL Central, so there will be Playoff games played there.

October 2, 2008: In the franchise’s first postseason game, the Tampa Bay Rays defeat the visiting Chicago White Sox at Tropicana Field, 6-4. Tampa Bay’s rookie third baseman, Evan Longoria, joins Gary Gaetti of the 1987 Twins in becoming only the second player to homer in his first two postseason at-bats.

October 2, 2013: The Pirates beat their arch-rivals, the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 at PNC Park, to win the NL Wild Card Play-in game, and advance to the Playoffs proper.  Russell Martin — whom Yankee GM Brian Cashman let get away, resulting in the Pinstripes struggling at the catcher position all season long — hits 2 home runs.

This is the first time the Pirates have won a postseason game in 21 years, since George Bush was President.  The father, not the son.  And it’s the first time they’ve advanced in the postseason since they were “Family” in 1979.  The Seventies.  The Carter years.  The dreaded Disco Period.

October 1 Baseball Memories

Getting closer. At least I'm in the right month now.

October 1, 1932: Did he or didn't he? He may not have pointed to center field in Game 3 of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs and said, "I'm gonna hit the ball THERE." But the film certainly shows him pointing at pitcher Charlie Root. It looks like he's sending SOME sort of message. On the next pitch, boom. Message received. So, by my definition, yeah, Babe Ruth called his shot.

The last living player from either team was Charlie Devens, Yankee pitcher 1932-34, died August 13, 2003, at age 93. The last to have actually played in the game was Frank Crosetti, Yankee shortstop 1932-48, and coach 1949-68, died February 11, 2002, at age 91.

Also on this day, Joe DiMaggio makes his professional debut. Like Mickey Mantle, who would succeed him as the Yankees' center fielder, it was as a shortstop. Also like Mantle, it doesn't last long. A few weeks short of his 18th birthday, DiMag has been put into the lineup for the last game of the season for his hometown club, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. A year later, he will become the best pro ballplayer west of St. Louis. Maybe the best east of it, too.

*

October 1, 1866: A crowd of 30,000 people, believed to be the largest in baseball history to that point, watches a game between the host Athletics (no connection to the American League team founded in 1901) and the Atlantics of Brooklyn, considered the best team in the country at the time.
The A's score 2 runs in the 1st inning, but the crowd rushes the field, and the game is called when they won't get off.

October 1, 1903, 110 years ago: The 1st World Series game is played, at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Deacon Phillippe of the Pittsburgh Pirates outpitches Cy Young of the Boston Pilgrims. Jimmy Sebring of the proto-Red Sox hits the 1st World Series home run, but the Pirates win, 7-3.

Northeastern University's Cabot Gym is now on the site, and a statue of Young stands at the approximate location of the pitcher's mound.

October 1, 1921: Ray Schalk of the Chicago White Sox does something no catcher had ever done before, nor has since: He makes a putout at every base at least once in a game. The White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-5.

October 1, 1924: Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis bans New York Giants outfielder Jimmy O'Connell from playing in the World Series, after O'Connell confesses that he tried to bribe Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand to "go easy" in the season-ending series between the teams.

O'Connell also implicates 3 future Hall-of-Famers on his own team: Frankie Frisch, George "Highpockets" Kelly and Ross Youngs. Landis finds no evidence against them, and they are cleared to play. O'Connell, just 23 and with only 2 years of major league play under his belt, never plays professional ball again, and dies in 1976.

October 1, 1933, 80 years ago: Babe Ruth pitches for the last time, in order to draw a big crowd in the finale of a season in which the Yankees did not win. It doesn't work, only 25,000 fans come out.

The Babe goes the distance against the Red Sox. He gives up 5 runs on 12 hits and 3 walks, with no strikeouts… But the Yankees win, 6-5. Ruth also hits his 34th home run of the season, the 686th of his career, and retires with a career record of 94-46.

October 1, 1944: The St. Louis Browns clinch the American League Pennant. It is their first. They are the last of Major League Baseball's "Original 16" teams (a term not used back then) to do so. They will not win another until 1966, by which point they are the Baltimore Orioles.

There will not be another team winning their first Pennant until 1957, when the Milwaukee Braves do it – or, if you don't count moved teams, until 1969, when the Mets pull off their "Miracle."

*

October 1, 1949: Joe DiMaggio Day at Yankee Stadium. "I'd like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee." The Yankees needed to win this game to make the next day, the last game of the season, the title decider. The Red Sox took a 4-0 lead, but the Yankees came back, and Johnny Lindell hit a home run in the 8th inning to give the Yankees the 5-4 win.

October 1, 1950: Dick Sisler hits a home run in the top of the 10th inning at Ebbets Field, and the Phillies beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-1, to clinch the National League Pennant. It is the only Pennant the Phils would win in a 75-year stretch from 1915 to 1980. This is the last major league game as a manager for Burt Shotton of the Dodgers.

Still alive from this game, 63 years later: For the Phillies, 2 reserves, Ralph "Putsy" Caballero, and Jackie Mayo, who was a defensive replacement for Sisler in the bottom of the 10th; for the Dodgers, Don Newcombe (who gave up Sisler's homer) and Tommy "Buckshot" Brown.  Stan Lopata, a backup catcher for the Phils who played in the game, died this past June 15.

Also today, the Philadelphia Athletics complete a massively disappointing 102-loss season by beating the Washington Senators, 5-3 at Shibe Park. It is the last game for manager Connie Mack: Approaching his 88th birthday, his sons Earle, Roy and Connie Jr. gang up on him and force him to finally retire as manager -- something he, as also the owner, did not want to do. Before the A's move to Kansas City, the Phillies, new owners of the ballpark, will rename it Connie Mack Stadium, and will erect a statue of him outside.

Shotton and Mack were the last managers to wear street clothes. Although no edict specifically mandates a skipper must wear a uniform, there is now a rule that states that a person not wearing a uniform, except medical personnel, isn't allowed on the field of play during a game.

*

October 1, 1961: Roger Maris makes it 61 in '61. He hit the record-breaking home run off Tracy Stallard.

Still alive from this game, 52 years later: For the Yankees, Yogi Berra, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek, Hector Lopez, Jack Reed and Luis Arroyo. Whitey Ford, Bob Turley and Ralph Terry are still alive, but did not play in this game. Bob Hale, who pinch-hit and played 1st base in his last major league appearance, died last year. For the Red Sox: Stallard, Chuck Schilling (no relation to Curt), Frank Malzone (a Bronx native), Don Gile, Russ Nixon, and rookie left fielder Carl Yastrzemski.

Also on this day, after providing a venue for the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels from 1925 through 1957 and the major league expansion team with the same name this season, the West Coast version of Wrigley Field hosts its last professional baseball game. The Halos are defeated by the Tribe 8-5 in front of 9,868 fans. Wrigley West will be torn down in 5 years to make room for an eventual public playground and senior center.

*

October 1, 1964: The Red Sox beat the Indians, 4-2, in front of only 306 fans, the smallest in Fenway Park history.

October 1, 1967: A much happier day at Fenway. Carl Yastrzemski gets 4 hits, including a game-tying single in the bottom of the 6th, and cements the Triple Crown -- a feat that will not be achieved for another 45 years. Jim Lonborg pitches a complete game, and the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-3, to eliminate the Twins from the American League race on the final day of a season with a rare 4-team race. The Chicago White Sox had been eliminated 2 days earlier.

But the Pennant is not yet clinched. If the Detroit Tigers can sweep a doubleheader with the California Angels, they would forge a tie with the Red Sox-Twins winner, and force a one-game Playoff the next day.

In those pre-Internet days, CBS managed to link up their Detroit station, WWJ, and their Boston station, WHDH (850, once again the Sox station but with call letters WEEI), so that people in the Boston area could listen the the nightcap in Detroit. The Angels won, and the Sox had their 1st Pennant in 21 years, only their 2nd in 49 years -- a Pennant whose theme song was the Broadway hit "The Impossible Dream."

*

October 1, 1970: Twenty years to the day after the greatest day in Phillies history thus far (and it would remain such for another 10 years), perhaps the darkest day in Phillies history takes place -- and this was in a win.

The Phils play the final game at Connie Mack Stadium, formerly Shibe Park, and the irony of playing the Montreal Expos, a team that only began in 1969, at a stadium the opened in 1909 is felt. The game goes to 10 innings, and Oscar Gamble singles home Tim McCarver with the winning run, as the Phils win, 2-1. Before McCarver can cross the plate, fans are already storming the field, and they tear the stadium apart.

The next year, Veterans Stadium opened, and a fire gutted what remained of the old park. It was finally torn down in 1976.

*

October 1, 1973, 40 years ago: Only 1,913 fans come out to Wrigley Field, under threat of rain with the Cubs far out of the race, to see a doubleheader that had to be made up due to earlier rain. The Mets beat the Cubs in the opener, 6-4, and win the National League East, their 2nd 1st-place finish.

The Division Title that no one seemed to want to win has been won with an 82-79 record -- still the worst 1st place finish ever in a season of at least 115 games. When the rain comes, the umpires call off the now completely meaningless 2nd game.

The Mets were 52-63 on August 14, but won 30 out of 44 down the stretch, including 18 of their last 22.

*

October 1, 1974: At the Astrodome, Mike Marshall establishes the major league mark for the most appearances by a pitcher when he throws two innings in the Dodgers' 8-5 victory over Houston.

With his 106 appearances, the right-handed reliever appears in 65 percent of the games that his team played this season. He goes 15-12, with a 2.42 ERA and 21 saves (actually 10 less than he had the year before), becomes the 1st reliever in either League to receive the Cy Young Award.

In 1979, pitching for the Minnesota Twins, Marshall would appear in 90 games, giving the record for most games pitched in a season in both Leagues.

*

October 1, 2004: Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners grounds a single up the middle, and collects his 258th hit of the season. The record had belonged to George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns since 1920 -- 84 years.

If there was anyone left who still doubted whether Ichiro was a bona fide Hall-of-Famer in the making (and I was a doubter), they now believe it.

October 1, 2006: After leading the AL Central by 10 games on August 7, the Detroit Tigers lose 31 of their last 50, including their last 5 in a row, the last being the blowing of a 6-0 lead over a terrible Kansas City Royals team to lose 10-8 in 12 innings. The Tigers thus blow the Division Title to the Minnesota Twins, one of the great choke jobs of recent times.

They do get the Wild Card, however, and shock the Yankees in the Division Series, while the Twins get surprised by the A's, and then the Tigers sweep the A's to win the Pennant anyway. Never has a team looked so bad down the stretch and still managed to reach the World Series -- not even the 1949 or 2000 Yankees.

The 2006 season is also the first one ever, except for the strike-shortened seasons of 1981, '94 and '95, in which there were no 20-game-winning pitchers in either League. Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees and Johan Santana of the Twins each win 19, while no National League hurler wins more than 16 -- 6 of them win that many.

The Twins have another honor (that does them little good after their ALDS loss), as Twin Cities native Joe Mauer becomes the first catcher to win an AL batting title, and the first catcher to lead both leagues in batting average, with .347, ahead of NL batting champion Freddie Sanchez of the Pittsburgh Pirates with .344.

October 1, 2007: Needing a Playoff for the Playoffs, the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres in the bottom of the 13th inning, 9-8.  Jamey Carroll hits a sacrifice fly, and Matt Holliday scores on a disputed play at the plate. The Padres have not reached the Playoffs since, and this play burns their fans up.

The Rockies close the regular season (and this game counts as such, as it's officially not a postseason game) winning 14 of their last 15.

MLB Playoffs: Deserve’s Got Everything to Do With It

Here are the teams in the 2013 Major League Baseball Playoffs, ranked by how much they deserve to win the World Series.

In my opinion.  Which you clearly care about, since you're reading this.

10. Boston Red Sox. You know the question, "When did you stop beating your wife?" Well, it's time to ask the Red Sox, and in particular David Ortiz, "When did you stop taking performance enhancing-drugs?" My guess is that the answer is "Never, we just know how to beat the system better now."

9. Los Angeles Dodgers. They would be dead last if not for the presence of The Scum. Never forget the Treason of '57. Also, I need to know that there was a real reason that the Yankees didn't win the Pennant from 1982 to 1995, and again from 2004 to 2007. Especially since the Dodgers and their manager rebounded tremendously (and without their best player, the injured Matt Kemp) since I wrote this in June.

8. Atlanta Braves. They haven't won a Pennant since 1999 or a World Series in 1995. They are baseball's great underachievers. What's more, their fans are mostly Southern redneck Teabaggers who cheered when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 got gutted by the Supreme Court.

7. Tampa Bay Rays. Maybe the team deserves it. The fans don't. They averaged 18,645 per game this season. That's 30th and dead last in the major leagues. And 54.7 percent of stadium capacity. To put it in perspective: Across the State of Florida, the Miami Marlins averaged 9,000 more fans per game -- and they won 30 fewer games than the Rays, and the fans knew it was going to be an awful season.

So why didn't the Rays' fans, who are now used to a winner, come out? It can't just be the fact that they have the most ridiculous stadium in MLB. (Maybe not the worst -- more on that in a moment -- but definitely the most ridiculous.)

6. St. Louis Cardinals. Won the Series in 2006 and 2011, got to the NLCS last year, and won another Pennant in 2004. They don't need this. Although they would like to prove they can win a Pennant without Albert Pujols, something they haven't done since 1987.

5. Oakland Athletics. I wouldn't object much to them winning, and it would give the San Francisco Bay Area 3 of the last 4 World Championships. Plus, they haven't won a postseason series since 2006, and only that one since 1990, their last Pennant. They haven't won a World Series since 1989.

On the other hand, they're trying to blackmail the taxpayers to get the Oakland Coliseum replaced, and it may just be the worst stadium in the majors. (As opposed to from 1968 to 1999, when they had the best stadium in the Bay Area, as the Giants were playing in Candlestick Park.) And if the A's do win a Pennant, we'll once again have to hear that Billy Beane is a genius. If you've been a team's general manager for 16 seasons, and you haven't won a Pennant, not only are you not a genius, but you probably should have been fired about 6 years ago.

4. Cincinnati Reds. They haven't won a World Series or a Pennant since 1990, or a postseason series since 1995, and they're a great baseball town. But they hired Dusty Baker as manager. They did not learn the lesson -- and by now, they should have -- that Dusty is a great regular season manager, but he can't win in the postseason. He's the black Buck Showalter.

3. Detroit Tigers. They won the Pennant last year, reached the ALCS the year before, and won the Pennant in 2006 -- but had to beat the Yankees all 3 times to do it, so that's a mark against them. On the other hand, they play the game the right way (as far as I can tell).

And Detroit, really the entire State of Michigan, needs this, as they're stuck with an economy that still hasn't recovered from the batterings they took in the recession of the mid-1970s, let alone the ones since, hindered by their Teabag Governor Rick Snyder. And the Tigers haven't won a World Series since 1984. I have no problem with them winning it.

2. Cleveland Indians. A surprise Wild Card team, having been terrible after their near-miss for the Pennant in 2007. They haven't won a Pennant since 1997, or a World Series since 1948, 2nd-longest among current teams behind the Chicago Cubs, and 2nd-longest among current cities behind Washington (which didn't even have a team from 1972 to 2004).

What else does Northern Ohio have to cheer for? The Cavaliers stink. Ohio State is in Columbus, which isn't all that close to Cleveland, and they're still under the Jim Tressel cloud anyway. There's no hockey team closer than the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Browns have improved, but the fans will need a few more weeks before they can take that seriously. (They're sure enjoying the bad start by the Pittsburgh Steelers, though.) The Cleveland market needs this.

1. Pittsburgh Pirates. They hadn't reached the postseason since 1992, and having won a postseason series, let alone a Pennant or a World Series, since 1979. And with the Steelers getting off to an 0-4 start, and the Penguins putting goalie Tomas Vokoun on injured reserve, Western Pennsylvania really needs a winner.

Downside? The only one I can see is that people who hate the Yankees will bring up the "payroll" argument again, plus reminding us that the Bucs have A.J. Burnett, Russell Martin and -- ugh -- Kyle Farnsworth. Well, so what.

Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland is a big rivalry in football, but it's not even possible in the NBA (Pittsburgh doesn't have a team in it) or the NHL (Cleveland doesn't, and Pittsburgh vs. Columbus is not a substitute). I wonder what a Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland World Series would be like. It's never happened. Indeed, only once has it even come close, in 1908, when both teams finished just a game out of 1st.