On This Day in Baseball History

https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4080/4943792152_168426ec8a.jpg

Heathcliff Slocumb was born, half a century ago

27 years ago today, the pirates scored 10 runs in the top of the first in philadelphia, prompting pittsburgh color commentator jim rooker to say 'if the pirates lose this game i'll walk back to pittsburgh'. they did, 15-11, and rooker did so after the season, for charity

Cubs radio broadcasters were talking about that during today's game.

http://dailystache.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Bobby-Vs-disguise.jpg

^^^17 years ago today

also, happy 65th to The Cobra

https://usatthebiglead.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/6a00d8341c9a9953ef01538f1626f0970b-450wi.jpg

http://l.yimg.com/a/p/sp/editorial_image/32/3283c39ef341aa1dc0c95071398caa36/stuck_yankees_pay_japans_kei_igawa_big_money_to_pitch_in_minors.jpg

happy 37th to (scranton/wilkes-barre) yankees legend kei igawa

@JamesSmyth621
Big This Date in Baseball History: Seaver 300, Carew 3000, A-Rod 500, Ventura v Ryan, Winfield v Seagull

happy 87th to Hodges/Berra-era Mets bullpen coach Joe Pignatano

and 74th to cleon jones

Sox in shorts

https://twitter.com/Super70sSports/status/762664045262569474

Today in 1957, Richie Ashburn hit a fan with a foul ball, breaking her nose. As she was being removed on a stretcher, he hit her again.

where is she now

she was a grandmother then, so

@Baseball_Photos
Today in 1983, Don Mattingly became the last lefty in @MLB to play 2B, when the George Brett pine tar game resumed.

interesting! 2b is v awkward as a lefty I attest

suspect Billy Martin was just being an asshole. Or had he been fired by the day they resumed that game?

https://prestonjg.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/left-handed-throwing-second-basemen-shortstops-and-third-basemen/

this is a super fun article

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqPtAPdVUAAjuxz.jpg:small

Huh! Never thought of that -- would pivoting in a clockwise direction to set up a throw not work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtusVnyVFzM

lasorda gets youppi! ejected, 1989

in 1992, clearwater's andrew carter and winter haven's scott bakkum threw no-hitters against each other, one of three such games in minor league history

@BBTN
8/24/89 - Bart Giamatti announces Pete Rose banned from baseball for life for gambling on baseball.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqvFUI0UkAAtUUC.jpg

1922

in 1975, johnnie lemaster hit an inside-the-park homer (off don sutton) in his first major league at bat, becoming the third-ever and most recent rookie to do so

for me his previous claim to fame was playing for three of the four last-place teams in 1985

1945 - A goat and its owner make an appearance at Wrigley Field for Game 4 of the World Series. The pair is told to leave before the game ends, angering the owner. The Chicago Cubs lose to the Detroit Tigers, 4-1. Detroit will go on to win the Series in seven games and the Cubs won't win another National League championship for the rest of the 20th century. A belief that the Cubs were cursed by the goat will eventually develop.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CuqKtdLVMAAmu7T.jpg:small

today marks 20 years since the last world series ejection, courtesy (i think) of tim welke. fittingly, that made bobby cox the only person tossed from two world series games.

tbf, he had a point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G76-G2iLdd8

sandy koufax announced his retirement 50 years ago today

1991: In one of the most unbalanced trades ever made in major league history, the Baltimore Orioles send pitchers Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch and outfielder Steve Finley to the Houston Astros for first baseman Glenn Davis. Davis, who averaged 27 home runs in six seasons playing in the Astrodome with Houston, will hit only 24 homers in three injury-filled years as Schilling becomes one of the most dominant pitchers in the game and Harnisch and Finley develop into solid major league players.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3nAuOgUYAAPBi1.jpg:small

1901 - Giants and Pirates outfielder Tom O'Brien, 28, dies in Phoenix, AZ. A popular player with the Giants, O'Brien played for Pirates in 1900, then accompanied the Giants and Superbas last fall on a trip to Cuba for a series of exhibition games. On the boat trip over, he was told that if he drank enough sea water he'd be sick, but would then be cured of any sea sickness. Both O'Brien and Kid Gleason became violently ill following the prescription, but O'Brien was so affected that all his internal organs were damaged, and he never recovered.

Jim Bibby allowed a single to the first batter (Terry Harper of the Braves) on this date in 1981, then retired the next 27 batters #Pirates pic.twitter.com/Ql8jhFlMSf

— John Dreker (@JohnDreker) May 20, 2017

100 years ago today: Babe Ruth walks leadoff batter, punches ump in face, ejected. Ernie Shore comes in. 1st pitch CS, retired 26 in a row.

— James Smyth (@JamesSmyth621) June 23, 2017

yesterday actually

Today In 1969: The American & National League teams at the #MLB All-Star Game in Washington, D.C. - Great uniforms! @UniWatch @PhilHecken pic.twitter.com/Nq05gX3WDW

— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) July 23, 2017

on a deeper note

https://ussporthistory.com/2017/07/24/black-tigers-detroit-and-the-1967-rebellion/

40 years ago, my mom and I were at Shea for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIq7sCc8i3U

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1977/B08210NYN1977.htm

happy 37th to kevin correia

of the 632 pitchers in major league history to make at least 220 starts, none was worth less than his 7.1 fWAR

(b-ref has him at 2.5)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DICCbVyXsAAjvbm?format=jpg&name=small

when men were electrified

http://www.mlb.com/images/1/6/4/254916164/091817_morandini_triple_play.gif

mickey morandini's unassisted triple play, 1992

60 years ago today, Duke Snider hits the last homerun ever at Ebbetts Field. #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/8W0QFDTCtX

— Baseball Photos (@Baseball_Photos) September 22, 2017

https://i.imgur.com/iE5jkjt.jpg

https://www.mlb.com/video/regular-seasons-wild-end/c-19789807

#OTD in #Reds history, 1880: The Reds are expelled from the National League for selling beer and refusing to close their park on Sundays. pic.twitter.com/pcubeOZsrl

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) October 6, 2017

35 years ago today willie mcgee homered twice, saved a homer and became my favorite baseball player of all time

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/baseball-world-series-st-louis-cardinals-willie-mcgee-in-action-picture-id81371472

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/52/83/81/52838145d3f42b8e31984c49c2691c32.jpg

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/st-louis-cardinals-fans-display-a-banner-during-willie-mcgee-day-the-picture-id94780275?s=612x612

YES

Pregame analysis by Mantle and Koufax!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbCWUehZKVU

Morbs, did you ever meet Karl Erhardt?

I spelled his name wrong - Ehrhardt

I did not. I think he made a comeback in the '90s.

#OTD in #Reds history, 1939: Bucky Walters is named NL MVP after winning the Pitching Triple Crown with 27 wins, 2.29 ERA and 137 K. pic.twitter.com/FHm3cylHeI

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) October 17, 2017

137 K!!!

pitched to contact (that's why the games were shorter)

14 years ago today, Endy Chavez robbed Scott Rolen in Game 7 of the NLCS.pic.twitter.com/fSLXhwv2ti

— SNY (@SNYtv) October 19, 2020

^^^this gets overlooked because the mets lost anyway, and i guess i wouldn't quite put it in the category of the mays/edmonds over-the-shoulder catches, but i think it has to be the best homer-robbing catch i've ever seen

"That is the furthest ball I have ever seen hit."

18 years ago, @BarryBonds hit an absolute moonshot in the #WorldSeries. 😳 pic.twitter.com/YPKzjGVUca

— MLB Vault (@MLBVault) October 20, 2020

still haven't seen that ball land tbh

Feel like Dr. M would have appreciated this inside-baseball (more like behind the scenes) story about perhaps the moment the collapse of the Bash Brothers-era A's became imminent:

https://www.sfgate.com/athletics/article/1990-world-series-a-s-reds-upset-15667901.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

The A’s outmatched the Reds in every way except one: Cincinnati had a deep, flame-throwing bullpen that wasn’t fully appreciated until the analytics era that Billy Beane helped usher in years later.

Reds advance scout Jimmy Stewart told the San Francisco Chronicle about a conversation he had with famed Dodgers scout Mel Didier at the American League Championship Series in '90: “Mel caught me under the stands when we were both getting a Coke,” Stewart said. “He told me, ‘You’ve got the kind of pitchers that can beat them.’”

Didier is credited with tipping the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson about the likelihood of Eckersley throwing him a backdoor slider on a 3-2 count before his legendary World Series homer in 1988. He was right this time, too.

bait for Earl Nash as well...

The Nasty Boys were pretty tough, they were like a modern bullpen because there was three of them, so they could shut clubs down after the 6th. Their rotation had Jose Rijo at the top of his powers and Tom Browning was the Freddy Norman lefty who ate up innings but after that especially after injuries slowed up 'All American' Jack Armstrong (who was an Allstar that year and soon faded into obscurity) and Danny Jackson, who was really good when he was healthy - they were a bit thin.

Lefty Norm Charlton is the unsung member of the Nasty Boys and probably the best pitcher as he picked up some big starts down the stretch when the injuries piled up. Reds as usual bet on the wrong one giving Dibble the cash, which considering his rockem sockem robot motion, you know was not going to work after a while. I'd bet with the current radar though he would be 100+ on the gun, as he through mid-high 90s back then on the old Juggs gun. Randy Myers got expensive, but he was always solid and a character (supposedly had a disarmed hand grenade always in his locker). Lou Pinella loved Norm Charlton and got him to Seattle where he got hurt and was never quite the same. Dude was an A+ middle/swingman out of the pen though for a few years.

The always 2+ day growth bearded Rick Mahler who pitched a couple metric tons of innings for bad Braves teams on WTBS Superstation was another wiley vet pitcher who filled in out of the rotation and as a long man. Reds had the clean cut thing for Marge back in those days, so he looked weird being clean shaven after looking perpetually like was always waking up from a bender pitching for the Braves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKc_q30h8Kw

Dibble had to be a bit of the inspiration for Kenny Powers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJkhKBKg9MM

For the good Dr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63GbSuE045Y

Can't find Dibbles other meltdown against the Cubs where he tore off his jersey. It was a couple years later when they went back to the 50s sleeveless with the black shirt underneath.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71GMb2DrX0L._AC_SY445_.jpg
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KKbsSMGxCLE/VYodw4HQT3I/AAAAAAAAClE/hm8dYiMYTu8/s1600/rick%2Bmahler%2B1983.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71U1vT4yuWL._AC_SY445_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41i9r4ix%2B3L._AC_.jpg

Forgot about this one...by Hal McCoy that covered the Reds for 25+ years through the whole Big Red Machine.

Q: Which do you rank better, Yasiel Puig trying to fight the entire Pittsburgh team or Pedro Borbon biting off a piece of a New York Mets cap in the 1973 playoffs? — RON, Vandalia.

A: Neither one. Puig seemed to be all yak while his teammates held him back and when he got loose he didn’t do any damage. And Borbon biting a hunk out of Cleon Jones’s Mets cap at the end of a fight was humorous. But my top ranking goes to a brawl the Reds and Houston Astros had when Rob Dibble threw behind the Astros Eric Yelding during a game in 1991. There was a skirmish on the mound, a huge pile-up with Dibble on the bottom. Houston first base coach Ed Ott had Dibble in a choke hold and Dibble’s face turned red, blue and black. He nearly became only the second on-the-field baseball fatality. (Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians died after getting hit by a pitch from Carl Mays of the New York Yankees in 1920).

The one where Dibble tore off his uniform was just as nutty, I seem to recall Andre Dawson being involved in it too.

I saw it and the Doug Dascenzo play happen on TV live. (Doug Dascenzo is the hart part of the trivia question on the Mississippi state team with Will Clark, Rafael Palmiero, and Jeff Brantley that made it to the big leagues. Dascenzo was also a pitcher on that MSU team and I seem to recall him doing a mop up apperance on the mount for the Cubs).

amir garrett actually *did* fight the entire pittsburgh team

Garrett is a big dude, he played D-1 basketball.

I had kinda forgot what a grade-A prick Dibble was.

Dibble had a brief stint as the varsity baseball head coach at Calabasas High School in Calabasas, California.[23] He was fired from his head coaching job on March 27, 2013, only ten games into the season.

20 years ago today: pic.twitter.com/mQ1meNBhG1

— Dan Riffle (@DanRiffle) March 24, 2021

May 7, 2016: Bartolo Colon hits his first career MLB home run. pic.twitter.com/B6snjDZelm

— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) May 7, 2021

June 1, 2007: AA Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman with one of the all-time great manager tirades.

The perfectly executed rosin bag hand grenade toss, preceded by suspense-building army crawl should be displayed in Cooperstown. pic.twitter.com/C4F20khNYM

— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) June 1, 2021

Via Facebook, so I'm not sure if this will embed properly.

55 years ago today, the @Athletics drafted @ASU_Baseball star Reggie Jackson with the second overall pick. Steve Chilcott, the No. 1 pick, would never play a major league game – but @mroctober was ticketed for Cooperstown. pic.twitter.com/L362hbOXmj

— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) June 7, 2021

Oops--yesterday!

40 years ago today, the Padres drafted Tony Gwynn. 40 years ago today, the Clippers also drafted Tony Gwynn. (Seriously, same day!)

A look back 4 decades later on a decision that seems so obvious in hindsight... but maybe wasn’t at the time.https://t.co/CGaqa6YqGF

— AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) June 9, 2021

whoa

Rick Wise, the Jacob deGrom/Shohei Ohtani of 1972:

https://www.mlb.com/news/rick-wise-s-no-hitter-and-two-homers

The Jerry Meals game was a decade ago. A decade.

pic.twitter.com/gHSKjXBFxM

— Dan Zangrilli (@DanZangrilli) July 26, 2021

The first baseball broadcast on radio is aired by KDKA of Pittsburgh, announced by Harold Arlin (pictured), for a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies: pic.twitter.com/Cedocv5gkF

— 100 Years Ago Today (@CenturyAgoToday) August 5, 2021

https://i.imgur.com/euoCEnE.png

https://i.imgur.com/yrfChFz.png

https://i.imgur.com/8n4Z4ce.png

https://i.imgur.com/M43GujZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/niP7cqm.png

used 'em all up

When did that happen? I literally don't recognize a single name there.

a couple ex Jay farmhands in there!

roberto clemente got his 3000th and final hit 50 years ago today

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fd6wHZoX0AI2UBh?format=jpg&name=small

so good

Rod Carew turns 77 today.

Now that Roberto Alomar has disgraced himself, I think Carew is my favourite player ever. His batting stance was so unique, and his career box is a thing of beauty. He flirted with .400 deep into the summer three or four times when I was a teenager, most notably in 1977. One of my favourite SI covers ever, and the accompanying piece was also great.

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/ted-williams-and-minnesota-twins-rod-carew-july-18-1977-sports-illustrated-cover.jpg

On Oil Can Boyd's 63rd birthday, let me just say this again, no one has ever looked cooler on a baseball card than this: pic.twitter.com/b9k13f2K5T

— Kevin Glew (@coopincanada) October 6, 2022

i had the donruss version of that card. pretty sure that’s rocket roger in the background there.

the bad and hated Francisco Cabrera/Sid Bream Event took place 30 years ago tonight ;_;

i had to watch it in a room full of braves fans, too

happy 40th to the Willie McGee Game

rip roberto clemente, 50 years ago today

happy 60th to david cone and edgar martinez

In 1950, Vin Scully called his first game in the booth in Philly (vs. Brooklyn).

The only Dodger to score: Jackie Robinson.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI195004180.shtml

happy 50th to nomar (and monica lewinsky)

40th anniversary of the Pine Tar Game!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbEHAsZxRYo

never forget

19 years ago today, Albert Pujols silenced the crowd in Houston with this towering go-ahead home run in the 9th 😳 pic.twitter.com/n8jIvlH6VH

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 17, 2024

35 years ago today...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUKNvoAAa8s
(ffwd to ~2mins)

Kinda wild how bloated the postseason has grown, that Game 3 WS is now 10 days later on the calendar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cit3U_bPu-s

20 years today

31 years ago today: tied with the David Freese game for the wildest WS game I've ever seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KAkHNMHkyo