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Happy birthday to Bobby Murcer, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1971 – Martin Dihigo dies in Cienfuegos, Cuba, at the age of 65. Over the course of his career, Dihigo made seamless transitions between all nine positions and played in several countries. As a hitter, he won both batting average and home run titles; as a pitcher, he won more than 250 games and once defeated Satchel Paige while touring Cuba. He will be elected to the American
Hall of Fame in 1977 and also was or will be voted into the Cuban, Mexican and Latin American Baseball Hall of Fame, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1871 – In Boston, Mort Rogers introduces a scorecard with a picture of Harry Wright on the front. Each Red Stockings home game will feature a different player so that spectators can collect them and have a full set of Boston’s players by season’s end. This marketing strategy will be used throughout the 19th century and will ultimately evolve into Tobacco cards and, eventually, Baseball cards.
- 1878 – In a 3-1 loss to the White Stockings at Chicago’s Lake Front Park, right-hander Jim McCormick of the Indianapolis Blues becomes the first player born in Scotland to appear in a major league game. Next season, as a 23-year-old, the Glasgow native will manage the team, which will move to Cleveland, making him the youngest skipper in the history of the game.
- 1881 – Mike “King” Kelly scores the go-ahead run by cutting short the distance rounding the bases. Kelly doesn’t come close to touching third while the umpire is looking a different direction. Kelly then pulls off the hidden ball trick in the 9th inning to preserve the win for the Chicago White Stockings over Boston, 5-4.
- 1918 – In what will become a precursor of a tragic event, Indians outfielder Tris Speaker is struck on the head by a pitch thrown by Red Sox hurler Carl Mays. The submarine pitcher, who will fatally bean Ray Chapman with a ball in 1920 as a member of the Yankees, denies Speaker’s allegation that the pitch was intentional.
- 1919 – Babe Ruth wins a game pitching and batting as he hits his first career grand slam in the Boston Red Sox’s 6 – 4 victory over the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park.
- 1920 – Policenen raid the Wrigley Field bleachers. 24 people were arrested for gambling.
- 1925 – The Cleveland Indians score six runs in the bottom of the 9th inning to beat the New York Yankees, 10 – 9. Tris Speaker scores the winning run from first base on a single.
- 1932 – Paul Waner of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits four doubles in one game to tie a major league record.
- 1948 – Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hits for the cycle and collects six RBI in a 13-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox. DiMaggio hits two home runs, a triple, a double and a single, and narrowly misses another extra-base hit when Chicago left fielder Ralph Hodgin makes a spectacular catch at the wall.
- 1951 – Richie Ashburn of the Philadelphia Phillies collects four hits in each game of a doubleheader as the Phillies sweep the rival Pittsburgh Pirates, 17-0 and 12-4, at Forbes Field.
- 1962 – In a doubleheader, Chicago Cubs rookie Ken Hubbs hits eight singles in eight at bats as the Cubs sweep the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 and 11-2.
- 1978 – Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a 535-foot home run off Montreal Expos pitcher Wayne Twitchell to highlight a 6-0 victory at Stade Olympique. It is the longest home run in the ballpark‘s history and is also Stargell’s 407th career home run, tying him with Duke Snider on the all-time list.
- 1979 – Don Sutton becomes the franchise’s winningest pitcher when he is credited with the victory, tossing eight innings in the Dodgers’ 6-4 victory over the Reds at Riverfront Stadium. The 34-year-old right-hander’s 210th win surpasses the team mark established in 1969 by Don Drysdale.
- 1983 – Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Steve Carlton passes Walter Johnson to move into second place on the all-time strikeout list. Carlton’s four strikeouts put him at 3,511, just ten behind Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros. Ryan had bettered Johnson’s record earlier in the month.
- 1988 – Mike Schmidt belts the 535th home run of his career during the first inning at San Diego, CA off Padres starting pitcher Andy Hawkins, moving Schmidt past Jimmie Foxx into sole possession of eighth place on the all-time home run list.
- 2000 – After being released earlier in the month by the Mets for not hustling, Rickey Henderson, in his initial at-bat for the Mariners, hits his record 76th career leadoff home run in his team’s 4-3 loss to Tampa Bay at Safeco Field. With the round-tripper, the future Hall of Fame outfielder joins Ted Williams and Willie McCovey as the third major leaguer to have homered in four different decades.
- 2012 – Max Scherzer strikes out 15 batters in seven innings to lead the Tigers to a 4-3 win over the Pirates. The strikeouts are one shy of the club record of 16, held by Mickey Lolich, and represent the highest total in the major leagues so far this season.
- 2013 – Two of the best pitchers so far this season throw complete game three-hitters today. Clayton Kershaw of Los Angeles defeats Milwaukee, 3-1. Patrick Corbin also pitches a gem in Coors Field, getting his first career complete game, as Arizona defeats the Rockies, 5-1. Corbin is now 7-0 with a 1.44 ERA, which only trails Kershaw’s 1.35 in the National League.
- 2014 – Masahiro Tanaka suffers his first loss in the majors when the Cubs beat the Yankees, 6-1, behind Jason Hammel.
- 2014 – At age 55, Julio Franco returns to professional baseball with a 1-for-3 night for the Fort Worth Cats of the independent United League. Hired for the Cats’ current homestand as a player-coach, Franco has now played professionally in five decades, having started in the minor leagues in 1978. He had retired in 2008 before his return this year.
Cubs Birthdays: Brian McNichol, Bobby Murcer,* George Grantham. Also notable: Hal Newhouser HOF.
Today in history:
- 1862 – US President Abraham Lincoln signs into law the Homestead Act to provide cheap land for the settlement of the American West (80 million acres by 1900).
- 1899 – First speeding infraction by a New York cabbie driving an electric car – 12mph down Lexington Street.
- 1959 – Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car “Falcon.”
- 1964 – Buster Mathis beats future world heavyweight champion Joe Frazer on points at trials in Flushing, NY to qualify for US Olympic boxing team; Mathis injures thumb, replaced by Frazier who wins gold medal.
- 1989 – “Toonces The Driving Cat” takes the wheel on SNL.
- 1990 – Hubble Space Telescope sends its first photographs from space.
Special Invention- and adventurer-related stories on this date:
- 1830 – Douglass Hyde receives the first US patent for a fountain pen.
- 1873 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patent the first blue jeans with copper rivets.
- 1891 – First public display of Thomas Edison‘s prototype kinetoscope to members of the National Federation of Women’s Clubs.
- 1892 – George Sampson patents clothes dryer.
- 1918 – US Navy launches USS New Mexico, its first battleship with an electric-turbine propulsion system.
- 1927 – At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard the Spirit of St. Louis in the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight.
- 1932 – Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland on her journey to become the 1st woman to fly solo and nonstop across the Atlantic.
Special Music-related stories on this date:
- 1939 – “3 Little Fishies” by Kay Kyser swam to #1.
- 1954 – Decca Records releases Bill Haley & His Comets’ hit single “Rock Around the Clock”.
- 1967 – BBC bans the Beatles’ song “A Day in the Life” due to the line “I’d love to turn you on” being construed as a drug reference.
- 1970 – The Beatles’ “Let it Be” documentary film directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, premieres at the Liverpool Gaumont Cinema and the London Pavilion; none of the group attend.
- 1979 – Elton John is the 1st western pop star to tour USSR.
- 1980 – Drummer Peter Criss quits rock band Kiss.
- 1983 – “Every Breath You Take” single released by The Police (Billboard Song of the Year, 1983).
- 1992 – American rapper Tung Twista raps 597 syllables in under 60 seconds.
*pictured.
