What is the story about?
Free
of charge for the discerning reader. Happy birthday to Cap Anson and a mighty host of others, plus more baseball stories, such as the first pro game, Jackie’s first hit, Sam Snead’s big hit, Mickey LOVED Washington, and the debuts of Clemente, Aparicio, Drysdale and Frank Robinson.
Today in baseball history:
- 1869 – The first professional baseball game ever played sees the Cincinnati Red Stockings defeat the rival Cincinnati Amateurs, 24-15.
- 1947 – The Brooklyn Dodgers win 12-6 over the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field, as Jackie Robinson gets his first major league hit, a bunt single, off Glenn Elliott. Robinson will bunt 42 times, collecting 19 hits, during the season.
- 1951 – Golf great Sam Snead tees off from home plate and hits the center field scoreboard at Wrigley Field before the Cubs’ home opener. The Associated Press reports: “Sammy Snead settled a long-standing argument today over whether a golf ball could be driven from home plate over the towering scoreboard at Wrigley Field. It can, by a golfer like Sam. Wearing street clothes, Snead sent a ball zooming well over the scoreboard with a No. 2 iron after hitting the board with a swing with a No. 4 iron. Snead calculated the carry was 175 yards. The scoreboard rises 89 feet in the air some 50 feet behind the 400-mark on the centerfield wall.”
- 1953 – New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle clears the bleachers at Griffith Stadium with a 565-foot home run off Chuck Stobbs. The shot comes in the fifth inning of a 7-3 Yankees victory over the Washington Senators. It is believed to be the longest home run in Griffith Stadium history.
- 1955 – At Forbes Field, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 20-year-old rookie Roberto Clemente makes his major league debut, ironically but perhaps fittingly, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team that first signed him but left him unprotected in the 1954 Rule 5 draft. In his first at-bat, the future Hall of Famer rifles one back through Johnny Podres, and off the glove of shortstop Pee Wee Reese, for the first of his 3,000 career hits.
- 1955 – Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers hits three home runs in Briggs Stadium, including a pair in the 6th inning, to drive in six runs. The Tigers rout the A’s, 16-0, behind Steve Gromek‘s strong pitching.
- 1956 – Three future Hall of Fame members make their major league debuts. Luis Aparicio of the Chicago White Sox, Don Drysdale of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Redlegs all play the first games of their brilliant careers.
- 1956 – Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees hits a pair of tape measure home runs against Camilo Pascual at Griffith Stadium. Both long balls are estimated at over 500 feet. New York and the Washington Senators combine for six home runs in a 10-4 Opening Day victory for the Yankees.
- 1964 – The New York Mets lose their first game at Shea Stadium to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3. Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell hits the first home run ever at Shea.
- 1974 – C George Mitterwald has a career day in leading the Cubs to an 18-9 win over the Pirates. He goes 4-for-4 with a walk, a double, three homers, and eight RBI. The next Cub catcher to hit three homers in a game will be Dioner Navarro, in 2013.
- 1976 – At Wrigley Field, Mike Schmidt leads a Philadelphia Phillies assault with a single, four home runs in consecutive at-bats, and eight RBI to overcome a 12 – 1 deficit after three innings and beat the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings, 18-16. The Cubs tie the game in the ninth after the Phillies have taken a 15 – 13 lead. Hitting .167 going into the game, Schmidt connects for two homers off Rick Reuschel, one off Mike Garman, and the last, a two-run shot off Reuschel’s brother Paul in the 10th inning. Schmidt also becomes the first National League player in modern times to hit four home runs in a row.
- 2011 – For the first time since their move to Washington, DC in 2005, the Nationals sweep a doubleheader at home. David Espinosa and Ivan Rodriguez bang three-run homers in an 8-4 win over the Brewers in the opener.
Cubs Birthdays: Roberto Peña, Bob Osborn, Morrie Schick, Scott Perry, Tom Needham, Mike Jacob. Also notable: Cap Anson* HOF
Today in history:
- 858 – Benedict III’s reign as Catholic Pope ends with his death.
- 1492 – Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I to find the “Indies” with the stated goal of converting people to Catholicism. This promises him 10% of all riches found and the governorship of any lands encountered.
- 1853 – US Marine Hospital at Presidio, San Francisco forms.
- 1860 – Champion of England Tom Sayers and American John Heenan fight a brutal 2-hour, 27-minute draw that ends only after police stop the fight near Farnborough in England, acknowledged as the first world title bout.
- 1875 – Modern snooker is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain, a bored British officer in Jabalpur, India.
- 1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating US Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
- 1993 – Two Los Angeles police officers convicted in federal court of violating Rodney King‘s civil rights and sentenced to prison, while two others are acquitted, leading to the L. A. Riots. When the riots ended six days later, 63 people had been killed, 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, and estimates of property damage were over $1 billion.
- 2015 – American jazz composer and saxophonist John Coltrane is awarded a posthumous Special Citation by the Pulitzer Prize board.
- 2015 – Marianne Winkler finds “message in a bottle” on the shore of the German island of Amrum; it had been dropped in the North Sea by British marine scientist George Parker Bidder on November 30th, 1906, making its length of time spent adrift 108 years, 138 days
*pictured.
