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Happy birthday to Ryan Brasier, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1972 – At Wrigley Field, Ron Santo records his 2,000th career hit, a three-run home run off Ron Bryant. Santo’s hit, driving in his 1,200th run, is the margin of victory as the Cubs top the Giants, 10-9, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1926 – Pittsburgh RF Paul Waner goes 6 for 6, including two doubles and a triple, in a game against St. Louis.
- 1950 – Roy Campanella of the Dodgers hits three home runs in a 7-5 win over the Reds at Crosley Field.
- 1962 – Robin Roberts, discarded earlier in the year by the Yankees, beats Whitey Ford, 2-1, on home runs by Brooks Robinson and Jim Gentile to complete a five-game Oriole sweep of the sagging Yankees. The Twins and Angels are now three games behind New York.
- 1969 – Willie McCovey drives in six runs with homer No. 40, a grand slam, and a sac fly and a single, while Bobby Bonds drives in another five as the Giants bomb the Phils, 13-4.
- 1980 – At Milwaukee’s County Stadium, George Brett strokes four singles and a double in five at-bats as the Royals edge the Brewers, 7-6. The Kansas City third baseman’s 5-for-5 performance raises his league-leading batting average to .407.
- 1987 – Paul Molitor‘s 39-game hitting streak comes to an end as he waits in the on-deck circle watching pinch hitter Rick Manning single home the winning run in a 1-0, 10-inning victory over the Indians.
- 1995 – Atlanta P Greg Maddux ties a major league record by notching his 16th consecutive road win, a 7-2 victory over his former team, the Cubs. Maddux now shares the record with Denny McLain, Cal McLish, and Rich Dotson.
- 1998 – Atlanta’s Andruw Jones steals his 20th base of the season, becoming the youngest player ever to have a 20 homer, 20 steal season. Cesar Cedeno was the previous record-holder.
- 1999 – Arizona defeats Florida, 12-2, as Randy Johnson wins his 14th game. Johnson fans nine Marlin batters in becoming the fastest pitcher to reach 300 strikeouts in a season.
Today in Cubs history:
- 1929 – In the eighth inning of a 5-5 game at Wrigley Field, Cubs 3B Norm McMillan hits a line drive down the left field line with the bases loaded. Reds LF Evar Swanson, shaded toward center, can’t find the ball, which he sees bounce off a gutter in foul territory. McMillan circles the bases and four runs score. Later, Cubs relief P Ken Penner picks up his jacket in the bullpen and discovers the ball in his right sleeve. It is Chicago’s 8th grand slam of the year.
- 1930 – Hack Wilson has four RBIs to lead the Cubs over the Pirates, 7-5. Wilson cracks a two-run single in the fifth, but then allows a Lloyd Waner liner to skip by him for an inside-the-park home run, and vows to atone. He hits his 44th home run, off young Larry French, breaking Chuck Klein‘s one-year-old National League record.
- 1948 – The Cubs sweep two from the Braves, 5-1 and 5-2, despite a near-riot that holds up play for 20 minutes in the nightcap. The reaction by the fans comes when Jocko Conlan rules that a drive by Phil Cavarretta in the third inning is a ground-rule double, not an inside-the-park homer. Conlan makes his call after Braves LF Jeff Heath “loses” the ball in the Wrigley Field vines, though it is really by his feet. The fans shower the field in protest and Conlan bawls out some of Chicago’s finest for not taking any action. When play is resumed, Andy Pafko walks and Peanuts Lowrey hits a bases-loaded triple.
- 1962 – At Chicago, Dick Ellsworth stops the Braves, 4-1, and stops Hank Aaron‘s hitting streak of 25 games. The Cubs tie a major-league record with three straight sacrifice bunts in the sixth inning following a bunt single by Ellsworth.
- 1966 – After seeing a caricature of himself on the scoreboard, an angry Leo Durocher calls the Astrodome‘s press box to have it removed. When nothing is done, the enraged Cubs manager rips the phone out of the dugout wall and tosses it onto the infield.
- 2001 – The Cubs defeat the Cardinals, 6-1, as Sammy Sosa hits two more home runs, his 50th and 51st of the season. In doing so, he joins Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth as the only players with four 50-homer seasons.
Cubs Birthdays: Ryan Brasier*, Xavier Cedeño, Brendan Harris, Tom Poholsky, Heinz Becker, Sparky
Adams, Chick Fraser.
Today in history:
- 1682 – English astronomer Edmond Halley first observes the comet named after him.
- 1843 – American inventor Charles Thurber patents a typewriter.
- 1959 – British Motor Corporation introduces the Morris Mini-Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis; it is only 10 feet long yet seats four passengers.
- 1967 – The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, and Donovan meet Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a retreat in Bangor, Wales.
- 1968 – “Hey Jude” single is released by the Beatles in the US (Billboard Song of the Year 1968, Billboard 10th biggest song of all time 2013).
- 1999 – Michael Johnson breaks the 400 m world record with a time of 43.18 seconds.
- 2007 – The Rolling Stones close their two-year, 147-concert “A Bigger Bang” tour at the O2 Arena in London, England; the box office gross of the tour exceeds $558 million, a record at the time.
- 2025 – American pop superstar Taylor Swift (35) and American NFL football player Travis Kelce (35) reveal their marriage engagement in social media post, garnering 1.2 million ‘likes’ in under 10 minutes
*pictured.
