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Happy birthday to Codi Heuer, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1966 – Pitcher Tony Cloninger hits two grand slams and drives in nine runs, as the Braves rout the Giants
at Candlestick Park, 17-3. Cloninger is the first National League player to slam two in a game, and the first pitcher ever, and his nine RBIs are a major-league record for pitchers, breaking Vic Raschi‘s mark of seven, and other stories as well.Today in baseball history:
- 1911 – At Philadelphia, the A’s Frank Baker hits for the cycle in a 5-1 win over the Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader.
- 1947 – The Indians purchase Larry Doby from the Newark Eagles. In two days, the 22-year-old will become the first African-American to play in the American League.
- 1951 – Giants rookie Willie Mays blasts a 13th-inning solo homer off the Phillies’ Jocko Thompson to give New York a win. It is Willie’s second extra-inning homer in two weeks.
- 1968 – Luis Tiant registers 19 K’s in ten innings, as Cleveland beats Minnesota, 1-0. Tiant sets two modern major league records – most strikeouts in a ten-inning game; and 32 strikeouts in consecutive games – and ties the modern major-league record of 41 strikeouts in three successive appearances.
- 1977 – In an 11 – 7 win over the Padres, Phillies 3B Mike Schmidt hits an inside-the-park homer, the second of his career. He’ll hit one more, in 1982.
- 2009 – Albert Pujols, the major league home run leader, hits his fourth grand slam of the year, a team record, as the Cardinals dispose of the Reds, 7-4. He now has 350 career dingers, becoming the third-youngest to reach the mark, after Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr.
- 2021 – Harmon Killebrew falls off the top ten home run list as Jim Thome goes deep twice for the Twins to give Thome 574 dingers in the big leagues.
Today in Cubs history:
- 1929 – The Cubs and Reds turn nine double plays, tying the Detroit–Washington 1925 mark. The 7-5 Chicago win is their seventh in a row, giving them a half-game lead over the Pirates.
- 1960 – A day after his wedding in Chicago, Jim O’Toole pitches and loses, as the Cubs pound him for seven runs and nine hits in less than five innings. Chicago wins, 7-5. An unsympathetic manager Fred Hutchinson deadpans: “It was his turn to pitch. I didn’t tell him to get married.”
- 1967 – At the launching pad in Atlanta, Billy Williams, Ron Santo and Randy Hundley homer for Chicago, and Rico Carty and Felipe Alou answer for the Braves – all in the 1st inning, a major league record. Carty adds another homer later, but Glenn Beckert‘s three-run shot helps put the game out of reach. Ray Culp emerges the winner, 12-6.
- 1970 – At Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Gene Alley and Roberto Clemente each hit two homers to help the visiting Bucs outlast their hosts, 16-14. This slugfest also numbers a game-tying, 2nd-inning grand slam by Chicago’s Billy Williams among its eight homers and 70 total bases. Mother Nature, however, has to get a good deal of credit for the day’s offensive production; clearly, the “Windy City” has earned its sobriquet today. “It blew fourteen miles per hour toward center,” reports the Chicago Tribune, “prompting Clemente to all but apologize for his first homer.” “I just tapped the ball,” Clemente tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “There was no way that ball should have gone out of here. The wind was blowing to left, to center, to right. Everywhere it was blowing, it was for the hitter.”
Cubs Birthdays: Codi Heuer*, Casey Coleman, Zach Putnam, Tommy Hunter, John Koronka, Moisés Alou, Matt Keough, Cliff Curtis.
Today in history:
- 1775 – George Washington takes command of Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- 1861 – Pony Express arrives in San Francisco with overland letters from NY.
- 1863 – Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle ever fought on the American continent, ends in a major victory for the Union during the US Civil War.
- 1886 – In Germany, Karl Benz first drives the first automobile in Mannheim at a top speed of 16 km/h (10 mph).
- 1928 – John Logie Baird demonstrates the first color television transmission in London.
- 1931 – German boxer Max Schmeling beats American Young Stribling by TKO in 15 in Cleveland in his first heavyweight title defense; first major fight broadcast live on national radio.
- 2004 – Official opening of Bangkok’s subway system.
- 2025 – Archaeologists announce the discovery of a 3,500-year-old ancient city in Peru named Peñico.
*pictured.
