What is the story about?
Free of charge for the discerning reader.
Happy birthday to Leon Durham, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 2005 – Among thousands of high-spirited Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs fans and the 48 Hall of Famers sitting on the dais, Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg are enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1891 – At New York, Giants‘ fireballer Amos Rusie walks 8 batters and hits another, but still no-hits the visiting Grooms to claim a 6-0 shutout victory. This will be the first of four 30-win seasons for the 20 year-old, and the second of four times that he leads the NL in both strikeouts and walks. Rusie remains the youngest pitcher to record a no-hit game.
- 1916 – Babe Ruth fires a two-hitter, by Ty Cobb and George Burns, for a 6-0 win for the first-place Red Sox over the Tigers. Ruth adds two hits at the plate.
- 1916 – Behind Lefty Grove and Jimmie Foxx, the visiting Red Sox top the White Sox, 7-3. Grove wins his 13th on seven hits, while Double X bangs his 30th homer, a triple and double. Boston sub Moe Berg adds a triple, double, and single off Ted Lyons.
- 1972 – White Sox slugger Dick Allen becomes the seventh major leaguer to hit two inside-the-park home runs in one game. The homers pace the White Sox over the Twins, 8-1.
- 1973 – The Reds sweep a pair from the Braves, winning, 9-5, in the opener, then scoring five runs in the 9th to take the nightcap, 13-11. Joe Morgan totals three homers and seven RBIs for the afternoon.
- 1978 – Pete Rose singles off Phil Niekro to extend his hitting streak to 44 games, as the Reds edge the Braves, 3-2. Rose ties Willie Keeler‘s 81-year-old National League record, achieved when foul balls didn’t count as strikes.
- 1987 – Eddie Murray hits his 299th and 300th career home runs to lead Baltimore to an 8-4 win over Texas.
- 1990 – At County Stadium, Ranger righty Nolan Ryan wins his 300th game defeating the Brewers, 11-3. The 43-year-old from Alvin, Texas will compile 324 victories during his 27-year big league career.
- 1996 – The Mariners club the Brewers, 9-3, hitting seven homers in the game. Jay Buhner, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez each have a pair, with Brian Hunter adding one. Sterling Hitchcock (11-4) is the winner.
Today in Cubs history:
- 1910 – Cubs rookie King Cole pitches a seven-inning no-hitter for a 4-0 win over St. Louis. Cole will top the National League with a 20-4 record, but will have only one more winning season.
- 1911 – Phils rookie Grover Cleveland Alexander, who beat the Cubs yesterday in relief, loses a matchup with Three Finger Brown, 4-2. The Phils, at 56-38, are in fourth place.
- 1968 – Chicago’s Billy Williams, Ernie Banks and Jim Hickman hit 4th-inning home runs as Fergie Jenkins (12-10) beats the Astros, 6-1, at Wrigley Field.
- 1970 – The Reds lose a doubleheader to the visiting Cubs, 7-1 and 11-7, and lose rookie star Wayne Simpson, who tears the rotary cuff in his pitching arm. Simpson will come back, but will never be the same, going 22-28 in the rest of his career.
- 2004 – The long-anticipated trade of Nomar Garciaparra is finally accomplished as the Red Sox shortstop is traded to the Cubs in a four-team deal which includes the Twins and Expos. Chicago first acquires shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the Expos for shortstop Alex Gonzalez, relief pitcher Francis Beltran and minor leaguer Brendan Harris. They then pry 1B Doug Mientkiewicz from the Twins for minor league southpaw Justin Jones. Finally, Chicago flips its two new acquisitions to the Bosox for Garciaparra, prospect Matt Murton and cash.
- 2016 – The Cubs’ 7-6 win over the Mariners can be credited to a series of brilliant moves by manager Joe Maddon. Trailing 6 – 2 in the sixth, he sends in P Travis Wood in relief of Joe Nathan, and he gets out of a runners on second and third with nobody out situation without allowing a run. Maddon then moves Wood to left field in the seventh as Pedro Strop takes the mound, and Wood robs Franklin Gutierrez by crashing into the ivy at Wrigley Field to snag a line drive. With two outs in the 8th, Wood replaces Strop and picks off Shawn O’Malley at first base to end the inning. The Cubs score three runs off Steve Cishek in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings, then in the 12th, Maddon asks P Jon Lester to pinch-hit with Jason Heyward on third base, and the otherwise awful hitter lays down an excellent squeeze bunt to drive in the winning run against Cody Martin.
Cubs Birthdays: René Rivera, Mike Bielecki, Leon Durham*, Earl Stephenson, Bill Fleming, Art Nehf,
Larry Doyle.
Today in history:
- 1777 – Marquis de Lafayette, aged just 19, is appointed a major general of the Continental Army.
- 1853 – First nighttime surgery performed at Lychakiv Hospital in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine) using new kerosene oil lamps invented by Ignacy Łukasiewicz.
- 1959 – Cliff Richard and the Shadows have their first British No. 1 single with “Living Doll,” the best-selling British single of 1959.
- 1969 – Elvis Presley returns to the concert stage for the first time in over eight years, starting a four-week, 57-show run at the newly opened International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
- 1984 – US men’s gymnastics team scores an emotional upset win over the world champion Chinese team in the combined event to take the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics.
- 2012 – Michael Phelps becomes the greatest medal winner in Olympic history as part of the winning American 4 x 200 m freestyle relay team in London, earning his 19th career Olympic medal and 15th overall gold.
- 2021 – American swimmer Caeleb Dressel wins the 100 m butterfly in a world record time of 49.45 seconds at the Tokyo Olympics and completes the 100 m freestyle/butterfly double.
- 2021 – American swimming superstar Katie Ledecky wins the women’s 800 m gold for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympics in Tokyo and claims the distance 800/1500 m double.
*pictured.
