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Happy birthday to Rafael Lopez, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1966 – Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers wins his 27th game of the season and the final game of his career. Koufax’s 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies clinches the National League pennant for the Dodgers; 1974 – Future Hall of Famer Al Kaline announces his retirement. During a 22-year career with the Detroit Tigers, Kaline compiled 3,007 hits and 399 home runs.
He also batted .379 in the 1968 World Series; 1983 – Carl Yastrzemski plays in his 3,308th and final game, hitting a single as the team’s left fielder. After the Red Sox’s 3-1 victory over Cleveland, “Yaz” takes one more “final lap” around Fenway Park and will stay to sign autographs on Yawkey Way for over an hour; and 2016 – Veteran broadcaster Vin Scully calls his final LA Dodgers game, a 7-1 loss in San Francisco, after a record 67 MLB seasons, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1908 – Addie Joss of the Cleveland Naps tosses a perfect game against the Chicago White Sox. The future Hall of Famer wins a 1-0 decision over Ed Walsh in one of the greatest pitching duels in major league history. Joss strikes out only three batters, while Walsh fans 15.
- 1919 – The Chicago White Sox lose the second game of the World Series, 4-2, to the Cincinnati Reds. Lefty Williams, one of eight Sox players involved in a Series-fixing scandal, walks three men in the 4th inning. After the game, he is confronted and attacked by Sox catcher Ray Schalk.
- 1921 – The Yankees close the season by beating the Red Sox, 7-6. Babe Ruth hits his 59th home run off Curt Fullerton.
- 1936 – The Yankees even the World Series and set a Series record for runs as they demolish the Giants, 18 – 4. Lefty Gomez coasts to a six-hit win, while every member of the Yankees lineup makes a hit and scores at least one run. Tony Lazzeri hits a grand slam, the first in World Series play since 1920.
- 1938 – Bob Feller strikes out 18 Detroit Tigers batters, setting a single-game record that will stand until Steve Carlton breaks it in 1969.
- 1947 – The Dodgers squeak out a 9-8 win over the Yankees, jumping on Bobo Newsom and Vic Raschi for six runs in the 2nd inning. Yogi Berra becomes the first player to hit a pinch home run in World Series history, belting one off Brooklyn’s Ralph Branca in the seventh inning.
- 1949 – Ted Williams loses the batting title as George Kell goes 2 for 3 in Detroit (.3429 to .3427).
- 1963 – Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers sets a World Series record by striking out 15 batters in Game 1 against the New York Yankees, beating the record set by Carl Erskine ten years ago on this day. The Dodgers win the game, 5-2, behind Koufax’ six-hit pitching.
- 1965 – Sandy Koufax‘s 2-1 win against the Braves clinches the National League pennant for the Dodgers. With 13 strikeouts, Koufax ups his modern major league season record to 382. (Nolan Ryan will do Koufax one K better in 1973).
- 1968 – In one of the most memorable World Series performances ever, Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals strikes out 17 Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series. Gibson sets the World Series record for most strikeouts in a single game, set on this day in 1963 by Sandy Koufax, and leads the Cardinals to a 4-0 victory over Tigers ace and Cy Young Award winner Denny McLain.
- 1969 – Pete Rose, in the eighth inning of the Reds’ 8-3 win at Atlanta Stadium, clinches the National League batting title when he beats out a bunt to third base for a hit in his last at-bat of the season. The day starts with the Cincinnati right fielder tied with Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente, who goes 3 for 4 against Montreal but finishes .005 of a point behind (.3447 to .3452) the eventual all-time hits leader.
- 1978 – Bucky Dent‘s unlikely home run helps the New York Yankees defeat the Boston Red Sox in a dramatic one-game playoff at Fenway Park. Trailing by two runs in the 7th inning, Dent smacks a three-run shot against pitcher Mike Torrez into the screen above the Green Monster. The Yankees hold on for a 5-4 victory en route to face the Royals in the ALCS and the Dodgers in the World Series. Following the 2010 season, a panel of experts at the MLB Network voted this game the 11th greatest game of the past fifty years.
Today in Cubs history:
- 1932 – The Yankees sweep the Cubs in the World Series. Tony Lazzeri hits two homers and Earle Combs adds another in the 13-6 laugher.
- 1984 – In a game played with replacement umpires, the Cubs clobber the Padres, 13-0, in Game 1 of the NLCS. Chicago hits five home runs at Wrigley Field, including one by winning pitcher Rick Sutcliffe.
- 2001 – Slugging Sammy Sosa becomes the first player in baseball history to slug 60 home runs in three seasons. The Cubs outfielder connects off Lance Davis in the first inning of the team’s 5-4 loss to Cincinnati at Wrigley Field to reach the milestone.
- 2012 – Seven years after being beaned on the first pitch he saw in his only career plate appearance, derailing a promising career, former Cub Adam Greenberg gets a chance to bat again in the major leagues. The Miami Marlins send him up to pinch-hit in the 6th inning against the Mets’ R.A. Dickey. He strikes out on three pitches from the knuckleballer, but the crowd cheers wildly as his story of perseverance has made him a hero to many.
- 2018 – The Rockies defeat the Cubs, 2-1, in 13 innings in the Wild Card Game. After scoring off Jon Lester in the 1st, the Rockies’ bats go quiet, while the Cubs tie it with two outs in the eighth when Javier Baez doubles off Adam Ottavino, scoring pinch-runner Terrance Gore. However, the Cubs, whose bats have gone stone cold of late, waste a number of other chances. Tony Wolters, the Rockies’ third catcher of the game, drives in Trevor Story with a two-out single off Kyle Hendricks in the 13th for the go-ahead run, and Scott Oberg preserves the win as Colorado will continue its travels, moving to Milwaukee, WI for Game 1 of the NLDS, its fourth city in four games.
- 2020 – The National League Wild Card Series are complete as the Marlins eliminate the Cubs with a 2-0 win in Game 2 of the Third Series thanks to a homer by Garrett Cooper off Yu Darvish in the seventh that breaks a scoreless tie.
Cubs Birthdays: Rafael Lopez*, Matt Walbeck, Héctor Villanueva, Dave Beard, Bill Serena, Tom Angley, Scott Stratton.
Today in history:
- 1789 – George Washington transmits the proposed constitutional amendments, known as the United States Bill of Rights, to the states for ratification.
- 1866 – J. Osterhoudt patents the tin can with a key opener.
- 1919 – US President Woodrow Wilson has a stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed.
- 1925 – Josephine Baker first performs in Paris in La Revue Nègre at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
- 1950 – First strip of Charlie Brown, “Li’l Folks,” later “Peanuts,” by Charles M. Schulz is published in seven nationwide papers.
- 1967 – Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first Black Supreme Court Justice.
- 1977 – Austrian Ferrari driver Niki Lauda finishes fourth in the US Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen to clinch his second Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship, while Englishman James Hunt wins the race.
- 2002 – The Beltway sniper attacks begin, extending over three weeks.
- 2009 – “Stan Lee Day” declared by County of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach.
- 2016 – Kim Kardashian is robbed at gunpoint of $10 million worth of jewelry in her hotel room in Paris.
*pictured.
