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Happy birthday to Eric Jokisch, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 2014 – The Cubs win the longest game in team history, 4-3, as the 16 innings take 6 hours and 27 minutes to complete, 17 minutes longer than a 21-inning game played over two days in 1982; it’s also the record for a Rockies game. Catcher John Baker is pressed into mound duty in the 16th and earns the win when he scores the winning run after leading the bottom of the inning with
a walk and is driven home on Starlin Castro‘s sacrifice fly, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1904 – Brooklyn’s Jack Cronin outpitches Christy Mathewson to beat the Giants, 1-0. Brooklyn scores in the first inning when Matty walks two with two runners on base.
- 1908 – Rube Waddell continues to haunt Connie Mack, again fanning 16 A’s in a 5-4 win for the Browns.
- 1911 – Rube Marquard shuts out the Cards on four hits before 23,000 in St. Louis. The Giants pitcher will beat the Redbirds again on the 31st, allowing five hits.
- 1915 – Forty-one-year-old Pirates infielder Honus Wagner reaches Brooklyn Robins hurler Jeff Pfeffer for a grand slam in the eighth inning, helping Pittsburgh beat Brooklyn at Forbes Field, 8-2.
- 1919 – At Navin Field, Dutch Leonard decides to pitch around Braggo Roth with two outs in the ninth inning to face Babe Ruth. Although the Boston slugger, who has already reached the Detroit southpaw with two doubles, responds by tying an American League record with his ninth home run of the month and sixteenth of the season, the Tigers prevail, 10-8.
- 1958 – Ted Williams hits his 17th career grand slam, tying him for second place with Babe Ruth, and behind Lou Gehrig, who had 23. Williams also adds a three-run homer, as Boston beats Detroit, 11-8.
- 1966 – The Yankees edge the White Sox, 2-1, on Mickey Mantle‘s 14th homer in 24 games. Mick moves ahead of Lou Gehrig into sixth place on the homer list with the blast.
- 1997 – Pedro Martinez strikes out 13 Rockies, including Andres Galarraga four times, in Montreal’s 3-0 win. Martinez gives up just three hits in going all the way.
- 2007 – Ichiro Suzuki collects the 1,500th hit of his major league career, a single off of Lenny DiNardo. It comes in his 1,060th game. Only two players – Al Simmons (1,040) and George Sisler (1,048) – have accumulated 1,500 hits in fewer games.
- 2008 – Ichiro Suzuki raps the 3,000th hit of his career, combining the major leagues (1,722) and Japan’s Pacific League (1,278). Isao Harimoto was the only player to collect 3,000 or more hits in Nippon Pro Baseball, putting Ichiro second all-time in hits by a Japanese player in top-tier baseball leagues.
Today in Cubs history:
- 1951 – Against the Phillies, Cubs player-manager Phil Cavarretta earns his money by driving home three runs in a first-game win, 5-4, snapping the Cubs’ ten-game home losing streak. His triple in the sixth off Robin Roberts ends the Cubs’ scoreless inning skein of 31 innings, and the consecutive scoreless innings by Phils pitchers at 41. Cavarretta takes the bench in the second game but inserts himself as a pinch-hitter in the seventh when Roberts relieves, and hits a grand slam home run as the Cubs sweep, winning the nightcap, 8-6.
- 1988 – In the Cubs’ 8-3 win over Kevin Gross and the host Phillies, Rick Sutcliffe swipes home, the first pitcher since Pascual Perez in 1984 to steal home. It comes on the front end of a double steal with Mitch Webster. Sutcliffe is the first Cubs pitcher to steal home since Hippo Vaughn in 1919.
Cubs Birthdays: Tyson Miller, Eric Jokisch*, Ken Kravec, Roy Henshaw, Luther Roy, Frank Martin, Earl Moore, Sam Dungan.
Today in history:
- 1933 – Police shootout with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow‘s gang in Iowa leaves one member, Clyde’s brother Buck Barrow, dead and one captured; Bonnie and Clyde escape.
- 1938 – Olympic National Park is established in Washington state, featuring the longest undeveloped coastline in America.
- 1957 – Floyd Patterson TKO’s Tommy Jackson in the 10th round for the heavyweight boxing title.
- 1958 – US President Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, establishing NASA.
- 1966 – First show by rock trio “Cream,” consisting of guitarist Eric Clapton, bassist Jack Bruce, and drummer Ginger Baker, at the Twisted Wheel nightclub in Manchester, England.
- 1976 -In New York City, the “Son of Sam” kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.
- 2021 – Following Simone Biles‘ withdrawal, teammate Sunisa Lee becomes first Hmong-American Olympic champion in any sport, winning women’s artistic individual all-around gymnastics gold in Tokyo.
- 2023 – 46,000-year-old minuscule pair of roundworms revived from their cryptobiotic state after being frozen in Siberian permafrost, proving life can be stopped and then restarted according tto scientists.
*pictured.
