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Happy birthday to Trent Thornton, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1972 – Roberto Clemente doubles off the Mets’ Jon Matlack to become the eleventh major leaguer to collect 3000 hits. The hit, sadly, will be the Pirate right fielder’s last, as he will die in a plane crash on New Year’s Eve
attempting to bring relief aid to earthquake-stricken Managua, Nicaragua, and other stories as well.Today in baseball history:
- 1927 – With the score tied 2-2 in the eighth, Mark Koenig triples and Babe Ruth hits home run number 60 off Tom Zachary for a 4-2 win. In the ninth, Walter Johnson makes his final appearance as a player. He pinch-hits for Zachary and flies out to Ruth. Ruth hits 17 homers in September, the highest month’s home run output till Rudy York‘s 18 in August 1937.
- 1936 – In the World Series opener, Carl Hubbell scatters seven hits and limits the Yankees to a solo home run by George Selkirk. The Giants take a decisive 6-1 win.
- 1942 – Down 7-0 to Red Ruffing in the World Series opener, the Cardinals storm back for four 9th-inning runs, not enough to win but enough to portend the result of the Series.
- 1945 – Hank Greenberg hits a pennant-winning grand slam on the final day of the season. The Tiger left fielder’s 9th-inning bases-full homer beats the Browns, 6-3, clinching the American League flag for Detroit over the second-place Senators.
- 1949 – Ralph Kiner hits his 54th homer and 16th in September, as the Pirates beat Herm Wehmeier and the Reds, 3-2. The monthly total eclipses Cy Williams‘s National League mark set in 1923.
- 1950 – Before 23,879 at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn pulls within one game of the lead, as Erv Palica wins, 7-3, over the Phillies. The Brooks rout rookie Bob Miller and then Duke Snider and Roy Campanella pound homers off Jim Konstanty. It is the Phillies’ fifth loss in a row, their eighth in ten games. The red-hot Dodgers have now won 13 of their last 16 games. For the second year in a row, the pennant race will come down to the last game. If the Dodgers win tomorrow, the race will end in a three-way tie.
- 1951 – Jackie Robinson hits an upper-deck home run in the 14th inning off Robin Roberts, who came on in the 8th, to give the Dodgers a critical 9-8 win over the Phils. Robbie saves the game in the 13th by making a great catch of an Eddie Waitkus line drive and throwing to second base for a double play.
- 1954 – With lefty Johnny Antonelli going the distance, the Giants defeat Early Wynn and the Indians, 3-1, in Game 2 of the World Series.
- 1955 – In Game 3 of the World Series, the Dodgers’ Johnny Podres defeats Bob Turley who fails to last two innings against the Bums. C Roy Campanella leads the attack with three hits and three RBI, as Brooklyn wins, 8-3.
- 1962 – Willie Mays‘ 47th home run, an 8th-inning blast off Dick Farrell (10-20), leads the Giants to a critical 2-1 win.
- 1967 – Boston beats the Twins, 6-4, to tie Minnesota for first place. Carl Yastrzemski‘s three-run home run gives him the American League-lead with 44, but Harmon Killebrew answers with his 44th for the losers.
- 1979 – With his fifth-inning solo homer, Willie Stargell passes Honus Wagner as the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ all-time RBI leader, bringing his career total thus far to 1,476. His milestone shot makes it 3-0 Bucs, and they hang on to beat Chicago, 5-3, clinching the National League Eastern Division title in the process.
- 1980 – A’s OF Rickey Henderson sets the American League single-season stolen base record with his 97th in a 5-1 win over the White Sox, breaking Ty Cobb‘s record of 96 set in 1915. Henderson will finish the season with 100 stolen bases.
- 1984 – On the final day of the season, Mike Witt uses only 97 pitches to retire 27 consecutive hitters. The Angels’ hurler throws the perfect game against the Rangers and beats Charlie Hough on an unearned run, 1-0.
- 1992 – George Brett of the Royals gets the 3,000th hit of his career, stroking four safeties in Kansas City’s 4-0 win over California. Moments later, Brett is picked off base by Tim Fortugno.
- 1997 – SS Edgar Renteria‘s two-out single in the bottom of the ninth scores Charles Johnson with the winning run as the Marlins defeat the Giants, 2- 1, in the opener of the other Division Series in the National League.
- 2001 – Todd Helton‘s double is his 100th extra base hit of the season. He is the first player in history to have 100 extra base hits in back-to-back seasons. Lou Gehrig and Chuck Klein were the only others to do it twice in their careers.
- 2008 – The White Sox complete their unlikely run to the postseason by blanking the Minnesota Twins, 1-0, in a one-game playoff to determine the winner of the AL Central division. Jim Thome homers off loser Nick Blackburn to lead off the 7th inning for the game’s only run.
Today in Cubs history:
- 1911 – At the West Side Grounds, Red Ames gives the Giants a needed 3-1 victory over the second-place Cubs.
- 1917 – The Cubs finish the season with a 9-2 loss to the visiting Braves. Vic Saier, out with a broken leg he suffered on April 15th, starts at 1B and goes 3 for 4 in his last game as a Cub. He’ll play in 1919 with the Pirates.
- 1922 – In the second of two at Cubs Park, the Cards whip the Cubs, 5-3, in a game stopped after five innings. The big blow for the Birds is a three-run homer in the first inning by journeyman infielder Del Gainer off Cubs lefty Percy Jones. When Jones is lifted, so is Gainer, who closes out his career with the home run. The Cards also take the opener, 9-8.
- 1933 – In a 12-2 romp over the Cardinals, Babe Herman of the Chicago Cubs hits for the cycle, the third time he has performed the feat.
- 1988 – Ronald Reagan, nearing the end of his presidency, throws out the ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field. The former Cub announcer then spends an inning and a half doing play-by-play with Harry Caray in the WGN television booth.
- 1992 – Greg Maddux blanks the Pirates, 6-0, to become the Cubs’ first 20-game winner in 15 years. He will tie Tom Glavine for the National League lead in wins.
- 1998 – In the first game of their NLDS, the Braves defeat the Cubs, 7-1, as Michael Tucker and Ryan Klesko homer to back John Smoltz‘s pitching.
- 2007 – Alfonso Soriano hits his 14th home run of the month, this one against Homer Bailey. This sets the Chicago Cubs record for most homers by one player in a month, and contributes to a new team record of 45.
- 2013 – The Cubs fire manager Dale Sveum one day after the end of a second straight disappointing season in which they lost 96 games after losing 101 in 2012.
- 2025 – It’s also a low-scoring game in Wrigley Field, where the wind is blowing in for Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series. Seiya Suzuki and Carson Kelly still manage to hit back-to-back homers off Nick Pivetta in the 5th to lead the Cubs to a 3-1 win. Four Cubs relievers retire the final 14 Padres batters in order to seal the win.
Cubs Birthdays: Trent Thornton*, Curtis Goodwin, Yorkis Pérez, Doug Jennings, Dave Magadan, Carlos Lezcano, Alex Hardy, Hal O’Hagan. Also notable: Robin Roberts HOF.
Today in history:
- 1841 – Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.
- 1939 – In the first televised college football game, Fordham defeats Waynesburg 34-7 at Randall’s Island, NY.
- 1955 – American actor and cultural icon James Dean is killed in a car crash at age 24.
- 1968 – Motown releases The Supremes‘ single “Love Child.”
- 1980 – Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox in collaboration with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation.
- 1982 – Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen‘s sixth studio album “Nebraska,” a solo record made without a backing band.
- 1985 – Island Records releases “Rain Dogs,” the ninth studio album by singer-songwriter Tom Waits; the album features guitarist Marc Ribot, guest appearances from Keith Richards, and one of Waits’s most covered songs, “Downtown Train.”
- 2024 – A Montana man is sentenced to six months in prison for illegally using large Marco Polo sheep tissue and testicles to clone giant hybrid sheep for trophy hunting.
*pictured.
