What is the story about?
Free of charge for the discerning reader. Happy birthday to Welington Castillo* and a mighty host of others, plus more baseball stories, like “NEWS ALERT”: The HOF and BBWAA have always been stupid entities, and world stories, such as Sir Paul is still kicking.
Today in baseball history:
- 1917 – George Mogridge of the New York Yankees pitches a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox, 2- , at Fenway Park. Mogridge strikes out three batters and walks three as he becomes the first Yankee pitcher to actually win a no-hit game: in 1910, Tom Hughes had pitched nine no-hit innings against Cleveland, but lost the game after giving up a hit in the 10th and five runs in the 11th.
- 1926 – Unfazed by Forbes Field‘s ample dimensions, St. Louis Cardinals player-manager Rogers Hornsby leads by example, slugging his team to a 9-3 thrashing of the Pirates. He goes 3 for 3 with a single, double, sacrifice fly and tape-measure inside the park home run for a total of five RBI.
- 1931 – Three days before his 35th birthday, Chicago’s player-manager Rogers Hornsby again has a great game at Forbes Field as he hits three consecutive home runs to beat the Pirates, 10-6.
- 1946 – Former major leaguers Jesse Burkett, Frank Chance, Jack Chesbro, Johnny Evers, Clark Griffith, Tommy McCarthy, Joe McGinnity, Eddie Plank, Joe Tinker, Rube Waddell and Ed Walsh are inducted into the Hall of Fame. This comes as a result of the BBWAA having once again failed to elect anyone: clearly overstepping its mandate, the Old Timers Committee walks into the breach and elects a boatload of players, many of which are under active consideration by the baseball writers.
- 1957 – The Chicago Cubs set a National League record by walking nine batters in the fifth inning of a 9-5 loss to the Cincinnati Redlegs. Moe Drabowsky walks four batters, Jackie Collum issues three free passes, and Jim Brosnan two during the wild inning.
- 1958 – Lee Walls hits three home runs and drives in eight runs as the Cubs rout the Dodgers, 15-2, at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
- 1962 – Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers strikes out 18 Chicago Cubs in a 10-2 victory at Wrigley Field. Koufax ties the record of 18 strikeouts in a single game, matching the mark set by Bob Feller with the Cleveland Indians.
- 1978 – Nolan Ryan of the California Angels strikes out 15 batters for the 20th time in his career, but leaves in the 9th inning without a decision. The Seattle Mariners prevails over the Angels, 6-5, in the 12th.
- 1998 – Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Mike Piazza ties a major league record hitting his third grand slam of the month. The blast highlights a nine-run second inning which leads Los Angeles to a 12-4 victory over the visiting Chicago Cubs.
- 2012 – Chipper Jones homers on his 40th birthday (off Aaron Harang) as the Braves beat the Dodgers, 4-3. He becomes the fifth player in major league history to do this, following Bob Thurman, Joe Morgan, Wade Boggs and Tony Phillips.
- 2014 – David Ortiz breaks Harold Baines‘ record for games played at Designated Hitter (1,644); Ortiz already held records for hits, homers and RBI as a DH. Ortiz goes 0 for 1 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch before leaving early in a 12-5 Boston loss to the Yankees.
Cubs Birthdays: Willi Castro, Steven Souza Jr., Welington Castillo*, Will Cunnane, Herman Segelke, Glen Hobbie, Ken Penner. Also notable: Carlos Beltrán HOF. Chipper Jones HOF. Andy Cooper HOF.
Today in history:
- 1184 BC – The Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse (traditional date).
- 1459 – Fra Mauro completes his Map of the World in Venice for King Alfonso V of Portugal – largest known world map from Medieval Europe and the first to show Africa as a free-standing continent.
- 1833 – Jacob Evert and George Dulty patent the first soda fountain.
- 1895 – Canadian-American adventurer Joshua Slocum sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts on a solo around-the-world voyage aboard ‘Spray’, an 11.2-m oyster sloop, 46,000 miles.
- 1908 – Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock and their children depart Los Angeles in a Packard Thirty, endeavoring to become the first family to travel across the United States by car. They arrive in NYC 32 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes later.
- 1945 – Miles Davis makes recording debut with the Herbie Fields Orchestra, backing singer “Rubberlegs” Wilson, at Savoy Records Studio, Newark, New Jersey.
- 1953 – Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
- 1969 – Paul McCartney says there is no truth to rumors he is dead (and he’s still not dead).
- 1989 – Massachusetts declares today “New Kids on the Block Day”.
- 2018 – Streaming music services overtake worldwide sales of CDs and vinyl for the first time according to IFPI.
*pictured.
