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Happy birthday to Juan Pierre, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 2009 – The Cubs jump to a 14-0 lead after two innings in crushing the Pirates, 17-2. The Cubs send 15 batters to the plate and score 10 runs in the second inning in support of Randy Wells‘ pitching. Derrek Lee drives in seven runs, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history
:- 1909 – Chicago pitcher Ed Reulbach‘s 14-game winning streak is stopped by the Giants, 5-2. New York has now won nine in a row, but Chicago will stop that tomorrow.
- 1912 – Tris Speaker runs his hitting streak to 20 games, lining a hit in the first game of today’s twin bill with the Browns. This is Speaker’s third long streak of the season; earlier he had streaks of 20 games and 30 games, the only player in history to have three such streaks in a year.
- 1915 – In the first match-up of Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson, the Babe comes away the winner, 4-3. He also goes 2 for 3 and scores a Boston run in the come-from-behind victory. Ruth is hitting .370, second in the American League behind Ty Cobb – albeit in far fewer at-bats as he is still a full-time pitcher at this point.
- 1919 – In a total of two hours and seventeen minutes, the Robins and Cubs split a doubleheader. In the opener, the Cubs blank Brooklyn, 2-0, in one hour and ten minutes and in the nightcap it takes the Dodgers one hour and seven minutes to shut out Chicago, 1-0.
- 1971 – Thanks to outstanding defensive plays by outfielder Jose Cruz and third baseman Joe Torre, Cardinal fireballer Bob Gibson no-hits the Pirates, 11-0.
- 1977 – Carl Yastrzemski leads the Red Sox to an 11-1 pasting of Seattle by collecting his 506th career double. This moves Yaz past Babe Ruth on the all-time list.
- 1991 – California’s Dave Winfield slugs the 400th home run of his career, becoming the 23rd player in history to reach the milestone, in a 7-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.
- 2019 – With his 3,167th hit, Albert Pujols passes countryman Adrian Beltre for most by a player from the Dominican Republic, and by any player born outside the United States.
- 2024 – New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hits his 300th career home run in a 10-2 win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago; he reaches this milestone faster than Ralph Kiner (in games) and Babe Ruth (in at-bats).
Cubs Birthdays: Chris Valaika, Scott Chiasson, Juan Pierre*, Tommy Shields, Tommy Shields, Billy
Myers.
Today in history:
- 1040 – King Duncan I of Scotland is killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth, who succeeds him as king (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare’s play).
- 1281 – During Kublai Khan‘s second Mongol invasion of Japan, his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near the Japanese coast.
- 1846 – American naturalist Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes.
- 1903 – Champion James J. Jeffries scores a 10th-round TKO win over former champion James J. Corbett in San Francisco in his sixth heavyweight boxing title defense.
- 1909 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, home of the Indy 500, hosts its first motorized event, a series of motorcycle races.
- 1937 – The Appalachian Trail is formally completed, traversing 2,000 miles and 14 US states from Georgia to Maine.
- 1997 – Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh formally sentenced to death by Oklahoma Court of Appeals.
- 2016 – Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt wins the coveted 100m Olympic gold medal in 9.81 seconds at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, becoming the first man to win the event three times.
Today in music history:
- 1965 – Sonny & Cher‘s single “I Got You Babe” hits No. 1.
- 1965 – The Beatles tape an appearance for the US variety show “The Ed Sullivan Show”.
- 1966 – Cleveland Stadium’s first rock concert: The Beatles headline, and fans break through barriers and rush the stage, causing a 30-minute delay while order is restored.
- 1985 – Michael Jackson buys ATV Music, including publishing rights to most of the Beatles’ song catalog, for $47.5 million; 10 years later, he sells half of his interest to Sony for $150 million.
- 1995 – “Battle of Brit Pop” rival bands Oasis (Roll with It) and Blur (Country House) release singles on the same day.
- 1995 – Seattle rock band Foo Fighters appear on The Late Show with David Letterman in their network television debut, performing their single “This Is A Call”.
*pictured.
