Chicago Cubs history unpacked, May 4

Free of charge for the discerning reader.

Happy birthday to Joe Borowski, and a mighty host of others. He probably doesn’t like Star Wars, either.

Today in baseball history, in 1963, Bob Shaw of the Milwaukee Braves sets a major league record by committing five balks. In the third inning, Shaw walks Billy Williams and sends him home with three straight balks. The Chicago Cubs beat Milwaukee, 5 – 3. This and other stories are posted as well, including a pair of examples of stellar excellent sportswriting.

Today in baseball history:

• 1869 – The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first all-professional baseball team, start their first regular season with a 45-9 victory over the Great Westerns of Cincinnati.
• 1871 – A National Association contest between the Cleveland Forest Citys and Fort Wayne Kekiongas is officially the first Major League game ever played. Fort Wayne is the winner, 2-0, behind a four-hit shutout by pitcher Bobby Mathews. Cleveland’s catcher, Deacon White, is 3 for 4, including the first hit (a double) and also is the first to hit into a double play. Bill Lennon becomes the first catcher to throw a runner out trying to steal second base. In the 127 games during the 1871 season, there will be a total of four shutouts.
• 1931 – In an effort to put less strain on his leg, Babe Ruth plays first base as Lou Gehrig moves to right field. Gehrig commits a costly error in the outfield helping the Washington Senators beat the Yankees, 7-3.
• 1939 – In his first-ever at-bat in the city of Detroit, Boston Red Sox rookie Ted Williams becomes the first player to hit a home run which totally clears the right field seats at Briggs Stadium.
• 1955 – “Clemente’s Brilliant Catch in 9th Kills Rally by Braves.” So reads the New York Times headline but that’s not the whole story. Clemente’s game-ending circus catch not only secures Pittsburgh’s 5-4 victory, it also bails out the main protagonist after his errant throw puts the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third base. And who should walk to the plate at this moment but George Crowe, Clemente’s teammate and fellow Caribbean Champion with the Santurce Crabbers just three months earlier. As the Milwaukee Journal tells it: “Crowe, who had replaced the slump-ridden Joe Adcock at first base, pasted the ball against the remote grandstand not far from the right field foul line, only to have young Roberto Clemente race over and time his leap perfectly as he scraped the ball off the wall with his gloved hand.”
• 1966 – Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants establishes a new National League record for most career home runs when he hits his 512th, surpassing the total of former New York Giants great Mel Ott. Mays’ blast against Claude Osteen, which puts him fourth on the all-time list, helps the Giants beat the Dodgers, 6-1.
• 1967 – Roberto’s Revenge: Old Testament Style – Donn Clendenon and Roberto Clemente combine to give Don Drysdale a taste of his own medicine (perhaps taking Orlando Cepeda‘s adage – “the trick with Drysdale is to hit him before he hits you” – a tad literally). Dodger beat writer Frank Finch reports: “Before Drysdale retired, he took a physical pounding from the Pirates. Clemente’s third hit almost tore Don’s right hand off, and later in the same inning Donn Clendenon’s drive drilled Drysdale on the shins so hard that it bounced to first base, where Wes Parker made an easy put-out.”
• 1984 – At the Metrodome, Dave Kingman of the Oakland Athletics is awarded a ground rule double when the ball he hits disappears. The Athletics slugger’s towering fly ball goes through a drainage hole in the stadium roof and never returns to the playing field.
• 2010 – Ernie Harwell, one of the greatest broadcasters in baseball history, dies at the age of 92 after a year-long bout with cancer. He was the radio and television voice of the Detroit Tigers for 42 years, retiring from the booth in 2002. He received the Ford Frick Award in 1981 and was a member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
• 2011 – Tim Lincecum has a good night in shutting out the Mets, 2-0, at Citi Field. He fans 12 batters in seven innings for the 29th double-digit strikeout game of his career. That total is the most ever by a Giants pitcher, overtaking Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson who set the previous mark back in the days the franchise played in New York.
• 2018 – Albert Pujols of the Angels becomes the 32nd member of the 3,000 hit club with a 5th-inning single off Mike Leake of the Mariners. Pujols is only the fourth player to combine 3,000 hits and 600 homers, after Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez.
• 2022 – By pitching seven innings of one-hit ball, Adam Wainwright gets credit for a 10-0 win by the Cardinals over the Royals. It is the 202nd time that the battery of Wainwright and C Yadier Molina have combined on a win, tying the all-time record set by Warren Spahn and Del Crandall of the Boston and Milwaukee Braves.

Cubs Birthdays: Ryan Meisinger, Ben Grieve, Miguel Cairo, Manny Aybar, Joe Borowski,* Cy Block, Ox Miller, Ted Turner, Vic Saier, John Malarkey

Today in history:

• 1878 – Thomas Edison‘s phonograph is shown for the first time at the Grand Opera House in NYC
• 1893 – Cowboy Bill Pickett invents bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground
• 1904 – Charles Rolls meets Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England. Go on to form the car manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
• 1904 – United States begins construction of the Panama Canal
• 1932 – Al Capone enters Atlanta Penitentiary convicted of income tax evasion
• 1946 – Five people die during a two-day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Francisco Bay
• 1953 – Pulitzer Prize for Literature awarded to Ernest Hemingway for “The Old Man and The Sea”
• 1957 – Alan Freed hosts “Rock n’ Roll Show” 1st prime-time network rock show, cancelled after 4 episodes
• 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• 1998 – A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

*pictured.