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Happy birthday to Jason Motte, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1914 – The Giants shade the Reds, 3-2, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the 9th off Red Ames. Christy Mathewson gives up seven hits and no walks as the Giants increase their lead over the National League to four games. For the second year in a row, Matty will end the season with fewer walks than victories, the only pitcher ever to accomplish that, and other stories
as well.
Today in baseball history:
- 1908 – Honus Wagner gets hit No. 2,000 in the 8th against Jake Weimer of the Reds, who win 4 0 over the Pirates.
- 1947 – Ewell Blackwell just misses pitching back-to-back no-hitters when Eddie Stanky of the Brooklyn Dodgers singles with one out in the ninth inning.
- 1951 – 20-year-old Willie Mays hits a 10th-inning home run, the first of his 22 extra-inning home runs, off 42-year-old Dutch Leonard of the Cubs.
- 1959 – At Kansas City, Mickey Mantle drives in six runs with a triple and two homers to lead New York to a 13-6 win.
- 1961 – Roger Maris leads the Yankees on an 8-3 thrashing of the A’s by belting his 27th homer of the year. Maris has now hit 20 homers in the past 30 days (May 24th to today), to tie the mark set by Ralph Kiner in 1947.
- 1962 – Stan Musial becomes the all-time total bases leader, raising his total to 5,864, in the first game against the Phillies.
- 2002 – The scheduled game between St. Louis and the Cubs is postponed after 33-year-old pitcher Darryl Kile is found dead in his Chicago hotel room of an apparent heart attack.
- 2022 – One day after setting a personal best as a hitter with eight RBIs, Shohei Ohtani sets another one on the mound as he racks up 13 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings in a 5-0 win over Kansas City.
Cubs Birthdays: Jason Motte*, Brant Brown, Jim Asbell. Also notable: Carl Hubbell HOF.
Today in history:
- 1934 – John Dillinger is informally named America’s first Public Enemy Number One.
- 1937 – Challenger Joe Louis KOs James J. Braddock in the eighth round at Chicago’s Comiskey Park for the world heavyweight boxing title.
- 1938 – Joe Louis scores a stunning 1st round KO of German Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, NYC to retain his world heavyweight boxing title.
- 1949 – Ezzard Charles beats Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 for National Boxing Association world heavyweight title, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois.
- 1961 – Beatles record “Ain’t She Sweet”, “Cry for a Shadow”, “When the Saints Go Marching In”, “Why”, “Nobody’s Child” & “My Bonnie”, in Hamburg, Germany.
- 1963 – “Little” Stevie Wonder, aged 13, releases his first single “Fingertips” (first live non-studio recording to go to No. 1 on Billboard).
- 1969 – Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River catches fire due to pollution.
- 1971 – Reprise Records releases “Blue”, Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell‘s 4th studio album.
- 1979 – Larry Holmes TKOs Mike Weaver in 12 rounds for heavyweight boxing title.
- 1981 – John McEnroe‘s famous “You cannot be serious” rant in first-round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon.
- 2007 – Patrick Kane is selected by the Chicago Blackhawks as the first overall pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
- 2011 – After hiding for 16 years, Boston gangster Whitey Bulger is arrested outside an apartment in Santa Monica, California.
*pictured.
