Baseball History 1900-1939
In 1903, by scoring in every inning , the Boston Americans defeat Cleveland 14-7 with Boston hammering out 23 hits and Cleveland collects 10.
1911-Boston’s Smoky Joe Wood and rookie Buck O’Brien toss back-to-back shutouts to beat Cleveland. Wood wins, 6 – 0, and O’Brien follows with a 3 – 0 win. O’Brien, who relieved in his last appearance, will finish all five of his starts, going 5-1.
1914 –Roger Peckinpaugh at age 23 is hired as the manager of the Yankees to finish the season.
1915 – In the first of an important four-game series at Fenway Park, the Tigers (90-48) and Red Sox (90-44) square off. Detroit knocks out starter Rube Foster, then rookie reliever Carl Mays keeps throwing at Ty Cobb till he hits the Tiger star on the wrist. Cobb slings his bat at Mays in retaliation, and the crowd reacts by throwing bottles at Cobb. The next inning, Cobb catches a fly ball for the final out and then needs a police escort to leave the field. The Tigers win, 6 – 1.
1922 – Pennant fever rages in St. Louis, as the Yankees come to town with a half-game lead. Bob Shawkey outpitches Urban Shocker, 2 – 1, as George Sisler ties Ty Cobb’s 1911 record by hitting in his 40th straight game. While chasing a fly ball in the 9th, New York OF Whitey Witt is hit in the head and knocked cold by a soda bottle thrown from the bleachers. Ban Johnson will initially offer a $1,000 reward for the name of the bottle-thrower. Then, to calm the crowds, the American League offers the theory that Witt stepped on the bottle and it flew up and hit him. The incident leads to a ban on the sale of bottled drinks in ballparks.
1923 – The Cubs lose, 10 – 6, to the Giants in Chicago, despite the hitting of Hack Miller who collects three doubles and a triple. A riot occurs in the 8th inning when umpire Charlie Moran makes an out call at second base on Sparky Adams, Moran is pelted by hundreds of pop bottles. Judge Landis, in attendance at the game, shakes his cane at the angry mob, and play is held up for 15 minutes.After he game, a police escort is needed for John McGraw and the umpires.
In 1924- St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Jim Bottomley goes 6-for-6, including two homers, and bats in a record twelve runs when the team beats the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, 17-3. The previous mark of 11 RBIs in one game was established in 1892 by today’s opposing Dodger manager, Wilbert Robinson.
1926-George Sisler of St. Louis becomes the first modern player (post-1900) to hit into three triple plays in his career. Sisler hits into the third triple play of his career in a 5-1 loss to the A’s, the others occurring on September 14, 1921, and August 5, 1922. Sisler will remain tied with 19th Century players Joe Start and Deacon McGuire until August 6, 1967, when Brooks Robinson hits into his fourth triple play.
1933- In the 7th inning,In St. Louis, the Cardinals edge the Dodgers, 14 – 13, and pull off a triple steal.
1934 – The largest turnout in Polo Grounds history, 62,573, suffers as the Deans take two from the Giants. Diz needs relief from Tex Carleton for a 5 – 3 opener, but Paul goes 11 innings for a 3 – 1 win in the nitecap.
1937- Martin Dihigo, Future Hall of Famer pitches the first professional no-hit, no-run game on Mexican soil, a 4 – 0 victory against Nogales at Veracruz.
Baseball History 1940-Present
1940- Leo Durocher receives a suspension for “inciting a riot”. For historical purposes there is a photo of a fan pummeling umpire George Magerkurth.
1948- Joe DiMaggio hits his 300th career home run, joining Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Chuck Klein and Hank Greenberg as the only major leaguers to reach this milestone.
1957. A 300 acre site called Chavez Ravine is approved as a ballpark for the Los Angeles Dodgers, however, the Los Angeles City Council says only if the club will finance a public recreation area.
1958- The baseball world is saddened as Former American League batting champion George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss is killed in a train wreck in Red Bank, NJ.
1960- Warren Spahn, at the age of 39, pitches a no-hitter and beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0 with 15 strikeouts.
1964- Manager Gene Mauch is highly criticized for using starter Jim Bunning with a 17-4 record on to days rest after throwing 10 against Houston. They lose to the Colt 45’s. and Philadelphia is on the way to blowing a large league lead.
1965- Red Sox pitcher Dave Morehead throws a 2-0 no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park.
1966- Willie McCovey hits a 500 ft home run (the longest ever at this park) at Candlestick Park in a game that feature eight pinch hitters in a 5-4 Giants win over the Mets.
1968-Umpires Al Salerno and Bill Valentine are fired by American League President Joe Cronin. The men in blue claim the dismissals are due to their efforts organizing a union.
1972- Glenn Beckert of the Chicago Cubs goes hitless in six at-bats and sets a record as he left 12 men on base.
1975-Going 7 for 7 in a game, Pirates Rennie Stennett establishes a major league record. He helped his team crush the Cubs at Wrigley Field with a 22-0 win
1979- Willie Wilson of Kansas City hits his 5th inside-the-park homer this season It is the most inside-the-park homers hit in a season since Kiki Cuyler hit eight for the Pirates in 1925.
1988-Tom Browning of the Cincinnati Reds pitches a perfect game over the Dodgers. Only eight ball left the infield in this 1-0 win.
1993- Dave Winfield at age 41 collects his 3,000th hit and is the 19th major leaguers to do so.
1997-Earlier in the day, Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire signs a new three year contract for $28,5 million and then hits his 52nd home run of the season,
2007- Jim Thome hits his 5ooth home run and it is a walk off. Also in this year Alex Rodriguez and Frank Thomas reach the milestone.
2020- Trailing the Blue Jays by half a game at the start of a three-game series at New Yankee Stadium, the Yankees leapfrog over their rivals with a pair of drubbings, 20 – 6 yesterday and 13 – 2 today, hitting a team-record 13 homers over the two games.
- I hope you enjoyed these nuggets of baseball history. If I get good feedback on this project I will continue to deliver it.
About the author– Tom Knuppel has been writing about baseball and sports for a few decades. As an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan he began with the blog CardinalsGM. Tom is a member of the United Cardinals Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He also maintains the History of Cardinals website. More recently he has been busy at KnupSolutions and the primary writer of many sports at KnupSports and adds content at Sports 2.0. Tom is a retired High School English and Speech teacher and has completed over one hundred sportsbook reviews. He also can be followed on Twitter at tknup. Feel free to contact Tom at tknuppel@gmail.com
