Baseball History (10/1)

Complete entry for baseball history at BaseballLibrary.com is HERE.

Too much neat stuff to pick only one entry to highlight. It's a fifth of highlighted entries today:

1903
» The first modern World Series game, also called "Championship of the United States," is played at Boston's Huntington Street park before 16,242. Deacon Phillippe pitches Pittsburgh to a 7–3 win over Cy Young. Pittsburgh RF Jimmy Sebring hits the first home run and adds three other hits. 3B Tommy Leach has four hits, including two triples for the Pirates and winds up with four three-baggers, a Series record.

Baseball Almanac has great entry on that World Series...Heck, on every World Series. For a look at the Game One boxscore of the 1903 World Series go HERE. I see Honus Wagner had a hit and an RBI for the Pirates. But, he committed an error, too. Yeah, he was great in the regular season, but get him into a big post-season game and he was worthless. (That was a joke.)

1919
Eddie Cicotte, a 29-game winner, is driven to cover in a 5-run 4th. Cincinnati's Dutch Ruether pitches a 6-hitter, and has 3 RBI on 2 triples and a single for a 9-1 win. Reds OF Greasy Neale, the only man to play in a WS, coach a football team in the Rose Bowl, and become a pro football Hall of Fame coach, also has 3 hits. He will top the Reds with .357 for the Series.

The start of the Black Sox Series. Baseball Almanac has the info. The Game One boxscore is HERE.

1951
In the National League's first best-of-three play-off since 1946, Ralph Branca of the Dodgers loses to Jim Hearn and the Giants 3–1. Branca serves up home runs to Bobby Thomson and Monte Irvin. It is the first game ever to be broadcast live coast-to-coast. With both the Dodgers and Giants tied 96–58 at the end of regulation, Brooklyn wins the coin toss and elects to play the first game of the playoffs at home. The next two games will be played at the Polo Grounds.

So, the Dodgers could have had the second two games at home? Man, they deserved what they got for that decison.

1961
» Roger Maris' torturous, season-long race against Babe Ruth ends in a dramatic at bat against Boston's Tracy Stallard. Maris' classic lefthanded swing sends home run number 61 into the RF stands in "The House That Ruth Built." (Sal Durante, one of 23,154 fans in attendance, grabs the historic home run ball which he sells for $5,000). New York's 1–0 win gives the Yanks 109 wins, one short of the club's 1927 record. It is New York's major-league record 240th homer of the year.

One of my favorite parts of working in the Northern League was the trip to Fargo. With free time in the afternoon, it was a short walk to take a look at the Roger Maris Museum. All you need to know about Roger Maris is right on the front page of the museum's website:

When approached with the idea of creating a museum in his honor, New York Yankee outfielder Roger Maris, who hailed from Fargo, initially declined out of humility. Eventually, though, he would say, “Put it where people will see it, and where they won’t have to pay for it.”

That's why the museum is at the West Acres Shopping Center.

1978
With the Yankees a game ahead and one to play, Cleveland's Rick Waits stops New York on five hits to win 9–2. Meanwhile, Boston takes their finale, their 8th in a row, on Luis Tiant's 5–0 shutout of the Blue Jays. Boston has two unearned runs in the 5th, a two-run homer by Rick Burleson in the 7th, and Jim Rice's 46th homer in the 8th for their scoring. Both teams end the season with identical 99–63 records, with a one-game playoff to determine the divisional champ.

If the Red Sox had won the playoff game against the Yankees a few days later, New York would have been the chokers. But, that didn't happen, did it?