I'm helping with my son's 7U team, so we're doing a lot of baseball rules drills in practice. It's why I had the Merkle example earlier this week. 7U is the first year little league uses a catcher. We don't have a dropped strike rule at 7U, but we're teaching them anyway. The dropped third strike: In Game 4 of the 1941 World Series, the Yankees trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-3 in the top of the 9th with two outs. Hugh Casey strikes out Tommy Henrich, to end the game, but catcher Mickey Owen drops the third strike. Henrich runs to first safely as the ball rolls away from Owens. Joe Dimmagio singles as the next batter and the Yankees rally in the 9th to win 7-4. Instead of tying the series at 2-2 with the final out a strikeout, the Dodgers lose to go down 3-1 and lose the series 4-1.
On April 14, 1908, William Howard Taft became the first US President to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. Walter Johnson took over from there for a one hit 3-0 shut out of the Philadelphia Athletics.
Hoyt Wilhelm was the first relief pitcher ever elected to the baseball hall of fame. He pitched 21 seasons and appeared in 1070 games. On April 23, 1952, Hoyt Wilhelm hit a home run in his first major league at bat. He never hit another in his next 1069 games.
The Red Sox experimented with Wakefield as a reliever in the late 90's, but not for long. Wilhelm is still 6th all time in games pitched. He also didn't make it to the majors until he was 30. He pitched until he was 51.
In 1961, Roger Maris was going for the HR record. There was a big fuss over them having 162 games when Ruth only had 154. When they reached 154, Maris was 2 shy. He homered in his 2nd AB and then the O's brought in Wilhelm is a blowout game late to pitch to Maris. Maris grounded out and fell 1 shy of Ruth through 154 games. The movie *61 touched in it. Highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.
On May 8, 1973, Bob Gibson set a major league record by starting his 242 straight game. 185 of those starts were complete games. In those 9 seasons, his era never went above 3.12.
Gibson broke his ankle in 1967, on the DL from 7/15-9/6. He returned in 1968 to have arguably the best season of any pitcher in the post-dead ball era. His 1.12 era is 4th all time. You have to go to Dwight Gooden's 1.53 in 1985 (42 all time) to find the next non-dead ball pitcher. When we start comparing pitchers across eras, I think the complete games these guys pitched is under appreciated. In 1968, Gibson started 34 games, completed 28, and threw 13 shutouts. Since 2000, James Shields' 11 in 2011 is the only pitcher in double digits on complete games. Gibson's 13 shutouts is the most in the post-dead ball era.
Rod Carew won the batting title 7 times and hit .328 in his Hall of Fame career. He also stole home 18 times, almost unique among post WWII players. In 1969, he stole home 7 times. On this day in 1969, Carew stole second, third, and home in the same inning against the Detroit Tigers.
While that's impressive, it's even more impressive to learn that Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner both did it 4 times in their career.
i grew up in the 1980's, when stealing bases was an art. No other decade really compares to the numbers of steals put up in that one.
I don't think any other decade begins to compare to Rickey Henderson by himself. Few players had the ability to impact a game the way he could in his prime.
It didn't take much to realize that was scheduled starts, not 1.5 seasons of starting consecutive games.
On May 25, 1998, Mark McGuire hit his 25th home run of the season. He became the first player in history to get half way to 50 before June. Sammy Sosa then hit 20 home runs in June, breaking the major league record for a month. Both were on pace to catch Maris by July, along with Griffey. McGuiire had 37 entering July with Sosa and Griffey tied at 33. If we're being honest, that season was a blast and I wish I never knew anything about steroids.
Let's all be honest here, baseball was as popular as its ever gonna be that season. That's shit was so so awesome.
was in the barber's chair when mac broke the record jumped out of the chair on contact went there for a fade and came out buzzed down because of it
1998 had so much enthusiasm. Kerry Wood had his 20 strikeout game. There was the McGuire/Griffey/Sosa race. Tony Gywnn had a streak of five straight seasons over .350 batting before leading the Padres to their first series, with tons of fans rooting for him to get the team there. That season also saw arguably the best New York Yankee team ever win 114 regular season games, then an AL record, and sweep the series. That was the first of the Yankee three-peat in 1998, 1999, and 2000.
It is hard to imagine the country ever being as enthralled with baseball again as it was in the Summer of 1998.
I was 10 years old that summer and can still remember where I was sitting/standing and who I was with for a lot of those moments. Great memories
Truth but I don't really think that MLB really cares about their product these days. Or moreover, how they are perceived by their fanbase.
It's funny because it seems like despite having more access to live games, info, etc. than ever before the game has become increasingly hyper-regionalized ever since '98. That's one of the few times I can remember the entire nation being gripped like that. When I was younger I used to read the box scores and transactions in the paper everyday. I could recognize probably 75% of most team's rosters. These days if it happens outside of the Bronx, and isn't discussed on the Effectively Wild podcast, I don't know about it.
I'm right there with you. I follow it a little bc of the MLB thread but I am very Yankee focused these days. I'm sure there's an explanation for it but it's been noticeable. And yea, 1998 and 2001 World Series were the peak of national interest.
whats crazy about this is people always forget just how nuts big mac was in that decade 70, 65, 58, 52, 49, 42, 39 in the 90's alone. thats never ever going to happen again
Sosa's run from 98 - 02 is often overlooked in history. Home Runs by season: 98: 66 99: 63 00: 50 01: 64 02: 49 His lowest batting average during that span was .288. Average season: 58 hr, 141 rbi, .306 avg
On May 31, 1869, professional baseball suffered its first rainout. The Cincinnati Reds were set to host a group of alumni from Antioch called the Antioch Nine. Mother Nature intervened.
I was 17 that summer and going into my senior year of HS and my last year of playing baseball. I was glued to WGN and Sunday Night Baseball more than anytime in my life.
i miss being a kid and being absolutely enthralled by baseball tonight i don't know shit about teams outside of the braves anymore and it legitimately makes me sad
I'm a little older than most of you, but when I was a kid (12-13 or so) and really started following baseball, I used my lawn mowing money and got a subscription to The Sporting News so I could follow all of the players and stats. We didn't have the internet in 1987, so my main source of baseball news was The Sporting News, Sports Center (back when it didn't suck), and baseball cards that I could get at the local gas station for 35 cents for a pack of cards and a stick of gum.
Collecting baseball cards was great. Hopefully by the time I have a son they won't all be digital or some shit. Most of mine did not make it with me when I moved across the country to AZ but I still have some I saved.
I picked up 3 boxes of unopened 1989 Donruss wax packs at a garage sale for $5/box last summer just so my boys could know the thrill of opening a pack of cards like I used to.
I vividly remember having to wait for the paper to come each day to find out what happened yesterday with the eastern and central teams and from the day before for the west coast teams.
Collecting baseball cards is something I'm sorry my son won't get to do based on the greed of the companies, MLB, and MLBPA.
The Sporting News printed the box score of every major league game every week, then updated team batting and pitching stats for each team. It was fantastic.
That is how I was as a kid but fantasy baseball has revived my interest around the league. My dad used to quiz me on the box scores and league leaders and I had all that memorized. I couldn't tell you who lead the Majors in HRs or who the Cy Young was last year now.
Used to wake up in the morning, grab the paper, and read the box scores. Would watch Baseball Tonight every night, and LOVED "web gems" basically just follow the pirates and their farm system now.