Important Dates in Major League Baseball from September and October

This is a continuation of the Robert Lookup Baseball Trivia Series.

* * * *

IMPORTANT DATES
in Major League Baseball
September / October 

* * * *

September 1, 1906
Joe Harris of the Boston Red Sox pitches 24 innings in one game, an American League record.

Pitcher Walter Johnson was one of the great ones.

September 4, 1908
Walter Johnson shuts out the Yankees/Highlanders 3-0, the first of three shutouts against the Yankees in four days. Saturday's September 5 game was 6-0 and Monday's 4-0.

September 5, 2001
Roger Clemens bests the Jays 4-3 for his 19th win out of 20 decisions, tying Rube Marquanrd of the 1912 New York Giants. Clemens also passed Jack Chesbro and Whitey Ford for the longest winning streak in Yankee history. Chesbro won 14 straight in 1904 and Ford 14 in 1961.

September 6, 1990
Cal Ripken plays in his 2,131st consecutive game to surpass Lou Gehrig's 56-year-old record. Baltimore beat Anaheim 4-3.

September 7, 1993
Mark Whiten of the Cards hits four home runs. He had 12 RBIs in the first game and 1 RBI in the second of a double header.

September 10, 2000
Randy Johnson becomes the 12th player in Major League history to reach 3,000 strikeouts, fanning a season high 14 i seven innings as Arizona lost 4-3 to Florida in 12 innings.

Sept 16, 1997
Curt Schilling strikes out 9 in Phillies win over the Mets to become the 13th pitcher since 1900 to achieve 300 strikeouts in a season.

September 22, 1904
Jim O'Rourke plays one game for the New York Giants and singles in four at bats. He plays catcher that day. 54 years old, he also played for the original Boston Nationals, the only National League player to play both in 1876 and the 20th Century.

September 22, 1911
Cy Young, 44, beats Pittsburgh 1-0 for his 511th and last victory.

September 25, 1995
Seattle uses 11 pitchers in a game, the most ever.

October 3, 1951

The historic homer by Bobby Thompson.

The shot heard round the world. Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hits a 3-run homer in the ninth inning of the third game to beat the Dodgers 5-4 and win the National League pennant. (EdNote: When I was a bus boy at Fiddler's Elbow Country Club in 1969-70, Bobby Thomson was a member there. On one occasion, another employee took me downstairs where the lockers were and pointed to him, saying, "There's Bobby Thomson" as I peaked round the corner. He was putting on his cleats to head out for a round of golf.)

October 3, 1993
The Blue Jays become the first team in American League history to have teammates finish 1-2-3 in the batting race. John Olerud led the league in hitting, .363; Paul Molitor hit .322; Roberto Alomar hit .326.

October 8, 1959
Mike Morgan is born in Tulare, California

October 20, 1931
Mickey Mantle is born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma.

* * * *

Related Links
A-List of all MLB pitchers with 300 strikeouts or more in a single season.
The shot heard round the world.

Important Dates in Baseball History -- July (For Those Who Are Missing Their Favorite Game)

These notes were assembled by the late Robert Lookup, a very special person whom my wife and I befriended for the last 10 years of his life.  Links to important April and May dates can be found at the end of this entertaining collection of baseball trivia.

* * * *

IMPORTANT DATES -- JULY

* * * *

Roberto Clemente, right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates

July 1, 1997
Tiger's Bobby Higginson homers in first inning against the Mets to become 23rd Major League player since 1900 to homer in four consecutive At Bats over two games.

(EdNote: I remember listening to a Pittsburgh Pirates game in which Roberto Clemente hit three home runs in his first three at bats, and being bummed with his fourth at bat was a long fly that caromed six inches from the top of the wall and he only got a double. The greatly respected Puerto Rican all star was my favorite player in the second half of the 60s.)

July 4, 1905
Ossie Schreckengost caught all 29 innings in a Double Header vs. the Red Sox, without shin guards.

July 5, 1993
Ricky Henderson of the A's opens both games of a Double Header with a Home Run to become the first player to do this in 60 years.

July 8, 1918
Babe Ruth hits a Home Run but loses it to the antiquated rule that an extra inning game can only be won by one run. (Previous to 1920 an extra inning home run was recorded as a single if a man was on base.)

Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young

July 12, 1901
Cy Young of the Red Sox records his 300th win, besting the A's 5-3. (EdNote: His lifetime win-loss record was 511-315.)

July 13, 1963
Early Wynn records his 300th win, Cleveland besting the A's 7-4. (EdNote: Early Wynn was the name of one of my teddy bears, named after the Cleveland Indians starting rotation when I was born in September, 1952. The week before, my family went to see him pitch in Cleveland, in hopes that he would achieve this career milestone. I can still remember our box seats just to the right of the Indians dugout and watching him stand on the mound facing the plate.)

July 16, 1920
Babe Ruth hits 30th home run, breaking his record of 29. The Yankees beat the Browns 5-2. Ruth goes on to hit 54 home runs in 1920.

July 17, 1941
Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak of 56 games is stopped by Al Smith and Jim Bagby of Cleveland, in Cleveland.

July 17, 1990
Twins become the first team in Major League history to pull off two triple plays in one game. The Red Sox still manage a win, 1-0.

July 18, 1970
Willie Mays gets 3000th hit off Montreal Expos' Mike Wegener to become the first Giant to accomplish this feat. He is still the only Giant in this esteemed club.

July 18, 1987
Don Mattingly ties Dale Long's 31-year-old Major League record when he homers for the 8th straight game in a 7-2 loss. Ken Griffey Jr would later tie this record in 1993.

July 18, 1918
Frank Baker is last player to lose a home run to the antiquated rule that said extra inning games could only be won by one run. It was labeled a single.

Ty Cobb, the Georgia Peach

July 19, 1927
Ty Cobb of the Philadelphia A's doubles for the 4000th hit of his career.

July 20, 1998
Brian Hunter of Detroit goes 0-13 in a 26 inning double header against the Yankees.

July 25, 1941
Lefty Grove wins 300th and last game, beating Cleveland 10-6.

July 30, 1980
Astro pitcher J R Richard has a stroke during a workout at the Astrodome. Doctors removed a blood clot behind his right collarbone.

* * * *

"On many summer day, I played baseball starting at 8 in the morning, running home at noon for a quick meal, and again with fielding and batting until it was too dark to see the ball."--Carl Sandburg

"Baseball suits the character of this democratic nation. Democracy is government by persuasion. That means it requires patience; that means it involves a lot of compromise. Democracy is the slow politics of the half-loaf. Baseball is the game of the long season where small incremental differences decide who wins and who loses particular games, series, seasons. In baseball, you know going to the ballpark that the chances are you may win, but you also may lose. There's no certainty, no given. You know when a season starts that the best team is going to get beaten a third of the time; the worst team is going to win a third of the time. The argument, over 162 games, is that middle third. So it's a game you can’t like if winning is everything. And democracy is that way, too."--George Will

Related Links
Historic Interview with Roberto Clemente
Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of April
Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of May
Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of June

Important Dates in Major League Baseball for the Month of June

One of baseball's true greats, Ty Cobb

Good heavens, we should be rolling into the second week of the season, and what have we here? A COVID-19 global tsunami. This is the third "Important Dates" blog post in this series.

You can read Important Dates for April  and Important Dates for May or you can jump right into June after these warmup pitches...

"The baseball mania has run its course. It has no future as a professional endeavor"
--Cincinnati Gazette, 1879

"Nearly everyone's son wants to be a baseball player. Why not? What other profession could he choose where he can slide around in the dirt, never work when it rains and spit whenever he wants?"
--Erma Bombeck

"I grew up in central Illinois midway between Chicago and St. Louis and I made an historic blunder. All my friends became Cardinals fans and grew up happy and liberal and I became a Cubs fan and grew up embittered and conservative."
--George Will

"Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off."
--Bill Veeck

* * * *

IMPORTANT DATES -- JUNE

* * * *

June 1, 1925
Lou Gehrig bats for PeeWee Wanninger in the eighth inning, replacing Wally Pipp at 1st base to start his streak of 2,130 consecutive games.

The Iron Man, Lou Gherig. 1933 Goudey baseball card.

June 3, 1932
Lou Gehrig becomes the first Major League player to hit four consecutive home runs in a game, giving the Yankees a 20-13 win over the A's.

June 3, 1932
John McGraw resigns as manager of the New York Giants

June 4, 1974
Darin Erstad was born.

June 8, 2001
Damion Easley, Detroit second baseman, hits for the cycle. First time a Detroit player has done this since July 28, 1993.

June 17, 1914
Sherwood Robert Magee hits a home run, but it is taken away from him by the antiqued rule that says an extra inning game can only be won by one run. Rule was changed in 1920.

June 24, 1955
Harmon Killebrew hits his first Major League home run off Billy Hoeft in Griffith Stadium. Tigers, however, beat the Nationals 18-7.

June 26, 1916
Cleveland wore numbers on their sleeves.

June 26, 1976
Rangers' Tobey Harrah, shortstop, plays a Double Header without handling a batted ball from the White Sox.

June 29, 1941
In a Double Header against the Nationals, Joe DiMaggio tied, and then broke, the American League record of hitting in 41 straight games. Batting 1 for 4 in the first and 1 for 5 in the second, he broke the record set by George Sisler in 1922.

June 29, 2001
Dave Burba of Cleveland gives up four home runs in one inning to Kansas City's Sweeney, Dye, Ibanez and Beltran.

* * * *

"Baseball can be summed up in one word — youneverknow."
--Joaquin Andujar

"You know what baseball is? It's playing cards, sleeping, watching TV. Dress. Batting practice. Fool around with the fans. Joke with teammates. Football is a little different. Before the game, everybody sits on the floor, quietly, thinking whose head they're going to take off."
--Bo Jackson

Trivia: Did you know Bob Dylan once recorded a song about a Major League pitching star? What was his name and who did he play for?