September 17th in baseball history
Posted by Andy on September 17, 2011
Courtesy of our own B-R Bullpen
30 years ago today:
1981 - Dodger rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela sets the National League rookie mark with his eighth shutout of the season. The record had been shared by Irv Young (1905), Grover Cleveland Alexander (1911) and Jerry Koosman(1968). He ties the ML mark of Russ Ford (1910) and Reb Russell (1913).
40 years ago today:
1971 - The White Sox defeat the Angels, 9 - 4, with each Chicago player in the lineup driving in one run.
50 years ago today:
1961 - In Detroit, Roger Maris triples off Terry Fox in the 7th to put the Yanks ahead. Detroit ties it and, then in the 12th, Maris faces Fox again with Tony Kubek on second base. Maris steps out of the box to watch a long skein of Canadian geese fly over Tiger Stadium, then steps in a belts the first pitch for his 58th homer of the year.
60 years ago today:
1951 - The Yanks break a 1 - 1 tie in the bottom of the 9th when, with the bases loaded, Phil Rizzuto squeezes home Joe DiMaggio with the winning run. The score, off Cleveland's Bob Lemon, gives Eddie Lopat his 20th win of the year. The Yanks now lead Cleveland by a game and Boston by 2 1/2 games.
70 years ago today:
1941 - In front of only 3,585 fans in St. Louis, twenty-year-old Stan Musial makes his major league debut against the Braves going 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs. Musial, who started the season in the Western Association (Class C), will hit .426 in 12 games.
80 years ago today:
1931 - On his 32nd birthday, OF Earl Webb of the Red Sox ties and then sets the still-standing major-league record for 2-base hits at 65. Earl doubles in the lidlifter, a 9 - 2 win over the visiting Indians, to tie George Burns' double record at 64. Burns set his record in 1926. In game 2, a 2 - 1 Sox loss, Webb doubles off Pete Jablonowksi to set the record. He doubles tomorrow and will finish the season with 67. He would have had 68, but on August 4th the league corrected a May 1st box score, turning what had been credited as a double into a single.
September 17th, 2011 at 10:43 am
and, 15 years ago today, hideo nomo no-hit the rockies in denver. cue bob dole...
September 17th, 2011 at 11:11 am
I saw that 1951 Rizzuto bunt on TV. It was a bit risky because a force was all that was necessary to retire DiMaggio. But then again Rizzuto was a great bunter. Lemon threw his glove into the stands after that play.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
What's a lidlifter? I've never heard that term.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:01 pm
@2 The Indians, (managed by Al Lopez, HoF), with one out and runners on first and second, IBBed Bobby Brown to pitch to Rizzuto. This gained them the platoon advantage, but still those 90 feet are worth more than a little. And Rizzuto was the defending AL MVP who already had 2 hits off Bob Lemon that day. The Yanks lineup is interesting. (I saw Rizzuto driving in DiMag and thought that with Whizzer usually hitting lead-off and The Clipper 4th this isn't possible.) Mantle lead off, then the 1B, Collins/Mize, McDougald, Berra, DiMaggio, Woodling, Brown, Rizzuto and Lopat.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
A lidlifter is an opening game, so it can be the first game of a doubleheader, or the first game of a season.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
@3 Gonzo. In this case, 1st game of a double-header. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary has that as the secondary usage with 1st game of the season being the primary usage. I guess you lift the lid to start something off. Or at least check the smell, to see if it is ready.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
@5 Lost again, to a faster typer. (I also stopped to check my bedside reading, Dickson's.
September 17th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
@7 But not to close the parens. ")"
September 17th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
didn't reggie jackson hit #500 on a sep 17?
September 17th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Yup, in 1984. Click on the link at the top of my post to read the full list of events on this date.
September 17th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
@4
Again, IBB to load the bases fails.
Fails so interestingly that people are talking about it 60 years later.
September 17th, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Forget Tony Gywnn chasing .400 or Jeff Bagwell, Ken Griffey, and Frank Thomas gunning for Maris... the record chase that I, as a Twins fan, regret missing out on 1994 was Chuck Knoblauch going after Earl Webb's doubles record. Knobby had 45 2-baggers in 109 games, putting him on pace for over 70.
September 17th, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Musial wasn't the only future HOFer to make his ML debut today. Ernie Banks did so in 1953, becoming the Cubs' first black player. Brooks Robinson also debuted today, in 1955. Like Musial, he went 2 for 4.
In 1968, Gaylord Perry and the Giants no-hit the Cardinals, beating Bob Gibson 1-0. The next day, the Cardinals Ray Wasburn will no-hit the Giants.
September 17th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Hey everyone. I read these posts by Andy and John Autin often but this is my first comment. I don't have an exquisite amount of baseball knowledge as they do but always find theirs interesting.
@12. Jeff Bagwell was already having a flat-out monstrosity of a season punishing everyone in 1994. One quick-and-dirty calculation of what the pace of his WAR would have brought him to at 162 games: 12.9. And his season just kept getting better: on June 10, he was hitting "just" .327 and OPSing 1.042 (finished .368, 1.201). His season ended with a broken hand. The next day, everyone else's ended with the strike.
September 17th, 2011 at 8:28 pm
@2
You WHAT??? Surely you don't mean that you saw it on TV in 1951, when it happened?
I bow before you if this is the case.
September 17th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Not so hard to believe. My dad was at the game where Mickey Mantle hit the facade in the old Stadium, and my dad is still alive, kicking, and could post on this blog if he still gave two craps about baseball. Richard need not be any older than about 66 to have seen that and remember it.
September 17th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
I saw it. I was 13 years old at the time. The Yankees started TV broadcasting around 1949.
September 17th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
@17.
Like Jeff, I am amazed, Richard. Not that you saw that game on TV, but that you remember the play!
I remember the '72 World Series (when I was 13), but I sure don't remember particular plays from it.
September 17th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Here's a link with a picture of that play.
http://waswatching.com/2011/09/17/the-scooter-a-half-century-ago-today/
September 17th, 2011 at 10:59 pm
@18:
That was a great World Series. I was 15, and had no rooting interest in the Reds or A's, but every game was fun to watch. No three-to-four hour nine-inning "classics."
September 17th, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Almost forgot to mention. Look at the picture and not only do you see a dejected Jim Hegan walking towards the Indian dugout, but an elated young Mickey Mantle runs towards the plate from the on deck circle.
September 17th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
@20.
Bang on Steven on the crispness of play in the '72 series. Six of the seven games were one-run nail-biters. There were no complete games, and two of the games featured 9 pitchers. Yet, no 3 hour games, and only Game 7 was over two-and-a-half hours.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:20 am
25 years ago today, 9/17/86, the Mets clinched the NL East with a 4-2 win over the Cubs at Shea.
September 18th, 2011 at 1:28 am
RE: Lidlifter
I always thought the term meant "wild, uproarious" as in, so exciting that the crowd exploded and blew the lid off the place, or the sheet excitement of the game exploded, or whatever. "That 9th inning was a real lid-lifter, it was awesome!"
September 18th, 2011 at 1:32 am
Almost fogot my original footnote to post for 9/17/2011:
A-Rod is now only one behind Griffey for career homeruns. Sad. Very sad.
(But, to paraphrase Don Mattingly in the best Simpsons episode ever, "I still like him better than Bonds.")
September 18th, 2011 at 1:46 am
To give youan idea just how incredible Fernando Valenzuela was in his rookie year, remember that 1/3 of the baseball season in 1981 was lost to a strike. He tied the MLB record for rookie shutouts with 8. The Dodgers only played 110 games that year.
September 18th, 2011 at 2:49 am
Speaking of Scooter, the NY Times had my favorite headline of the year on a piece about a quirky 1994 trip to Austria (yes, Austria) made by Rizzuto, Whitey and several other ex-players. Unfortunately, the Times trimmed it into headline-speak; I'll restore it to its proper glory:
The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Huckleberries
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/sports/video-shows-rizzuto-ford-and-berra-on-the-road-in-austria.html
September 18th, 2011 at 11:25 am
For clarification my post #17 was in reference to post #15.
@16
Mantle hit two balls off the facade (actually a frieze). I saw the first one, on TV, that he hit off Pete Ramos on Memorial Day in 1956.
@18
There are plays that I remember prior to that Rizzuto bunt.
September 18th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
@12
45 doubles in 109 games is a pace for about 67 which would have tied Webb's record.