October 23
From BR Bullpen
| Stats of players who were born this day | |
| Stats of players who died on this day | |
| Standings on this day | |
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| Baseball Library Chronology | |
| Today in Baseball History | |
Events, births and deaths that occurred on October 23.
Events[edit]
- 1910 - Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Jack Coombs wins his third game of the World Series, beating the Chicago Cubs, 7 - 2, as the Athletics take the championship in five games. Eddie Collins helps Coombs with three hits, including two doubles.
- 1923 - Babe Ruth makes a post-season appearance in a New York Giants uniform as the Giants defeat the minor league Baltimore Orioles, 9 - 0. Ruth hits a home run over the right field roof at the Polo Grounds. The game is a benefit for destitute former Giants owner John Day.
- 1935 - Gabby Hartnett is selected by the Baseball Writers Association of America as the National League MVP, with Dizzy Dean the runner-up.
- 1945 - Branch Rickey announces the signing of Jackie Robinson and John Wright by the Brooklyn Dodgers organization to a contract with Triple-A Montreal of the International League for 1946. The two will be the first black players to play in Organized Baseball this century (with a couple of brief exceptions) and Robinson will be the first in the National League or American League since 1884, paving the way for integration.
- 1951 - Leo Durocher of the New York Giants is selected Manager of the Year by The Associated Press.
- 1952 - The Pacific Coast League announces its teams will play 176-game schedule next season.
- 1974 - The Cubs trade sweet-swinging Billy Williams, a fixture at Wrigley Field for 16 years, to the Oakland Athletics for second baseman Manny Trillo and pitchers Darold Knowles and Bob Locker.
- 1979 - Billy Martin is involved in a barroom altercation with Joseph Cooper, a Minnesota marshmallow salesman. Cooper requires 15 stitches to close a gash in his lip. The fight will result in Martin being fired as Yankees manager for the second time.
- 1981 - Los Angeles beats the Yankees, 5 - 4, in Game 3 of the World Series, narrowing the Yankees' lead to 2-1. Rookie Fernando Valenzuela pitches a complete game for the win, even though he does not have his best stuff.
- 1984 - Rick Sutcliffe, who was 16-1 for the Cubs after arriving from Cleveland two days before the June 15 trading deadline, is a unanimous choice as National League Cy Young Award winner.
- 1985 - John Tudor pitches a five-hit, 3 - 0 victory over the Kansas City Royals, giving the St. Louis Cardinals a 3-1 lead in the World Series.
- 1986 - At Fenway Park, Bruce Hurst's complete game victory gives the Boston Red Sox a 4 - 2 win and 3-2 lead in the World Series against the New York Mets. Hurst scatters ten hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
- 1988 - Hiromi Matsunaga walks for the 11th straight plate appearance, a new record. The tactic is used to prevent him from beating Hideaki Takazawa in the batting title race.
- 1991 - Mark Lemke hits his second triple of the night in the 9th inning and then scores on a close play on Jerry Willard's sacrifice fly for Atlanta's 3 - 2 win over the Twins in Game 4 of the World Series.
- 1993 - In one of the most dramatic endings in World Series history, Joe Carter hits a three-run, 9th-inning home run off Mitch Williams for an 8 - 6 win and Toronto's second straight World Championship. Paul Molitor, who hits .500 (12 for 24), is named Series MVP while Lenny Dykstra of the Phillies, who hit .348 with four home runs, did everything except pitch. Following the 2010 season, a panel of experts at the MLB Network will vote this game the 14th greatest of the past fifty years.
- 1996 - At Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Braves jump to a 6 - 0 lead, but the Yankees mount the biggest comeback in their long World Series history with a three-run home run by Jim Leyritz that ties the game in the 8th inning. After Bernie Williams is intentionally walked with runners on first and second base in the 10th, Steve Avery walks Wade Boggs to bring in the deciding run.
- 1997:
- The Florida Marlins move within one win of their first World Series title as Moises Alou hits his second three-run home run of the Series against Cleveland Indians pitcher Orel Hershiser. Rookie Livan Hernandez pitches into the 9th inning of Game 5 and Florida holds off the Indians, 8 - 7.
- Terry Bross and four relievers, including winning pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii and Shingo Takatsu, combine on a shutout of the Seibu Lions to give the Yakult Swallows the 1997 Japan Series title. Catcher Atsuya Furuta is named Series MVP.
- 1998 - Davey Johnson is hired as the manager of the Dodgers. The former Mets, Reds and Orioles skipper has finished first with evey team he has managed, but will fail to do so in Los Angeles.
- 2005 - The Chicago White Sox crash two of the more dramatic home runs in recent World Series history to score a 7 - 6 victory against the Houston Astros and take a two-games-to-none lead in the Series. Paul Konerko, who hit 40 homers in the regular season, and Scott Podsednik, who hit none, provide the fireworks. Konerko, the ALCS MVP, hits a grand slam in the 7th inning to give the White Sox a 6 - 4 lead. After the Astros tie the score in the 9th against Chicago closer Bobby Jenks, Podsednik smacks a 2-1 pitch from Houston closer Brad Lidge into the bleachers in right-center field to trigger a boisterous celebration.
- 2010 - The Brother Elephants complete a sweep of the Sinon Bulls in the 2010 Taiwan Series. Jim Magrane allows one run in nine innings for his second victory of the Series, winning Taiwan Series MVP honors. It is the fourth straight year an American pitcher takes that honor, following Nelson Figueroa (2007) and Luther Hackman (2008 and 2009). Jui-Chen Chen becomes the youngest Taiwan Series-winning manager at age 35. Ssu-Chi Chou's three-run homer is the big blow in the finale, a 6 - 1 win.
- 2011 - The Rangers tie the World Series at two games each with a 4 - 0 shutout of the Cardinals in Game 4. Derek Holland is masterful, pitching 8 1/3 innings while giving up only two hits, and Mike Napoli hits a three-run homer in the 6th.
- 2012 - Ozzie Guillen is fired after one tumultuous season as manager of the Miami Marlins. Guillen managed to infuriate local fans by praising Fidel Castro in an early-season interview, then picked fights with opponents such as Nationals rookie Bryce Harper, and his own players, most notably closer Heath Bell, while leading his team to a disappointing last-place finish. Guillen had three years and $7.5 million remaining on his contract.
- 2013 - The Red Sox jump on the Cardinals early, scoring five runs in the first two innings, to cruise to an 8 - 1 win in Game 1 of the World Series. Mike Napoli hits a bases-clearing double in the 1st and the Sox add two more runs in the 2nd in spite of Carlos Beltran robbing David Ortiz of a grand slam with a great catch. Jon Lester pitches 7 1/3 scoreless innings for the win while Adam Wainwright takes the loss.
- 2014 - The Lamigo Monkeys win their second Taiwan Series in three years, topping the Chinatrust Brothers, four games to one. In the finale of the 2014 Taiwan Series today, Lamigo starter Mitch Talbot allows three 1st-inning runs but Chao-Hao Tseng and three relievers shut out Chinatrust the rest of the way. Lamigo rallies off Chung-Cheng Chiang for an 8 - 3 win, with three hits apiece from Yen-Wen Kuo and Hao-Jan Huang. De-Long Yu is named Taiwan Series MVP.
- 2015:
- In a nail-biting Game 6 of the ALCS, the Royals defeat the Blue Jays, 4 - 3, to return to the World Series. After a 45-minute rain delay, Lorenzo Cain scores all the way from first base on a single by Eric Hosmer in the 8th for the winning run. Jose Bautista drives in all three Toronto runs with a pair of homers, but the Jays are undone by their inability to cash in runners in scoring position throughout the game. For the Royals, Ben Zobrist and Mike Moustakas, with the assistance of a fan, hit solo homers to give the Royals an early 2 - 0 lead.
- Newly appointed Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto names Scott Servais, who was his understudy when he was GM of the Angels, as the team's manager for 2016.
- 2016 - For the first time, video replay is used in a Japan Series for plays at home. With a 1 - 1 tie in the 6th inning of Game 2 of the 2016 Japan Series, Ryosuke Kikuchi of the Hiroshima Carp singles and Kosuke Tanaka races home from second. Nippon Ham Fighters C Shota Ono tags him at the plate and Tanaka is ruled out. On replay, though, Tanaka is called safe, starting a four-run frame for Hiroshima. Yusuke Nomura and three relievers combine to hold the Fighters to four hits as the Carp go up, two games to none.
- 2017:
- The Mets hire Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway to be their new manager, replacing Terry Collins.
- The British Baseball Hall of Fame announces its class of 2017: executive Don Smallwood, pitcher Nick Carter and national team star Ian Young.
- 2018 - While two of the best pitchers in the majors face off on the mound in Game 1 of the World Series in Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale, the contest turns out to be a high-scoring affair, with Boston prevailing, 8 - 4, over the Dodgers. Andrew Benintendi has four hits to lead the Red Sox attack while Eduardo Nunez hits a key three-run homer in the 7th and Craig Kimbrel closes out the win.
- 2019:
- The Softbank Hawks win their third straight Japan Series, sweeping the Yomiuri Giants to become the first team since the 1990-1992 Seibu Lions to pull off a three-peat. In Game 4 today, Series MVP Yurisbel Gracial hits a three-run homer and 38-year-old Tsuyoshi Wada shuts out Yomiuri over the first five innings in a 4 - 3 victory.
- The Cubs hire former C David Ross, one of the heroes of their conquest of a World Series title in 2016, to succeed Joe Maddon as the team's manager.
- The Nationals win their record-tying eighth straight game this postseason by crushing Houston, 11 - 3, in Game 2 of the 2019 World Series. After both teams score twice in the 1st, the game settles down with no more scoring until the 7th, when Kurt Suzuki homers off Justin Verlander to start a six-run inning that gets the rout going. Stephen Strasburg is the winner.
- 2020 - The Dodgers win Game 3 of the World Series, 6 - 2 over the Rays, behind an outstanding performance by Walker Buehler who gives up just one run on three hits and strikes out ten in six innings. Justin Turner hits a 1st-inning homer off Charlie Morton, and the Dodgers keep adding to their lead with clutch hits, scoring five of their six runs with two outs.
- 2021 - The Braves defeat the Dodgers, 4 - 2, in Game 6 of the NLCS to reach the World Series for the first time since 1999. The big blow comes from NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario who blasts a three-run homer inside the right field foul pole off Walker Buehler in the 4th.
- 2022:
- The Phillies punch their ticket to the World Series with a 4 - 3 win over the Padres in Game 5 of the 2022 NLCS. San Diego takes advantage of three wild pitches by Seranthony Dominguez to score twice and take a 3 - 2 lead in rainy conditions in the 7th, but in the bottom of the 8th, NLCS MVP Bryce Harper hits a two-run homer off Robert Suarez to put the Phils ahead to stay.
- The Astros complete a sweep of the Yankees in the ALCS to return to the World Series for the fourth time in six years. The key plays in the 6 - 5 win are a three-run homer by ALCS MVP Jeremy Peña off Nestor Cortes in the 3rd, and a botched double play grounder by 2B Gleyber Torres that leads to two Houston runs in the 7th.
- Game 2 of the 2022 Japan Series goes 12 innings as 16 pitchers toe the hill in a 3 - 3 tie. The Orix Buffaloes lead, 3 - 0, entering the bottom of the 9th but Yakult Swallows rookie catcher Soma Uchiyama hits a pinch-hit three-run homer off Shota Abe in his first Japan Series at-bat to tie the game.
- 2023:
- The Diamondbacks knot up the NLCS with a 5 - 1 win over Philadelphia in Game 6. Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel both hit solo homers against Aaron Nola in a three-run 2nd inning, while Merrill Kelly and four relievers combine to limit the Phils to one run on six hits.
- The Rangers jump all over the Astros in Game 7 of the ALCS, scoring three runs in the 1st and chasing Cristian Javier before the end of the inning, then adding four runs against J.P. France in the 4th, on their way to an 11 - 4 win. Adolis García, the winner of the ALCS MVP Award, hits two more homers and drives in five runs, finishing with 15 RBIs for the series. Jordan Montgomery wins in relief of Max Scherzer and, as in the 2019 World Series, the visiting team won each of the seven games. The win sends the Rangers to the World Series for the first time since 2011, and ensures that once again there will not be a repeat champion, something that has not happened since 2000.
Births[edit]
- 1832 - William Hulbert, executive; Hall of Famer (d. 1882)
- 1835 - Edwin Dikeman, pre-MLB player (d. 1889)
- 1860 - Jack Jones, pitcher (d. 1936)
- 1869 - John Heisman, college coach (d. 1936)
- 1870 - Mike Sullivan, pitcher (d. 1906)
- 1881 - Lave Winham, pitcher (d. 1951)
- 1882 - Birdie Cree, outfielder (d. 1942)
- 1886 - Lena Blackburne, infielder, manager (d. 1968)
- 1889 - Hugh Bedient, pitcher (d. 1965)
- 1889 - Owen Conway, infielder (d. 1942)
- 1889 - Jack Mills, infielder (d. 1973)
- 1892 - Bull Barbour, infielder (d. 1948)
- 1894 - Rube Bressler, outfielder (d. 1966)
- 1905 - Felton Snow, infielder, manager; All-Star (d. 1974)
- 1907 - Barney Brown, pitcher/outfielder; All-Star (d. 1985)
- 1907 - Lee Grissom, pitcher; All-Star (d. 1998)
- 1910 - Billy Sullivan, catcher (d. 1994)
- 1917 - Bones Sanders, minor league infielder and manager (d. 1961)
- 1918 - Hosea Allen, pitcher (d. 1948)
- 1918 - John Brown, pitcher; All-Star (d. 1999)
- 1920 - Vern Stephens, infielder; All-Star (d. 1968)
- 1922 - Ewell Blackwell, pitcher; All-Star (d. 1996)
- 1922 - Chi-En Tseng, CPBL manager; Taiwan Baseball Hall of Fame (d. 2012)
- 1922 - Willie Wells Jr., infielder (d. 1994)
- 1924 - Pedro San Martin, infielder (d. ????)
- 1925 - Aart Wedemeijer, Hoofdklasse umpire (d. 2017)
- 1926 - Billy Jack Wynns, minor league infielder (d. 2013)
- 1929 - Bruce Barmes, outfielder (d. 2014)
- 1930 - Solly Drake, outfielder (d. 2021)
- 1931 - Jim Bunning, pitcher; All-Star, Hall of Famer (d. 2017)
- 1933 - Jake Striker, pitcher (d. 2013)
- 1937 - Bob Allen, pitcher (d. 2023)
- 1937 - Cecil Butler, pitcher (d. 2019)
- 1939 - George Williams, infielder (d. 2009)
- 1942 - Chuck Gismondi, college coach (d. 2019)
- 1944 - Jim Rittwage, pitcher
- 1949 - Greg Thayer, pitcher
- 1952 - John Poff, outfielder
- 1952 - Randy Tate, pitcher (d. 2021)
- 1953 - Bo McLaughlin, pitcher
- 1954 - John Castino, infielder
- 1954 - Don Lyle, minor league outfielder
- 1956 - Luis Silverio, outfielder
- 1957 - Dwight Lowry, catcher (d. 1997)
- 1957 - Ricky Carriger, minor league pitcher
- 1958 - Chris Lein, minor league pitcher and coach; scout
- 1959 - Ricky Arnold, minor league pitcher
- 1959 - George Hinshaw, outfielder
- 1959 - Rip Rollins, minor league pitcher-outfielder
- 1961 - Jim Presley, infielder; All-Star
- 1965 - Al Leiter, pitcher; All-Star
- 1966 - Chris Estep, minor league outfielder
- 1967 - Efrain Nieves Sr., Puerto Rican national team catcher
- 1968 - Mun-sook Jeon, South Korean womens' national team outfielder
- 1969 - Phil Geisler, scout
- 1969 - Kun-Feng Wu, TML pitcher
- 1971 - Carlos Burguillos, minor league outfielder
- 1971 - Taek-hyun Ryu, KBO pitcher
- 1972 - Giomar Guevara, infielder
- 1973 - Takayuki Shimizu, NPB outfielder
- 1975 - Todd Belitz, pitcher
- 1975 - Sheng-Hsien Feng, CPBL infielder and manager
- 1975 - Kuo-Hui Hsu, TML infielder
- 1975 - Kazuo Matsui, infielder
- 1975 - Casey Myers, minor league catcher
- 1975 - Todd Sears, infielder
- 1975 - Sam Tibbits, Australian national team catcher
- 1976 - Romeil Agladius, Croatian national team catcher
- 1976 - Hernando Arredondo, minor league infielder
- 1976 - Letticia Horstman, Dutch womens' national team infielder
- 1976 - David Riske, pitcher
- 1977 - Jon Hamilton, minor league player
- 1978 - John Lackey, pitcher; All-Star
- 1978 - Vladimir Timakov, Russian national team outfielder
- 1979 - Ramon A. Castro, infielder
- 1979 - Bud Smith, pitcher
- 1980 - Brett Evert, scout
- 1980 - Pedro Liriano, pitcher
- 1981 - Ben Francisco, outfielder
- 1981 - Edgar Martinez, minor league pitcher
- 1981 - William Saavedra, Cuban league infielder
- 1981 - Jaka Trobec, Slovenian national team infielder
- 1981 - Yung-Hsi Wang, CPBL outfielder
- 1982 - Denny Bautista, pitcher
- 1982 - Yi-Chung Chen, CPBL infielder
- 1983 - Chia-Hui Wu, CPBL outfielder
- 1984 - Julio Pinto, minor league pitcher
- 1985 - Sam Demel, pitcher
- 1985 - Erik Morrison, minor league infielder
- 1987 - Felix Doubront, pitcher
- 1987 - Kyle Gibson, pitcher; All-Star
- 1987 - Yu-Cheng Hsu, CPBL outfielder
- 1987 - Pat Reardon, minor league infielder
- 1989 - Garrett Buechele, minor league infielder
- 1989 - David Vidal, minor league infielder
- 1990 - Yucary De La Cruz, minor league infielder and manager
- 1991 - Yong-joo Kim, KBO pitcher
- 1992 - Chu-Yu Pan, Taiwanese women's national team infielder
- 1993 - Dayanaris Flores, Puerto Rican women's national team catcher
- 1993 - Cristofer Ogando, pitcher
- 1993 - Zach Thompson, pitcher
- 1994 - Eduard Pinto, minor league outfielder
- 1994 - Exequiel Talevi, Serie A1 infielder
- 1994 - Haifan Yang, China Baseball League pitcher
- 1995 - Jack Weinberger, minor league pitcher
- 1996 - Fumiya Ono, NPB pitcher
- 1998 - Dylan Carlson, outfielder
- 1998 - Blake Holub, minor league pitcher
- 1999 - Chao Lee, CPBL pitcher
- 2000 - Todd Hatcher, New Zealand national team pitcher
- 2002 - Adrian Sugastey, minor league catcher
Deaths[edit]
- 1912 - Piggy Ward, outfielder (b. 1867)
- 1918 - Jimmy Williams, manager (b. 1847)
- 1937 - John Singleton, pitcher (b. 1896)
- 1940 - Harry Krause, pitcher (b. 1887)
- 1943 - Heinie Peitz, catcher (b. 1870)
- 1947 - Cy Rheam, infielder (b. 1893)
- 1949 - Bill Burdick, pitcher (b. 1859)
- 1961 - Howard Millard, minor league executive (b. 1891)
- 1962 - Elbert Norman, infielder (b. 1897)
- 1965 - Ed Fitzpatrick, infielder (b. 1889)
- 1965 - Otis Lawry, infielder (b. 1893)
- 1965 - Ted Odenwald, pitcher (b. 1902)
- 1965 - Chick Shorten, outfielder (b. 1892)
- 1966 - Rex Cecil, pitcher (b. 1916)
- 1966 - Fred Fussell, pitcher (b. 1895)
- 1966 - Jack Peerson, infielder (b. 1910)
- 1968 - Jack Bliss, catcher (b. 1882)
- 1969 - Monk Dubiel, pitcher (b. 1918)
- 1970 - Sherry Robertson, infielder (b. 1919)
- 1971 - Jesse Petty, pitcher (b. 1894)
- 1971 - Woody Upchurch, pitcher (b. 1911)
- 1977 - George Gerken, outfielder (b. 1903)
- 1983 - Buck Crouse, catcher (b. 1897)
- 1986 - Paul Gehrman, pitcher (b. 1912)
- 1986 - Doc Wingo, catcher (b. 1912)
- 1992 - John Grimsley, umpire (b. 1933)
- 1992 - Lou Rochelli, infielder (b. 1919)
- 1993 - Marv Blaylock, infielder (b. 1929)
- 1993 - John Wells, pitcher (b. 1922)
- 1993 - Steve Wylie, pitcher (b. 1911)
- 1995 - Sol Mishkin, minor league infielder/outfielder and manager (b. 1905)
- 1996 - Bob Grim, pitcher; All-Star (b. 1930)
- 2000 - Benny Culp, catcher (b. 1914)
- 2000 - Hank Wyse, pitcher; All-Star (b. 1918)
- 2003 - Al Corwin, pitcher (b. 1926)
- 2004 - Jim McDonald, pitcher (d. 1927)
- 2007 - Don Nicholas, pinch hitter (b. 1930)
- 2008 - Dave Melton, outfielder (b. 1928)
- 2009 - Rafael Castro, minor league pitcher (b. 1991)
- 2013 - Mario Picone, pitcher (b. 1926)
- 2014 - John Bramlett, minor league outfielder (b. 1941)
- 2014 - Pete Catalano, minor league outfielder (b. 1925)
- 2014 - Randy Cooper, minor league outfielder (b. 1929)
- 2023 - Tom Walker, pitcher (b. 1948)
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