The 1st weekend in October

With the open day, here’s some baseball history to take you through the first four days of October. All this comes from “<a href="This Day in Baseball“>This Day in Baseball” by David Nemec and Scott Flatow There is much more, by the way, than just what I’m showing; these just grab my attention…

October 1, 1919—White Sox star pitcher Eddie Cicotte allows five fourth inning runs against the Reds in the 1st game of the 1919 World Series which the Reds win, five games to three.

October 1, 1932—Babe Ruth allegedly “calls his shot” for a home run against the Cubs against pitcher Charlie Root during Game 3 of the World Series.

October 1, 1950—Phillies star pitcher Robin Roberts makes his third start in five days to help prevent one of the great season collapses in baseball history.

October 1, 1973—Cubs teammates Billy Williams and Ron Santo play their 2015th and final game together as teammates, an all-time record.

October 2, 1967—Sandy Koufax wins his 27th win of the season which becomes the last victory of his career.

October 3, 1890—Rookie Chicago Colts NL pitcher Pat Luby wins his 17th consecutive game to finish the season 20-9 after starting the season 3-9.

October 3, 1897—Hall of Famer 45-year-old Cap Anson plays the last games of a 27 year career and slugs two home runs and steals a base during a doubleheader. Anson plays 22 of his 27 years with the NL Chicago team, sometimes called the White Stockings and later the Colts. The Chicago team become the Chicago Orphans after Anson retires, and are later renamed the Cubs in 1903.

October 3, 1906—The Chicago White Sox win the AL pennant despite having a team batting average of .230, earning the nickname “The Hitless Wonders.”

October 3, 1915—I’ll have to quote this one directly: “The Chicago Whales beat Pittsburgh in the second game of doubleheader to cop the Federal League pennant by the slimmest possible margin—one percentage point—while Pittsburgh, which would have won if it had swept the twin bill, drops to third place, three percentage points behind the second place St. Louis Terriers.”

October 3, 1920—Reds pitcher Monty Swartz throws a 12 inning complete game in his only major league appearance, losing 6-3 to the Cardinals.

October 3, 1937—The Boston Bees become the ONLY team with two thirty-year-old ROOKIE twenty game winners when Lou Fette wins his 20th one day after future Red Jim Turner wins his 20th. Turner later wins 14 games with the 1940 World Series champion Reds at age 36.

October 3, 1951—The Giants’ Bobby Thomson hits the famous “Shot Heard Round the World” home run to beat Ralph Branca and the Brooklyn Dodgers, 5-4, in the deciding third game of the NL pennant playoff.

October 3, 1972—The Orioles’ Roric Harrison becomes the last AL pitcher to homer in a regular season game. The DH was introduced in 1973.

October 4, 1884—Sam Kimber of the American Association Brooklyn Atlantics becomes the only major league pitcher to throw a complete game no-hit shutout and fail to win the game when his duel with the Toledo Blue Stockings’ Tony Mullane is stopped due to darkness after 10 innings and the score tied 0-0. 1884 is Kimber’s only full major league season; he finishes 18-20. He goes 0-1 in 1885 and then he’s out of baseball. Mullane is the winning pitcher in 36 of Toledo’s 46 wins in 1884. He joins the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1886 and proceeds to win 163 games over the next eight years. He had to sit out 1885 as punishment for jumping from team to team every year.

October 4, 1891—St. Louis Browns’ rookie pitcher Ted Breitenstein becomes the first pitcher in major league history to complete a nine-inning no-hitter in his first big league start when he shuts out the Louisville Colonels, 8-0, on the last day of the American Association’s last season as a major league before merging with the National League. Breitenstein joins the Reds in 1897 and wins 66 games over four seasons, including another no-hitter. Breitenstein pitched in six games during the 1891 season, but this was his only start.

October 4, 1915—The Washington Senators Firpo Marberry becomes the first pitcher to lead the league in games pitched without starting a game, having made 55 relief outings.

October 4, 1964—I’ll quote this one directly, too: “The Cards beat the Mets to end the tightest three-way pennant race in NL history when the Phillies slaughter the Reds 10-0, leaving both clubs one game behind the Redbirds following the Phils’ unprecedented collapse in which they lose a 6 ½ game lead with just 12 games to play.” For us Reds’ fans: we were first or tied for first for four days that season: we were tied on April 18 (3-1 record) and we were first on September 27 (swept a double header, led by 1 game), first on September 28 (off day) and tied for first on September 29 (we lost). The Reds lost four of their last five games to fall to 92-70 and finished in a tie for second.