On August 12, 1964, Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle set a major league record hitting home runs from both sides of the plate for the tenth time in his career. The feat assisted rookie pitcher Mel Stottlemyre in winning his major league debut.
About one hundred miles west of Philadelphia, a train carrying fans to the Phillies-Pirates game derailed on July 28, 1962. Three of the train’s cars rolled down a twenty-five-foot embankment into the Susquehanna River. According to some reports, 19 were killed in the wreck, whereas others report 22 killed, and more than one hundred fans were injured.
Fourteen adjoining rows of empty seats along first-base line in Connie Mack Stadium were especially conspicuous that day, as 12,450 spectators watch the home team beat the Pirates, 9-2.
If you are interested in reading more about this gruesome train wreck, you can find the New York Times‘ coverage of the event here.
Or you can view video footage from the wreck in the report below:
Facing one another in a National League contest on July 5, 1935, Tony Cuccinello of the Dodgers and Al Cuccinello of the Giants both hit home runs. It was the first time in the National League that brothers on opposing teams homered in the same game.
On June 5, 1930, the Cleveland Indians defeated the Boston Red Sox in a rout, with a final score of 17-7. Cleveland scored nine runs in the first inning alone, and the team as a whole collected 25 hits. Every starter contributed at least two hits, except for shortstop Carl Lind, who managed a single in the contest at League Park in Cleveland. The box score for the game can be found here.
On May 15, 1918, the Washington Senators defeated the Chicago White Sox, 1–0, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. in an undeniably impressive pitching duel. Despite recording eighteen innings, the contest only lasted 2 hours and 47 minutes as Walter Johnson and Lefty Williams both went the distance in this game. Washington won the game in the bottom of the 18th, when Eddie Ainsworth scored the winning run on a wild pitch.
On April 25, 1976, in a moment that remains iconic to this day, Cubs center fielder Rick Monday rescued the American flag from two protestors who tried to set it on fire in the outfield at Dodger Stadium. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Monday dashed over and seized the flag from the pair while the crowd cheered. Monday ran through the outfield with the flag and, while walking towards the Dodgers dugout, he handed the flag over to Dodgers pitcher Doug Rau. When Monday came to bat in the top half of the fifth inning, he received a standing ovation and the scoreboard flashed the message, “Rick Monday… You Made A Great Play…”
After moving west from Brooklyn to Los Angeles with the Dodgers in 1958, Duke Snider returned to New York after the Dodgers sold him to the New York Mets on April 1, 1963. Snider would prove to be a sentimental favorite among former Dodger fans, who now rooted for the Mets.
I came across this gem on Instagram regarding Cleveland Stadium, former home of the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns, and it is just too good not to pass on. I definitely need to keep this response in the back of my mind for future inspiration.
The caption: “In 1974, the legal department of the Cleveland Browns sent this letter in response to a complaint from attorney Dale Cox (a season ticket holder), who had objected to fans throwing paper airplanes during games.
In his letter, Cox warned the team, ‘I will hold the club responsible for any injury sustained by any person in my party attending one of your sporting events.'”
I once wrote about baseball being played on ice during the 1860s for a brief spell. If you’d like to see what that might look like today, this team of ice skaters put on a brief demonstration of “biceball” in the modern world:
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis died on November 25, 1944 at Chicago’s St. Luke’s Hospital, just five days after his 78th birthday. Two weeks after his death, Landis was voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special committee vote. This made him just the second person to have the five-year waiting period waived, after Lou Gehrig.
