On May 27, 1923, Phillies outfielder Cy Williams hit a two-run home run to become the first major leaguer to hit 15 homers in a single month. Williams would lead the National League with 41 home runs that season.
On April 22, 1962, the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the New York Mets to bring their record to 10-0 to start the season. This hot start matched a Major League record at the time for an undefeated record to open the year. For the Mets, meanwhile, the loss meant they fell to 0-9, matching a National League record at the opposite end of the spectrum.
The publication date for this piece is unknown, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was written in the mid-to-late-1870s, around the time of the fall of the National Association and the beginnings of the National League. The poem is full of imagery and metaphor, speaking of “the collected debris of memories” and “New fortresses / Stretch their fledgling arms / And puncture the sky / With abbreviated zeal.” I can just imagine team owners clinking glasses to cheers of “Long live the National League!” as they concluded their meeting at the Grand Central Hotel.
*
No sun,
Now rubble,
The collected debris of memories
Echoes
An anguished ring through the corridors of Manhattan Canyons:
Where are we going?
From where
To where
Do we step?
December… a month… a day… a time
logged on the fresh pages of history…
the first and only real entry… a league
…a new league… a microscopic legion of
men bearing witness to the birth,
unfurling its colors on an industrial land to detract
from the former failure…
The National Association is dead,
Long live the National League!
From rubble to rubble,
From dust to dust,
New fortresses
Stretch their fledgling arms
And puncture the sky
With abbreviated zeal.
Like so many transients
Awaiting a derailed train,
The others come
And never go.
The American Association is dead
The Union Association is dead
The Players League is dead.
All gone,
All dead,
Long live the National League!
If I was going to make one rule change, I would bring the DH in the National League.
~George Brett
After years of discussion around adding two teams to the National League, in order to match the American League, on December 18, 1990, the National League expansion committee eliminated Charlotte, Nashville, Phoenix, and Sacramento from consideration to cut the list down to six finalists. The shortlist of locations included Buffalo, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg, and Washington, D.C. The expansion would eventually result in the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins (now the Miami Marlins) being added to the NL.
On October 23, 1951, Associated Press named New York Giants skipper Leo Durocher as the Manager of the Year. Under Durocher’s leadership, the Giants rallied from a 13 1/2-game deficit in mid-August to win the National League pennant. New York’s comeback was capped off against the Dodgers, in a three-game playoff series best remembered for Bobby Thomson’s fabled home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the deciding game at the Polo Grounds.
In spite of a couple delays in the Division Series games, the winners of each series have been determined, and tonight kicks off the American League and National League Championship Series. Here is the schedule for the ALCS and NLCS, all times Eastern.
Tuesday, Oct. 18
NLCS Game 1, Phillies @ Padres, 8:03 p.m., FS1
Wednesday, Oct. 19
NLCS Game 2, Phillies @ Padres, 4:35 p.m., FOX or FS1
ALCS Game 1, Yankees @ Astros, 7:37 p.m., TBS
Thursday, Oct. 20
ALCS Game 2, Yankees @ Astros, 7:37 p.m., TBS
Friday, Oct. 21
NLCS Game 3, Padres @ Phillies, 7:37 p.m., FS1
Saturday, Oct. 22
ALCS Game 3, Astros @ Yankees, 5:07 p.m., TBS
NLCS Game 4, Padres @ Phillies, 7:45 p.m., FOX
Sunday, Oct. 23
NLCS Game 5, Padres @ Phillies, 2:37 p.m., FS1 (if necessary)
ALCS Game 4, Astros @ Yankees, 7:07 p.m., TBS
Monday, Oct. 24
ALCS Game 5, Astros @ Yankees, 4:07 p.m., TBS (if necessary)
NLCS Game 6, Phillies @ San Diego, 8:03 p.m., FS1 (if necessary)
Tuesday, Oct. 25
ALCS Game 6, Yankees @ Astros, 6:07 p.m., TBS (if necessary)
NLCS Game 7, Phillies @ Padres, 8:03 p.m., FOX or FS1 (if necessary)
Wednesday, Oct. 26
ALCS Game 7, Yankees @ Astros, 7:37 p.m., TBS (if necessary)
On September 24, 1922, Cardinals outfielder Rogers Hornsby hit two home runs off Giant hurlers — one each off brothers Jesse Barnes and Virgil Barnes. The blasts enabled Hornsby to set what was, at the time, the National League record for round-trippers in a season with 42.
In baseball’s early days, a batted ball that bounced once before clearing the fence was considered a home run. The last “bounced” home run in major league history was hit by Al Lopez of the Brooklyn Dodgers on September 12, 1930, at Ebbets Field. At the start of the 1931 season, the National League would join the American League, which had enacted the rule change in 1929, awarding a ground-rule double to the player who hits the ball over the fence on a bounce.
You know how the foul poles at a ballfield have those screen extensions sticking out of them? Those screens were born on July 15, 1939. National League president Ford Frick ordered the two-foot screens affixed inside all foul poles following a dispute between Billy Jurges of the Giants and umpire George Magerkurth. It seems that Jurges and Magerkurth spit at each other after a disputed call down the left-field line at the Polo Grounds. The American League would install the screens on the foul poles in their own ballparks shortly thereafter.
