September 22:
1911: At 44 years old Cy Young beats the Pirates for the 511th and final win of his career.
1925: Dodgers pitcher Burleigh Grimes accounts for 7 outs in a single game when he hits into 2 double plays and a triple play.
1948: Stan Musial goes 5-for-5 for the 5th time this season. Musial’s 5 hits come against 5 different pitchers on 5 consecutive pitches.
1954: En route to a 3-0 win over the Giants, Brooklyn’s Karl Spooner fans 15, the most ever in a rookie’s first major league start.
1957: Duke Snider hits 2 HR’s against Robin Roberts. These are the last HR’s ever hit at Ebbets Field.
1962: The Cubs beat the Mets 8-2, handing Al Jackson his 20th loss of the season. ‘Little Al’ joins teammate Roger Craig as the 1st teammates to lose 20 games since Bucky Walters and Jim Bowman did it for the 36 Phillies,
1966: With a 6-1 win over the KC A’s, the Orioles (formerly the STL Browns) clinch their first pennant in 22 years.
1969: Willie Mays goes yard against San Diego’s Mike Corkins and becomes only the 2nd player in history to reach 600 Home Runs.
1973: John Hiller notches his 38th save, a Tigers record. Just 2 years earlier, the lefty had suffered a heart attack at age 27.
1993: Although he planned to retire after the season anyway, Nolan Ryan’s career ends earlier than expected. He leaves in the 1st inning of a game against Seattle with an elbow injury. During an illustrious 27 year career that saw him pitch for the Mets, Angels, Astros and Rangers, ‘The Ryan Express’ won 324 games, fanned 5714 batters and tossed a remarkable 7 no-hitters.
September 23:
1905: Detroit rookie Ty Cobb hits his 1st round tripper, an inside the park HR
1908: Fred Merkle fails to touch 2nd as the winning run crossed the plate for the Cubs. The ensuing dispute, which came to be known as “Merkle’s Boner,” forced the game to end in a tie and having to be replayed on October 8. It ultimately cost the NY Giants the pennant and the Cubs would go on to win the World Series.
1957: Hank Aaron’s 11th inning HR gives Milwaukee the NL pennant. It will be the 1st time since 1950 that the NL will not be represented by a team from NY.
1969: In his last at-bat in the majors, John Miller of the Dodgers hits a HR. In 1966, while playing for the Yankees, Miller hit a HR in his 1st AB. He is the only player in history to accomplish this.
1977: The 27 year old up and coming star of the Angels, Lyman Bostock, is killed. The 311 career hitter was shot in the head when the estranged husband of a woman Bostock was with incorrectly assumed the two were having an affair. The murderer, Leonard Smith, claimed he was meaning to kill his wife.
1983: Steve Carlton records his 300th win, a 6-2 win over his old team, the Cardinals.
1984: With a 4-1 win over the Yankees, Sparky Anderson becomes the 1st manager to win 100 games in each league.
1998: Craig Biggio joins Hall of Famer Tris Speaker as the only player to record 50 SB’s and 50 doubles in the same year.
2001: With his 47th save, Mariano Rivera sets a Yankee record.
2006: Jay Gibbons hits a foul ball into the stands that hits a female fan in the abdomen. She was not injured. The fan was Jay’s wife, Laura (I’m sure someone slept on the couch that night)
September 24:
1922: Rogers Hornsby sets the NL HR record with his 42nd of the year.
1928: Before only 404 fans in Detroit, the Tigers beat the Red Sox, 8-0.
1957: Only 6702 fans attend the final game ever played at Ebbets Field as Brooklyn defeats Pittsburgh, 2-0. The winning pitcher was Danny McDevitt, Dee Fondy made the last out and the final RBI was knocked in by Gil Hodges.
1969: Amazin’. With a 6-0 win over STL and led by HR’s by Donn Clendenon and Ed Charles, along with a 4 hit shut-out by Gary Gentry, the NY Mets clinch their 1st division title.
1974: With a double off of Dave McNally, Al Kaline reaches 3000 hits.
1984: Led by Rick Sutcliffe’s 2 hitter over the Pirates, the Cubs clinch the NLE. This will be their first post-season appearance since 1945.
2001: In Japan, former ML player Tuffy Rhodes hits his 55th HR of the year, tying the record held by Sadaharu Oh. Rhodes’ HR came against Daisuke Matsuzaka.
2006: Trevor Hoffman records his 479th save, passing Lee Smith for 1st all time.
September 25:
1941: Pete Reiser goes deep, Whit Wyatt defeats the Braves, 6-1, and Brooklyn wins their 1st pennant in 21 years.
1955: At age 20, Al Kaline becomes the youngest player to win a batting title when he hits 340.
1960: The Yankees beat Boston, 4-3, and clinch the AL pennant. At age 70, it will be the final pennant for Casey Stengel, who will be fired after the season for being too old to manage. In typical Casey fashion, the legend claims, ‘I’ll never make the mistake of turning 70 again.’
1961: With a HR off of Jack Fisher, Roger Maris ties Babe Ruth with his 60th HR.
1965: As a publicity stunt, the A’s activate Satchell Paige to start against Boston. Paige, 59 years old, pitches the first 3 innings, allowing only 1 hit, 1 walk and 0 runs.
1974: Dr. Frank Jobe performs, for the 1st time ever, a surgery to repair a damaged ulnar collateral ligament by replacing the elbow tendon of the pitching arm with a tendon from the wrist. Performed on pitcher Tommy John, the surgery would allow John to continue his career and win 164 more games.
1984: Mets OF/1B Rusty Staub joins Ty Cobb as the only players to hit a HR in their teens and in their forties.
1986: Mike Scott of Houston no-hits the Giants, 2-0. It is the only time in history that a team clinched a division on a no-hitter.
