Free of charge for the discerning reader. Unrest on the horizon and some of baseball’s sad passings. Also, a homer that wasn’t, and other stories.
Today in baseball history:
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1957 – Called by Les Biederman of The Sporting News ”one of the most unusual games in modern spring training history,” Kansas City and Pittsburgh battle through 18 innings to a scoreless tie “before probably one of the smallest crowds of the season anywhere, only 432 paid admissions.” Starting at 1:30 p.m., the game is called by mutual agreement at 5:27 because of impending darkness and high winds. Each team uses three pitchers, with the Athletics managing eleven safeties and the Bucs held to seven. Of the latter total, Roberto Clemente accumulates three, including the contest’s only extra-base hits, a leadoff double to begin the game and a one-out double in the top of the 18th. Clemente then saves the game in the bottom of the frame by gunning down Clete Boyer trying to go from first to third on Vic Power’s single with none out.
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1970 – An ownership group headed by automobile dealer Bud Selig buys the Seattle Pilots for $10.8 million. Selig will immediately move the Pilots to Milwaukee, WI and rename the team the “Brewers.” The Pilots lost $1 million during their lone season in Seattle, WA.
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1980 – After failing to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement with the owners, the Executive Board of the Players’ Association votes unanimously to cancel the 92 remaining exhibition games and to strike on May 22 if a deal has not been reached by then. During spring training, the players had voted 971-1 in favor of a strike. The lone dissenter was Kansas City’s Jerry Terrell, who voted no for religious reasons.
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1985 – Today’s issue of Sports Illustrated contains a fictitious article about a New York Mets pitching prospect named Sidd Finch*, whose fastball has been timed at 168 miles per hour. Author George Plimpton offers bogus quotes from real-life members of the Mets, as well as several staged photos, and fools readers nationwide.
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2012 – The Cardinals’ Lance Berkman plays an April Fools prank on teammate Adam Wainwright. Before the third inning of a Grapefruit League game, Wainwright’s white Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck is driven on the warning track at Roger Dean Stadium as the public address announcer states that it will be given away to a lucky fan. A stunned Wainwright watches from the bench as the supposed prize winners, a father and his son, climb into the bed of the truck when it stops in front of the home dugout and Berkman, who is driving, pokes his head out of the window, waves to everyone, and drives away.
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2021 – In one of the strangest plays today, the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger connects for an apparent home run with Justin Turner on first base in the third inning of their game against the Rockies at Coors Field. The ball goes in and out of leaping LF Raimel Tapia’s glove to land in the stands, but Turner, who was running on the play, thinks it has been caught and sprints back to first base. On the way, he crosses paths with Bellinger, who is running in the opposite direction. Bellinger is called out for passing a baserunner, and his homer becomes a long single, but once the confusion has been cleared, Turner is allowed to trot around the bases, so at least Bellinger gets an RBI. The play helps the Rockies win the game, 8-5.
Cubs Birthdays: Cubs birthdays: Hal Reilly, Jake Jaeckel, Frank Castillo, Daniel Murphy. Also notable: Phil Niekro HOF.
Today in History:
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374 – Comet 1P/374 E1 (Halley) approaches within 0.0884 AUs of Earth.
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1748 – Ruins of Pompeii rediscovered by Spaniard Rocque Joaquin de Alcubierre.
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1867 – International Exhibition opens in Paris.
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1891 – The Wrigley Company is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
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1927 – First automatic record changer introduced by His Master’s Voice.
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1948 – ”Big Bang” theory proposed in scientific journal “Physical Review” by American cosmologists Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow.
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1976 – Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs found Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs’ parents house in Cupertino, California.
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1989 – A. Bartlett Giamatti replaces Peter Ueberroth as the seventh commissioner of Major League Baseball; dies suddenly of a heart attack five months later.
Thanks for reading. À bientôt.
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