Author: Bill Grimes

I'm from Chicago. I worked in broadcast journalism for much of the 1970's and 80's. In 1990 I became a litigation consultant, retiring in 2017. Around 2005 I recall flipping through the sports section of the newspaper coming across "On this day in baseball history Willie Mays hit his 600th home run." I enjoyed the one-liners, but I wanted more. I wanted a story. I took my news reporting skills and started researching and telling baseball stories, one for every day of the year. TodayinBaseball.com is the result.

Sep 15: 1st to 50

SEPTEMBER 15, 1990 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Bobby Thigpen of the Chicago White Sox became the first pitcher in major league history to record 50 saves in a season on this date in 1990. He went on to set the seasonal record for saves at 57.

Thigpen finished his 8-year career with 201 saves. He kept the saves in a season record until Francisco Rodriguez, K-Rod, of the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim broke it in 2008.

So what is the history of the save?

The save is a relatively new baseball statistic. It was officially adopted in 1969 after a decade of research and lobbying by Chicago sportswriter Jerome Holtzman, a member of the Hall of Fame. It is the premier benchmark to gauge the effectiveness of closers. The save rule, officially Rule 10.19, basically states that to get a save a pitcher must satisfy one of these three conditions:

1. Enter the game with a lead of no more than three runs.
2. Enter the game with the potential tying run either on base, at bat or on deck.
3. Pitch at least three innings

The pitcher cannot surrender the lead at any point to get a save (but he can get the win if his team comes back to win after he relinquished the lead.)

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
September 15, 1990 box score/game notes
Single season Saves leaders


Sep 14: McLain wins 30th

SEPTEMBER 14, 1968 | DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers won his 30th game of the year on this date in 1968. The Tigers beat the Oakland Athletics 5-4. Reggie Jackson‘s second home run of the game had put the A’s ahead 4-3. The Tigers scored two in the bottom of the ninth to win and give McLain the victory. The tying run scored by Al Kaline who had pinch hit for McLain.

Nobody has won 30 games since McLain did it over 40 years ago, and you have to go back to Dizzy Dean in 1934 for the last time it had been done before McLain.

Nineteen sixty-eight was the year of the pitcher. McLain finished with 31 wins, 28 complete games and an ERA of 1.96. In the National League, St. Louis Cardinals‘ hurler Bob Gibson finished the season with a 1.12 ERA and a remarkable 13 shutouts on his way to a record of 22-9. Starters today get multi-million dollar contracts for winning 13 games in a season. Gibson went that many games without allowing a runner to score.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE:
September 14, 1968 box score & more

Sep 12: Growing Pains

SEPTEMBER 12, 1883 | PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA – The Union Association formed on this date in 1883. It was one of many professional baseball leagues to surface in the late 1800’s as baseball established itself as a significant industry, as well as pastime.

According to Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball, the National Association, National League, American League, American Association, Players League and Union Association were just a few of the “major” leagues that came to be. Most did not survive in name, but all made their mark on the National and American Leagues that exist today.

Koppett says that the chief backer of the Union Association was Henry Lucas of St. Louis. One of Lucas’ investors was Adolphus Busch of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The league had teams in eight cities, and played a 112 game schedule. At least that was its intent. Several teams tried different cities but some didn’t survive the 1884 season, which became the only season of the Union Association’s existence. All the leagues were fighting over the same star players, creating bidding wars that doomed all but the most solid leagues.

One source of the Union Association’s demise was the belief that Lucas stocked his St. Louis team with the best players and ran away with the championship. While the UA didn’t survive as a league, St. Louis survived as a team. It was absorbed in the National League and exists to this day as the St. Louis Cardinals.

Contributing Source:
Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball, by Leonard Koppett, 2004

Sep 11: Move over Cobb

SEPTEMBER 11, 1985 | CINCINNATI, OHIO • Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the all-time hits leader on this date in baseball history (1985). Charley Hustle, as he was known, got hit number 4,192 in the first inning to break Ty Cobb‘s record. Rose was 44 years old and in his 23rd major league season when he set the new record.

Rose, long admired for his fierce competitiveness, has since become persona non grata around baseball. He was banned from the game by Commissioner Bart Giamatti for gambling on baseball while he was a manager. Evidence surfaced that he even bet on his own team. His banishment has also made him ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

But you can’t argue with Rose’s lifetime numbers:

Hits: 4,256
Batting average: .303
Runs scored: 2,165
All-Star games: 17
MVP: 1973

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
September 11, 1985 box score
Pete Rose stats 

Sept 10: Mantle’s tape measure

SEPTEMBER 10, 1960 | DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Some say the ball traveled over 600 feet. That’s probably more hyperbole than fact, but there is no doubting that on this date in 1960 Mickey Mantle hit a tape measure home run to beat all tape measures – well, except maybe for one. 

Tiger Stadium, formerly Briggs Stadium

United Press International (UPI) reported the next day that Mantle’s home run, “… was a tremendous shot that soared over the third deck of the right field stands and into the street outside the park.” You can see by the photograph that Briggs Stadium, later known as Tiger Stadium, was almost completely enclosed, so hitting a ball “into the street” is nothing short of Herculean.

UPI went on to say that “… it was only the fourth time in the history of Briggs Stadium that a fair ball has cleared the roof.” Three of them were hit by Mantle. Ted Williams hit the other.

Mantle hit 40 home runs and had 94 RBI that year. The Yankees went to the World Series for the 8th time in his career, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Bill Mazeroski‘s walk-off home run to win game 7.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
United Press International (UPI), Detroit, Michigan, September 11, 1960
September 10, 1960 box score, play-by-play, etc.