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.

MAY 3: 6-RBI INNING!

MAY 3, 1951 | ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI– Six RBI (runs batted in) in a week is pretty good. Six in a day is a headline grabber. How about six RBI in an inning! New York Yankees rookie Gil McDougald exploded for a 6-RBI inning on this date in 1951.

McDougald hit a two-run Triple to kick off a 9th inning rally against the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. He came around to bat again. This time he hit a grand slam. The Yankees ended up scoring 11 times that inning on their way to a 17-3 shellacking of the Browns.

The runs batted in (RBI) statistic is a valuable measure of a player’s offensive production, but is dependent on situations. You need to have runners on base or hit a lot of home runs to get RBI. It also depends where you are in the batting order and how productive the hitters ahead of you are.

Fernando Tatis holds the major league record for most RBI in an inning with 8. He hit two grand slams in one inning in 1999. Alex Rodriguez had 7 RBI in one inning in 2009.

Here are the RBI leaders in various other categories:

Season:
Hack Wilson, Cubs (1930) 191
Lou Gehrig, Yankees (1931) 184
Hank Greenberg, Tigers (1937) 183

Career:
Henry Aaron, Braves, Brewers 2,297
Babe Ruth, Yankees, Red Sox 2,213
Cap Anson, Cubs (White Stockings) 2,076
Lou Gehrig, Yankees 1,995
Stan Musial, Cardinals 1,951

Game:
Jim Bottomly, Cardinals, Sept 24, 1924 12
Mark Whiten, Cardinals, Sept 7, 1993 12
Tony Lazzeri, Yankees, May 24, 1936 11

On this date in 1951 Gil McDougald exploded for a 6-RBI inning.

Contributing Sources:
All-time RBI Leaders
Gill McDougald stats
Baseball-Almanac

A story from MAY 2 in baseball history – Gehrig not in lineup!

TODAYinBASEBALL TAKES US TO DETROIT, MICHIGAN, MAY 2, 1939. The New York Yankees crushed the Detroit Tigers 22 to 2. But the game was more noteworthy for who didn’t play. Shocker! Lou Gehrig not in lineup. The Iron horse first baseman voluntarily decided for the good of the team he couldn’t play. He had played every single game for 14 years – 2,130 games! Gehrig’s record of most consecutive games played would stand until Cal Ripken broke it in 1995.

Something really had to be wrong for Gehrig to keep himself out of the lineup on May 2, 1939. Something was.

Ludwig Heinrich Gehrig was born in New York City in 1903. His name was Americanized to Henry Louis Gehrig. He went to Columbia University in New York on a football scholarship, but also played baseball. Gehrig left Columbia to sign with the Yankees.

As legend has it, early in his career, the Yankees offered Gehrig to the Boston Red Sox for a starting pitcher as kind of re-payment for the Babe Ruth deal a few years earlier. The Red Sox didn’t want Gehrig.

Something really had to be wrong for Gehrig to keep himself out of the lineup on May 2, 1939. It was a shocker, Lou Gehrig not in the lineup. The problem was Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which later became known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, had attacked his body. He was too weak to play baseball. His health deteriorated shockingly fast. Henry Louis Gehrig died just two years later.

Contributing sources:
ALS.org
Lou Gehrig.com 

 

A STORY FROM MAY 1 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – ASTROS TURN THE TABLES ON REDS

TODAYINBASEBALL.com TAKES US TO CINCINNATI, OHIO MAY 1, 1969? On April 30 Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Maloney no-hit the Houston Astros 10 to nothing. The next day, May 1, 1969, Astros’ starter Don Wilson turned the tables on the Reds. He no-hit them. What are the odds?

No-hitters are significant accomplishments, but they aren’t unheard of. There have been over 300 in the modern era — since 1901. That’s almost two per season.

Here are a few rarer events than a no-hitter:

  • Two no-hitters on the same day – June 29, 1990. Dave Stewart of the Oakland A’s no-hit the Toronto Blue Jays. A couple hours later the Dodgers‘ Fernando Valenzuela no-hit the St. Louis Cardinals.
  • In 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates not only had a no-hitter for 12 innings, he had a perfect game. He lost the perfecto, the no-hitter and the game in the 13th inning. [Look for story May 26th]
  • In 1990 Andy Hawkins of the New York Yankees pitched a no-hitter and lost 4-0 when the Chicago White Sox took advantage of Yankee errors. Initially Hawkins got credit for a no-hitter. Later Major League Baseball changed the criteria and took away Hawkins’ no-hitter because it didn’t go a full 9 innings. It only went 8 and a half because the home team White Sox were ahead and didn’t bat in the ninth.

The  rarest of them all may be the Astros turning the tables on he Reds. Houston no-hit the Reds, the day after the Reds no-hit Houston.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 2, 1969
Retrosheet’s no-hitters and stuff

A STORY FROM APRIL 30 IN BASEBALL HISTORY – MAYS JOINS EXCLUSIVE GROUP

DSCN2130TODAYINBASEBALL.com TAKES US BACK TO MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN  ON APRIL 30, 1961.  Willie Mays joined an exclusive group on this date – the 4 home run group. At the time, Mays was just the 7th player in major league baseball history to hit 4 home runs in a nine-inning game. His blasts helped his San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves (today’s Atlanta Braves) 14-4.

Baseballs flew out of Milwaukee County Stadium on that Sunday afternoon in Wisconsin. Besides Mays’ 4 round-trippers, teammate Jose Pagan hit 2 home runs, as did Henry Aaron of the Braves. Solo shots were hit by the Giants’ Orlando Cepeda and Felipe Alou.

As of this writing [April 23, 2018], 11 players have hit four home runs in 9-inning games in the modern era:

Bobby Lowe, Boston Beaneaters, May 30, 1894
Ed Delahanty, Philadelphia Phillies, July 13, 1896
Lou Gehrig, New York Yankees June 3, 1932
Gil Hodges, Brooklyn Dodgers August 31, 1950
Joe Adcock, Milwaukee Braves July 31, 1954
Rocky Colavito, Cleveland Indians June 10, 1959
Willie Mays, San Francisco Giants – April 30, 1961
Bob Horner, Atlanta Braves – July 6, 1986
Mark Whiten, St. Louis Cardinals – Sept 7, 1993
Mike Cameron, Seattle Mariners – May 2, 2002
Shawn Green, Los Angeles Dodgers – May 23, 2002
Carlos Delgado, Toronto Blue Jays – Sept 25, 2003
Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers – May 8, 2012
Scooter Gennett, Cincinnati Reds, June 6, 2017
J.D. Martinez, Arizona Diamondbacks – Sept 4, 2017

Several years usually pass between 4-home run games, but only 21 days separated Mike Cameron’s and Shawn Green’s displays of power in 2002.

Chuck Klein (1936), Pat Seerey (1948) and Mike Schmidt (1976) have also each hit 4 home runs in one game, but they needed extra innings to do it.

No one has ever hit 5 home runs in one game. But on this date in 1961, Willie Mays joined an exclusive group by hitting 4.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
MLB hitting leaders
Baseball-Almanac

A story from April 28 in baseball history – Frank Robinson among the best

TODAYINBASEBALL.com TAKES US BACK TO APRIL 28, 1956 IN CINCINNATI, OHIO. On this date in 1956 Cincinnati Redlegs rookie left fielder Frank Robinson hit his first major league home run. He would hit 585 more. The home run came in a 9-1 win over the Chicago Cubs in Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Was Frank Robinson underappreciated? If you look at the numbers, Frank Robinson was among the best ever.

He’s the only player in major league baseball history to be MVP (most valuable player) in both leagues (National League in 1961, American League in 1966).

He’s one of just 14 players in major league history to win the Triple Crown (lead the league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in).

He’s a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He had a lifetime average of .294.

He drove in 1,812 runs.

He played on 3 World Series teams (Cincinnati Reds-1961, Baltimore Orioles-1966, 1970), 2 of which were winners.

Speaking of Triple Crown Winners, until Miguel Cabrera won it in 2012 there had not been a triple crown winner in 45 years.

Here are past winners:

Miguel Cabrera (Detroit-AL) 2012
Carl Yastrzemski (Boston-AL) 1967
Frank Robinson (Baltimore-AL) 1966
Mickey Mantle (New York-AL) 1956
Ted Williams (Boston-AL) 1947
Ted Williams (Boston-AL) 1942
Joe Medwick (St. Louis-NL) 1937
Lou Gehrig (New York-AL) 1934
Chuck Klein (Philadelphia) 1933
Jimmie Foxx (Philadelphia-AL) 1933
Rogers Hornsby (St. Louis-NL) 1925
Rogers Hornsby (St. Louis-NL) 1922
Heinie Zimmerman (Chicago-NL) 1912
Ty Cobb (Detroit-AL) 1909
Nap Lajoie (Philadelphia-AL) 1901
Hugh Duffy (Boston-NL) 1894
Paul Hines (Providence-NL) 1878

Maybe “Frank Robinson” doesn’t roll off the tongue like Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays because he played for 5 different teams, and seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face, but his numbers are remarkable. It’s safe to say, Frank Robinson was among the best ever.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE:
Frank Robinson – Hall of Fame