OCTOBER 9, 1934 | DETROIT, MICHIGAN – On this date in 1934 the St. Louis Cardinals finished off the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series, thanks in no small part to the Dean brothers. Either Dizzy Dean or Paul Dean started five of the seven games for the “Gas House Gang.” Dizzy won 2, both complete games, and lost 1 with an ERA of 1.73. His younger brother Paul, often called Daffy, won his two starts, both complete games, with an ERA of 1.00.
They produced at the plate too. Dizzy hit .250 for the Series with 3 runs scored and an RBI. Paul only had one hit in six at bats but he drove in 2 runs.
The series had other noteworthy fireworks. Dizzy Dean was put in as a pinch runner in game 4. He went into second standing up on a double play ball. The relay to first by shortstop Billy Rogell hit him in the forehead. Dean had to be carried off in a stretcher. The next morning at least one newspaper is said to have printed the headline, “X-rays of Dean’s head show nothing.” He must have been OK because he started two more games in the Series.
In game seven Cardinal left fielder Joe Medwick and Tiger third baseman Marv Owen had a little dust-up after Medwick slid hard into third in the 6th inning. The flare-up was settled quickly, but Detroit fans did not greet Medwick hospitably when he returned to left in the bottom of the inning. Everything fans could throw was aimed at Medwick.
It got so bad Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who was at the game, ordered Medwick off the field for his own safety. The Cardinals had a comfortable 9-0 lead at the time and eventually won 11-0.
Contributing sources:
October 9, 1934 box score
More on Dizzy Dean
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.
Oct 8: Cow halts baseball
OCTOBER 8, 1871 | CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – The Chicago White Stockings (today’s Chicago Cubs) were in a great position to win the National Association pennant on this day in baseball history. Then the Great Chicago Fire erupted. It destroyed much of the city including, according to historian Leonard Koppett, the White Stockings’ ball park.
As Koppett writes in Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball, the White Stockings had to play the rest of their games on the road and lost them. They dropped out of the league for two years.
The National Association is what passed for the major leagues in 1871. The National League was still five years from its inception. The White Stockings ended up joining the National League in 1876.
The White Stockings eventually shed the name, gave a few other names a try, such as Colts and Orphans, before settling on Cubs, which is what the team is known as today.
The Chicago franchise of the new American League took the name White Stockings in 1901, later shortening it to White Sox, which they still go by.
Contributing Sources:
Koppett’s Concise History of Major League Baseball
Cubs team history
National Association
Oct 6: Biggest baseball crowd
OCTOBER 6, 1959 | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – The biggest crowd to watch a major league baseball game – 92,706 – packed the Los Angeles Coliseum on this date in 1959 for game 5 of the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The mammoth Coliseum was the Dodgers’ home during their first few years in Southern California (after moving from Brooklyn in 1957) until Dodger Stadium was built in 1962. A high screen had to be erected in left field because the coliseum’s dimensions (more suited for football than baseball) made the fence so short.
Oh, by the way, White Sox starter Dick Donovan beat a young Sandy Koufax 1-0.
The second and third largest baseball crowds were the other two World Series games played in Los Angeles that year. The Dodgers went on to defeat the White Sox in 6 games. It was the Dodgers first World Series appearance since leaving Brooklyn after the 1957 season, and the first White Sox World Series since the 1919 Black Sox scandal 40 years earlier.
The biggest crowd to watch a major league game of any kind was set the spring of 2008, also at the LA Coliseum. The 50th anniversary of the Dodgers playing at the Coliseum brought 115,300 out to watch an exhibition between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox.
Contributing Sources
October 6, 1959 box score & play-by-play
Baseball-Almanac
MLB attendance records
Oct 5: Dramatic dropped 3rd strike
OCTOBER 5, 1941 | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – It would have been the final out of Game-4 of the 1941 World Series and a 4-3 victory for the Brooklyn Dodgers had catcher Mickey Owen held on to strike three on this date in 1941. Instead, the ball went all the way back to the screen. The batter, New York Yankee right fielder Tommy Henrich ran safely to first instead of the dugout.
What followed was a single, double, two runs scored, a walk, another double, two more runs scored, another walk before a ground-out for the third out. The Yankees won 7-4. Instead of the series being tied 2-2, the Yankees were up 3 games to 1. They won the next day to take the Series.
What could have been had Mickey Owen held on to Hugh Casey‘s 3-2 pitch. Ironically, Owen set a record that season for the most consecutive chances without an error. He finished the season with a .995 fielding percentage, but he will always be remembered for his passed ball that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
October 5, 1941 box score/play-by-play
More on Mickey Owen
Oct 2: Bucky a 4-letter word
OCTOBER 2, 1978 | BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Boston Red Sox killer Bucky Dent became a wanted man in New England on this date in 1978. The New York Yankees were down by 2 runs in a dramatic one-game playoff when Dent came to the plate against Mike Torrez, but not when he got back to the dugout.
It was a classic baseball rivalry, and the ultimate do-or-die situation in baseball, in a classic venue – Fenway Park. It had been an exciting American League East race. The Yankees made a remarkable comeback from 14 games behind to move 3 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox with two weeks left in the season. Then the Red Sox won eight straight to end the season and tie the Yankees for first in the division, hence a one-game playoff.
In the top of the seventh, the Red Sox were ahead, 2-0. (Can you say “curse?”) The Yankees’ Chris Chambliss singled off of Mike Torrez. Roy White singled. Two on, two out.
Shortstop Bucky Dent, a .243 hitter, stepped up to the plate.
The count went to 1-1. Dent realized his bat was cracked, so he got a fresh piece of wood and returned to the batter’s box. The Savannah, Georgia native who hit 40 home runs in his 12-year career, hit the next pitch over the Green Monster, a three-run home run. The Yankees took the lead.
Torrez peppered his analysis of Dent’s homer with a few mild expletives: “I was so damn shocked. I thought maybe it was going to be off the wall. Damn, I did not think it was going to go out.” The Yanks extended their lead to 5-2. The Red Sox tried, valiantly as always, to come back. They almost did, but lost the game, 5-4. The Yankees went to the World Series in ‘78, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4 games to 2.
Contributing sources;
October 2, 1978 box score
Sports Illustrated Greatest Teams, by Tim Crothers, 1998