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.

Aug 22: Marichal loses it

AUGUST 22, 1965 | SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – A tight pennant race turned ugly on the afternoon of August 22, 1965. With only a half game separating the San Francisco Giants and arch rival Los Angeles Dodgers, Giant pitcher Juan Marichal attacked Los Angeles Dodgers’ catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Roseboro suffered a gash that required 14 stitches to close. Marichal was suspended eight games and fined $1,750, a big chunk of change in those days.

As the story goes, when Marichal was on the mound for the Giants earlier in the game he knocked down Maury Wills and Ron Fairly with brushback pitches. As Jeff Merron reports on ESPN’s Page 2, Dodger catcher John Roseboro admitted that he intended to retaliate against Marichal when he came to bat, “I tried a knockdown from behind the plate, throwing the ball close to his nose when I returned it to the pitcher.” After coming close a couple times to Marichal, standing in the batter’s box, as he threw back to pitcher Sandy Koufax, Marichal turned on Roseboro. Striking the catcher with the bat.

Roseboro and Marichal patched things up in later years, but on that one afternoon in 1965, it was nasty.

CONTRIBUTING SOURSES:
August 22, 1965 box score/play-by-lay
Baseball brawls
1965 NL pennant race

Aug 21: First to 300 saves

AUGUST 21, 1982 | SEATTLE, WASHINGTON • Milwaukee Brewers reliever Rollie Fingers made it exciting, but managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and become the first major leaguer to reach 300 career saves on this date in 1982. The term “Closer” still wasn’t widely used at the time. In fact Fingers, like many ace relievers, entered the game in the 8th trying to salvage a shutout being thrown by Brewer starter Doc Medich agains the Seattle Mariners. This was when the Brewers were in the American League.

The only runs given up by Brewer pitching were given up by Fingers, but he managed to keep Seattle from getting any closer, and the Brewers won 3-2. It was Fingers 28th save of the year, a year, by the way, in which Milwaukee ended up in the World Series, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven.

Mariano Rivera is the career saves leader with 652, all with the New York Yankees. Fingers is 14th on the all-time list with 341 saves.

Contributing Sources:
August 21, 1982 box score/play-by-play
The Closer
Career saves

Aug 17: Beaning kills player

AUGUST 17, 1920 | NEW YORK, NEW YORK – On this date in 1920 Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman died in a New York hospital after being beaned in a game the night before. He is the only player in major league baseball history to die because of action on the field.

Ray Chapman was having a fine career with the Cleveland Indians – the only team he ever played for. He was their regular shortstop. He had a .278 batting average through nine seasons. He was known to be a good base stealer.

Chapman came to bat in the top of the 5th in the Polo Grounds in New York on August 16, 1920. Carl Mays was pitching for the Yankees. Mays was described as having an underhand delivery. Both Mays and Chapman were right-handed so a typical curve would have broken away from Chapman. Instead one of Mays pitches must have tailed inside striking Chapman in the head.

Mays was known to throw a spitball, which was a legal pitch at the time. A report in the San Antonio Evening News of August 17, 1920 said, “The crack of the ball hitting his head could be heard all over the Polo Grounds.” Chapman was rushed to St. Lawrence Hospital in New York. Doctors decided to operate at around midnight, but were unable to save him. He died early in the morning of August 17, 1920.

The Indians were in first place at the time of Chapman’s death and went on to win the American League pennant and the World Series.

Contributing sources:
The San Antonio Evening News, August 17, 1920
Retrosheet August 16, 1920

 

Sept 30: Not amicable

SEPTEMBER 30, 1971 | WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Washington Senators can’t beat the “Damn” Yankees even when they outscore them. The last American League game played in the nation’s capitol ended in a forfeit on this date in 1971 when hundreds of fans stormed the field at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium with two outs in the 9th. Many had run onto the field in the 8th, but this time they wouldn’t leave so the umpires called the game.

It gave the Yankees a 9-0 win even though the Senators were one out from a 7-5 victory. Fans were upset that owner Bob Short was moving the club to the Dallas-Forth Worth area for the 1972 season to become the Texas Rangers.

The “Senators” had been in D.C. for 71 years as an American League team, but under two different franchises. One franchise, owned for most of that time by the Griffith family, called Washington home from 1901 to 1960. Calvin Griffith moved the team to Minneapolis in 1961, where they remain, and changed the name to the Minnesota Twins. D.C. got a new “Senators” franchise in ’61, but it only lasted until 1971 when they left for Texas.

In the 62 years the Senators were in Washington, D.C. they only had 15 winning seasons. They did win the World Series though in 1924. To pour salt into the wounds of the original Senators’ fans, a change of scenery helped. The Minnesota Twins made it to the World Series in 1965, won it in 1987 and 1991.

Contributing sources:
Washington Post
New York Times, October 1, 1971, Pg. 49
Associated Press, October 1, 1971, by James Polk

Sept 29: Where they’re from

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013 | EVERYWHERE – Major league baseball players come from all over the world these days, not just the United States and Latin America.

Here’s a list of the states/territories/countries that have produced the most major league players, including some surprises, as of December 20, 2019:

United States…………….16,940

Top ten states:
California………………….2,304
Pennsylvania…………….1,408
New York………………….1,157
Illinois……………………..1,060
Ohio…………………………1,031
Texas…………………………944
Massachusetts……………665
Missouri…………………….611
Florida………………………564
Michigan……………………432

North & South America (outside the United States):
Dominican Republic…….759
Venezuela……………………407
Canada……………………….254
Puerto Rico………………..269
Cuba………………………….212
Mexico………………………129

Elsewhere:
Japan………………………….67
Panama………………………48
Ireland……………………….43
England………………………33
Australia…………………….31
Germany…………………….30
South Korea………………..23
Columbia……………………23
Curacao……………………..15
Nicaragua…………………..15
Netherlands……………….11
Russia…………………………8
Scotland……………………..7
Sweden……………………….4
Czechoslovakia……………3
Afghanistan…………………1
Lithuania…………………….1

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Baseball-Almanac: Major League players by birthplace
https://www.baseball-almanac.com › players › birthplace
The Emerald Guide to Baseball 2009, The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)