Category: August

AUG 12: Baseball in Berlin

AUGUST 12, 1936 | BERLIN, GERMANY – The largest crowd ever to watch a baseball game, up to that point, saw a “demonstration” game at the summer Olympics in Berlin on this date in 1936. In excess of 90,000 spectators saw two teams of amateurs both from the U.S., play a 7-inning contest. The final score was 6-5.

German fans had to be helped along with the nuances of the game. According to Baseball in the Olympics by Pete Cava, not until the announcer told the crowd that a batter making it all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run was a good thing for the batter did they cheer.

The Berlin attendance record stood until 93,103 fans showed up for an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees in honor of former Dodger catcher Roy Campanella at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1959. The Dodgers, new to Los Angeles, made the Coliseum home for a few seasons waiting for Dodger Stadium to be built.

Speaking of international baseball, did you know more than 100 countries belong to the International Baseball Federation? For example, Argentina has 355 teams/3,500 players. Australia has 5,000 teams/57,000 players. Canada has 6,621 teams/119,178 players. Czech Republic has 60 teams/2,668 players.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
1936 Olympics
Baseball attendance records
Los Angeles Coliseum attendance records
Baseball in the Olympics, by Pete Cava, 1991

AUG 10-Pitcher of Efficiency

AUGUST 10, 1944  CINCINNATI, OHIO – Boston Braves (today’s Atlanta Braves) starting pitcher Red Barrett set two significant records on this date in 1944. According to Baseball-Almanac, Barrett shutout the Cincinnati Reds in just one hour and fifteen minutes. Not surprisingly, he needed just 58 pitches to do it. It remains the shortest night game ever played and the fewest pitches in a complete game win day or night.

Barrett gave up just two hits and walked none in the 2-0 win. He also didn’t strike out anyone, which kept his pitch count low. The pitches would have added up had hitters gone far enough in the count to strike out.

Red Barrett had a remarkable year in 1945, but his 11-year career was otherwise undistinguished as far as major league standards go. He finished with 69 wins and 69 losses for three different teams (two stints with the Boston Braves). He went 23-12 for the Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals in 1945.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE: 
August 10, 1944 – BASEBALL-ALMANAC
The Associated Press (AP), Cincinnati, Ohio, August 11, 1944

Aug 9 in baseball history: The Fall and Rise of Rick Ankiel

AUGUST 9, 2007 | ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI – Rick Ankiel of the St. Louis Cardinals hit a dramatic 3-run home run on this date in 2007. It was the culmination of the fall and rise of Rick Ankiel. He had gone through an agonizing public collapse as a pitcher seven years earlier. It got so bad he gave up pitching, but he didn’t give up baseball.

Rick Ankiel was drafted out of high school by the Cardinals in 1997. He received a big signing bonus and progressed through the minor leagues fairly quickly. There was no hint of the trouble ahead. He was Minor League Player of the Year in 1999. Ankiel went 11-7 in 2000, his first full season with the Cardinals, striking out an average of 10 hitters every 9 innings.

The problems surfaced in the playoffs. Though only 20-years old when the season started Ankiel got the start in game one of the National League Division Series. That’s where the trouble started. He gave up a hit and two walks in the first, but got through unscathed, no problems in the second, but mysterious wildness that would eventually drive him from the mound started in the third.

Here’s how it went:

• Greg Maddux walks
• Rafael Furcal pops out
• Wild pitch
• Wild pitch
• Walks Andruw Jones
• Wild pitch
• Strikes out Chipper Jones
• Walks Andres Galarraga
• Brian Jordan singles
• Wild pitch
• Walks Reggie Sanders
• Walt Weiss singles
• (Ankiel relieved)

The Cardinals won the game, swept the series and Ankiel shrugged off his wildness, but he didn’t make it through the first inning of game two of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets. Five of the first 20 pitches he threw went back to the screen, but only two were counted as wild pitches because no one was on base… yet. He was lifted after three walks and a double to drive in two.

Ankiel’s pitching troubles continued. He was sent down to the minors in 2001 and his wildness got worse. He finally gave up pitching in 2005. He became an outfielder, eventually making it back to the Cardinals and a tremendous reception on August 9, 2007. He drew a prolonged standing ovation in his first at-bat on this date. He popped out in his first at bat, struck out in his second and hit the 3-run homer in his 3rd plate appearance.

Rick Ankiel ended up playing 11 years in the majors, 7 of those were after the fall and rise of Rick Ankiel.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
Cardinals-Padres, August 9, 2007
2000 NLDS Cardinals-Braves, Game 1, October 3, 2000
2000 NLCS Cardinals-Mets, Game 2, October 12, 2000

AUGUST 8: Dodgers score 12 after 2

AUGUST 8, 1954 | BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – There are rallies and then there are rallies. How about one the Brooklyn Dodgers had on this date in 1954? The Dodgers scored 12 runs after two outs in the eighth inning. They scored 13 total and went on to pound the Cincinnati Reds 20-7 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

The game also provided a couple good examples of why the official scoring for earned run average (ERA)  should be changed.

Amazingly, only one of the 13 runs given up in the eighth was earned, despite four Reds pitchers giving up seven hits and seven walks. Neither Cincinnati pitchers Jackie Collum nor Frank Smith got anybody out, but their ERAs did not go up a lick (there’s something not right about that type of scoring) because twelve of the runs scored after an error by Reds third baseman Chuck Harmon, long before Collum or Smith got in the game.

Here’s another example of what’s wrong with ERA scoring; a relief pitcher can be called into a game because the starter is showing some weakness. He could give up a bases clearing triple. None of those runs are charged to him. I get that. But here’s what’s crazy. Despite giving up a bases clearing triple, if he gets the next batter out his ERA goes down.

Contributing Source:
August 8, 1954 box score

AUG 7: Amazing Walter Johnson

AUGUST 7, 1907 | WASHINGTON, D.C. – Only Cy Young was more dominant on the mound than Walter Johnson, and they named an award after him.

Walter Johnson’s road to immortality began on this date in 1907. Johnson was just 19-years old, and fresh off the family farm in Humboldt, Kansas when he pitched the Washington Senators to a 7-2 win over the Cleveland Naps (today’s Indians) – the first of 416 career wins . Only Cy Young has more career wins (511) than Walter Johnson.

Johnson’s accomplishments are stunning. From 1910 to 1919 he won 25, 25, 33, 36, 28, 27, 25, 23, 23 games.

  • He started 666 games in his 21-year career, completing 531.
  • He pitched 110 shutouts (11 in 1913 alone).
  • He pitched over 300 innings 9 times.

Johnson could hit, too! He had a .433 batting average in 1925 – 42 hits in 97 at bats. He hit .283 in 1924, .270 in 1921, and had a career average of .235 with 24 home runs and 255 runs batted in.

CONTRIBUTING SOURCE:
Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train, by Henry W. Thomas, 1995