What a Catfish!!

After the 1967 the Kansas City Athletics of the American League were transferred by owner Charlie O. Finley to Oakland, California. The A's made the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum their new home. On May 9, 1968 fans in the San Francisco Bay area were still getting used to the idea that an American League team was playing in their area. The Minnesota Twins were in town to play the rubber game of a three game series. The game was only the 11th home game that the A's had played in their new home. The A's with their glory years just a few short years away, were enroute to a 82-80 record had a 12-12 record on the year. They had a home record of 3-7, not the kind of record a team wants to present to new fans. The Twins had a 13-12 record and were enroute to a 79-83 record.
On this particular Wednesday evening, the A's sent 22 year old James A. "Catfish" Hunter to the mound to face Dave Boswell. Although seeming young in age Hunter had already pitched 103 games by this point in his young career. The game started off quickly for Hunter as he retired Cesar Tovar, Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew in order in the first inning. Killebrew was the first of 11 strikeouts on the game.
Hunter continued inning after inning mowing through the tough Twins lineup until he reached the ninth inning. When he took the mound in the the ninth inning everyone in the park knew histiry was on the line. After retiring pinch hitter Johnny Roseboro and catcher Bruce Look, he faced pich hitter Rich Reese. When Reese was called out on strikes Hunters name went into the history books as the first American League pitcher since 1922 to pitch a perfect game. His 4-0 gem was only the ninth of what is today 18 perfect games ever pitched in Major League Baseball.
It was most certianly a treasured memory for all of the 6298 fans in attendance that evening. One those historic games that fans wish they could be there for when they happen. We dont know when, we dont know where, we dont know by whom, but we do know that someday a pitcher will etch his name in the record book as the 19th pitcher in MLB history to pitch a perfect game, will be today, maybe tonight in Seattle. We can only sit back with a cold drink and see as todays games unfold themselves right before our eyes. As for tomorrow we will drop down to the Texas League and look at another rare play the unassisted triple play. Have a great day wherever you are.

Too many runs

In the earliest days of professional baseball, high scoring games were very much commonplace. Today for one team to score even 20 runs is quite unusual. For a team to score 33 runs is very much unheard of. Yet on the evening of May 7, 1988 at Spurgeon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado the nearly impossible happened. The home team Sky Sox, members of the Pacific Coast League, scored 33 runs in their game against the Phoenix Firebirds. Thirteen home runs were hit in the Sky Sox 33-12 win. Eight of the home runs were hit by the Sky Sox.

One would think that a few league records may have been set on this special night. However I am not aware that even one league record may have been set. I know of at least one game played in 1923 where the visitors scored 35 runs, with one player hitting five home runs by himself. The PCL has a league record book that rivals that of the two Major Leagues. I hope that you want to see more.

As for tomorrow we go back to the majors and look at a feat by "Catfish".

Say Hey, Willie

The biggest event in the baseball world on May 6, 1931 failed to generate coast to coast headlines. It did not even get the attention of the newspapers in Birmingham, Alabama near where this event occurred. Even then if they knew, they probably would have scoffed. Even 20 years later few understood the greatness of this event. Yet just outside of Birmingham, one William Howard Mays was born. I will not try to recap the great career of the "Say Hey" Kid. I do believe very much that if Willie was not the greatest baseball player ever, He was very close to that title. I believe that only "Babe" Ruth could compete with him for that title. Even as a young boy when Willie was reaching the end of his career, I knew and appriecated what a great player he was. I recall buying a book from school on Willie. I may have grown up an Angels fan having been born just a 1/2 mile South of where their stadium now stands, I knew a great ballplayer when I saw one.

Happy Birthday Willie!!!

Tomorrow, we will look at high scoring baseball game from 1988.

No gooooooooooooal

When a sports season opens every team in the league hopes that they are the one who will win the championship at the end of the season. Even the lowly New York Mets had that dream in the Spring of 1969. Some teams get off to fast starts and their championship hopes soar. Some teams seem to fall out of the starting gate and start the chant of wait until next year early. Some teams like the 1976 Miami Toros of the North American Soccer League just do not seem to show up at all. On May 5, 1976 the Toros played their fifth game of the season. The game was played at their home field for the season Tamiami Park against the Rochester Lancers.
When all was said and done, the Lancers scored a 3-0 victory of the home club. The score itself is not unusual in soccer, however what made this game unique was after it was done the Toros were still looking for their first goal of the season. Five games to open the season and no goals is not a good start to the season. The Toros would eventually get their first goal of the season as they finished the season with a 6-18 record. The record was not good enough to stay in Miami as the team was transfered to Fort Lauderdale after the season was over. The embrasment of a poor start to the season as it happens to many clubs in many leagues. Like the 1951 Granite Falls Graniteers who had a record 14-96.
Tomorrow we will look at one of my favorite all-time MLB players Willie Mays as he celebrates his 79th birthday.

What an Opening!!!

On May 4, 1985 the Campbell Conference finals opened at the Northland Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta. The Oilers hosted the Chicago Blackhawks. They scored 4 goals in the first and third periods and 3 goals in the second period in tying a post season scoring record. They had 3 players who scored two goals each, Charlie Huddy, Glenn Anderson and Juri Kurry. The Oilers outshot the Blackhawks 42-28. The Blackhawks would recover and put on a brave face for the remainer of the series, before yielding to the Oilers in 6 games. The Great One Wayne Gretzky and his mates would go on to take out the Flyers in five games and win their second consecutive Stanley Cup. Not many teams score 11 goals in a single game and very few have ever scored that many in a playoff game. The thing that I find amazing though is when one team will score a lot of points in a single game in the post season and then lose the series because they do not score for the rest of the series. That did not happen in this case, however you would be surprised how often it does happen, just ask the 1960 New York Yankees. Tomorrow we will look at a very slow start to a soccer season.

One wild game

Indoor football is still a relative newcomer to the sports world. The sport played its first games in 1988 by the original Arena Football League. Different leagues started popping up in the late 1990s, today we look at one game played in one of those leagues. The National Indoor Football League got its start in 2001. On May 3, 2003 the Utah Warriors played the Austin Rockers in a game at Travis County Exposition Center in Austin. This was no ordinary football game by any stretch of the imagination. The Rockers entered the game with a 3-2 record, the Warriors with a 4-1 record. The Warriors, who had entered the league for the 2003 season, scored 13 touchdowns, 9 of them from passing plays from Quarterback Danny Ragsdale. Five of the touchdowns were scored by on catches by Jason Quinn. They scored on 10 PAT attempts. The Warriors gained a monster 447 yards on offense.

Amazingly enough, even after a monster game like this neither Ragsdale or Quinn ever made it to play in the National Football League. Even the Warriors would leave the league and fade into history after playing only two seasons in the league. The National Indoor Football League itself would play only 4 more seasons after this game. Many minor leagues in the different sports have played with little or no stability their stars flashing before us in the same fashion as a shooting star. Its hard to appreicate the feats of the leagues we follow regularly without taking a look at some of the minor leagues had the feats that happen within those leagues. Tomorrow we go back to the majors and a look at National Hockey League game in the opening of the Stanley Cup finals.

Home Run, Home Run, Home Run, Home Run

There are many ways a baseball player can set or tie a record in a single game. Today we are looking at one of the rare feats that will most certainly get the attention of all the highlight shows. Not the perfect game or the unassisted triple play, but hitting four home runs in one MLB game.

On May 2, 2002 Michael T. Cameron of the Seattle Mariners became the 13th MLB player to hit four home runs in one game when he lead his team to a 15-4 win over the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park in Chicago. One of the things that made Camerons feat so unique was that each of his home runs were solo shots as he had only 4 RBIs on the game. His first two home runs were in the Mariners 10 run first inning, both blasts were following home runs by his teammate Bret Boone. His third home run was in the third inning. His fourth home run was in the fifth inning. During his fifth trip to the plate, he was hit by a pitch. In the ninth inning, he lined to the warning track in right field, becoming only the second player to get a second chance to hit a fifth home run during a game. (Thank You Retrosheet.org)

The feat of hitting four home runs in a MLB game has been done twice since. The feat has been done in the minor leagues 86 times and four players in the minors have hit five home runs in one game with one player hitting eight home runs in one game (June 15 preview).

Are you convinced this is going to be a great blog to follow on a daily basis yet? Tune in tomorrow when we look at a wild game that was played in the National Indoor Football League in 2003.