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.

May 1st daily post

Today we begin with a look an event that took place on May 1, 1884. On that date the Eastern League played their first league games. The league had 8 teams on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The teams represented the Cities of Allentown, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; Reading, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Trenton, New Jersey and Wilmington, Delaware. All of these cities now have very long histories in baseball and in other sports as well. For most of these cities this was the beginning of their professional sports histories.

The league went through many struggles in this its first season play. The struggles started on May 19th when the Baltimore Club folded as it was competing with two other teams for the cities fans. Although it was a tough fight the league it did finish its season at the end of the September.

The league did manage to make it to the 1885 season as the New York State League and after many changes and many years the league made its final name change in 1912 when it became the International League. Today the league is a very healthy 14 team league with a very long history as the second oldest sports league in the world. It may have seemed like a very modest beginning on May 1st of 1884 but every long journey begins with a single step. The International League began as a single step some 126 years ago, this blog begins with a single step today. Tomorrow we will look at a single baseball game played only 8 years ago.