Not to sound like a no it all but Connie Mack & Cy Young didn't make the first go around. Why? Who knows but I think they should have been.

Bench / Yaz is a good one! Brings back memories of being a kid. I have a baseball card of them being honored on it.

Thanks - trivia doesn’t come to me as automatically as it used to : oldman: - 😮 - yep I woulda bet on it!! That 1999 class is stellar alright, good one - gottagivit the nod over Bench/Carl

Plus you did mention Big Six - my bad

Only read just now that Hank Steinbrenner passed away recently - very sad to hear

April 24, 1917 was a great day in Yankee history - George Mogridge no hit the Sawx 2-1 - 1st no no in NYY history, also the first ever thrown at Fenway

[Edited on 4/24/2020 by Stephen]

Cape Cod League canceled it’s season a few days ago - NECBL is still a go so far -
if things still status quo by Memorial Day wknd or so, guessing no 2020 MLB

Who could forget it tho - an occurrence so bizarre it could be on the weather thread too
Jim Martin
On This Day, 1950
Catcher for the Pampa Oilers - they were in a Class C West Texas-New Mexico League game at Blue Sox Stadium in Abilene

...when Martin, who was behind the plate, was struck by a bolt of lightning and knocked unconscious

It knocked his catcher’s mask 20 feet beyond the pitcher’s mound

How the batter & ump weren’t struck is a phenomenon all its own
But even more so, not only did Jim recover, he was suited up & ready to play The Next Night!!
He should’ve been a permanent case study as an example of the human brain & body b4 & after a lightning rearrangement
It all reads like fiction I know

Happy birthday David Krejci, 34 - fourteen years w/the club, so tied w/Zdeno in tenure - Kruger 9 yrs, Brad M 11 yrs, Tuukka 13, David & Z 14 - all looking up at Patrice, who With Any Luck will, I mean would, be entering his 17th season this fall

Every winger David has played with - and there have been a lot of them, from Milan Lucic & Nathan Horton right thru to Heinen, DeBrusk et al today - have come away better players b/c of David’s deft dekes, peerless playmaking & always being in the right place

He was as cranked as anyone about how the season ended - the boys were really on top of it & had a solid chance shortchanged - but so did everyone I guess

All anyone wants is for David & this team of great veterans & a great coach, back on the sheet - it’s still 4 months away, they should plan Now to open the season per normal, then monitor it thru summer

[Edited on 4/28/2020 by Stephen]

Segueing back to bball thread via previous birthday angle
Spahnie - the greatest lefty ever
Yep, On This Day
Five days after his 40th birthday, became 2nd oldest to throw a no hitter
Opposition? Merely the Say Hey Kid, Stretch, Chacha, Harvey Kuenn, Felipe Alou & the power-laden SF Giants
Their own LHP, Sam “Toothpick Sam” Jones was sharp that day too - 5 hitter, 10 Ks
the Braves got a 1st inning run & that’s all Warren needed as he faced the minimum 27 batters in a 1-0 win -
the only older hurler? - he too was 41, so older by a few months - yep you guessed it - Cy Young

[Edited on 4/28/2020 by Stephen]

Warren’s gem was back page news at the time, along w/everything else
The previous week, invading US military forces had been chewed up & spit out during a botched coup attempt on the island of Cuba

The plan, which had been hatched by the CIA during the Ike administration, called for a batallion of 1,400 troops to be landed at the Bay of Pigs, on the island’s southern tip, and start a popular uprising leading to Fidel Castro’s regime overthrown

It was a disaster
Unexpected coral reefs sank some of our ships as they reached shore
Backup paratroopers landed in the wrong places
Worst of all, a radio station on the beach - which the agency’s recon team had failed to spot - got wind of the invasion & broadcast every detail to listeners across Cuba

So that, men who did reach shore got no further as they were met by a hail of gunfire
The batallion surrendered less than 24 hrs later - 114 dead, 1,200+, prisoners
They were released the following year, at the cost of $50M and medical supplies to Cuba

So the country was still reeling & chafing under the humiliation of this god awful event at the time of Spahnie’s gem

OK Perfessor, let’s go Sox 😉

[Edited on 4/28/2020 by Stephen]

Spahnie - the greatest lefty ever

[Edited on 4/28/2020 by Stephen]

Hmm. Greatest ever? I will have to look into this and think about it. He is definitely on the short list.

- he’s at the top of mine - NYY southpaws Whitey Ford and Andy Pettitte had great careers

Same great Orioles sidewinders Dave McNally & Mike Cuellar

None, or others I looked up (Cliff Lee, Mel Parnell, also for kicks & grins, Vinegar Bend Mizell etc) approach Warren tho - same imo w/Sandy K - 2 very different careers

Lefty? Yes Steve Carlton gives Warren a run for his money - short still imho - heck even Sudden Sam himself, boyhood hero/fireballing Indians immortal Sam McDowell can’t touch Spahnie;)

No hurler from either side had at 42 the kind of season Warren had in 1963 - 23-7 - watta guy

Feel like am overlooking someone somewhere along the line (Jamie Moyer? 😛 hehe)

Fun trying to think of names - good brain barometer 😮 - “ah so that’s it” 😛

[Edited on 4/29/2020 by Stephen]

Cape Cod League canceled it’s season a few days ago - NECBL is still a go so far -

Nope, was a dope to hope:shaddap: - NECBL season scotched - it figured to happen
Radio just now said economy is going to go very bad over next 4-6 months

Okay Stephen - When I first saw your post, a few came to my head: Sandy Koufax from the same era and Steve Carlton. I am a sucker for old time players so I have always liked reading about Carl Hubbell, The Meal Ticket. What a nickname. Along those lines, Lefty Grove.

For more recent ones, Tom Glavine. Kicking myself for not going to his 300th win game at Wrigley, which I could have. Randy Johnson from the same genre.

Having said that, I won't argue with Spahn. Still like Hubbell though.

😉

Yep, The Meal Ticket, Lefty Grove, the Big Unit, Glavine - names I knew I was overlooking, esp the 1st two - what greats - but none greater than Warren - shoot he holds the career record for HRs by a pitcher (35) - also read somewhere, he’d chill between innings sometimes w/a Camel non filter

[Edited on 4/30/2020 by Stephen]

Yep, The Meal Ticket, Lefty Grove, the Big Unit, Glavine - names I knew I was overlooking, esp the 1st two - what greats - but none greater than Warren - shoot he holds the career record for HRs by a pitcher (35) - also read somewhere, he’d chill between innings sometimes w/a Camel non filter

[Edited on 4/30/2020 by Stephen]

Yeah, Spahn could definitely hit. A lot of guys back then weren't instant outs. Regarding the smoking, he would have gotten along well with Earl Weaver and Jim Leyland.

😛 good point!
Shoot tho - it’s never been topped - the young and the old, crossing paths on the same field
The greatest pitching in doubleheader history
On This Day, 1955 - I remember it well, was 2 mos old;)

Place, the Lady by the Lake, Municipal Stadium - opponent, BoSox
In the last great outing of his career, that farm boy from Van Meter, IA, Bob Feller, 37, pitches his 12th one-hitter - a record that will never be broken

As Bob looks on in the 2nd game, fireballing rookie LHP Herb Score, in one of the 1st starts of his career, fans the 1st 9 batters en route to a 4 hitter w/16 Ks
Probly coulda recited as a kid, most of Gene Schoor’s biography of Bob, I read it so often

[Edited on 5/1/2020 by Stephen]

Well, the subject Is fireballing Tribe lefties/one-hitters etc SOOO
Note to the This Day In Baseball folks:
*Love the website
*Sudden Sam Was Not A Righty

That’s how they mention him re May 1, 1966 - it’s OK, there’s too much good info there to quibble about a bust, biggie tho it is

Sam, you see, was that good - like fearsome prototype relievah Dick “The Monster” Radatz, Sam was flat Scary out there on the mound - like Feller, a heater you could only hear not see & certainly not hit - he was everything Herb Score woulda been if not for Herb’s awful injury

Word, Sam on this day pitched his 2nd consecutive one-hitter
A shame indeed he & the Mon-stah had such short primes

Stephen - I thought of you the other day with all of the info you have. Did you ever read the book "The Glory of Their Times" by Lawrence Ritter? Came out in 1966. If not, you need to get it. Fascinating stories on many players I had never even heard of.

Yeah, Sudden Sam McDowell was great. I good friend of mine who recently passed was from Cleveland and of course, spoke highly of him.

And Herb Score, what could have happened with him?

BIf his whole career had gone the way it did b4 his accident.....Herb woulda continued where Rapid Robert was leaving it off - he woulda been in only his 10th year or so when Sam Suddenly showed up 😮 - a tandem?, omgosh :feedemaspirins:

Great book that I should have on my shelf - & haven’t read in too long too - Eddie Plank, Rube Waddell, the late (as mentioned in book of course) Addie Joss, of course the greats, the Bambino, Matty, Honus Wagner, Cobb, Speaker etc - the travel on those rickety Pullman trains - really gotta read that again, good mention

Shoot one more Lee - On This Day yes but indirectly bro
Yogi
Now manager-player of the crosstown Mets, plays the 1st of what will be 4 games this season

Point being, In one of those 3 remaining games (unsure which), as he dons his catcher’s gear & goes out there, on the mound is a familiar face
Spahnie
Greatness? Ya that’s an automatic W:o 😛
In the good ol days (hehe)

How-ever - Warren was now 44, & Yogi almost 40 - on the woebegone Mets....
Gotta look up more details of this one - know I read it somewhere - could be both the oldest And greatest battery ever to take the field 😮

[Edited on 5/2/2020 by Stephen]

Shoot one more Lee - On This Day yes but indirectly bro

[Edited on 5/2/2020 by Stephen]

One hit his first homer as a Yankee.

One broke the stolen base record. 😉

Will you watch this is it is on TV?

https://sports.yahoo.com/a-kbo-primer-what-you-need-to-know-to-enjoy-the-return-of-baseball-in-south-korea-171739497.html

Unsure......probly not I guess - am as bummed about no Vt Mountaineers NECBL schedule as much as no Sox

& the PawSox - their 50th & final year at Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium b4 their move uptown next year to Woostah - down the drain - sad way to end it

[Edited on 5/4/2020 by Stephen]

In 1904, Red Sox RHP Cy Young, 37, throws a perfect game, beating Rube Waddell & the Philadelphia A’s 3-0 in the 1st no hitter since the distance between the mound and home plate was extended from 45 feet to 60 feet 6 inches in 1893

16 total bases - 3 HR, a double & 2 singles - that’s what Detroit player-manager Ty Cobb, 38, had 95 years ago today at Sportsman Park, St.L - in legend, the Georgia Peach predicted to newsmen b4 the game how easy it was to hit HRs & watch this....

So these 2 legends, still great - same Warren Spahn, 44 (again...he too was that great), who in one of the last great games of his career tosses a 1-0 4-hitter vs Phillies - one of the hits however is an HR to RHP Jim Bunning, who makes it stand for the W

Finally, 10 years have got behind me, hehe
Sox fans give it up for Nomah, who retires in 2010 after signing a one-day contract to retire w/his original team on Nomar Garciaparra Day

[Edited on 5/5/2020 by Stephen]

Shoot one more Lee - On This Day yes but indirectly bro
Yogi
Now manager-player of the crosstown Mets, plays the 1st of what will be 4 games this season

Point being, In one of those 3 remaining games (unsure which), as he dons his catcher’s gear & goes out there, on the mound is a familiar face
Spahnie

Incorrect - Yogi came aboard as player coach - Casey was still manager at this time, but would be replaced midseason by Wes Westrum after the Ol’ Perfessor fell & broke his hip celebrating his 75th birthday

Yogi indeed played 4 games only for Mets, all in April according to internet - but dang, imagine it - those three geezers, one from the deadball era no less - Stengel, Spahn, Berra, workin a game in 1965 - plus, Casey was Warren’s 1st manager way back when in Boston

will update post if that game did actually happen
Chris Cannizzaro was Warren’s catcher in this game

[Edited on 5/5/2020 by Stephen]

If you are talking to me, I think we misunderstood each other. I meant things that happened on that particular day. Babe Ruth hit his first homer as a Yankee and Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's stolen base record.

Nothing to do with Yogi.

Whoops, my bad, that was confusing - wanted to correct erroneous Yogi info I’d posted - got it mixed up w/that cool Rickey H/Ruth info
Looked it up, apparently the Spahn-Berra battery never happened in their brief time w/Casey on the Mets

It’s virtual everything now so gamers know where they were & what they were doing on This day alright (2010) - the go-to greatest in virtual history as Mobile Alabama’s Wade McGillberry, 23, playing an MLB 2K10 video game, wins $1 million by pitching a perfect game - in 90 min no less

On the field, Tim Wakefield, 42, & Mike Timlin, 41, become the 1st over-40 tandem in the post-1900 era to combine on a shutout, 5-0 over Det (2008)

On this his 89th birthday, all bball fans know where Willie Mays stands - At The Top - happy birthday to The Say Hey Kid

That's good useless yet interesting trivia about Wakefield & Timlin. And of course it was against the terrible Tiggers. 🙁

I liked Wakefield with the Pirates when they had a good team.

Willie was the man - he, McCovey, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Yastrzemski -
.....since their time only Barry Bonds imo has deserved to be in the same sentence - yes McGwire, Sosa, Palmieri had tremendous #s - but still weren’t the all around players those guys were, esp Mays -

Bonds was tremendous offensively throuout his career, & the same defensively thru most of it - averaged somewhere around 35 SB thru the 1st 12 years of his career, something none of those other guys even touched

So was always amused when people lumped Barry in w/those other guys - bulked up lumbering one-way power hitters - “he only broke the HR record b/c of steroids” etc etc
those same fans, for instance, would call Zeppelin heavy metal & the Brothers, southern rock:o

[Edited on 5/8/2020 by Stephen]

Those 60s guys you mentioned were awesome. I have a couple good friends who are older and baseball die hards like me and I've told them I wish I had been born then and had seen those guys play.

Others too. Colavito, Kaline, Frank Howard, Bobby Bonds, Oliva. Probably others we aren't thinking of.

Lee and I talked about a sports memorabilia auction last month in the NFL thread.

Thought some of you might like to see current listings from two other auction houses:

https://memorylaneinc.com/site/Lots/Gallery?order=2

https://www.milehighcardco.com/catalog.aspx

Mile High has a Hank Aaron card bid up to $127k. It is graded a PSA 9. By comparison, Memory Lane's auction has the same card graded a PSA 8 and it is just currently at $17k. They generate rarity now in terms of what a grading company says it is and then the overall population of that grade in the universe creates incredible premiums for people wanting the one and only of something. Or in the case of the Aaron 9, it is one of three.

A Shoeless Joe card fetched $492,000 - what a great - his last year was his best, .382 w/20 triples - leaving him w/a mere .356 lifetime BA - statistically he’s a charter HOFer hands down

[Edited on 5/11/2020 by Stephen]