[senior octobre]

I'm actually stealing this idea from Jim Cable, who while with the Seattle P-I, ran a feature called Inside The Box. Basically, he posted a different box score in the Mariner area of the sports section. Then he would rate the difficulty between one and ten. Finally, it was the reader's job to figure out what was the significance of the box score. Many of these I'm stealing directly from Cable. When he ran one I enjoyed or had the time for, I'd clip it out and put it in a folder that later went into the deep recesses of storage, only to be uncovered by Geraldo Rivera. I'm joking about Geraldo and no we didn't find any empty gin bottles in the storage, either. They are now uncovered for your enjoyment, I hope

Here's one: Indians vs Twins, September 28th, 1995

Answer: On this date, Mariner fans and the Puget Sound region, had caught Mariner Fever and the M's beat the Texas Rangers in the first game of a four game series, as they were in a dog fight with the Angels, but this box has a different meaning.

This was the box score of Kirby Puckett's final game. Dennis Martinez pitching for the Tribe hit Kirby with a fastball that broke his jaw that sent him to the hospital. Kirby developed glacucoma in his right eye the next Spring and never played again. Kirby was a first ballot hall of famer and at the time had the highest batting average for a right hander since Joltin' Joe.

Quote

On March 5, 2006, Puckett suffered a stroke at his home in Arizona. He died the next day.

[senior octobre]

Try this one out:

Red Sox at Mariners, August 23rd, 1982

Answer: Was this the last series, that Carl Yastrzemski played in Seattle after a long career ? No. That would happen a year later from July 21th to the 24th. I remember it, because I went to all the games of the series in an attempt to get Yaz's autograph. I had this small book called Sluggers of '67 that I wanted signed. I was never a big autograph guy, but since Yaz won the Triple Crown that year and the last player to do so, I thought it would be cool. He gave me the snub every day of the series both in the park and on the way to the bus. In fact, Yaz never signed autographs. I can still remember him walking to the bus tuggin' on his marlboro. He was hitless in three starts that series ") what a bum

Anyway, this is the box score from when Gaylord Perry finally got tossed out of a game for throwing a spitter. On May 6th of that year, Perry won his 300th game of his career vs the Yankees, becoming the 15th guy to do so.

edit: Dave Niedhaus calls the final out of Gaylord's 300th win !

This post has been edited by Lonnie: 10 February 2011 - 10:19 AM

[senior octobre]

I'm going to try to do one of these per day and today, I'll do two. It there is interest in it, I might continue it and with literally millions of box scores out there, I won't run out of material any time soon Remember, look at the box and try to figure out the significance and no cheating !

This one I really enjoy:



Red Sox 4, Senators 0

June 23rd, 1917
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wash. ab r h bi Boston.....ab r h bi
Morgan 2b 2 0 0 0..Hooper rf 4 0 1 2
Foster 2b 3 0 0 0...Barry 2b....4 0 0 0
Leonard 3b 0 0 0 0 Hobltzel 1b 4 0 0 0
Milan cf.....0 0 0 0..Gardner 3b 4 1 1 0
Rice rf .....3 0 0 0..Lewis lf......4 0 3 0
Gharitty 1b 0 0 0 0.Walker cf..3 1 1 0
Judge 1b..3 0 0 0..Scott ss....3 0 0 0
Jamieson lf 3 0 0 0.Thomas c..0 0 0 0
Shanks ss...3 0 0 0.Agnew c...3 1 3 2
Henry c .....3 0 0 0..Ruth p....0 0 0 0
Ayers p......2 0 0 0..Shore p..2 1 0 0
Menosky p 1 0 0 0
Totals...26 0 0 0.Totals....31 4 9 4
__________________________________
Washington.............000 000 000 0
boston....................010 000 00x 4
__________________________________

E Foster 2, Rice. DP - Washington 2.
LOB - Boston 6. 2B - Walker, Agnew. S - Walker,
Shore, Scott.
Washington...........IP...H...R...BB..SO
Ayers, L.....................8....9...4...0....0
Boston..................IP...H...R...BB..SO
Ruth.........................0....0....0...1.....0
Shore, W..................9.....0....0...0.....2
T-- 1:40. A - 16,000 (est)

















Answer: Starting pitcher Babe Ruth walked leadoff batter Ray Morgan, got into words with homeplate ump Buck Owens, punch Owens and was ejected from the game. Ernie Shore came in to relieve. Morgan was thrown out trying to steal second base and Shore retired all 26 batters he faced for a perfect game in relief.

Ruth went 94-46 for his pitching career including 24-13 in 1917. In 148 starts in his career, Ruth had 107 complete games and 17 shutouts.

This post has been edited by senior octobre: 10 February 2011 - 01:02 PM

[senior octobre]

You know the drill. Here's an interesting one:


Mets 4, Giants 1, September 1st, 1964

















Answer: Thirty six years before Kazuhiro Sasaki joined the Mariners, Masanori Murakami made his major league debut for the Giants, becoming the first Japanese person to play in the bigs. He played two seasons for the Giants, before returning to Japan, which he promised his team in Japan. No other Japanese played in the bigs until Hideo Nomo in 1995.

Quote

Masanori Murakami was born on Saturday, May 6, 1944, in Otsuki, Japan. Murakami was 20 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 1, 1964, with the San Francisco Giants.

[senior octobre]

Try this one:

Red Sox 5, Athletics 2, September 25th, 1965
















Answer: Satchell Paige started and pitched his last big league game vs the Red Sox. At the age of 60, he went three scoreless innings and only giving one hit to Carl Yaztremski. He was replaced by future Seattle Pilot and Seattle Mariner Diego Segui. Satch pitched 2/3 of an inning in the 1948 World Series for Cleveland allowing zero hits and zero runs. He was the first Negro Leagues player inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971. He played his last professional game on June 21, 1966, for the Peninsula Grays of the Carolina League.

My dad, who grew up in a small town in Nebraska, would watch, as a kid, the Negro League teams as they barnstormed though his small town. He watched Satch and the Kansas City Monarchs, a popular team, as they often came through.

[senior octobre]

Here's a fun one and it is an example of the old saying that every time you go to the ballpark you'll see something you've never seen before:

Orioles 7, Blue Jays 4, August 24th, 1983














Answer: Lenn Sakata, of the birds, usually an infielder, was pressed into duty as a catcher in the tenth inning of this one. Toronto was so eager to steal against him that Barry Bonell, former Mariner Dave Collins (The Rapid City Rabbit !) and Willie Upshaw were picked off base by lefty Tippy Martinez. Bonnell was officially listed as a CS because he kept running to second base on the pick off move. Sakata hit a three run homer in the bottom half of the tenth to give Marintinez the win, even though he didn't retire a single batter.

[senior octobre]

Here's an interesting one: Indians 1, White Sox 0, April 16th, 1940 at Old Comiskey.













Answer: You are correct if you said that Rapid Robert Feller tossed a no-hitter. Bonus points if you said that he was the only guy to throw one on opening day. To you math guys out there depending how technical you are regarding math and the divisibility of zero, this game also represents the only time every batter on one team finished the game with the same batting average with which he began. Think about it.

Quote

"I don’t think anyone is ever going to throw a ball faster than he does," Joe DiMaggio was quoted as saying during his epic 1941 season, when he hit in a record 56 consecutive games. "And his curveball isn’t human."

Bob Feller ~ Baseball-Almanac

This post has been edited by senior octobre: 14 February 2011 - 05:55 AM

[senior octobre]

You know the drill: Giants 7, Braves 6, September 13th, 1986












Answer: Catcher Bob Brenly, former Manager of the D-Backs and current announcer of the WGN Cubs broadcast crew was pressed into service as a third bagger in this game. He tied a major league record with four errors in one inning, then hit a two home runs to rally the Giants to victory. After the game, Brenly said that had the inning only lasted longer, he could have made more errors.

[senior octobre]

Yankees 6, tigers 5 August 25th, 1968 at Yankee Stadium.















This not the first time that a position player was used as a pitcher, but I believe no one since has picked up the win in relief as a position player. Rocky Colavito, yankee's outfielder, came in and tossed 2.2 innings of scoreless relief to get the win. Rocky pitched three innings for the 1958 Indians in his only other appearance as a pitcher. His last game was about a month later in his 14 year career.

Future Seattle Pilot, Ray Oyler played SS for the Tigers and future Mariner Willie Horton, played outfield for the Tigers in their magical 1968 season.

[senior octobre]

American League 9, National League 7, July 10th, 1934


















Mel Harder pitched five scoreless innings for the win, but no one remembers him. Carl Hubbell, King Carl, Meal Ticket, The Biography poroject SABR.org struck out five future hall of famers in a row: Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons and Joe Cronin.

Quote

First, Charlie Gehringer led off with a single and moved to second on an outfield error. Then, Heinie Manush drew a walk bringing up Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx with two on, none out. It was a pitcher's worst nightmare. Hubbell accepted the challenge and began turning over his screwball with pinpoint precision. It was a delivery that was designed to break the backs of free swingers. Ruth was the first to fall after taking a called third strike and looking "decidedly puzzled," according to one account. Gehrig followed and went down swinging. Visibly frustrated, he apparently warned Foxx on his way back to the dugout, "You might as well cut. It won't get any higher." The advice didn't help; Foxx went down on strikes. In the second inning, Hubbell made it five in a row when he struck out Al Simmons and Joe Cronin.

Quote

"(Van) Mungo and I get along fine. I just tell him I won't stand for no nonsense, and then I duck." - Casey Stengel

Snohomish native, Earl Averill, had two hits and three rbi's in the game. Earl rests in the Grand Army of The Republic Cemetery in Snohomish Washington. A map of Snohomish and a local of Earl's final resting place is here.

[senior octobre]

Giants 1, Brewers 0, July 2nd, 1963 @ Candlestick Park.














Answer: Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal both went 16 innings in this game at Cadlestick Park. Marichal tossed 227 pitches and Spahn tossed 200 pitches before Willie Mays hit a home run to win it for the Giants in the 16th. Mays is the only player to hit a homer in each inning from the 1st to the 16th during his career. Henry Aaron took the 0-6 (ouch !) in this one. Future M's manager Del Crandall caught the whole game for the Brewers.

[senior octobre]

you know the drill: Reds 5, Pirates 3, May 1st 1974














Trying to pump up his team, Pittsburgh's Dock Ellis purposely hit the first three batters of the game. He tried to hit the 4th, Tony Perez, but missed and walked him instead, then was taken out after trying to hit the fifth batter.

Extra Credit: Pirates 10, Phillies 7, September 1st, 1971


Answer: This is a game that Ellis started and he was part of the first all black lineup; 24 years after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier, a major league team was employing an all-black lineup.

Rennie Stennett, 2B

Gene Clines, CF

Roberto Clemente, RF

Willie Stargell, LF

Manny Sanguillen, C

Dave Cash, 3B

Al Oliver, 1B

Jackie Hernandez, SS

Dock Ellis, P

Extra, extra credit: June 12th, 1970, Pirates 2, Padres 0

Answer: This is the box score of Dock Ellis and his famous no-no.

[senior octobre]

Yankees 10, Indians 3, July 16th, 1941















This is the game that Joe DiMaggio extended his hitting streak to a record 56 games on a single by the first pitch thrown at him. This game was played at League Park. The next day, the two teams played at Cleveland Muni, where Joe D's streak ended.

League Park: http://www.cleveland...park-wall-2.jpg