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12 Fact(s) Found
| 1923 | For only the second time in major league history, two 100-loss teams face one another when the 52-100 Braves beat the 50-102 Phillies in the first game of a season-ending doubleheader, 5-4. Boston, then known as the Beaneaters, was also part of the first occurrence of this rare type of matchup when the 50-100 club played the 45-103 team from Brooklyn in 1905. |
| 1941 | In Game 5 of the Fall Classic, Tiny Bonham goes the distance, limiting the Dodgers to four hits to give the Yankees their 12th World Championship in franchise history. In one inning during the Bronx Bombers' 3-1 victory at Ebbets Field, the New York fireballing right-hander will need just three pitches to retire the side. |
| 1949 | In Game 2 of the World Series, only one run is scored again, but Preacher Roe and the Dodgers win this contest at Yankee Stadium, 1-0. Gil Hodges' second-inning single drives in Jackie Robinson to even up the Fall Classic at a game apiece. |
| 1952 |
At Ebbets Field, Billy Loes becomes the first pitcher in World Series history to commit a balk when the ball slips from his hand in the seventh inning of the Dodgers' 3-2 loss knots the Fall Classic at three games apiece with the Yankees. The advanced base leads to a run when Vic Raschi bounces a ground-ball single off the leg of the right-hander, who claims he lost the grounder in the sun.
(Ed. Note - Although Loes’ oft-quoted explanation of losing the ground ball in the sun has become legendary, there is some truth to his account of the play. According to his Brooklyn teammate Carl Erskine, the sun slotting through a space in the grandstand behind home plate could be blinding later in the afternoon. -LP) |
| 1959 | The largest crowd to attend a major league game, 92,706 fans, watches a nail-biter as White Sox hurler Bob Shaw beats Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers, 1-0, in Game 5 of the Fall Classic. |
| 1963 | The Dodgers complete a four-game World Series sweep of the Yankees as Sandy Koufax wins his second game, 2-1. Frank Howard leads the offense with a home run and a single, the only two hits Whitey Ford gives up, and New York's first baseman Joe Pepitone's error (loses a thrown ball in the white-shirted crowd) leads to the decisive run in the seventh inning. |
| 1965 |
"Hey, skip, bet you wish I was Jewish today, too." - DON DRYSDALE, commenting about his poor performance on the mound with manager Walt Alston after the game. Sandy Koufax declines to pitch the first game of the World Series against the Twins because the scheduled game occurs on Yom Kippur, the most sacred of the Jewish holidays. As the Dodger southpaw attends shul and fasts on the Day of Atonement, Don Drysdale gives up seven runs in three innings in the team's 8-2 loss at Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium. |
| 1965 | Mudcat Grant becomes the first black World Series game-winner for an American League team when the Twins take Game 1 from the Dodgers at Metropolitan Stadium, 8-2. Additionally, the 30-year-old right-hander will go deep off Howie Reed in his Game 6 victory, making him the seventh pitcher to homer in a Fall Classic game. |
| 1966 | Jim Palmer becomes the youngest player to pitch a shutout in the World Series when the 20-year-old Oriole right-hander blanks Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers, 6-0. Next month, the contest will become more memorable when Koufax surprises the baseball world by announcing his retirement, making this game his last major league appearance. |
| 1966 | In the Game 2 loss to the Orioles at Dodger Stadium, Willie Davis establishes a World Series record by committing three errors in one game. The center fielder's blunders come on two consecutive plays in the fifth inning, the first by losing a fly ball in the sun, then by dropping the next fly ball, followed by overthrowing third base. |
| 1980 |
In the 163rd game of the season, 35-year-old knuckleballer Joe Niekro earns his 20th victory, going the distance to defeat the Dodgers, 7-1, in the winner-take-all contest for the NL West flag. With the win, the Astros hold on to capture their first title in the 19-year history of the franchise after losing a season-ending three-game series to LA (3-2, 2-1, and 4-3) that forced the one-game playoff.
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| 2003 | Defeating the A's, 5-4, the Red Sox become the seventh team to win the last three games of a best-of-five playoff series. Other clubs to overcome a 0-2 deficit include the 1981 Dodgers (Astros-NLDS), 1982 Brewers (Angels-ALCS), 1984 Padres (Cubs-NLCS), 1995 Mariners (Yankees-ALDS), 1999 Red Sox (Indians-ALDS), and the 2001 Yankees (A 's-ALDS). |
12 Fact(s) Found