Classic Baseball Broadcasts

October 3, 1951 - Bobby Thomson hits a three-run home run off Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the New York Giants a dramatic 5 -- 4 playoff victory and the National League pennant. Seeing the ball disappear over the fence, Thomson hopped crazily around the bases, then disappeared into the mob of teammates who had gathered at home plate. The stunned Dodger players trudged off the field - all except Jackie Robinson. No doubt knowing of "Merkle's Boner" 43 years earlier, he watched to be sure Thomson touched every base before he, too, headed for the clubhouse. The blast would become known in baseball lore as the Shot Heard 'Round the World.

October 3, 1976 - Hank Aaron singles in his last major-league at bat and drives in his 2,297th run as the sixth-place Brewers lose to the Tigers 5 - 2.

October 3, 1999 - On the final day of the season, Mark McGwire of the St. Louis Cardinals hits his 65th home run, moving past Ted Williams and Willie McCovey into 10th place on the career list with 522. McGwire finishes with a two-homer edge over Chicago's Sammy Sosa, who hits his 63rd on the same day.

October 3, 2009 - St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols ties a major league record with his 184th assist of the season. He matches the mark set by Bill Buckner with the Red Sox in 1985. He will finish the year with 185.

October 3, 1974 - Frank Robinson becomes the first black manager in the major leagues, as the Cleveland Indians name him to replace Ken Aspromonte.

Historical Recap performed by:

Robyn Newton from - Robyn Says

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

October 1, 1967 – The brilliant and brief Major League managerial career of Roberto Clemente began and ended on this day. Filling in for interim manager Danny Murtaugh, Clemente puts up stratospheric – if statistically insignificant – numbers as Pittsburgh's player-manager. The Pittsburgh Press reports: "Baseball’s only undefeated ‘manager’, Roberto Clemente, climaxed his greatest season ever by smashing his 23rd homer, a triple and driving in three runs while managing the Bucs before 28,244 fans on Prize

Day."

October 1, 1932 - Babe Ruth, as legend has it, calls his home run against Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root in the fifth inning of Game Three of the World Series, won by the New York Yankees 7-5 at Wrigley Field. Root contended to his dying day that this was not the case; he claimed Ruth held up his bat to indicate he had one strike left.

October 1, 1961 - Roger Maris hits his 61st home run of the season against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium eclipsing Babe Ruth's 34-year-old single season home run record. The record setter was the only runscored in the game giving the Yankees a 1-0 win.

October 1, 1978 - The Cleveland Indians beat the New York Yankees 9 - 2 on the last day of the season, to force an epic one-game playoff between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Boston won their eighth straight 5 - 0 over the Toronto Blue Jays.

October 1, 2008 In Anaheim, the Red Sox continue their postseason dominance of the Los Angeles Angels by taking Game One of the ALDS, 4 - 1. Jason Bay hits a two-run homer off John Lackey, while Jon Lester gives up only an unearned run in 7 innings of work for the win.

Historical Recap performed by:

Robyn Newton from - Robyn Says

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 30, 1972 Roberto Clemente doubles off the Mets' Jon Matlack to become the eleventh major leaguer to collect 3000 hits. On hand for the event was Clemente's hero, Willie Mays, now a New York Met, who called Clemente "The Greatest". Sealing the mutual admiration Clemente was quoted saying ""Willie Mays is the greatest player I've ever seen. I never saw Joe DiMaggio play, but if Joe DiMaggio was better than Willie Mays, he belongs in heaven." Sadly, the Pirate right fielder's 3000th hit would be his last, as he would die on New Year's Eve in a plane crash while attempting to bring relief aid to earthquake-stricken Managua, Nicaragua.

September 30, 1945 Hank Greenberg hits a pennant-winning grand slam on the final day of the season. The Tiger left fielder's ninth-inning 4 run bomb beats the Browns 6 - 3 clinching the American League flag for Detroit over the second-place Senators.

September 30, 1962 Willie Mays' 47th home run, an 8th-inning blast off Dick Farrell, leads the Giants to a critical 2 - 1 win. They would all stay in the clubhouse after the win to hear the results of the Dodger game. The season would end in a tie which required a three game playoff to settle the pennant in the Giants favor.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 29, 1954 - Willie Mays makes his famous running catch off the bat of Vic Wertz in game one of the World Series. In the eighth inning with a 2-2 tie and men on 1st and 2nd, Wertz slammed a 420 foot shot to the cavernous center field of the Polo Grounds. Mays was playing shallow, since Giants pitcher Don Liddle was a groundball pitcher, and had to turn his back to the infield sprinting for the outfield wall. Mays made an over the shoulder catch and a quick turn firing the ball to the infield holding Larry Doby at 3rd base and preserving the tie. As much as has been made of the catch, Mays himself did not consider it the best defensive play he ever made.

September 29, 1974 - Lou Brock steals his 118th and last base on the final day of the season setting the record for steals in a single season. Ricky Henderson would break that record in 1982 with 130 thefts.

September 29, 1978 - Jim Rice doubles and singles against the Toronto Blue Jays in Fenway Park. Rice is the first American Leaguer to amass 400 total bases since Joe DiMaggio in 1937.

September 29, 2004 - MLB officially announces that the Montreal Expos franchise will move to Washington, DC in 2005. Hours after this, the Expos play their final game in Montreal, a 9 - 1 loss to the Florida Marlins before a crowd of 31,395 at Olympic Stadium.

September 29, 1957 Ted Williams becomes the oldest batting champ when the 39-year old finishes the season with a .388 average.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 28, 1920 - A grand jury indicts eight members of the Chicago White Sox on charges of fixing the1919 World Series in the "Black Sox Scandal." It is the black eye on the sport that would lead to the banning of eight players. Eddie Cicotte and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson both confessed to accepting money from gamblers. Cicotte's second pitch of Game 1 of the 1919 World Series hit the Reds leadoff batter, which was the pre-arranged signal to the gamblers that the players had accepted the fix. Jackson and Cicotte would both recant their confessions after key evidence went missing from the Cook County courthouse. Years later, the missing confessions would reappear in the possession of Comiskey's lawyer.

September 28, 1941 - Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox goes 6 for 8 in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics to finish the season with a .406 batting average. No player has batted .400 since.

September 28, 1974 - Nolan Ryan pitches his third of seven career no-hitters, striking out 15 batters and beating the Minnesota Twins, 4 - 0, at Anaheim Stadium. He also walks eight to run his season total to 202 bases on balls, joining Bob Feller in 1938 as the only pitcher to walk more than 200 in a season. Ryan will again top 200 in 1977.

September 28, 2007 The Boston Red Sox clinch the AL East title, bringing to an end a streak of 9 consecutive division titles by the New York Yankees, dating back to 1998. The Yankees will not miss the post season however, having clinched the American League Wild Card.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 26, 1961 In New York's 159th game, Roger Maris rips a Jack Fisher fastball into the RF seats at Yankee Stadium for his 60th home run. New York beats Baltimore 3 - 2. There are fewer than 8,000 fans on hand to view this historic event. The legitimacy of the record would be a hot topic of debate since the American League had been expanded from 8 to10 teams and the number of games played was increased by 8.

September 26, 1998 Mark McGwire sends two balls the distance, collecting homers number 67 and 68 of the season. McGwire now stands alone as the single season home run king.. 48,212 fans would be on hand at Busch Stadium to witness McGwire's assault on history and the Cards lose 7 - 6 to Montreal.

September 26, 1971 Willie Mays hits his 646th and last home run as a member of the San Francisco Giants. It comes in the Giants' 12-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium.

September 26, 1955 - The Red Sox beat the Yankees 8-1 as Ted Williams goes 1-for-20. Williams finishes the season batting .356, well ahead of Al Kaline's .340, but does not have enough at bats to win the batting title due to the 71 times he walked. The same thing happened in 1954 when Williams was walked 136 times. A rule change would be made to recognize plate appearances, not times at bat.

September 26, 1981 - At the Astrodome, Nolan Ryan becomes the first pitcher to throw five no-hitters, defeating the Dodgers, 5-0. Ryan had shared the record of four with Dodger great Sandy Koufax.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 25, 1954 -- A crowd of 14,175 faithful Fenway fans pay tribute to retiring Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams who is playing his last game at home. The Splendid Splinter's retirement will only last until May when his divorce is finalized with his contract being excluded from the settlement. His true retirement from playing would come in 1960, which inspired an article by John Updike titled "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu". Updike accurately described the fans relationship with Williams when he said "The affair between Boston and Ted Williams has been no mere summer romance; it has been a marriage composed of spats, mutual disappointments, and toward the end, a mellowing hoard of shared memories." It was here that Updike referred to Fenway Park as "a lyric little bandbox of a ballpark".

September 25, 1965 -- At age 34, Willie Mays becomes the oldest player to slug 50 home runs in a season. The Giants center fielder was also the youngest to accomplish the feat hitting 51 homers in 1955.

September 25, 1968 - In Mickey Mantle's last appearance at Yankee Stadium, he slices a two-out first inning single off Cleveland's Luis Tiant, the only hit for the Yankees. Tiant tosses his 9th shutout of the year, tops in the American League, to win 3 - 0. El Tiante's ERA drops to 1.60; the previous low for an Indian pitcher was Stan Coveleski's 1.87 in 1917.

September 25, 1985 -- Rickey Henderson steals his 75th base of the season in the Yankees' 10 - 2 win over Detroit, breaking the club record of 74 set by Fritz Maisel in 1914.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 24, 1998 Red Sox reliever Tom Gordon records his 42nd consecutive save establishing a major league record. Boston clinches the AL wild card spot behind a pair of homers and four runs scored by Nomar Garciaparra. Author Stephen King would later write a novel titled The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, referring to his outstanding 1998 season with Boston and solidifying Gordon’s place as a New England folk hero.

September 24, 1931 Lefty Grove wins his 31st, beating the Red Sox 9 - 4, his 11th straight win over the Red Sox stretching back to May 26, 1930. Since July 25, 1930, Grove's record is 46 - 4, the best 50 decision streak in the century.

September 24, 1940 - George Caster of the Philadelphia Athletics allows six home runs in one game against the Boston Red Sox. One of these bombs came courtesy of Jimmie Foxx and it would be the 500th of his career.

September 24, 1979 Pete Rose singles in the Phillies' 7 - 2 loss to the Cardinals giving him 200 hits in a season for the 10th time. He breaks the major league record of nine formerly held by Ty Cobb.

September 24, 2002 Thanks to Jason's two home runs in the Yankees 6-0 whitewash of the Devil Rays, the Giambi brothers pass the DiMaggio boys for the highest single-season total for homers by two brothers with 60, 40 of which came off Jason’s bat. The DiMaggio’s went yard 59 times in 1937, 46 of them belonging to Joe.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

September 22, 1968 - Cesar Tovar plays one inning at each position for the Minnesota Twins, becoming only the second major leaguer in history to do it; Bert Campaneris of the Oakland Athletics was the first. He started the game on the mound, ironically facing Campaneris as the leadoff hitter. Scott Sheldon and Shane Halter later became the only other two men to accomplish this feat.

September22, 1911 - Cy Young, at age 44, beats the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1 - 0, for his 511th and final major league victory.

September22, 1993:Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers faces just three Seattle batters before hurting his right elbow. Ryan finishes his career with 324 wins, 5,714 strikeouts and seven no hitters.

September22, 1969 - Willie Mays hits the 600th home run of his career. The historic homer off Mike Corkins of the Padres proves to be the game-winner in a 4 - 2 Giants victory at San Diego Stadium.

September22, 1990 - Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs steals his 300th base in an 11 - 5 loss to the New York Mets, Joining Willie Mays as the only players in major league history with 300 home runs, 300 steals and 2,000 hits.

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

• September 21, 1958 At Fenway Park, the Red Sox complete a three-game sweep of the Senators, all by 2 - 0 shutouts.. Today's win, however, is marred when Ted Williams, after striking out looking with two aboard to end the third inning, flings his bat aside in a fit of anger. Unfortunately,the intended flip along the ground sails into the stands and striking, of all people, Boston GM Joe Cronin's 69-year-old housekeeper, Gladys Heffernan, in the head. "I didn't mean to throw the bat that way," explains the distraught Williams. "I started to flip it along the ground but the sticky stuff on my hands stuck to it and it left my hands on the fly instead. I was sick." Thankfully Heffernan was not badly hurt.
• September 21, 2001 A crowd of 41,235 at Shea Stadium witness the return of baseball to New York City for the first time since the terrorist attacks of September 11. Uplifting ceremonies before and during the game, which include singers Diana Ross, Marc Anthony and Liza Minnelli as well as bagpipers, pay tribute to victims of the tragedy.
• September 21, 1934 - The Dean Brothers shut out the Dodgers. After Dizzy Dean gives up just 3 hits in a 13 - 0 victory, allowing no hits until the 8th, Paul Dean wins a no hitter 3 - 0. Diz says: "If'n Paul had told me he was gonna pitch a no-hitter, I'd of throwed one, too."
• September 21, 1970 The A's Vida Blue no-hits the Twins 6 - 0, becoming the youngest pitcher to perform the feat since Paul Dean, 36 years ago to the day. An Oakland crowd of only 4,284 watches Blue's 2nd ML start.
• September 21, 1981 - Steve Carlton fans 12 Expos in 10 innings to break Bob Gibson's National League strikeout record. Carlton now has 3,128 K’s, but the Phillies lose to the Expos 1 - 0 in 17 innings.
• September 21, 1987 - With two stolen bases against the Cubs, Darryl Strawberry joins teammate Howard Johnson as a member of the 30/30 club. It is the first time in major league history players on the same team have hit 30 homers and have stolen 30 bases in the same year

Mentioned in this episode:

Classic Baseball Broadcasts

Classic Baseball Broadcasts