Baseball History Today: October 24th

Kelley L Cox – USA TODAY Sports

2012 – Pablo Sandoval goes yard three times in a World Series game, becoming fourth player to do so. The other are Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols. Pujols had pulled off the feat only one year prior to Sandoval. The San Francisco Giants would emerge the victors over the Detroit Tigers, 8-3.

2011 – The infamous miscommunication. Confusion with the bullpen phones leads Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa to use lefty Marc Rzepczynski to face Mike Napoli. It was the bottom of the 8th and the bases were loaded. Napoli ripped a double to score two Texas Rangers as they won, 4-2. LaRussa was under the impression that Jason Motte was coming into the game. Motte wasn’t ready.

1972 – Jackie Robinson passes away from a heart attack. Check out yesterday’s post about what made October 23rd so monumental.

Some “historic” firsts…

2007 – Dustin Pedroia becomes the first rookie, and just the second player to lead off a World Series with a home run. Not a World Series game, but the series. The occasion also marked the 31st time a player homered in his first World Series game. The Red Sox defeated the Colorado Rockies, 13-1.

2004 – Curt Schilling notches a win in Game 2 of the World Series as the Boston Red Sox defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2. In the process, Schilling becomes first pitcher to claim a WS win while with three different teams (Philadelphia in 1993 and Arizona in 2001).

1994 – Greg Maddux becomes first pitcher to claim three consecutive Cy Young awards. In using ERA+, it would be his best season (271). Maddux would go on to capture a fourth straight Cy Young the following season.

1992 – Toronto becomes first non-U.S. team to win WS, winning Game 6 over the Atlanta Braves, 4-3 in 11 innings.

And finally…

1908 – The song Take Me Out to the Ballgame is introduced by Billy Murray (not Bill Murray, Billy Murray). Odd fact: Albert Von Tilzer, who composed the music and Jack Norworth, who wrote the words, had never seen a game prior to composing the 7th inning stretch standard.

Notable Birthdays:

Ron Gardenhire (1957)
Rafael Furcal (1977)
Eric Hosmer (1989)