This Day in Baseball History: September 9th, 1965

Army cut. Yeah.

On September 9, 1965:

Bob Hendley throws a one-hitter and loses.


Bob Hendley began his major-league career in 1961, and he spent the first few seasons of his career as a middling swing-man for the Milwaukee Braves. After a slightly disappointing 1963 season, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants as part of the deal that brought Felipe Alou to the Braves. Hendley didn't pitch particularly well for the Giants either and was traded to the Chicago Cubs midway through the 1965 season. He pitched a little better for the Cubs, but Hendley would be out of baseball after the 1967 season.

The 1965 season was Hendley's worst as a professional. For the season, he was only 4-4, but he had a rather large 5.96 ERA (62 ERA+), and his 1.21 K/BB ratio was the second-lowest of his career. He started the season, as mentioned above, with the San Francisco Giants, but he only pitched in 8 games and made only 2 starts and had a 12.60 ERA. At the end of May, he was sent to the Cubs where he improved slightly. Hendley made 18 appearances (10 starts) with a 4.36 ERA, and he made two amazing starts against the league's best.

On September 9, his Cubs met Sandy Koufax's Los Angeles Dodgers. Hendley's line was impressive -- 8 IP, 1 R (0 ER), 1 H, 1 BB, and 3 K --, but it wasn't good enough. Why? Well, Koufax through the then-record 4th no-hitter of his career -- a perfect game with 14 punch-outs. The game lasted a whole hour and 43 minutes. Five days later, the two matched up again, but this time, Hendley knocked out Koufax. A complete game masterpiece, Hendley's line (1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 7 K) wasn't as impressive as his previous start, but Koufax's was worse (6 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 3 K).


Trivia Time
How did that run score in the September 9th game?

Yesterday's Answer --> False. Stuffy McInnis, Jack Morris, Schang, Joe Bush, Lonnie Smith, and Dave Stewart accomplished the feat.

This Day in Baseball History: September 8th, 1916

He doesn't look like a guy to mess with.

On September 8, 1916:

Wally Schang hits home runs from both sides of the plate.


Wally Schang belongs in the Hall of Very Good as he was one of the preeminent catchers of the WWI-Interwar years. Beginning his career in 1913, he played the first four years of his career in Philadelphia as part of Connie Mack's legendary teams, but when Mack started selling them off when money was tight, he was one of the last to go. When he did, the A's sent him to the Boston Red Sox, with whom he began his prime. After excellent 1919 and 1920 seasons, the Red Sox sent him to the New York Yankees, who held on to him for 5 seasons before sending him to the St. Louis Browns. By that point, Schang's career was largely over, but he remained fairly productive for a few more seasons in a limited role.

Schang, however, was not a home run hitter. Even when he played in the Live Ball Era, he didn't hit many home runs, and he maxed out at 8 in 1926. Ten years earlier, he was the first to accomplish something fairly impressive with, you guessed it, the home run. Schang was a bit unusual in that he was a switch-hitter, and on September 9th, 1916, he became the first to hit a home run from both sides of the plate in one game. He wound up hitting a career-best (at that point) 7 home runs that season.

The thing is that this wasn't even the coolest thing about that game. You see, the weather was frightful and oh so not delightful, but 23 people had no place to go so they let it rain, let it rain, let it rain. And so did the Shibe Park groundscrew and the umpires. In an absolute downpour, the Athletics knocked off the Yankees, 8-2, in front of 23 people. 23!

Trivia Time
True or False. Schang is the only player to win a World Series with 3 different franchises.

Wednesday's Answer --> Rico Petrocelli with 40 in 1969.


Apparently, it's fun for professors to give you 100 pages to read for most classes early in the semester. Thus, it's been slow around here, but I'm going to start getting back into it bit by bit with one, maybe two, posts a day as I try to get homework and some other exciting things done.

This Day in Baseball History: September 2nd, 1955

Slight build, big power.

On September 2, 1955:

Ernie Banks belts home run number 40 on the season.


Ernie Banks began his playing career with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1950, but he would become the Chicago Cubs first African-American player in 1953. As a 22-year old that season, he didn't play much. A season later, he played in 154 games while hitting .275/.326/.427 with 19 home runs and 79 RBI as he finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Wally Moon. Mr. Cub really introduced himself to the baseball world in 1955. Hitting .295/.345/.596 is impressive for anyone, let alone a shortstop, but he also broke records.

Vern Stephens set the home run mark for shortstops with 39 in 1948, and his following 1950 season of 30 home runs was second on the list. Actually, his 1948 season of 29 was also 3rd, and you know what, his 1945 season of 24 home runs was tied for fourth with Joe Cronin's 1940. But Ernie Banks was about to take the spot of premier power-hitting shortstop. Banks' 1955 season was the first for a shortstop to hit 40+ home runs (his 40th was hit on September 2nd -- oddly enough, it was against Moon's Cardinals) as he eventually hit 44. Of course, the modern record belongs to Alex Rodriguez with 57, but by the time Banks was done in 1971, he had the top 5 home run-hitting seasons by a shortstop with his highest being 47 in 1958. Banks would switch to first permanently in 1961 with his best power years behind him.

As I said, Alex Rodriguez now holds the record for most home runs by a shortstop, and he is still the only shortstop to eclipse the 50-homer mark (twice). He holds 6 of the top 10 spots, and Ernie Banks holds the other four and the 11th spot. Rich Aurilia pops in at 14 (Stephens is 13th), and then Miguel Tejada, Bill Hall, Nomar Garciaparra, Barry Larkin, and Cal Ripken fall in line. Hanley Ramirez is 21st with 33 last season but only has 19 this season, but he probably has the best shot among current shortstops to overtake A-Rod.


Trivia Time
I deliberately left out the guy who is 12th on the list. Who is he and how many did he hit?

Yesterday's Answer --> Griffey (56 HR), Buhner (40), Sorrento (31), Martinez (28), Rodriguez (23), Davis (20), Wilson (15), Cruz (12), Cora (11)

Walker Cooper

He and his brother were extremely productive for about 3 or 4 seasons. What other brothers have been so productive at the same time and/or for the same team?

Because I still find this blog to be a learning experience for me, I still run across a lot of names that I don't know, and while writing the previous post, I ran across a few of them. The one I noticed (or that intrigued me) the most was Walker Cooper because a) he's a catcher and b) he hit 30+ homers in a season. Consequently, I wanted to find out more. And thus:

William Walker Cooper was born in Atherton, Missouri on January 8th, 1915. Before the 1935 season, the home state St. Louis Cardinals signed the strong young man (6'3", 210 lbs.), but because St. Louis had a notoriously good farm system (Branch Rickey was one of the first to actually utilize the farm system in a similar manner to today's teams), he had trouble reaching the major leagues. He spent six years in the minors until finally getting his chance in 1941, but a broken collarbone limited his playing time.

The following season (1942) began a long streak of success for the young backstop. He made his first All-Star team, and his stats were impressive enough to earn him an 11th place finish in the MVP voting. Mort Cooper, however, finished first. To make things worse, Mort was Walker's brother, and they played on the same team. Mort finished the season with a 22-7 record and 1.78 ERA in the first of three consecutive dominant seasons. The two teamed up to help the Cardinals win the '42 World Series over defending champion New York Yankees. Walker improved his stats the next season and finished 2nd in the MVP voting (Mort finished 5th), but the Cardinals lost the World Series rematch against the Yankees. 1944 was another fine season as the Cooper brothers finished 8th and 9th in the MVP voting (Walker was 8th), and when the Cardinals made their 3rd consecutive World Series, they beat the crosstown St. Louis Browns.

Cooper left for the Navy in 1945 and missed most of the season, and when he returned, he and the Cardinals had a disagreement over compensation. The Cardinals sold him to the Giants. 1946 was an okay season, but he really knocked it out of the park (a career-high 35 times) in 1947. He remained productive for the next few seasons, but he never stayed in one place for too long, playing in New York, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee. By 1952, Cooper was no longer so durable, but he stuck around for 6 more seasons until he retired in 1957. At the time he retired, his daughter married Don Blasingame, and he remarked, "When you have a daughter old enough to marry a player, it's time to retire."


Cool Fact I Couldn't Find a Place For -- Walker Cooper holds the record (along with Dave Kingman and Dave Winfield) with a grand slam for 5 different teams.

This Day in Baseball History: September 1st, 1947

Williard Marshall.

On September 1, 1947:

The New York Giants hit their 183rd, 184th, and 185th home runs of the season.


So we all know what player has hit the most home runs in a single-season -- Barry Bonds with 73 --, but who knows what team has the most home runs in a single-season (answer a little later)? From 1936-1947, the New York Yankees held that claim with 184 home runs hit during their 1936 season, but oddly enough, that did not include any contribution from Babe Ruth. Lou Gehrig (49 home runs), however, had a huge impact on that total. Joe DiMaggio (29) and Bill Dickey (22) were the only other two Yankees to eclipse 20 home runs, but the rest of the starting lineup, with the exception of Jake Powell (7), hit double-digits. They were also the beneficiaries of 6 home runs by pitchers, including 5 from Red Ruffing.

But the New York Giants took the Yankees down in 1947, and they did it quickly. With a month left in the season, they used 3 more home runs to officially claim to have the most powerful lineup in baseball history to that point. Willie Mays was still 4 years away from his entrance into baseball, so he wasn't part of the offensive explosion. Johnny Mize led the way with a career-high 51 home runs. Following him were a couple of 30+ homer guys in Williard Marshall (36) and Walker Cooper (35), and young Bobby Thomson would add 29 in his breakout season. Buddy Kerr was the only starter to fail to hit double-digits (coincidentally, like Powell, with 7), and they also (like the Yankees) received 6 home runs from pitchers, with 4 from Clint Hartung. The Giants went on to hit 221 home runs for the season.

Okay, so what's your guess for team with the most home runs in a season? Well, the 2004 Houston Astros hit 247, but that's only the most for an NL team. The winner is the 1997 Seattle Mariners with 264. Ken Griffey Jr., of course, leads the list with 56 round-trippers. Oddly, neither team holds the record for most home runs at home or on the road. The 1996 Colorado Rockies, not surprisingly, hold the record with 149 home runs, and the 2001 San Francisco Giants, behind Bonds' 73 (37 at home, 36 on the road), hold the away record with 138.


Trivia Time
Put these players in order from most home runs to fewest for the 1997 Seattle Mariners -- Griffey, Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez, Dan Wilson, Paul Sorrento, Russ Davis, Jay Buhner, Joey Cora, and Jose Cruz. Good luck.

Yesterday's Answer -- She was indeed talking about Pete Rose.