Baseball

Dave Doubles

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Did you know Dave Magadan is the last batter that Nolan Ryan ever faced? On September 22nd, 1993 the 46 year old Ryan’s rocket right arm finally gave out while facing Magadan, who was playing for the Seattle Mariners, thus ending the 27 year run of The Ryan Express.

Dave Magadan made his MLB debut for the New York Mets on September 7th, 1986 and hit a double in his first at-bat. Happy Birthday Dave !!

On This Day - 40 / 40 Club

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It was back on September 23rd, 1988 in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers that Oakland A’s slugger Jose Canseco stole two bases to become the charter member of the 40/40 club. 40 Homers & 40 Stolen Bases. The ‘88 AL MVP finished the season batting .307 with 42 HR’s, 40 SB, 120 runs and 124 RBI’s.

Mark Whiten

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It was back on September 7th, 1993 when ‘Hard Hittin’ Mark Whiten became the 12th MLB Player to hit 4 HR’s in one game!! He finished with a record 12 RBI’s in a 15-2 Cardinals win over the Cincinatti Reds.

Cal Ripken #2131

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Flashback to September 6th, 1995 when Cal Ripken Jr played in his 2,131st consecutive game, passing the great Lou Gehrig. The ‘Iron Man’ would add a little icing to the cake that day with a 4th Inning Homer.

I’m giving away a copy of our new zine ‘Summer Reruns’ to the first person that sends over a mailing address along with the name of the other All-Star who hit a homer right before Cal that night. Happy Friday Dudes !!

Call Him Pass Ball Petralli

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Our man Geno Petralli had quite the bad day back on August 30th, 1987, when he stepped in behind the plate to catch ole’ knuckleballer Charlie Hough. In the afternoon affair against the Detroit Tigers, Geno would allow a record 6 passed balls, allowing the Tigers to score 7 unearned runs, in their 7-0 win. Petralli had a record 35 passed balls in ‘87, with 32 of them coming while trying to wrangle in one of Charlie’s knucklers. He’s also the weirdo who bit Bo Jackson in 1993, during the infamous Nolan Ryan vs Robin Ventura dust up.

Back to Back. Not Once. But Twice

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Back on August 25th, 1993 Atlanta Brave teammates Fred McGriff & David Justice hit back to back homers, not once but twice during in a 9-1 victory against the San Francisco Giants. The Braves had acquired McGriff just a month earlier from the Padres, and he became a key player a Braves lineup who would finish the season on a 51-19 run to overtake the Giants, and win their third straight NL West crown. Crime Dog finished with a career high 37 homers that year.

Happy Birthday Mark Gubicza!

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Happy Birthday Mark Gubicza! Mark had his best season back in 1988 while pitching for the Kansas City Royals when he went 20-8 with a 2.70 e.r.a. and finished 3rd in the AL Cy Young vote. He also made one of his two career All-Star appearances; with the other being in 1989 when he led the league in games started with 36.

What If? - Tony Gwynn almost hitting .400 in 1994

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It was August 12th, 1994 when the MLB Players Strike began, allowing it to become only the second season in MLB history to have no World Series be played. 1904 was the other. Along with the cancellation of the series we saw a number of players, and teams lose out on their quest for statistical greatness. One of those was Tony Gwynn and his chance to be the first player to hit .400 since the great Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941. Gwynn was batting .394 for the season when the players walked, cancelling the final 45 games. R.I.P. Tony

Anthony Young Finally Gets A WIN!!

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Remember when Pitcher Anthony Young finally was able see a big W next to his name in the boxscore after 27 straight L’s? Hard to blame him for all the losses though, when the Mets were pretty miserable in ‘92 & ‘93, losing 193 games over those seasons. Young had a 4.36 e.r.a with 16 saves and four holds over the span of his 77 appearances between May of ‘92 and July of ‘93, but getting that elusive win just wasn’t working out for Anthony. That first win would come on July 28th, 1993 when as a reliever he was awarded the W after Eddie Murray hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth to give the Mets a 5-4 win over the Florida Marlins. R.I.P. Anthony