15 June in Sports History

Here is what happened in Sports Jersey History on June 15: Some great pitching and hitting from the MLB as well as a basestealing phenominal record

Sports history is made every day of the year. We will preserve at least a small sampling from some great athletes every day based on the uniform number they wore.

1 - 24 - 20 - 57 - 36 - 27 -11

June 15, 1902 - Talk about a dominant club playing someone way below their paygrade! Justin Clark of Corsicana, Texas minors hits 8 home runs in 1 game as the Corsicana oil Citys slaughtered Texarkana 51 to 3. It may just be Minor League Baseball's most lopsided baseball game! The game was originally scheduled to be played in front of the home Corsicana crowd but a Sunday blue law prevented the already scheduled game to be played there so it was moved to nearby Ennis, Texas where no Sunday law was in place. This new venue had a temporary fence set up at 210 feet from home Plate according to a post on The Sporting News Website.

June 15, 1928 - It was something that he was famous for, Philadelphia Athletics baseball star Ty Cobb, stole home plate for a record 54th time. This instance would be the final time the veteran would take this particular base unwarranted as he retired at the end of the season after an illustrious career in the MLB according to VintageDetroit.com. Pilfering home plate was a specialty for Cobb, who retired with a then-record 892 stolen bases in his 24 big-league seasons including one theft in a World Series game. The next closest player in home base robberies was Max Carey, who had 33 during his 20 seasons with Pittsburgh and Brooklyn. To put Cobb’s feat in perspective, consider that the two players who moved ahead of him in career steals, Rickey Henderson, Number 24 (most of his career) with 1,406 and Lou Brock, Number 20 (most of his career) taking 938, stole home only seven times between them.

June 15, 1938 - There were a few pieces of important sports history from this contest. During the first night game at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field where fans got to see thier home squad under the lights, The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Dodgers by the score of 6-0. Cincinnati's Johnny Vander Meer, Number 57 tossed his unprecedented second consecutive no-hitter! Think about that for a moment. The man had two straight games pitched in the Major Leagues where no one reached base safely on a hit. The first game he did it was on June 11th at the friendly confines of Crosley Field in Cincinnati, where Vander Meer walked three while striking out four and allowing no hits against the Boston Bees. According to the Baseball Almanac, these two complete game shutout victories were also part of a nine game consecutive win streak by Johnny Vander Meer during the 1938 season. The lefthandeder known for his fastball, also went on to set a new National League record for consecutive hitless innings with twenty-one and two-thirds that still stands to this day!

June 15, 1953 - New York Yankees first baseman Johnny Mize, Number 36  became the 93rd MLB player to reach 2,000 career hits. The milestone accomplishment occurred in Mize's final season in the Majors.

June 15, 1963 - San Francisco Giants ace and future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Number 27, Juan Marichal no-hit the Houston Colt .45s, by the score of 1-0. Marichial recorded 243 wins in his 16 year career with 2303 Ks and a 2.89 ERA.

June 15, 1965 - Detroit Tigers hurler Denny McLain, Number 17 in relief strikes out first 7 batters faced & record 14 in 6 2/3 innings as the Tigers rolled to a 6-5 win over Boston Red Sox. Also in the contest Bill Freehan, Number 11 tied an MLB record for a catcher receiving 19 putouts.

A Very Special thanks to information obtained from the following brilliant internet sites: On This Day Sports, the Sports Reference's family of website databases & Stathead.com.

Banner photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the 1905 Basketball Team Hehe, taken by an unknown.