In a 3 – 2 win over the White Sox, the Yankees’ Horace Clarke triples with two on in the 9th, then scores the winning run on a passed ball. Wilbur Wood takes the loss while Jack Aker is the winner.
On August 13, 1969, After serving as the interim replacement for William Eckert, Bowie Kuhn is unanimously elected to a seven-year term by the major league owners to be baseball’s fifth commissioner. Prior to his selection to his new post, the 42 year-old lawyer, who once worked as the scoreboard boy for a dollar a…
After being swept in a three-game series by Houston at the Astrodome, the eventual World Champion Mets fall ten games behind the front-running Cubs in the first-ever NL East race. The third-place New York team will finish the season at a torrid 39-11 pace, finishing the season eight games in front of Chicago.
Montreal reliever Elroy Face gives up the last of his record 21 extra-inning gopher balls, an 11th-inning grand slam to the Reds’ Johnny Bench. Cincinnati wins, 8 – 3, in Montreal.
One day after going AWOL, Joe Pepitone returns to the Yankees but does not play in their 5 – 2 loss to the Twins. Rich Reese is 4 for 4 with two homers and two singles to drive in four runs for the Twins as Jim Kaat is the winner over Mel Stottlemyre (16-9). Reese will have hits his first three at bats tomorrow before flying out.
Baltimore’s Jim Palmer leaves no doubt about his comeback with a 8 – 0 no-hitter against Oakland. Reggie Jackson, leading the American League with 42 home runs, walks three times, as the A’s drop two games behind the Twins in the West. Palmer, now 11-2, pushes the O’s lead to a comfortable 14 1/2 games.
In a 6 – 4 defeat to the Reds, Bobby Bonds becomes the fourth player in major league history steal at least 30 bases and hit at least 30 home runs in the same season. The other members of the 30/30 club include Ken Williams (1922 Browns), Willie Mays (1956 & 1957 – Giants) and Hank Aaron (1963 Braves).
Bill Hands pitches a complete game, 4 – 2, win over San Diego. Chicago now has a seemingly comfortable 8 1/2 game lead; they’ll manage to blow it as the Miracle Mets will overtake them.
In stark contrast to his career-best but famously wasted performance of May 15, 1967, Roberto Clemente’s second career three-home run game brings the desired result, a lightly contested 10 – 5 decision over San Francisco. This time around, Clemente provides power-hitting of both the long-range and up-close-and-personal variety, terrorizing bleacher creature and opposing pitcher alike. Pittsburgh Press writer Phil Musick: “Clemente revealed that he had used four different bats to pound out three home runs and a single that nearly defrocked Giant reliever Frank Linzy.” A summary of the three blasts is provided by Giants beat writer Bob Stevens: “A resumé of the way he hit the homers proves how difficult it is to pitch to this man. He hit one high and away off Mike McCormick over the right field screen in the 1st, he hit one low and inside over the right field screen in the 3rd, also off McCormick, and then when Bobby Bolin challenged him with a high hard pitch down the middle, Roberto crashed it off the flagpole beyond the center field screen to come within one of tying the all-time record of home runs in a single game.”
1969 – Curt Blefary’s three-run bomb off Jerry Koosman leads Houston to an 8-7 victory over the Mets. Blefary drives in four while Doug Rader has a hand in four different rallies. Joe Morgan steals home for the game-winner which was actually a botched suicide squeeze play.
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