With only 413 patrons in attendance to see New York’s 4-1 loss to the White Sox, the team’s head of media relations denies Red Barber’s request for a camera to scan the empty stands. The veteran broadcaster will reportedly lose his job when he continues to tell his audience, “I don’t know what the paid attendance is today, but whatever it is, it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium, and this crowd is the story, not the game.”
The Orioles clinched their first pennant representing Baltimore when Jim Palmer goes the distance, beating Lew Krausse and the A’s at Municipal Stadium, 6-1. The franchise’s last flag was raised in St. Louis in 1944 when the team was known as the Browns.
The Mets’ 3-0 victory over Houston, their 63rd win, assures the team will lose less than a hundred games in a season for the first time in the five-year history of the franchise. The Amazins’, who will finish the campaign in ninth place with a 66-95 record, averaged 113 losses a season during their first four years in the National League.
In his second major league game, Tom Phoebus hurls his second straight shutout in the Orioles’ 4-0 victory over the A’s. In his major league debut five days ago, the 24 year-old right-handed rookie also blanked the Angels, earning a 2-0 complete-game victory at Memorial Stadium.
Dan Topping sells his 10 percent stock interest in the Yankees to CBS and resigns as club president. CBS executive Mike Burke succeeds him.
The Twins beat the Yankees, 5 – 3, in 10 innings, on Bob Allison’s pinch three-run homer, sending the Yankees to the cellar in the American League. In his last plate appearance of the year, Mickey Mantle whiffs and becomes the first player to strike out 1,500 times in his career.
Kansas City and Washington battle with Washington winning, 1 – 0, behind Phil Ortega. Blue Moon Odom blanks the Senators for 8 1/3 innings to run the A’s scoreless string to 45 1/3 innings. The American League record of 47 was set by Cleveland in 1948.
1966 – Cleveland pitchers set an American League record by fanning 19 batters in the first nine innings of a 10-inning, 6 – 2 win at Detroit.
At Yankee Stadium, New York celebrates Bobby Richardson Day in honor of their All-Star second baseman, who is retiring at the end of the season. After deciding to leave the playing field in his prime to spend more time with his family, the 31 year-old infielder will return to the game in 1970 to become the head baseball coach at the University of South Carolina, where he will compile a 221-92-1 record with the Gamecocks.
1966 – The Mets (5) and Giants (3) tie a major-league record by using eight pinch hitters in the 9th inning as the Mets win, 5 – 4. Willie McCovey hits a 500-foot home run, judged the longest ever at Candlestick Park.
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