On June 10, 1959, At Memorial Stadium Rocky Colavito of the Cleveland Indians homers in four consecutive at-bats against the Baltimore Orioles. Colavito becomes only the second player to hit home runs in four straight at-bats in one game. The Tribe defeats the Orioles, 11-8. The New York City native joins Lou Gehrig as the…
On June 7, 1959, Hoyt Wilhelm of the Baltimore Orioles wins his ninth consecutive game by hurling his third straight shutout. The future Hall of Famer lowers his season ERA to a minuscule 0.99.
On June 5, 1959, Dick “Dr. Strangeglove” Stuart hits the longest home run in the history of Forbes Field. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ slugger hits a 457-foot blast over the center field wall, becoming the first player to clear the barrier in the ballpark’s 50-year existence. Stuart blast came in the first inning against Chicago Cubs…
1959 -Earl Torgeson hits a 2-out home run in the 17th‚ off Jerry Walker‚ to give the White Sox a 4 – 3 win over Baltimore.
On June 2, 1959, a swarm of gnats delays the game between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park. After a half-hour interruption, the White Sox’ grounds crew disposes of the gnats by using a smoke bomb. The Orioles eventually defeat the White Sox, 3-2. From the AP – Hoyt Wilhelm finally…
President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his White House staff attend a game. He gets slugger Harmon Killebrew’s autograph on a home run ball for his grandson David‚ as Washington defeats the Red Sox, 7 – 6. The Killer will bang 15 homers in May.
On May 27, 1959, National League President Warren Giles rules that the final score of the near perfect game thrown by the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Harvey Haddix should be 1-0, and not 3-0. Giles says that when Joe Adcock passed Hank Aaron on the bases after hitting a home run, both runners should have been called…
In another of Bill Veeck’s stunts, 3′ 7″ Eddie Gaedel returns to a major league field along with three other midgets. Arriving by helicopter and dressed as Martians, the quartet drops onto the Comiskey Park infield and shakes hands with second baseman Nellie Fox and shortstop Luis Aparicio, giving them toy ray guns as the public announcer informs the 40,000 plus in attendance that the “extraterrestrials” have arrived to help the somewhat short keystone double play combo in their struggle with giant earthlings.
Harvey Haddix near perfect game – podcast On May 26, 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves, but lost the perfect game, no-hitter and the game in the 13th inning at County Stadium in Milwaukee. In a somewhat confusing ending, the Braves were first credited…
Ed Walsh dies in Pompano Beach, at the age of 78. Walsh started a brief but remarkable pitching career in 1904 with the Chicago White Sox. From 1906 through 1912, he averaged 24 wins with 220 strikeouts and posted an ERA below 2.00 five times. Walsh was selected to the Hall of Fame in 1946.
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