Cubs right-hander reliever George Washington Zabel, called into the game with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, throws 18 and 1/3 innings of the Cubs’ 4-3 victory over the Robins at Chicago’s West Side Park. ‘Zip,’ establishing the major league record for the longest relief stint in one game, beats Brooklyn starter Jeff Pfeffer, who tosses a 19-inning complete-game.
1907 – The Boston Red Sox sign their fourth manager of the season, with Deacon McGuire replacing Bob Unglaub.
6/17/1898 – Washington was in Boston and its official lineup had Zeke Wrigley seventh, and Bert Myers eighth. Apparently, they batted out of order in the second although that is not desribed completely in any newspaper story we have seen. In the fourth with a runner on second and one out, the number seven hitter was due up. Myers came up and made an out. With the Myers play accepted by Boston, the proper next batter was the number nine hitter, the pitcher Win Mercer. Wrigley then came up, singled in a run, and Bostson objected. The home plate umpire, Tom Lynch, called Wrigley out to end the inning, not Mercer who had failed to bat when his turn came.
6/17/1891 – The Colts (now Cubs) played in Cleveland. Through the seventh inning, the Colts’ Bill Hutchinson batted in Malachi Kittridge’s place in the batting order but the Spiders let it go. In the seventh, Fred Pfeffer walked and Hutchinson, batting out of turn, singled, moving Pfeffer to third. As Kittridge stepped to the plate, the Spiders told umpire Tim Lynch that Hutchinson batted out of turn. This out ended the inning, killing the Colts’ rally.
1880 – John Montgomery Ward of the Providence Grays pitches a perfect game against the Buffalo Bisons, winning 5 – 0. Losing pitcher Pud Galvin makes the last out. This is the second perfect game in the National League in six days; the first one was pitched by Lee Richmond on June 12th. The next perfect game by a National League pitcher will not happen for 84 years, when Jim Bunning turns the trick on Father’s Day in 1964.
June 17, 1876 – George Hall and Ezra Sutton again gang up on the hapless Reds. Hall hits 2 HRs‚ a triple‚ and 2 singles‚ and Sutton also collects 5 hits in a 23-15 slaughter. Only 39 HRs will be hit in the NL season; Hall will lead with 5‚ and next year have zero….
Former Civil War General Abner Doubleday‚ now a Colonel in command of the 24th U.S. Infantry’s “Colored Regiment”‚ Fort McKavett‚ TX addresses a request to General E.D. Townsend‚ Adjutant General‚ U.S. Army‚ Washington‚ D.C.: “I have the honor to apply for permission to purchase for the Regimental Library a few portraits of distinguished generals‚ Battle pictures‚ and some of Rogers groups of Statuary particularly those relative to the actions of the Colored population of the south. This being a colored regiment ornaments of this kind seem very appropriate. I would also like to purchase baseball implements for the amusement of the men and a Magic Lantern for the same purpose. The fund is ample and I think these expenditures would add to the happiness of the men.”
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