1983 – Nolan Ryan breaks Walter Johnson’s major league record for career strikeouts, fanning Montreal’s Brad Mills for his 3,509th victim. Ironically it was a curveball, not Ryan’s famed fastball, that claims Mills. Ryan accomplishes the feat in 2,500 less innings than Johnson needed to set it. Nolan tips his cap to the applauding Canadian fans then quickly resumes on his way to a 4-2 victory.
Cardinals pitching great Bob Gibson fans the Reds’ Cesar Geronimo to become the second hurler after Walter Johnson to strike out 3,000 batters. Geronimo will become Nolan Ryan’s 3,000th strikeout victim six years later. The Reds shrug it off, scoring six runs in the 1st inning and three in the 2nd on their way to a 12 – 7 win.
One loss shy of tying the major league record of 19 consecutive defeats, Roger Craig switches his uniform number to 13 in an attempt to change his luck. The move appears to work when Jim Hickman lofts a short fly ball in the ninth inning with two outs and the bases-full in a tie game, that just ticks the upper-deck overhang in left field at the Polo Grounds for a walk-off grand slam, giving the Mets an improbable 7-3 victory over the Cubs.
1951 – Smokey Joe Williams dies in New York City at age 62. Williams has been considered by many historians to be one of the game’s greatest pitchers, even though he never played a game in the major leagues. He spent his entire 27-year career (1905-1932) pitching in the Negro Leagues, Mexico and the Caribbean, but his path to the majors was barred by the color line. During his stellar career, he defeated five Hall of Fame pitchers in exhibition competition: Grover Alexander, Chief Bender, Waite Hoyt, Walter Johnson and Rube Marquard. In 1999, after extensive research on the early years of black baseball reveal his outstanding numbers, Williams will gain Hall of Fame honors himself.
On December 10, 1946, Walter Johnson, one of the first five players elected to the Hall of Fame, dies at the age of 59 from brain cancer in Washington, D.C. Johnson won 417 games and tossed a record 110 shutouts in his brilliant career. @ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiTGVhcm4gTW9yZSBhYm91dCB0aGUgdGVhbXMsIHBsYXllcnMsIGJhbGwgcGFya3MgYW5kIGV2ZW50cyB0aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIG9uIHRoaXMgZGF0ZSBpbiBoaXN0b3J5IC0gLSAtIC0gLSAtIC0gIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJsaW5rX3RvX3Rlcm1fcGFnZSI6Im9uIiwic2VwYXJhdG9yIjoiIHwgIiwiY2F0ZWdvcnlfdHlwZSI6InBvc3RfdGFnIn19@ Play by Play, Box Scores, News Paper Reports…
AUGUST 6, 1944. At an Old Timers Game in Shibe Park, Philadelphia, the following stars (L-R) of yesteryear meet and play together: Bill Dickey, George Sisler, Frank “Home Run” Baker, Connie Mack, Lefty Grove, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson. @ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJsaW5rX3RvX3Rlcm1fcGFnZSI6Im9uIiwic2VwYXJhdG9yIjoiIHwgIiwiY2F0ZWdvcnlfdHlwZSI6InBvc3RfdGFnIn19@ Game ticket & learn more about the players, teams, stadiums and dates in history …
War Bond Game, August 26, 1943, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker, Lefty Grove, Connie Mack, Eddie Collins, Al Simmons, Bill Dickey, George Sisler, and Homerun Baker stand in uniform before an Old Timers All Star game.
“The 76-year-old gray-haired man puffed contently on an ancient, battered pipe,” wrote Burton Hawkins of The Washington Star, referring to Cy Young, whom he interviewed in May 1943. The sprightly septuagenarian—MLB’s career leader in wins (511), losses (315), complete games (749), innings (7,356), and batters faced (29,565)—discussed a variety of topics with Hawkins, including pitching,…
Walter Johnson pitching to Babe Ruth is the pregame attraction that draws 69,000 for the New York-Washington game at Yankee Stadium that provides $80,000 for Army-Navy relief. Ruth hits the fifth pitch into the right-field stands, and then adds one more shot before circling the bases. Sixteen relief games contribute $523,000 during the season. In the doubleheader between the Senators and the Yankees, the Senators win the opener, 7 – 6 and New York cops the nitecap, 3 – 0, in 5 1/2 innings.
On November 5, 1940, In his bid to represent Maryland’s sixth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, baseball legend Walter Johnson narrowly loses to William D. Byron, the Democrat incumbent, who will die in a plane crash in February. The Hall of Fame right-hander, elected as a Montgomery County Commissioner in 1938, receives…