TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

August 25, 1946 Future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers is born in Steubenville, Ohio

Fingers was the quintessential reliever of his time, used when the situation demanded. He would often enter the game as early as the fifth inning, throwing as many as 120-130 innings in relief for a season. He was known for his handlebar mustache, which he first grew as a member of the Oakland A's "Mustache Gang" in response to owner Charlie Finley's cash incentive.

Linked: Johnny Bench, whom Fingers struck out in the 1972 World Series after duping the Reds' slugger into thinking he was intentionally walking him. This trick had been used before in baseball history, but never in such a pivotal game.

Best Season, 1981
He was as close to automatic as a reliever had ever been. In 78 innings he walked just 13 and flashed a 1.04 ERA. He saved 28 and won six, figuring in 55% of Milwaukee's victories in the strike-shortened season. He won both the Cy Young and the MVP award

No-Hit Fame
9/28/1975: For OAK (A) vs. CAL (A), 5-0 at OAK. 2 innings pitched.

Where He Played: Relief pitcher. Fingers started just 37 games, and relieved in more than 900. According to him he was nearly out of baseball until Dick Williams used him in relief.

Post-Season Notes
Rollie Fingers recorded the final out of the 1972 World Series, Oakland's first championship. He pitched the last two innings for the save. Fingers was the 1974 World Series MVP when he pitched in four of the five games, winning one and saving two. His team's played 44 post-season games and Fingers pitched in 30 of them from 72-74. With the A's he pitched in 16 of the 19 World Series games from 1972-1974 and he earned the win or a save in eight of Oakland's 12 victories. The 1972 - 74 Oakland A's - are the only team other than the Yankees to ever win three consecutive World Series.

Strange Deals
Rollie Fingers was part of a few historic deals and non-deals during his career. On June 18, 1976, A's owner Charlie Finley announced he had swapped Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Boston Red Sox, and also that he had sold Vida Blue to the New York Yankees. However, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn voided the deals, citing that they were "not in the best interest of baseball." While an enraged Finley sued MLB, the A's sat Fingers, Rudi and Blue on the bench until the issue was resolved in Kuhn's favor in June.

Fingers was briefly a St. Louis Cardinal. On December 8, 1980, the San Diego Padres dealt their star reliever to St. Louis in an 11-player trade that brought Terry Kennedy to San Diego. Just four days later, Whitey Herzog, having already acquired Bruce Sutter to be his closer from the Chicago Cubs, sent Fingers packing again. The Cards' mastermind sent Fingers, Ted Simmons, and Pete Vuckovich to the Milwaukee Brewers for Lary Sorensen, Sixto Lezcano, and minor leaguers David Green and Dave LaPoint. In so doing, Herzog traded the next two winner's of the AL Cy Young award to Milwaukee. But he got the last laugh, defeating Milwaukee in the 1982 World Series in seven games.

Todays Podcast

August 25, 1918 – At Boston‚ the Cincinnati Reds top the Boston Braves‚ 4-2‚ in 13 innings. In February‚ Lee Magee will confess that he and Hal Chase each bet $500 for their team‚ the Reds‚ to lose this game. Ironically‚ Magee scores the winning when Edd Roush hits a two-run homer.

August 25, 1929 — At the Polo Grounds, fans are able to hear the calls of home plate umpire Cy Rigler, who is wired for sound, a first in major league history. Wearing a mike, wearing metal-plated shoes, and standing on a flat metal sheet, Cy’s calls are broadcast over speakers. The Giants top the Pirates, 10 – 5. However, the team’s effort to have the ump broadcast ball-and-strike calls to the Polo Grounds crowd doesn’t work very well.

August 25, 1952 — Tiger Virgil Trucks (5-14) throws the second of his two no-hitters this season, blanking the Yankees, 1-0. Phil Rizzuto’s third inning at-bat is quickly scored as an error but is changed to a hit, only to be reversed again in the sixth inning, making the no-hitter a bit controversial. Incredibly, Trucks will finish the season with only five wins and 19 loses.

No one since then has pitched a complete-game no-hitter against the Yankees in New York.

Trucks’s feat, however, perhaps holds the record for anomalies. The score of both his no-hitters was 1-0, and the first was won with a home run by Vic Wertz with two out in the bottom of the ninth. The second no-hitter was secured after the official scorer, John Drebinger of The New York Times, first ruled that a ball hit by the Yankees’ Phil Rizzuto in the third inning was an error by Tigers shortstop Johnny Pesky.

August 25, 1956, the New York Yankees release longtime shortstop Phil Rizzuto, ending his playing career. The Yankees cut Rizzuto in order to make room for another Hall of Famer – outfielder Enos Slaughter. In 1957, the Yankees will add Rizzuto to their broadcasting crew. Four years earlier on this date Rizzuto was involved in controversional play, In a 1-0 win over the Yankees, Virgil Trucks of the Tigers pitches his second no-hitter of the season. The no-hitter is in doubt for three innings when a play made by shortstop Johnny Pesky in the third inning is under debate. Rizzuto’s grounder is ruled an error, then a hit, before it is switched back to an error.

August 25, 1965 — Moonlight Graham dies in Chisholm, MN. Graham played in one major league game, for the 1905 Giants, and did not get to bat. His character in W.P. Kinsella’s Field of Dreams, later played by Burt Lancaster in the movie of the same name, will eventually make him a baseball household name.

August 25, 1967 — Dean Chance throws his second no-hitter of the month, Chance no-hit the Cleveland Indians during the second game of a Friday doubleheader on August 25, 1967, for a 2-1 win at Cleveland Stadium. Chance yielded an earned run in the first inning on two walks, an error and a wild pitch. He settled down and scattered three walks over the next eight innings, striking out eight. Both twins runs were unearned, Tovar scored on a balk, and Tonly Oliva score on a Lee Maye error.

Just four starts earlier, on Thursday, August 6, 1967, Chance retired the only 15 Boston Red Sox batters he faced at Metropolitan Stadium for a 2-0 rain-shortened victory. Such games were considered official no-hitters until 1991.

August 25, 1985, Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets becomes the youngest pitcher to win 20 games in a season. At 20 years, nine months, and nine days – one month younger than Bob Feller was when he won 20 games in 1939 – Gooden defeats the San Diego Padres, 9-3. Gooden will not follow Feller into the Hall of Fame but had 194 career wins and was part of two world champions, even though in 12 post season appereances he never won a game.

August 25, 1986 – Oakland A’s third baseman Mark McGwire hits his first major league home run, a 450-foot blast to center field off Walt Terrell, as Oakland beats Detroit 8-4 at Tiger Stadium. The round-tripper is the first of 583 round-trippers that Big Mac will hit during his 16-year career.

August 25, 1997 – Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra singles twice to extend his hitting streak to 27 games, breaking the American League rookie record set by Guy Curtright of the Chicago White Sox in 1943. The Red Sox come back to beat the Mariners 9-8. Garciaparra’s streak will extend to thirty games.

 ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA

TRIVIA ANSWER:  JOE RUDI

- Ans. Rudi eventually topped out at 6'2", watching many of his classmates catch up to him.

- #1 His A’s  won their first of 3 straight WS in 1972, the first time the franchise had taken the top spot since the Hall-of-Fame laden squad of 1930 when Mickey Cochrane, Eddie Collins, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx & Al Simmons were on the payroll.

- #2 The 1972 A’s had Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter & Orlando Cepeda (who only played 3 games for them in July).

Thank you Horsehide Trivia

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