TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

June 15, 1964, the St. Louis Cardinals make one of their best trades ever, acquiring outfielder Lou Brock from the Chicago Cubs. In a six-player transaction that also includes Jack Spring, Paul Toth, Doug Clemens, and Bobby Shantz, Chicago trades a little-known outfielder named Lou Brock, who will become a fixture with the Cardinals for the next fifteen years, amassing 3,023 career hits, to St. Louis for right-hander Ernie Broglio. The deal, thought at the time to be a steal for the Cubs, will become infamous when the former 20-game winner pitches poorly for his new team, posting a 7-19 record during his brief two and half seasons with the team. Brock, will appear in 3 Cardinal World Series, Brock will hit .391, steal 14 world series bases which is tied with Eddie Collins for the all-time lead. The Cardinals will win the titles in 1964, 1967 and lose in 1968. Brock will also become all-time single-season leader and career leader in stolen bases. Brock will be elected into the Hall of Fame in 1985.

"The Cardinals had scouted Brock carefully while he was in college at Southern University in Baton Rouge, and been quite interested in signing him, but then had managed to blow their chance. But that meant they knew a lot about him. He might, for instance, look slim, but, in fact, he was so powerfully built that he had the ability to hit a long ball. He once hit a home run to dead center in the Polo Grounds, a ball that carried at least 485 feet. At six feet and weighing 170 pounds, was almost devoid of body fat. It was a body, said his teammate Tim McCarver, that looked as if it had been chiseled out of marble. A few years later, Senator Eugene McCarthy, a former minor league ballplayer himself, signed on to cover the 1968 World Series for Life magazine. Being in the clubhouse with someone as muscular as Brock, he said, was like being in the clubhouse with a superior species of being. 'I was ashamed to be in the same locker room with him,' McCarthy later said." - David Halberstam, October 1964

Before the trade Brock hit one of longest homeruns in Polo Ground history . . . Listen here

At Shibe Park, Entering the bottom of the eighth inning trailing the Indians, 15-4, the A’s cross the plate 13 times in the frame. Cleveland uses 4 pitchers in the 7th, Jake Miller that starter gave up 2 walks and a triple, and pitchers By Speece and Carl Yowell faced 7 batters and did not get 1 out, George Uhle came in and he gave up hits to the first two batters and got the second out of the inning and faced Al Simmons with the score 15-14 Cleveland. With 2 on, Simmons launched a home run to deep left field. Giving the A’s a 17-15 lead.

June 15, 1938, The first night game was played At Ebbets Field in front of 38,748 fans including Babe Ruth. Johnny Vander Meer was the starting pitcher for the visiting Cincinnati Reds. He was coming off a 3-0 No hitter vs the Boston Bees on June 11th. Vander Meer walks eight, including three one-out walks in the 9th inning, but allows no hits and no runs in a 6-0 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers. A force at home and a fly ball ended the game.

June 15, 1952, the St. Louis Cardinals set a National League comeback record by rallying from an 11-0 deficit to post a 14-12 win. The Cardinals scored seven runs in the fifth inning, three in the seventh, two in the eighth and two in the ninth to cap off the incredible comeback. The key blows for the Cardinals were a 2 out single by Enos Slaughter, that gave them their first lead 12-11, and an inning later Solly Hemus hits his second home run of the game a 2 run shot that puts St. Louis up 14-11. In the bottom of the 9th, Eddie Yuhas pitched a perfect 7 & 8, retired the first two batters quickly and that proceeded to get into a jam, walking the next two batters. Willard Schmidt the 10th pitcher of the game, came in to try to end the game and seal the comeback. Schmidt promptly induced a ground ball to third and short and the Cardinals made errors on both grounders, making the score 14-12, and the bases are jammed. Luckily, Schmidt gets Davey Williams to pop up to the catcher to end the game.

June 15 1962 – At Forbes Field Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente trade grand slams in a wild battle between the Braves and Pirates, but it is Clemente’s that ignites a seven-run rally in the 8th for a 9 – 8 Pirate victory.

June 15, 1967 — Jimmy Wynn becomes the first Houston Astro to hit three homers in one game, becoming the first of only two Houston players to have accomplished the feat in the 34-year history of the Astrodome. In 1994, ‘Toy Cannon’s’ performance will be matched by future Hall of Fame first baseman Jeff Bagwell.

June 15 1971 – – “If they ever want to rate the 10 greatest catches of all time,” maintains The Sporting News’s correspondent and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports editor Charley Feeney, “Roberto Clemente’s fantastic catch of Bob Watson’s line drive in Houston’s Astrodome will have to be among them.” Most of the 16,307 fans give Clemente a standing ovation for his feat, which deprives Watson of a home run in the 8th inning. It would have put the Astros ahead, 2 – 1. Instead, Steve Blass holds on to a 1 – 0 lead and the Bucs will score twice more for a 3 – 0 win. Joe Morgan is on first base with two out when Watson hits his vicious liner toward the right field corner. Clemente, going full speed, races toward the wall and, in one sudden move, makes a twisting leap for a one-handed grab, back to the plate, just before the ball would have hit above the yellow line on the wall, in home run territory. When Clemente comes down, his body hits the wall and he suffers a bruised left ankle and his left elbow also is swollen. Blood spills from a gash on the left knee. Clemente slumps on both knees, back to the infield. The Houston fans stand up and cheer. A second standing ovation will precede Clemente’s at-bat in the top of the 9th. On the preceding play, Clemente made a skidding shoestring catch of Cesar Cedeno’s Texas Leaguer, then threw perfectly to second base while on his knees to prevent Morgan from advancing.

June 15, 1976, Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley sells three of his star players. Finley sends Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Boston Red Sox for $1 million apiece and Vida Blue to the New York Yankees for $1.5 million. Three days later, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn will void the moves, saying they are “not in the best interests of baseball.

June 15, 1977 – In an unpopular move, the New York Mets trade franchise pitcher Tom Seaver just moments before the trading deadline. The Mets send Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for four lesser players: infielder Doug Flynn, outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman, and pitcher Pat Zachry. Seaver will go on to win 75 games for the Reds in five and a half seasons and hurl his only no-hit game in a Cincinnati uniform. The same day, New York trades slugger Dave Kingman to the San Diego Padres for utility player Bobby Valentine and a minor league pitcher.

June 15 , 1987 — Mike Scott and Dave Smith combine for 17 strikeouts in a 4-0 shutout of the Reds. Scott fans the first 14 over eight innings then Smith punches out the final three. Bill Doran homers while Kevin Bass adds a two-run triple.

June 15, 2003, Reed Johnson started his game with a home run and finished it with one. Johnson led off the bottom of the first inning with a homer, then homered to start the 10th in lifting the Toronto Blue Jays over the Chicago Cubs 5-4 Sunday. “That was a first for me,” Johnson said. “There’s no better feeling than doing something significant to win a game.” Johnson became the first player to hit a leadoff homer and a game-ending homer in the same game since Anaheim’s Darin Erstad did it on June 25, 2000, against Minnesota. It is only the 4th time it has happened in baseball history, Billy Hamilton did it in 1893, Vic Power 1957 and Erstad was the other. Johnson, playing in place of the injured Shannon Stewart, homered off Mark Guthrie (0-3) to win it. The 26-year-old rookie went 2-for-3 with three RBIs for the Blue Jays, who took two of three from the Cubs. Johnson homered in the first off Shawn Estes and hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead.

Features well over 270+ Games! Including 1939, 1940, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990 World Series and 1973 & 1979 NLCS.

Most games called by Joe Nuxhall and Marty Brennaman

TRIVIA

TRIVIA: Which slugger said, not without cause, "The distance of every tape-measure home run depends upon your press agent."?

Hint: #1 As a rookie, he ranked high in the National League Rookie of the Year voting then ten years later twice finished in the Top Five in American League Most Valuable Player voting.

Hint: #2 His first Major league home run was at the expense of a future Hall of Famer.

Hint: #3 At least nine additional Hall of Fame pitchers experienced the same display of power.

Know someone who loves baseball like you do? Earn rewards by sharing the Rewind!

 ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA