Yesterday I asked you to complete the sentence. What was the name of the official #Oakland A's 1972 season-in-review album?
It was, of course, "Finley's Heroes." Because when a baseball team wins the #WorldSeries, the name you ALWAYS put front and center is that of the owner.
Something unprecedented happened in 1965 ... that had absolutely nothing to do with a certain rock and roll band reporting for duty as high as a kite while shooting their second film.
This happened in June of '65. It had to do with #baseball and the future #Oakland A's. What was it?
Yesterday I asked you what happened that was unprecedented in #Baseball in June of 1965.
Answer: The Kansas City A's (a few years away from becoming the #Oakland A's) had the first pick in #MLB's first free agent amateur draft. They picked up Sal Bando, Gene Tenace, and Rick Monday
Question: In late 1971, owner Charlie Finley traded the Oakland A's' All-Star center fielder Rick Monday to the Cubs for lefthanded starter Ken Holtzman.
Why was Finley so eager to pick up a top-tier lefthanded starter?
This #Oakland pitcher was the 1st in franchise history to pitch a perfect game. He was the offensive star of the game, going 3-4 with a double and 3 RBI...and to date is still the youngest player in the modern era to throw a perfect game.
Mississippi Lewis K'd 9 Dodgers and let through only an unearned run; Pee Wee Reese and Wild Bill Wright collided in LF. Reese will be out for 9; Wright out for 7.
In 1969, while pitching for the Cubs, Ken Holtzman threw a no-hitter against Atlanta. What was remarkable about that win? Beyond the fact that no Brave managed a base hit, I mean?
Roosevelt Davis scattered 9 hits and picked up the win; Lorenzo Cabrera reached on Bob Thurman's error and scored what proved to be the decisive run. Bremer got the save.
In a career that spanned more than two decades, today's #1947League hero, Roosevelt Davis, was a key member of a 1935 squad that many consider to be the finest Black ballclub of all time.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Name that ballclub. One guess only.
The 1935 Crawfords up against the 1927 Yankees is one of those best-of-seven series I really have to set up and play. Maybe before the #1947League WS. We'll see.
Cards win thanks to Thurman, who doubled in the tying and go-ahead runs. A marquee matchup in which neither ace (Branca, BKN, 12-3 or Day, STLC, 9-6) figured in the decision. Brecheen got the W.
Today's #1947League hero, Bob Thurman, was inducted into the Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991. He played in Puerto Rico between 1947 and 1954.
Two eventual Cooperstown Hall of Famers joined him in the outfield during his final season in Puerto Rico. Name them.
Game seemed to be on cruise control for Watson and 1st-place Philly, Then reliever Don Newcombe blew the save, yielding 4 hits and a 3-run HR to Hartung. Pat Scantlebury got the win. #1947League
#1947League hero Garnett Blair, took a perfect game into the 8th inning. In real life, he threw a no-hitter as a high-school player for Langley High.
Where was Langley High (now Langley K-8) located?
Hint: It's the northernmost "home town" of the NNL team Blair famously played for.
Bill Byrd's 5-hitter put the Bums in the win column. He's now 9-4. Cards insisted he was throwing a spitter; the league is reviewing the matter. Renfroe's 2-run HR, Edwards's RBI 2B: decisive.
There may be earlier songs about the devil's lettuce, but I don't know 'em. Love the INSANE violin solo, and the genre fluidity. Jazz? Swing? Boogie? Who cares? #420day
Okay so @tabletopmania weighed in elsewhere and chose #HumanLeague for the song tomorrow ... but there's still a bright, shiny #noprize available for the first correct Mastodon answer to this #1947League question!
Hilton Smith ran his record to 9-0 and Johnny Davis doubled in two key 9th-inning runs as the Phillies stopped the bleeding. Game was close until Giants made two costly errors in the final inning.
As I suspected he would, because he knows everything, my buddy Cliff knew that Hilton Smith wore number 31 during his career.
Cliff also has pictures aplenty, so I'm wondering whether he's got a signed photo of Hilton Smith. Preferably while in uniform and with the number 6 visible😃
Flat-out hilarious #jomboy breakdown of Aaron Boone's absolutely impossible-to-justify ejection five (5) (!) pitches into the contest against my beloved Oakland A's last night.
Recently acquired slugger Johnny Mize launched a 2-run bomb in the bottom of the 11th to give the Dodgers a 2-0 win over Feller and the Indians. Thomas got the win. Bums regain first-place tie.
Today's #1947League game brought to you by my buddy Cliff, Neil Young in an outfit he probably wishes time could forget, and a bunch of hot mid-Sixties women not talking on the phone.
Ouch. Good for Nolan, but ouch. I believe the Chicago White Sox are 3-20 now. That puts them in a class, not with the 1962 New York Mets, but with the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. I know this because my son is a White Sox fan and is currently in need of deep therapy.
I got to catch the end of this game. Believe it or not I was watching the NBA last night. The Timberwolves of all major sports teams may be MN’s best hope for a title.
Cliff, ultimate baseball genius, knew not only that Gene Bremer played for the Memphis Red Sox, but that I had asked this selfsame #1947League question back when I was doing this on the bird app. All hail CLIFF!
Johnny Mize (#1947League hero for second consecutive day), Ty Cobb, Bill Terry, Frank ('The Big Hurt") Thomas, and Josh Gibson -- all born in Georgia, and all in the Hall of Fame.
There's one more #baseball Hall of Famer from the state of Georgia. Name him.
I know I have to exempt myself from this since I’m in the text with Cliff but I totally had this one. Two Georgia born players that should be in Cooperstown are Rap Dixon and Bill Byrd.
Bremer gets the save, Taylor the win, and MIksis the GWRBI as Brooklyn's record improveS to 55-34 -- tops in the league. They've overtaken the Phils (for now at least) despite three regulars being on IL.
"Miksis, you say" -- my buddy Cliff, as he texts me an image of his autographed Eddie Miksis postcard
(Spoiler alert -- he has all the autographs that ever existed or ever will exist. He did explain all this to me once. Something to do with a wormhole.)
Phils = 11th of 12 in HRs; usually a doubles-and-triples kind of offense. Not last night, though. Davis, Neil, and Bassett all went long. Groundhog Thompson (10-5) got the win.
With a .346 lifetime average, you'd think today's hero, Buck Leonard, would have a spot on the all-time BA leader board. Buck doesn't have the required plate appearances. Name the highest-ranking Black star who does...and tell me where he ranks.
Two hard-luck pitchers (Watson 4-10, 3.47 for PHI; Barnhill 3-5 3.39 for BOSR) settled in for an old-fashioned extra-inning pitcher's duel--the best kind. Watson came away with the win.
1st, Anyone else here buying the Timberwolves? I’m pretty pumped after we thrashed the Suns in 4. I expect some believers if we can knock off the Nuggets.
2nd, Twins are on a 8 game win streak.
3rd, Ruth, you’re Blue Jays are mlb.com’s free game of the day.
Giants have the 2nd-most-productive offense in #1947league, behind only Brooklyn. You wouldn't have guessed that today, though: Dan Bankhead K'd 11 and held them to 2 hits. Josh Gibson went long.
I chose Seamheads (the one that updates records more regularly, via research of old sources) bcs the top Josh Gibson batting average seemed unreal. I thought surely I'd have heard about this, that it must have been a recent discovery.
5 innings in relief today. 0R 0ER 7K 2H 3WK. Earned the W.
Hitting needs work. Went 1-5. R 2K stole home on a double steal. Had some very healthy hacks that I just missed.
ESPN.com apparently didn't get the memo about Black Leagues stats being MLB stats (not sure what's up with that) -- but if you zoom over to baseball-reference.com you'll see that the single-season batting average record belongs to #1947League's very own Tetelo Vargas.
Cliff got the answer to this, which is entertaining and which I will share as soon as possible. #1947League will return when the deadline fever passes... Say a prayer if you're so inclined! 🙂
TFW you realize that most of your car’s 36 radio station presets are unused and you think of the idea of saving every affiliate station in your baseball team’s radio network.
Francis Ford Coppola and Ali McGraw prepare to give out an Oscar in 1979. One of these people wolfed down one of rock promoter Bill Graham's magic cookies, unaware that its most notable ingredient was #cannabis. Can you guess which one?
Meanwhile my Twins have lost 2 straight to the Yankees. The Timberwolves looked invincible and have now lost 3 straight to the Nuggets. We’re just not allowed championship level teams here.
Shockers(my team) won 14-2 today. Moved to 4-0.
I didn’t do much of note. 0-1 WK HBP 2R SB. Sat the last half of the game.
Got an easy one next Friday but should have a real test next Saturday night.
I mean I didn’t do anything except root as hard as I could from my living room. Biggest comeback win in a game 7 ever. Twolves are now accepting applications for those who want to jump on their bandwagon.
I stumbled upon the 1991 World Series replay my dad and I played about 32 years ago. I’m going to share here over the next couple days starting with Games 1 & 2 tonight.
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