» January 17, 1970: ML teams select a record 357 players in the January phase of the annual free-agent draft, including top pick Chris Chambliss, by Cleveland, and Chris Speier. Fred Lynn, drafted by the Yankees in the first round, will not sign. » June 4, 1970: In the June draft, the Padres select high school catcher Mike Ivie as the number-one pick and sign him in three days to a $100,000 contract. He'll play in the ML 11 years but catch only nine games in the bigs because of a phobia about throwing the ball back to the pitcher. Choosing next, the Indians take Stanford P Steve Dunning, who will debut in 10 days. Catchers Barry Foote (Expos) and Darrell Porter (Brewers) go next. The Pirates wait till the 14th round to take Dave Parker. Rich Gossage goes in the 9th round to the White Sox; Rick Reuschel to the Cubs (3); pitcher Dale Murphy to the Braves (18th). The Giants took Randy Moffitt and Chris Speier on the first round in January and repeat the good first round picks today with John D'Acquisto and Dave Kingman. The Reds take prep SS Gary Polczynski in the first round, but have better luck in the 8th (Will McEnaney), the 10th (Ray Knight) and the 19th (Pat Zachry). The Phillies, Royals, Dodgers, and Angels pick 5th, 8th, 9th and 10th on the first round and also come up with duds. Future seventeen-year major leaguer Frank White goes undrafted today.
» April 25, 1972: Phillies lefty Steve Carlton allows only a leadoff single to Chris Speier in beating the Giants, 3–0, for his 2nd shutout in a row. Carlton strikes out 14 to tie the club record for lefties. Juan Marichal (1-2) takes the loss.
» May 1, 1973: With two outs in the 9th inning and Chris Speier on 1B, the Giants, trailing 8–1, score an NL-record tying seven times to beat the Pirates 8–7. Chris Arnold's pinch grand slam is the big blow, along with Bobby Bonds' bases-loaded double.
» May 15, 1974: At Riverfront Stadium, Reds pitcher Roger Nelson has his no-hitter broken up by Bobby Bonds, who clubs a 2-run homer in the 8th. Chris Speier homers in the 9th for the other Giants hit and Nelson finishes with a 4–3 win.
» July 20, 1978: Chris Speier hits for the cycle and drives in six runs to lead Montreal to a 7–3 win over Atlanta.
» September 22, 1982: Light-hitting SS Chris Speier goes 3-for-5 with a club-record eight RBI as Montreal beats Philadelphia 11–4.
» September 25, 1985:
With the score tied 4–4 in the bottom of the 9th. Davey Lopes walks, steals 2B and 3B and scores on a pinch single by Chris Speier as the Cubs beat the Mets, 5–4. Gary Carter's grand slam accounts for all the Mets scoring. Lopes has three steals in the game to give him 47 (in just 275 at bats) and he sets the record most stolen bases by a player over 40. The record was set by Honus Wagner in 1914 with 23. Lopes is officially recorded at 39 but when he signed at age 22 he was afraid he was too old so he set his age back a year.
» May 9, 1987:
After going 15 years without one, Chris Speier hits his 2nd grand slam in a week to lead San Francisco to a 9–4 win over Pittsburgh. Speier also connected for a grand slam against the Cardinals on May 5th.
» July 9, 1988: Chris Speier hits for the cycle and Ernest Riles hits the 10,000th home run in Giants history to lead San Francisco to a 21–2 rout of the Cardinals. The 21 runs are a San Francisco record. Speier also cycled as an Expo in 1978, just the 4th major leaguer to do so for two teams. He joins Joe Cronin (Washington, 1929; Red Sox, 1940), Babe Herman (Dodgers, 1931; Cubs, 1933), and Bob Watson (Astros, 1977; Boston, 1979).
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