Flashbacks

Every Friday during the 1999 season, BaseballLibrary.com brought its readers a slice of baseball history. We called 'em Friday Flashbacks, and since we had such a great response we've continued to "Flash Back" every Friday of the 2000 season as well.

Here's a compendium of every story we've presented: from the tragic to the triumphant to the trivial.

April
April 7, 1984	Dr. K's Debut "The guy has a 93-mile-per-hour fastball and one of the best curves in baseball and you ask me about his poise?" replied Jim Frey
April 9, 1913	A New Home For 'Dem Bums' What had been a malodorous garbage dump, surrounded by shantytowns, became the home of Brooklyn's beloved Dodgers.
April 14, 1969	Baseball Crosses the Border Baseball has long been known as the great American game. But on a sixty-five degree night in Montreal, the national pastime went international.
April 16, 1940	Saving His Best for First The first -- and most memorable -- of the three no-hitters Feller would throw in his eighteen-year Hall of Fame career.
April 21, 1902	The Phillies Strike Back Philadelphia may be the city of Brotherly Love, but at the turn of the century its two baseball teams were at each other's throats.
April 23, 1962	Break Up the Mets! "I ain't fooled," Stengel confided in reporters before the season began. "They play different when the other team is trying, too."
April 28, 1953	Rumble in St. Louis Clint Courtney's brawl costs players $850, a major-league record at the time. Billy Martin was fined, too -- without throwing a punch.
April 30, 1939	The Iron Horse's Last Game "On eyewitness testimony alone," wrote Joe Williams of the New York Telegram, "the verdict must be that of a battle-scarred veteran falling apart."
May
May 5, 1955	Lasorda's Wild Start In the first inning of his first major-league start, the future Dodger skipper ties an NL record -- with three wild pitches
May 7, 1903	The First Yankees-Red Sox Game Ever Most of the participants in that historic first game were out of baseball by the time the Babe Ruth sale broke Boston's heart.
May 12, 1950	Red Sox to Fans: "Ted's Sorry"
May 14, 1927	Last Man Standing Boston Braves starter Charlie Robertson locked heads with the Chicago Cubs' Guy Bush for over 17 innings -- and lost.
May 19, 1962	Musial Breaks Wagner's NL Hits Record Stan "The Man" becomes the NL hit king. "I never worked so hard as I did for the last two [hits]," he told reporters.
May 21, 1952	Bums Bombard Blackwell Ewell Blackwell owned the Dodgers ... until Brooklyn got their revenge with the biggest single-inning barrage in modern baseball history.
May 26, 1959	The Greatest Game Ever Lost
May 28, 1921	Luque Loses His Cool Long before Joaquin Andujar and Oil Can Boyd were even born, Dolf Luque was the epitome of nastiness on the mound.
June
June 2, 1935	The Babe Calls It Quits
June 4, 1974	10-Cent Beer Night The Indians graciously gave away their beer. Their fans gave away the game.
June 9, 1945	Durocher Arrested For Assault
June 11, 1990	Another No-No for Nolan In only his second start after being disabled for three weeks with back woes, Ryan becomes the oldest pitcher to ever hurl a no-hitter.
June 16, 1996	Mel Allen: 1913-1996
June 18, 1977	Billy & Reggie's Brouhaha Like Jackson, Martin had a knack for stirring up trouble, except Martin let his fists -- not his mouth -- do the talking.
June 23, 1917	Ernie Shore's Near-Perfect Game
June 25, 1968	Bobby Bonds' Grand Entrance His sixth-inning homer off Dodgers reliever Jack Purdin made him the first player in 70 years to hit a grand slam in his first major-league game.
June 30, 1970	Riverfront Stadium Opens
July
July 2, 1903	The Mysterious Death of Ed Delahanty Ed Delahanty was the sport's first bona fide slugger, leading the league with 19 homers and 146 RBI in 1893. Ten years later he was dead.
July 7, 1906	From Mobile to Cleveland to Cooperstown
July 9, 1971	Hello, Leo! Hank Aaron once recalled, "My arrival in the major leagues was pretty dull. No drama, no excitement, absolutely none." Leo Foster wasn't as fortunate.
July 14, 1946	The "Williams Shift" Is Born
July 16, 1941	56 In A Row For Joltin' Joe Only 15,000 fans showed up at League Park to see Joe DiMaggio extend his record hitting streak to 56 games with a first-inning single off Cleveland's Al Milnar.
July 21, 1972	Hoyt Calls It Quits
July 23, 1960	Jimmy Piersall's "Williams Shift" Piersall's seventeen-year tenure in the big leagues spanned the spectrum from the ridiculous to the sublime.
July 28, 1993	Young's Losing Streak Snapped at 27
July 30, 1980	Stroke Ends Richard's Career "What's with J.R.?" was Baseball's Big Question after the crown jewel of the Astros' rotation left for the All-Star Game complaining of a "dead arm"
August
August 4, 1982	Joel Youngblood: Let's Play Two
August 6, 1952	Ol' Satch Goes the Distance Satchel Paige found himself throwing a lot of extra innings in 1952. In the process, he became the oldest man ever to throw a complete game.
August 11, 1988	Carter Hits No. 300 ... Finally
August 13, 1958	Rocky Colavito Pitches In The slugger's first appearance on a major-league mound wasn't mop-up duty. It came in a tight game against Detroit, and he dominated the Tigers.
August 18, 1983	The Pine Tar Game Finally Ends
August 20, 1964	Linz Tunes Up the Yanks 1964 marked the last year of a great Yankee dynasty. It also marked the end of harmonica tunes on the Yankee team bus.
August 25, 1986	McGwire Hits His First Home Run
August 27, 1982	Rickey Runs Into the Record Books Rickey Henderson has said that runs are the most important statistics in baseball. But on Aug. 27, 1982, he only cared about stealing second.
September
September 1, 1989	A. Bartlett Giamatti, 1938-1989
September 3, 1966	Robin Roberts: HR Record Breaker Good news for gopherballers: the most homered-upon pitcher in baseball history is enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
September 8, 1965	Campy Plays 'Em All
September 10, 1934	Happy New Year, Hank! Detroit's chief rabbi had opined earlier in the week that since Rosh Hashanah was a festive holiday, Greenberg would not be out of line if he chose to play.
September 17, 1935	The Fatal Fire Extinguisher Being cut loose from the Dodgers prompted another drinking binge, and the intoxicated Koenecke caught an American Airlines flight heading north from St. Louis.
September 22, 1911	Cy Young's Last Win
September 24, 1969	"We're No.1! We Really Are!" Joe Torre's grounder at 9:07 p.m. clinched the NL East title for the Mets, who had been in first place for just two weeks.
September 29, 1957	Goodbye, Big Apple
October
October 1, 1961	Roger Maris' Finest Hour With one more round-tripper, Maris would pass the Bambino as baseball's most prolific single-season slugger. But he'd hit just two in the past two weeks.
October 6, 1945	The Cubs' Goat Curse
October 8, 1973	sFriday Night At the Fights In a desperate move designed to kick-start his team, Pete Rose throttled lightweight Mets shortstop Buddy Harrelson.
October 13, 1985	Coleman Bites the Tarp
October 15, 1988	Gimpy Gibson Beats the A's As Mel Didier had predicted, Eckersley served up a hanging slider. Gibson launched it into the right-field seats.