October 29
From BR Bullpen
| Stats of players who were born this day | |
| Stats of players who died on this day | |
| Standings on this day | |
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| Today in Baseball History | |
Events, births and deaths that occurred on October 29.
Events[edit]
- 1920 - Boston Red Sox manager Ed Barrow becomes the general manager of the New York Yankees. Barrow led the Red Sox to the World Championship in 1918 and will find even greater success in New York. Hugh Duffy replaces Barrow in Boston.
- 1931 - Lefty Grove, winner of 31 games for the Philadelphia Athletics, is named American League MVP. Grove led the league in strikeouts for the seventh straight season and topped all pitchers in winning percentage, ERA and complete games.
- 1942 - Branch Rickey, the architect of the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system, resigns as the team's vice president. The future Hall of Famer will become the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
- 1945 - Happy Chandler, who had continued to serve in the U.S. Senate after becoming commissioner, resigns his political office. He will move the commissioner's quarters to Cincinnati.
- 1956 - The Chicago White Sox name future Hall of Famer Al Lopez as their new manager. Lopez replaces Marty Marion, who was fired after guiding the Sox to a third-place finish in the American League.
- 1969 - Tom Seaver, who won 25 games to help lead the Mets to one of the most unlikely World Championships in major league history, is voted the National League Cy Young Award winner.
- 1975 - Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox is the overwhelming choice as American League Rookie of the Year. Lynn, who helped the Red Sox to the AL championship, made the All-Star team, hit .331 with 21 home runs and 105 RBI, and led the league in runs (103), doubles (47), slugging percentage (.566) and OPS (.967). A Gold Glove winner as well, he will become the first rookie to win the Most Valuable Player Award later this off-season.
- 1979 - Hall of Famer Willie Mays severs all ties to Major League Baseball after signing a contract with the Bally Corporation, which is involved with legalized gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey
- 1981 - Bill Giles, Phillies vice president for the past 11 years, heads a group that purchases the club for just over $30 million, the highest price paid to date for a major league club. Giles is the son of long-time National League president and Hall of Fame member Warren C. Giles.
- 1985 - St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andújar is suspended for the first ten games of the 1986 season as a result of his World Series Game 7 tantrum during which he twice bumped home plate umpire Don Denkinger. A controversial call by Denkinger at first base in Game 6 helped to force a seventh game as the Kansas City Royals won the World Series championship.
- 1989 - The Kintetsu Buffaloes drop their fourth straight game to blow a three-games-to-none lead to begin the 1989 Japan Series. Isao Koda wins Game 7 by an 8 - 5 margin while three Yomiuri Giants batters homer.
- 1991 - Buck Showalter replaces Stump Merrill as the manager of the New York Yankees. At age 35, Showalter becomes the youngest active manager in the major leagues. He will manage the Yankees through the end of the 1995 season.
- 1994 - Hiromi Makihara wins his second game of the 1994 Japan Series, 3 - 1, to give the Yomiuri Giants the Series in six games over the Seibu Lions. Henry Cotto homers, while Kimiyasu Kudoh takes the loss.
- 2001 - Commissioner Bud Selig says Major League Baseball is considering eliminating two teams by the start of next season. Contraction would include the Montreal Expos and either the Minnesota Twins or the Florida Marlins.
- 2002 - Bringing the total to seven this month, three new managers are named, including Ned Yost (Milwaukee), Ken Macha (Oakland) and Eric Wedge (Cleveland). Being younger than two of his players (Ellis Burks and Omar Vizquel), Wedge, at the age of 34, becomes the youngest non-playing manager in major league history.
- 2007:
- The SK Wyverns win their first Korean Series, taking the final four games of the 2007 Korean Series after dropping two to the Doosan Bears. The MVP is veteran Jae-hyun Kim, who is coming off a .196 season, clearly the worst in a career in which he topped .300 six times.
- Nippon Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish wins the Sawamura Award. He went 15-5 with a 1.82 ERA to help the team win the Pacific League pennant.
- 2008 - The Phillies only need to play three innings to win the 2008 World Series for the second world championship in their history. They outscore the Rays, 2 - 1, during the final three innings to win a rain-suspended Game 5, begun two days earlier, 4 - 3. J.C. Romero gets his second win of the Series and Cole Hamels is named World Series MVP.
- 2009:
- The Yankees even the World Series by taking Game 2 at home, 3 - 1, over the Phillies. A.J. Burnett and Mariano Rivera combine for the win while Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui go deep against the Phils' Pedro Martinez.
- The 2009 NPB draft is held. A record six of the 12 teams name Yusei Kikuchi, a hard-throwing high school southpaw, with their #1 pick; the Seibu Lions win rights to the highly-coveted prospect. Outfielder Hisayoshi Chono is picked for the third time of his career; he is finally taken by the only team he is interested in, the Yomiuri Giants, and will sign with them. In 2010, he will be named Central League Rookie of the Year.
- 2011 - The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim name Jerry Dipoto as their new General Manager, replacing Tony Reagins.
- 2013:
- Winners of the 2013 Gold Glove Awards are announced. The Baltimore Orioles, who set an all-time record by committing only 54 errors as a team, take home three trophies, courtesy of SS J.J. Hardy, 3B Manny Machado and CF Adam Jones. Eight of the recipients are first-time winners, while Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina takes home his sixth award.
- The White Sox formally announce the signing of Cuban defector José Dariel Abreu to a six-year, $68 million deal, hoping he will follow in the footsteps of Yoenis Cespedes and Yasiel Puig, who became impact players immediately upon reaching the big leagues. He will do that and more, with a tremendous rookie season in 2014.
- The Rakuten Golden Eagles win Game 3 of the 2013 Japan Series, 5 - 1. Manabu Mima, Ken Ray and Takashi Saitoh combine to hold the Yomiuri Giants to one run and six hits, while Kazuya Fujita and Ginji Akaminai hit back-to-back two-run doubles in the 2nd off Toshiya Sugiuchi.
- 2014:
- The Hanshin Tigers lose their eighth straight Japan Series road game, falling 5 - 2 to the Softbank Hawks to fall behind 3-1 in the 2014 Japan Series. Two-time Korean Series MVP Seung-hwan Oh is the goat, serving up a three-run dinger to light-hitting Akira Nakamura in the bottom of the 10th. Softbank gets seven shutout relief innings from Nao Higashihama, Yuito Mori, Ryota Igarashi and Dennis Sarfate after a rough start from Kenichi Nakata.
- The Giants win Game 7 of the World Series, 3 - 2, over the Royals to clinch their third Championship in five years. Madison Bumgarner pitches the last five innings without giving up a run to earn the save, completing an otherworldly pitching performance that earns him the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.
- 2015:
- The Softbank Hawks win the 2015 Japan Series, taking Game 5 with a 5 - 0 win over the Yakult Swallows. They become the first Japan Series champions to successfully defend their title since the Seibu Lions in 1992. Dae-ho Lee hits a two-run homer off Masanori Ishikawa in the 4th for the winning blow and is named Japan Series MVP with eight hits, 16 total bases and eight RBI in five games. He is the first foreigner to win the award since Troy Neel in 1996. Jason Standridge and three relievers combine on the shutout as Softbank allows two runs or fewer in three of the five games.
- The Marlins hire Don Mattingly, who recently parted ways with the Dodgers, as their new manager, while the Padres introduce Andy Green as their new skipper.
- 2016:
- The Nippon Ham Fighters win the 2016 Japan Series, taking four in a row after dropping the first two games. In Game 6, it is 4 - 4 entering the 8th. With two outs in that frame, Nippon Ham lights up Jay Jackson for three hits, a bases-loaded walk by Sho Nakata, a RBI single by pitcher Anthony Bass and a grand slam by Series MVP Brandon Laird. Bass gets his third win of the Series.
- The Indians win Game 4 of the World Series, 7 - 2, over the Cubs at Wrigley Field, behind the pitching of Corey Kluber. The Cubs take an early lead in the 1st, but it does not last as Carlos Santana homers off John Lackey in the 2nd, and a couple of errors by Kris Bryant lead to another run. The Indians put the game away with a three-run homer by Jason Kipnis off Travis Wood in the 7th.
- Major League Baseball honors its top relievers, as Zach Britton of the Orioles wins the Mariano Rivera Award as the best relief pitcher in the AL, while Kenley Jansen is the winner of the equivalent honor, the Trevor Hoffman Award, in the NL.
- The EDA Rhinos win the 2016 Taiwan Series for their lone title as the team's sale to Fubon will be finalized in three days. They trail Game 6 to the Chinatrust Brothers, 3 - 1, entering the 9th, thanks to a three-run blast by Chih-Hsien Chiang. Closer Hung-Wen Chen comes in to wrap it up but EDA gets four singles in the span of five batters to tie it, then veteran 1B Cheng-Min Peng makes a game-losing error on a grounder by Kun-Sheng Lin. Sheng-Hsiung Huang saves the game and Hua-Wei Lo gets the win. Rhinos CF Che-Hsuan Lin is named Series MVP.
- For the first time in Korean Series history, a game ends on a sacrifice fly. After eight shutout innings (six no-hit frames) by the Doosan Bears' Dustin Nippert and six blanks by the NC Dinos' Zach Stewart, both teams receive solid relief pitching. In the bottom of the 11th, though, the Bears load the bases on two singles and a walk, one of the singles coming on a fly lost in the lights. Jae-il Oh then hits a sacrifice fly off Chang-min Lim to bring in Kyoung-min Hur with the winner.
- The Occidentales win the Cuban All-Star Game, 2 - 1. Julio Pablo Martínez opens the game with a homer for the Orientales but they get no-hit for the next nine innings. Leonardo Urgellés drives in both Occidentales runs, the winner being a solo homer in the 5th. Adrián Sosa is the winning hurler and José Angel García gets the save.
- 2017:
- The Softbank Hawks win Game 2 of the 2017 Japan Series, 4 - 3. Down 3 - 1 entering the 7th, they score three in the home half of the frame. The winning hit is controversial as Yuki Yanagita and Kenta Imamiya score on a two-run single by Akira Nakamura, but Imamiya is originally ruled out at home. After an appeal by Hawks skipper Kimiyasu Kudoh, it is overturned after several minutes of video review.
- Reports emerge that the Nationals have hired Dave Martinez to be their new manager. Martinez was the bench coach for Joe Maddon with both the Rays and the Cubs and was a player with the Nats' predecessors, the Montréal Expos.
- Game 5 of the 2017 World Series is another wild one, as the Astros defeat the Dodgers, 13 - 12, in ten innings. The Astros come back from early deficits of 4 - 0 and 7 - 4, and the Dodgers are down, 12 - 9, in the top of the 9th before forcing extra innings, when Alex Bregman drives in pinch-runner Derek Fisher with a hit to left field off Kenley Jansen to end the contest. The game takes 5 hours and 17 minutes and features seven homers, for a record total of 22 in the series, with at least one more game to be played.
- 2018:
- The Mets hire prominent player agent Brodie Van Wagenen as their General Manager, replacing Sandy Alderson. Other GMs have worked briefly as agents in the past, but none so prominent as Van Wagenen, who heads his own firm, CAA Baseball, and has a number of his clients currently playing in the organization.
- After winning a pitching Triple Crown and also throwing more shutouts than three other entire teams in the Central League, Tomoyuki Sugano wins the Sawamura Award. The Yomiuri Giants ace is the first pitcher to repeat since Masaaki Saito in 1995-1996.
- 2019 - For a record sixth straight game, the visiting team is the winner in Game 6 of the World Series, as Washington defeats Houston, 7 - 2, to force a Game 7. After giving up a pair of 1st-inning runs, Stephen Strasburg pitches into the 9th inning, while Anthony Rendon drives in five runs. Two of these come in the pivotal 7th inning on a homer that follows a controversial interference call by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook that goes against Washington and leads to the ejection of manager Dave Martinez. For Houston, Justin Verlander is now 0-6 in seven career World Series starts, a blight on an otherwise stellar career.
- 2020 - The White Sox dig deep into their past to name their new manager, plucking 76-year-old Hall of Famer Tony LaRussa from retirement. He first managed the Sox from 1979 to 1986, and the 35-year gap between stints managing the same team is the longest in North American professional sports history. Observers helpfully point out that not a single current player was even born when he first began managing, the oldest current major leaguer being Albert Pujols, who was born in 1980.
- 2021 - The Braves win Game 3 of the World Series, 2 - 0, to take a two-games-to-one lead over the Astros. Ian Anderson throws five hitless innings before being removed with a 1 - 0 lead, and the Astros don't get their first hit until pinch-hitter Aledmys Diaz leads off the 8th with a single off Tyler Matzek, the Braves' fourth pitcher. However, the Astros only get two hits all game and cannot score. Austin Riley gives Atlanta the lead with a double in the 3rd and Travis d'Arnaud adds a solo homer in the bottom of the 8th to account for the scoring.
- 2022:
- The Astros tie the World Series at one win apiece by beating the Phillies, 5 - 2, in Game 2. They score two runs on three consecutive doubles on Zack Wheeler's first four pitches of the game, add another on an error by SS Edmundo Sosa also in the 1st, and two more on a homer by Alex Bregman in the 5th for a 5 - 0 lead. Framber Valdez is excellent in 6 1/3 innings of work, but the Phillies threaten in each of the last four innings, including Kyle Schwarber missing a two-run homer by maybe six inches in the 8th, but they fall short, 5 - 2.
- The Orix Buffaloes take a three-games-to-two lead in the Japan Series with a pitching and defensive masterpiece. Sachiya Yamasaki, Yuki Udagawa, Yoshihisa Hirano, Soichiro Yamazaki and Jacob Waguespack combine on a one-hitter, a leadoff single by Yasutaka Shiomi ruining the no-hit bid. Orix scrapes together three runs, only one in the first eight innings, as Yasuhiro Ogawa is nearly as good as Yamasaki.
- 2023 - A day after being blown out 8-0 in the 2023 Japan Series opener, the defending champion Buffaloes come back with a 8-0 win of their own. Hiroya Miyagi and three relievers (including Udagawa and Yamazaki from the gem off a year prior) combine on a four-hitter against the Hanshin Tigers. Marwin Gonzalez's pinch-hit three-run double makes it 7-0 in the 7th.
Births[edit]
- 1850 - George Ewell, outfielder (d. 1910)
- 1852 - Sam Kimber, pitcher (d. 1925)
- 1857 - Edward Fountain, umpire (d. 1923)
- 1859 - Charlie Ebbets, manager (d. 1925)
- 1859 - John Reccius, outfielder (d. 1930)
- 1863 - Mark Baldwin, pitcher (d. 1929)
- 1877 - Ham Iburg, pitcher (d. 1945)
- 1879 - J.W. Seabaugh, minor league catcher and manager (d. 1951)
- 1882 - Frank Browning, pitcher (d. 1948)
- 1882 - Solly Hofman, outfielder (d. 1956)
- 1883 - Del Mason, pitcher (d. 1962)
- 1888 - Earl Yingling, pitcher (d. 1962)
- 1889 - Andy Kyle, outfielder (d. 1971)
- 1891 - Happy Finneran, pitcher (d. 1942)
- 1897 - Ty Pickup, outfielder (d. 1974)
- 1909 - Ralph Winegarner, pitcher (d. 1988)
- 1916 - Willie Nixon, outfielder (d. 1979)
- 1920 - Stan Bartkowski, minor league outfielder and manager (d. 1985)
- 1923 - John Mackinson, pitcher (d. 1989)
- 1924 - Hal Bamberger, outfielder (d. 2010)
- 1925 - Genbei Tsuji, NPB utility man (d. 1944)
- 1927 - John Addison, minor league player (d. 2014)
- 1931 - Russ Tiedemann, college coach (d. 2015)
- 1939 - Pete Richert, pitcher; All-Star
- 1942 - Rigoberto Mena, minor league infielder
- 1944 - Jim Bibby, pitcher; All-Star (d. 2010)
- 1944 - Claude Brochu, owner
- 1944 - Glenn Ezell, coach (d. 2020)
- 1944 - Gary Neibauer, pitcher
- 1946 - Frank Baker, infielder
- 1951 - Kimiya Fujisawa, NPB pitcher
- 1953 - Randy McGilberry, pitcher
- 1954 - Kip Young, pitcher
- 1955 - Darrell Brown, outfielder
- 1957 - Terry Felton, pitcher
- 1957 - George Stablein, pitcher
- 1957 - Kuo-Hua Tung, Chinese Taipei national team outfielder
- 1959 - Jesse Barfield, outfielder; All-Star
- 1960 - Hilario Pacheco, minor league outfielder
- 1961 - Kiyoshi Yamanaka, NPB catcher
- 1962 - Ramon Sambo, minor league outfielder
- 1965 - Tokitaka Minamibuchi, NPB infielder
- 1966 - Pat Combs, pitcher
- 1966 - Jorge Hernandez, minor league manager
- 1967 - Narciso Elvira, pitcher (d. 2020)
- 1967 - Greg Gohr, pitcher
- 1967 - John Malzone, minor league infielder
- 1967 - Mandy Romero, catcher
- 1969 - Chaon Garland, minor league pitcher
- 1969 - Scott Sheridan, trainer
- 1970 - Kerwin Moore, outfielder
- 1971 - Wen-Po Huang, CPBL pitcher
- 1971 - En-Yi Lin, Taiwanese national team pitcher
- 1972 - Richie Barker, pitcher
- 1974 - R.A. Dickey, pitcher; All-Star
- 1975 - Karim Garcia, outfielder
- 1975 - Gary Johnson, outfielder
- 1975 - Scott Randall, pitcher
- 1975 - Modesto Villarreal, minor league pitcher
- 1977 - D.J. Svihlik, scout
- 1978 - Tak-Pong Chow, Hong Kong national team pitcher
- 1979 - Carlos Alberto Gastelum, minor league infielder
- 1979 - Randy Giorgiadis, First Division infielder
- 1980 - Takateru Iyono, NPB pitcher
- 1980 - Johanna Ramos, Puerto Rican womens' national team pitcher
- 1982 - Juan Dieguez, Guatemalan national team player
- 1982 - Will Venable, outfielder
- 1983 - Dana Eveland, pitcher
- 1983 - Rhett Teller, minor league infielder
- 1984 - Jose Mijares, pitcher
- 1985 - Kentaro Kuwahara, NPB pitcher
- 1986 - Magdaliza Aponte, Puerto Rican womens' national team pitcher
- 1986 - Nick Barese, college coach
- 1986 - Jae-il Oh, KBO infielder
- 1986 - Luis Revolorio, Guatemalan national team infielder
- 1986 - David Roberts, minor league pitcher
- 1987 - Jake Rabinowitz, Extraliga player
- 1988 - Mike Bisenius, minor league outfielder
- 1988 - John Hellweg, pitcher
- 1988 - Yogey Perez-Ramos, minor league infielder
- 1988 - Yariel Soto, Puerto Rican national team catcher
- 1990 - Matt Borgschulte, coach
- 1990 - Kuan-Ju Chen, CPBL pitcher
- 1990 - Kuan-Yu Chen, NPB pitcher
- 1990 - Jae-hoon Ha, minor league outfielder
- 1990 - Ender Inciarte, outfielder; All-Star
- 1990 - Lars Liguori, minor league pitcher
- 1990 - Tyler White, infielder
- 1991 - Arismendy Alcantara, infielder
- 1991 - Craig Massoni, minor league infielder
- 1992 - Colten Brewer, pitcher
- 1993 - Blake Butler, minor league infielder
- 1993 - Deshorn Lake, minor league pitcher
- 1993 - Raudy Read, catcher
- 1994 - Shaun Anderson, pitcher
- 1994 - Addison Russ, minor league pitcher
- 1995 - Makauley Fox-Rolfe, New Zealand national team pitcher
- 1996 - Yordany Salva, minor league catcher
- 2001 - Duque Hebbert, signed pitcher
- 2001 - Konstantin Teufel, Austrian national team pitcher
Deaths[edit]
- 1899 - John Brockway, umpire (b. 1840)
- 1909 - John Lyston, pitcher (b. 1867)
- 1916 - Frank Hoffman, pitcher (b. 1862)
- 1923 - Jack Nabors, pitcher (b. 1887)
- 1923 - Jimmy Ryan, outfielder (b. 1863)
- 1924 - Pop Snyder, catcher, manager; umpire (b. 1854)
- 1930 - Gene Wright, pitcher (b. 1878)
- 1938 - Tom Daly, infielder (b. 1866)
- 1938 - Babe Towne, catcher (b. 1880)
- 1941 - Harvey Hendrick, infielder (b. 1897)
- 1941 - Wilbur Murdoch, outfielder (b. 1875)
- 1944 - Scott Hardesty, infielder (b. 1870)
- 1949 - John Malarkey, pitcher (b. 1872)
- 1959 - Dave Fultz, outfielder (b. 1875)
- 1961 - Tom Cafego, outfielder (b. 1911)
- 1964 - William Sumrall, pitcher (b. 1916)
- 1965 - Frank Fuller, infielder (b. 1894)
- 1965 - Bill McKechnie, infielder, manager; Hall of Famer (b. 1886)
- 1966 - Al Grabowski, pitcher (b. 1901)
- 1968 - Bill Hohman, outfielder (b. 1903)
- 1972 - Dutch Dietz, pitcher (b. 1912)
- 1973 - George Beck, pitcher (b. 1890)
- 1974 - Orie Kerlin, catcher (b. 1891)
- 1974 - Charlie Mason, outfielder (b. 1894)
- 1976 - Harry Malmberg, infielder (b. 1925)
- 1976 - Andy Sarvis, pitcher (b. 1907)
- 1982 - Bill O'Donnell, broadcaster (d. 1926)
- 1982 - Tom Sheehan, pitcher, manager (b. 1894)
- 1988 - Andy Cohen, infielder, manager (b. 1904)
- 1991 - Jimmie Coker, catcher (b. 1936)
- 1993 - Anse Moore, outfielder (b. 1917)
- 1995 - Al Niemiec, infielder (b. 1911)
- 1996 - Ewell Blackwell, pitcher; All-Star (b. 1922)
- 2002 - Muriel Bevis, AAGPBL pitcher/outfielder (b. 1928)
- 2006 - Si Simmons, pitcher (b. 1895)
- 2009 - Steve Fields, umpire (b. 1941)
- 2013 - Tetsuharu Kawakami, NPB infielder, manager; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1920)
- 2014 - Pedro Comas, minor league infielder (b. 1922)
- 2017 - Al Richter, infielder (b. 1927)
- 2020 - Tim Barker, minor league infielder (b. 1968)
- 2020 - Jim Hicks, outfielder (b. 1939)
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