100th anniversary: Cubs top Reds after wild ninth

A hundred years ago today, the Chicago Cubs won a wild one. For much of the game it was anything but wild, but the ending sure was memorable.

The Cubs were just a few years a removed from their 1906-10 glory run that saw them win four pennants and two world titles in five years. Though past their prime in 1912, they were still a good team. And they spent most of Sept. 26, 1912 proving it.

They scored early and often, taking a 9-0 lead over the Reds after eight innings. This was as routine and unexciting a game as you could imagine.

Then came the ninth inning.

The Reds starting hitting and wouldn’t stop. The Cubs sure couldn’t stop them and before you can say, “there goes the lead,” the lead went away. By the time the Cubs managed to record the third out, 10 runs had crossed the plate. The Cubs had somehow blown a nine-run lead in the ninth inning.

That’s a tough loss. Or, more accurately, it would be a tough loss if the Reds could hold on to it. These Cubs hadn’t won all those games over the years by lacking character. And as tough as that last inning was, the Cubs weren’t done yet.

Sure enough, they managed to score a run to tie it. Then they plated another run for an insane 11-10 walk-off win. It’s rare that you see two leads blown in the ninth inning. It’s rare that a team blows a nine-run lead. It’s rare that a team scores 10 runs in an inning. But all of the above occurred in one memorable inning.

As it happened, this was the third time that season that a team scored 10 runs in an inning only to lose. Back on May 3, the Yankees scored 10 runs in the ninth, but lost to the A’s anyway, 18-15. On June 20, the Braves scored 10 runs in the bottom of the ninth, but lost 21-12.

In all three games, the 10-run inning came in the ninth, which tells you something about how teams handled their pitchers back then. Has the hurler lost his stuff? Eh, let him battle. Besides, we have a big lead. Let the other side score some meaningless runs—who cares? Only in the Cubs game was the lead slender enough to fall to a 10-run frame.

This victory would be the last hurrah for those great Cubs teams. As the season ended later that week, the team fired longtime player-manager Frank Chance. But at least Chance could say his Cubs team won their last wild game.

And that wild ninth inning between the Reds and Cubs occurred exactly 100 years ago today.

Aside from that, many other events celebrate their anniversary or “day-versary” (which is something that occurred X-thousand days ago) today. Here they are, with the better ones in bold if you’d rather just skim.

Day-versaries

4,000 days since Curt Schilling gets a complete game victory for Arizona in Game Five of the NLDS. It’s a 2-1 win over the Cardinals, with the winning run scoring in the bottom of the ninth for the Diamondbacks.

5,000 days since five people are injured when a fiberglass panel falls from the roof of Olympic Stadium in Montreal during the setup for an auto show.

7,000 days since Brad Ausmus makes his big league debut.

7,000 days since Bruce Ruffin has the longest relief out in Rockies history: 6.1 innings.

7,000 days since Ken Griffey Jr. homers in the eighth consecutive game.

7,000 days since Travis Fryman hits for the cycle.

10,000 days since Davey Concepcion gets his 2,000th hit.

15,000 days since Cesar Cedeno hits an inside the park home run on a 200-foot hit. Dodgers fielders Bill Buckner and Jim Lefebvre collide trying to get it, and Cedeno rushes around the bases before anyone else can reach the ball.

15,000 days since Darrell Porter makes his big league debut.

15,000 days since Rich Aurilia is born.

15,000 days since Sonny Siebert has one of the most complete games by any pitcher ever. He throws a complete game shutout and hits two homers. He drives in three runs on those two homers – and those are the game’s only RBIs in a 3-0 Red Sox victory over the Orioles. It’s the only time any pitcher (since 1920 anyway) has combined a shutout with multiple homers in a game, and had all his team’s RBIs.

Anniversaries

1896 Hall of Famer Tommy McCarthy plays his final game.

1896 Pittsburgh drafts Jesse Tannehill from Richmond of the Virginia League in the Rule 5 draft.

1897 Jake Beckley belts three home runs in one game.

1903 Brickyard Kennedy, one of the workhorse pitchers of the 1890s, plays in his final game.

1903 George Van Haltren, outfielder who probably belongs in Cooperstown, plays in his last big league contest.

1905 Ed Walsh throws two complete game victories over the Red Sox. Well, not technically, but close enough. Doc White starts game one but leaves with zero outs recorded. Walsh pitches nine innings in relief (without warming up) in that game and then nine as a starter in the second game.

1905 Joe Stanley of Washington belts his second and last career home run, which doubles as his second and last career grand slam.

1906 Lefty Leifield throws a shortened game no-hitter: Pittsburgh tops Philadelphia 8-0 in six innings.

1906 The A’s score a run, something they’d failed to do for 48 consecutive innings.

1908 Ed Reulbach throws two shutouts in one day, the only pitcher ever to do that. Chicago beats Brooklyn, 5-0 and 3-0.

1910 Pirates pitcher Sam Leever last appears on the mound.

1919 Sport Sullivan and Arnold Rothstein, two big gamblers, discuss fixing the 1919 World Series.

1920 Eddie Cicotte and Happy Felsch, Black Sox who helped throw the 1919 World Series, play in their final game.

1922 Hall of Famer Jesse Haines allows two inside-the-park home runs in one game. One is to star third baseman Heinie Groh, who has a better Cooperstown case than Haines.

1922 Hall of Fame shortstop Dave Bancroft has possibly his worst game ever at the plate, going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts.

1925 Bobby Shantz, pitcher, is born.

1926 Dazzy Vance fans 15 batters, tying his personal best in a nine-inning game. His line: 9 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, and 15 K.

1926 Fats Fothergill hits for the cycle.

1926 Fred Merkle plays in his final game.

1926 Lee Fohl manages his last game.

1926 In the second game of a doubleheader, Hall of Fame shortstop Travis Jackson plays in right field, his only time in the outfield.

1926 With the pennant race over the day before, the Yankees and Browns sprint through a doubleheader in two hours and seven minutes. (72 minutes for the first game, and 55 for the second).

1927 Jim Bottomley, Hall of Fame first baseman, has perhaps his worst game ever, going 0-for-6 with three Ks. He has seven other three-K games, but none of them were 0-for-6 performances.

1929 The American League postpones all its games, in honor of Yankees manager Miller Huggins, who just died.

1930 Bob Meusel, outfielder, plays in his last game.

1930 Ted Lyons belts a home run off fellow Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt.

1936 Bucky Harris manages his 2,000th game. His record: 1,008-977.

1936 Carl Hubbell wins his 16th straight game in his final decision of the year. His streak will go to a still-standing record of 24 wins before ending in 1937.

1936 George Earnshaw, pitcher, last appears in a major league game.

1937 Sheriff Blake, pitcher, makes his final appearance in a big league game.

1940 Hall of Fame skippers Joe McCarthy and Connie Mack square off against each other for the 200th time.

1940 Enos Slaughter’s best hitting streak peaks at 26 games. He’s 34-for-81 with a .420/.472/.667 AVG/OBP/SLG in that span.

1940 New York sportswriter Jimmy Powers apologizes for an August column in which he said the Yankees were having a bad season due to a polio epidemic they caught from Lou Gehrig.

1941 Bob Feller throws his fifth career one-hitter. Rick Ferrell laid down a bunt single in the fifth inning for the only hit off Feller, who also walked seven.

1942 Larry French makes his last big league appearance. He’ll join the Navy in the offseason and stay in it until the end of the 1960s.

1942 It’s Scrap Metal Day at the Polo Grounds. where the Giants give free admission to all kids who bring in some scrap metal to help the war effort. During the game, the kids run wild, forcing the Giants to forfeit to the Braves. As it happens, it’s the first major league start for Warren Spahn, who gets the complete game but not the win.

1943 Paul Waner belts his 600th career double. He’s only the fifth man to do that.

1944 Temperamental pitcher Johnny Allen plays in his last game.

1945 Dave Duncan, catcher more famous as Tony LaRussa’s longtime pitching coach, is born.

1946 Hank Greenberg homers twice in one game for the second time in the span of three games.

1947 Yankees pitcher Spud Chandler last appears in a game.

1948 The Boston Braves clinch their first pennant in 34 years.

1950 Reliever Jim Konstanty of the Phillies appears in his 71st game of the year, setting a record.

1950 Lew Burdette makes his big league debut.

1951 Monte Irvin enjoys perhaps his best game as a major leaguer, going 3-for-5 with a double, triple and home run. He scores twice and drives in four in New York’s 10-1 beating of the Phillies.

1953 Al Kaline hits his first home run.

1953 Johnny Mize appears in his last regular-season game. (He’ll also play in next month’s World Series to end his career.)

1954 Karl Spooner, who fanned 15 in his major league debut just four days earlier, fans 12 in a 1-0 win over the Pirates.

1954 Kevin Kennedy, manager/Fox sports talking head, is born.

1954 Joe Garagiola plays in his last game.

1954 It’s the last game ever for the Philadelphia A’s. They beat the Yankees, 8-6, in part because of a screwy lineup Casey Stengel fields that day. He puts Yogi Berra at third for the only time and gives Mickey Mantle his only start at shortstop.

1954 Phillies center fielder Richie Ashburn plays in his 730th consecutive game.

1956 In his first major league start, Baltimore’s Charlie Beamon beats the Yankees, 1-0.

1956 Dale Mitchell plays in his last regular season game. That said, his most famous moment is still coming up, as he’ll be the final out in Don Larsen’s perfect game.

1956 Jackie Robinson fans three times in a game for the only time in his career. He has only three more regular season starts left in his career.

1956 Vic Wertz blasts four doubles in one game in an 8-4 Indians win over the A’s.

1958 Texas League team Corpus Christi agrees not to use black players in the Dixie Series with the Southern Association.

1958 Pee Wee Reese plays in his last game.

1958 Virgil Trucks makes his final appearance in a major league game.

1959 Orlando Cepeda gets on base for the first of four times in his career via catcher’s interference. Most players never get on that way.

1959 Toothpick Sam Jones throws a shortened game no-hitter: 4-0 for the Giants over the Cardinals in seven innings.

1960 Matty Alou makes his big league debut.

1961 Bill Freehan makes his big league debut.

1961 In a Yankees-Orioles contest, Roger Maris hits his 60th home run, tying Babe Ruth for the single-season record. Orioles pitcher Jack Fisher surrenders the record-tying blast. In that same game, Boog Powell makes his big league debut.

1961 Steve Buechele is born.

1962 The Mets set a modern record by losing their 118th game.

1962 In his big league debut, Dave McNally throws a complete-game shutout: Orioles 3, A’s 0.

1966 Willie McCovey hits his 200th home run.

1966 Ron Reed, pitcher, makes his big league debut.

1967 Jim Kaat strikes out 13 batters in a game, his personal best. It comes in the greatest month of pitching of his life and he tries his best to keep the Twins in a four-way pennant race that season. In September 1967, Kaat throws 63 innings with 63 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.51. .

1967 Lou Brock enjoys his second two-homer game of the month and fourth of the season. In his lengthy career, he’ll have only six multi-home run games in all, but four come in one year. Today is also his best ever WPA game, as he goes 4-for-5 with two homers and three RBIs, but his Cardinals lose to the Cubs, 8-7.

1969 The White Sox play their last home game in Milwaukee and lose 5-3 to the Royals before 9,587 fans.

1969 Pitcher Al Jackson, most famous as an early Met, appears in his last game.

1969 Exactly eight years after surrendering Roger Maris’ 60th homer of the year, pitcher Jack Fisher appears in his last game.

1969 Rod Carew tries to steal home for a record eighth time of the season, but it doesn’t go according to plan. He knocks over umpire Jim Honochick, who calls Carew out. Upset, Carew flings his helmet, earning an ejection.

1971 Jim Palmer wins his 20th game of the year, giving the Orioles four different 20-game winners on the season.

1971 Ernie Banks plays in his final game.

1971 Tom Seaver throws his third career one-hitter.

1971 Willie Mays scores his 2,000th run.

1971 Bobby Bonds belts his 100th home run.

1972 Boston pitcher Marty Pattin homers. The team won’t have another pitcher homer until Josh Beckett does it in 2006.

1974 Juan Pizarro, veteran pitcher, appears in his last game.

1975 Harmon Killebrew plays in his final game.

1975 Clyde Wright, pitcher, appears in his last game.

1977 Ernie Lombardi, Hall of Fame catcher, dies at age 69.

1978 Bert Blyleven wins his 13th complete-game shutout by a score of 1-0. He’ll end his career with 15 of them, more than any pitcher since Walter Johnson. This is his only one as a Pirate, as he tops the Mets.

1978 Courts rule that baseball teams should allow female reporters access to the locker rooms.

1978 Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan loses a no-hitter with two outs in the ninth when Cleveland’s Gary Alexander homers.

1979 Frank White hits for the cycle.

1979 Bruce Boisclair hits the rare inside-the-hat home run. It’s a shot to shallow center, and Cubs outfielder Larry Biittner dives for it, but doesn’t get it. He looks all over for it after getting up, but can’t find it anywhere. As Boisclair finishes running around the bases, a disgusted Biittner decides to grab his hat off the ground—only to find the ball underneath it.

1979 Bill Gullickson makes his big league debut.

1979 Phil Niekro becomes the first NL pitcher since Irv Young, over 70 years before, to win and lose 20 games in the same season. It’s still the last time an NL pitcher lost has lost 20 games in a year.

1980 Johnny Bench, who has over 1,000 more plate appearances to go in his career, is hit by a pitch for the last time.

1981 Carl Yastrzemski gets his 600th double. He’s the ninth man to do that.

1981 Nolan Ryan throws his fifth career no-hitter, leading Houston to a 5-0 win over the Dodgers. It’s NBC’s Game of the Week, too, but the network’s Buffalo affiliate goes away from the game just before the last out to air “Life Aboard an Aircraft Carrier.”

1983 Bob Forsch throws his second career no-hitter. He also avoids any walks, but hits a batter, and has an error occur behind him. St. Louis 3, Montreal 0.

1983 Hall of Fame hurler Fergie Jenkins appears in his last game.

1984 For the 14th time in his career, Bert Blyleven wins a complete game shutout by a 1-0 score. This time Cleveland beats the Mariners.

1986 Toronto beats the Red Sox, 1-0, in 12 innings. The game features 20 hits and seven walks, but no one could score.

1987 Juan Beniquez hits a bases-loaded, walk-off triple, something that’s happened only seven times since 1953.

1987 Len Barker, who once threw a perfect game, makes his last big league appearance.

1991 Ten days before his career ends, Dwight Evans receives a walk-off walk. It’s the second one of his career as his current team beats his old team: Baltimore 6, Boston 5.

1992 Barry Bonds’ longest hitting streak peaks at 15 games. That’s right, he never had a streak longer than that (though he will tie it in 2001).

1992 Richard Seitz, creator of the APBA baseball game, dies at age 77.

1993 George Brett hits his final big league home run—a walk-off homer, in fact. It caps his 17th and final multi-home run game.

1993 Randy Johnson experiences the longest start of his career, 10 innings. It’s the only time he goes more than nine innings.

1995 Paul Molitor hits his 500th double.

1997 Ron Karkovice, White Sox catcher, makes his last big league appearance.

1997 Woody English, shortstop in the late 1920s and early 1930s, dies.

1998 Dennis Eckersley appears in his 1,071st game, breaking Hoyt Wilhelm’s old record for games pitched. Good thing Eckersley sets it today, because it turns out this is his final big league game.

1998 In one game, Ken Griffey Jr. plays center, left, right and first base.

1998 Bob Tewksbury makes his last appearance in a big league game.

1998 Juan Samuel makes his last big league appearance a distinctive one. He comes in as a pinch runner and steals third, something very few guys do in their last game.

1999 Rickey Henderson has his worst game ever, according to WPA. He goes 0-for-5 with a strikeout and a GIDP as his Mets lose 3-2 to the Phillies for a WPA of –0.571.

2001 Mark McGwire has his 67th and final multi-home run game.

2003 John Burkett pitches in his last game.

2003 Rick Reed, pitcher with great control, last appears in the majors.

2004 Veteran manager Frank Robinson loses his 1,000th game. His record: 911-1,000.

2005 For only the fourth time in history, a player homers in what turns out to be his only plate appearance of the season. Eddie Rogers does it today.

2006 Woody Williams becomes the fifth pitcher to record a victory against all 30 franchises when he tops St. Louis today. The first four members of the club are Al Leiter, Kevin Brown, Terry Mulholland and Curt Schilling.

2007 Baseball suspends umpire Mike Winters for the rest of the season for baiting Milton Bradley in a recent argument that resulted in Bradley’s injury when his manager had to restrain him from going after the ump.

2007 Barry Bonds plays in his final big league game.

2010 Miguel Montero does something rather rare for a catcher, belting two triples in one game.

2010 In a pre-game infield drill, second baseman Alexi Casilla accidentally pegs Twins manager Ron Gardenhire in the ear. Gardenhire will have ear surgery that day—right in Minnesota’s clubhouse!

2011 Ancient wonder of the baseball world Jack McKeon announces that he won’t be back to manage the Marlins next year.

2011 The Tigers win, propelling Jim Leyland’s career record over .500 (1,586-1,585). It’s the first time his record has been positive since May 4, 1998. He hit .500 a few times earlier this month but is now finally over the hump.

2011 Ozzie Guillen manages the White Sox for the last time. After the game, the club announces that it released Guillen from his contract at his request.