HOVG REWIND: July 17, 2016

TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY courtesy of National Pastime

1941 – Thanks to the outstanding defensive work of Indians’ third baseman Ken Keltner, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak ends in Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium in front of 67,000 fans. The ‘Yankee Clipper’ who batted .408 during the stretch, will begin another streak that will last 17 games, extending the remarkable span of hitting safely to 73 of 74 games.

1961 – After checking in a month earlier at an Atlanta hospital, where he placed beside his bed a brown bag filled with $1 million in negotiable securities along a with Luger, Ty Cobb dies at the age of seventy-four after a long battle with cancer. Only three former players, Ray Schalk, Mickey Cochrane, and Nap Rucker, along with Baseball Hall of Fame director Sid Keener, attend the Georgia Peach’s funeral services.

1990 – Minnesota becomes the first team in baseball history to turn two triple plays in the same game. The Twins’ multiple around-the-horn triple killings, both being accomplished after being started by the third baseman (5-5-4-3), aren’t enough when the team loses to the Red Sox at Fenway Park, 1-0.

And finally…in 2000, on the first pitch he ever sees in the major leagues, Chris Richard homers, helping the Cardinals defeat the Twins, 8-3. It is only the fourth time in franchise history the feat has been accomplished.

PLAYERS BORN TODAY

Lou Boudreau (1917), Don Kessinger (1942), Bobby Thigpen (1963) and Adam Lind (1983)