August 2024
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On August 10th, 1971, at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew became the 10th member of the 500-home run club. “Killer” hit his 500th and 501st home runs in a 5-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Killebrew hit his historic homer in the first inning off Mike Cuellar. I never saw Harmon Read more
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On August 9th, 1975, at Shea Stadium during a 2-0 win vs the New York Mets, Davey Lopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers breaks the record for most consecutive stolen bases without being caught. Lopes steals his 32nd straight base, eclipsing the record held by Max Carey. The Dodger second baseman’s mark will be broken Read more
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On July 8th, 1982, just five days after hitting three home runs in a 5 – 4 loss to the Twins, California’s Doug DeCinces hit three more home runs in a 9 – 5 win at Seattle, joining Ted Williams as the only American League players ever to hit three home runs in a game twice in the same season. As I do these Read more
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On August 7th, 1958 the Pittsburgh Pirates signed 18-year-old Willie Stargell. Willie Stargell finished his 21-year Hall of Fame with 475 homers. All of them for the Pittsburgh Pirates. One of the highlights for me of my trip to Pittsburgh and PNC park last week was seeing the Willie Stargell statue. I like when teams Read more
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On August 6th, 1988, Goose Gossage becomes the second player in major league history to record 300 career saves when he faces one batter and gets the final out in the Cubs’ 7-4 victory over Philadelphia at Wrigley Field. The future Hall of Fame right-handed reliever joins Rollie Fingers, who reached the milestone in 1982. Read more
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On August 4th, 1993, Tony Gwynn had six hits against the Giants. It was the Padres outfielder’s fourth game of 1993 with five or more hits. He became only the third person to get five hits or better that many times in a season. Tony Gwynn won 8 batting titles and finished his 20-year career with a Read more
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On August 3rd, 1987, Twins pitcher Joe Niekro was caught with a file on the mound and was ejected during Minnesota’s 11-3 win over the Angels. He ended up being suspended for ten games by American League president Bobby Brown, who doesn’t buy Niekro’s story that he had been filing his nails on the bench and stuck the file Read more
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On August 2nd, 1979, Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, 32, died when the plane he was piloting crashed in Canton, Ohio. A crowd of 51,151 attended the memorial tribute at Yankee Stadium the following day (August 3rd).. In August of 1979, I was home in Dillon, Montana, preparing to return to my sophomore year at Concordia College Read more
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On August 1st, 1994, Baltimore’s Cal Ripken, Jr. became only the second major leaguer to play 2,000 straight games as the Orioles beat Minnesota, 1-0. There are a handful of historic baseball games that I have had the privilege of attending in person. The Twins-Orioles game on August 1st, 1994, is one of those games. My brother Read more
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