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Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: Cubs hire Buck O'Neil who becomes first Black coach in major league history
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 29, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) Advertisement High temperature: 95 degrees (1942) Low temperature: 37 degrees (1984) Precipitation: 3.45 inches (1981) Snowfall: None 1962: The Chicago Cubs hired John 'Buck' O'Neil as the first Black on-field coach in major league history. 'I have never told anyone this before, but I was the one who talked to [then-Cubs owner] P.K. Wrigley and asked him to hire Buck,' Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks told the Tribune in 2006. 'That had always been between just me and Buck. I'm saying this with love today; it was me. I said to Mr. Wrigley: 'There is a man I know who has a lot of talent with baseball, it's Buck O'Neil.'' A solid-hitting first baseman, O'Neil barnstormed with pitching legend Satchel Paige during his youth and twice won a Negro leagues batting title. He later became a pennant-winning manager of the Kansas City Monarchs. Advertisement O'Neil — who fell short of induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by one vote in 2006 — was finally enshrined there in 2022. He died in 2006 at age 94. 1976: Six Flags Great America (which was originally known as Marriott's Great America) debuted in Gurnee. The $50 million-playland opened in miserable Memorial Day weekend weather, but 12,000 visitors still showed up. Roller coasters including the corkscrew barrel roll Turn of the Century were a big hit. 2013: Catcher Dioner Navarro had the first three home-run game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Cubs to a 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Navarro had 6 RBIs, drove in a career-high 5 runs and scored 4 times. Navarro hit six home runs for the White Sox during the 2016 season, before he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. Want more vintage Chicago? Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
Associated Press
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
This Date in Baseball - 39-year-old Pete Rose stole second base, third, and home in one inning
May 11 1904 — Cy Young's 23-inning no-hit string ended. The streak included two innings on April 25, six on April 30, a perfect game against the Philadelphia A's on May 5, and six innings today. 1919 — Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators pitched 12 scoreless innings in a duel with Jack Quinn of the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds. The Big Train allowed only two hits and retired 28 batters in a row. Future football star George Halas, batting leadoff for the Yankees, went 0-for-5, striking out twice. 1919 — Hod Eller of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a no-hitter to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0. Eller struck out eight and walked three. 1923 — Setting several Pacific Coast League records, Pete Schneider of Vernon hit five homers and a double to knock in 14 runs in a 35-11 romp over Salt Lake City. 1955 — Ernie Banks' grand slam — the first of five on the year — led the Chicago Cubs to a 10-8 victory that snapped the Brooklyn Dodgers' 11-game winning streak. 1963 — Sandy Koufax pitched the second of four career no-hitters to help Los Angeles beat San Francisco 8-0. 1971 — Cleveland pitcher Steve Dunning became the last American League pitcher to hit a grand slam before the inception of the designated hitter rule in 1973. Dunning's homer off Diego Segui of the Oakland A's gave the Indians a 5-0 lead, but Phil Hennigan got the victory as the Indians won 7-5. 1972 — Tom Seaver wins his 100th game in a 2-1 New York Mets victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets also acquire veteran outfielder Willie Mays from the San Francisco Giants for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000. 1977 — Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner decides to take the managerial reins of his team, which has lost 16 straight games. The Braves lose their 17th in a row in Turner's debut, as coach Vern Benson makes most of the strategic decisions. After the game, the National League removes Turner from the dugout, citing a rule that prevents an owner from doubling as manager. Dave Bristol, who was given a 'sabbatical' to allow Turner to step into the dugout, will be brought back to finish the year at the helm of the team. 1980 — 39-year-old Pete Rose steals second base, third, and home in one inning for the Phillies. The last National League player to pull this feat had been Jackie Robinson in 1954. 1996 — Al Leiter, the wildest pitcher in the American League the previous season, pitched the first no-hitter in Florida's brief history as the Marlins beat the Colorado Rockies 11-0. 1998 — Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs set the major league record for strikeouts in consecutive games (33) by fanning 13 Arizona Diamondbacks in a 4-2 victory. The record for strikeouts in two starts had been 32, set by Luis Tiant in 1968 and matched by Nolan Ryan (1974), Dwight Gooden (1984) and Randy Johnson (1997). 2000 — The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 14-8 in the longest nine-inning game in National League history — 4 hours, 22 minutes. The teams tied the major league record set by Baltimore and the Yankees on Sept. 5, 1997. 2003 — Rafael Palmeiro of Texas became the 19th player to join the 500-homer club. In a 17-10 win, Palmeiro hit a full-count fastball into the right field stands off Cleveland right-hander David Elder. 2009 — In the tallest pitching matchup in baseball history, 6-foot-10 Randy Johnson beat 6-9 Daniel Cabrera. The Big Unit and the towering Cabrera measure a combined 163 inches — one more than the combined heights of Cabrera and Mark Hendrickson on Sept. 1, 2004, in the previous record-holding matchup. Johnson struck out nine for his 298th career victory as San Francisco topped Washington 11-7. 2011 — Tim Wakefield takes the mound for the Red Sox at age 44 years and 282 days. He breaks Deacon McGuire's record as the oldest performer in Boston Red Sox history - McGuire was 44 years and 280 days old on August 24, 1908, his last game for the franchise. 2016 — Max Scherzer ties the major league record by striking out 20 batters in a nine-inning game against his former team as the Nationals defeat the Tigers, 3-2. He now shares the mark with Roger Clemens, Kerry Wood and Randy Johnson. Scherzer does not issue a single walk in the game. 2020 — Major League Baseball owners agree on a tentative plan to resume the season that has been put on hold since spring training was shut down in early March by the coronavirus pandemic. Training would resume in June and an 82-game season would start around July 1-4, with games played in home ballparks, but without spectators. Teams would play games only against divisional opponents, or teams from the corresponding division in the other league, and the postseason would be expanded to 14 teams from the current 10. Rosters would be expanded to 30 players, with an additional 22-man taxi squad available as replacements in the absence of minor league games. Owners insist that the Players Association will need to accept that salaries will be based on total revenues for the plan to go ahead, something that is unlikely to be acceptable, however. This exact plan will be rejected, but the two sides will agree on a 60-game season starting in late July along the same general parameters. 2021 — The Oakland Athletics receive permission from MLB to start exploring relocation options, as their most recent attempt to come to an agreement with local authorities on replacing the outdated Oakland Coliseum, has gone nowhere. 2022 — Christian Yelich becomes the 5th player to hit for the cycle for the third time when he does so in a 14-11 Brewers loss to the Reds. His previous two cycles had also come against the Reds, within a three-week span in 2018. 2024 — Paul Skenes, the first overall pick of the 2023 amateur draft and considered the best pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg, makes his much-anticipated major league debut for the Pirates against the Cubs. He allows only one run through the first four innings, on a solo homer by Nico Hoerner in the 4th, and strikes out seven, but allows the first two batters in the 5th to reach base before giving way to reliever Kyle Nicolas, who allows both inherited runners to score. The Cubs, who were trailing 6 - 1 at one point, eventually tie the score but Pittsburgh comes out on top, 10 - 9, after a two-hour rain delay. _____
Chicago Tribune
05-03-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Opening Day is upon us, and the new baseball book ‘Justice Batted Last' hits a homer
Another baseball season, heavy with hope, begins on March 17 with the first of two games between the Chicago Cubs and the Los Angeles Dodgers in, of all the 'we are the world' places, Tokyo. What is being called 'traditional' Opening Day is set to take on March 27, with one Opening Day game moved to March 28 so that George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida, can be fully mended from the damage caused by Hurricane Milton. As a member of the last generation to come of age before baseball was overwhelmed by money, steroids and television contracts, I have to admit my excitement for opening days, for baseball in general, has waned. I don't have a mitt in my closet and I couldn't tell you who plays shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers. Still, reflexively at the beginning of each new season, I try to find and read baseball books in an attempt to recapture a piece of my youth. I have the advantage of a pile of baseball books that have come my way over the last decades and I can dip in return to favorites if need be. I almost always read what I think is the best non-fiction baseball story, that being by John Updike in The New Yorker in 1960, writing about Ted Williams hitting a home run in his last at-bat in Boston's Fenway Park. It's titled 'Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,' and contains this type of spectacular writing: 'Like a feather caught in a vortex, Williams ran around the square of bases at the center of our beseeching screaming. He ran as he always ran out home runs — hurriedly, unsmiling, head down, as if our praise were a storm of rain to get out of. He didn't tip his cap. Though we thumped, wept, and chanted 'We want Ted' for minutes after he hid in the dugout, he did not come back. Our noise for some seconds passed beyond excitement into a kind of immense open anguish, a wailing, a cry to be saved. But immortality is nontransferable. The papers said that the other players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he never had and did not now. Gods do not answer letters.' Fiction? I'll reach for Bernard Malamud's 1952's 'The Natural.' It's better than the 1984 Robert Redford movie, though I like that too. In the book, you'll read: 'He remembered how satisfied he had been as a youngster, and that with the little he had had — a dog, a stick, an aloneness he loved (which did not bleed him like his later loneliness), and he wished he could have lived longer in his boyhood. This was an old thought with him.' My most recent new baseball book is 'Justice Batted Last: Ernie Banks, Minnie Miñoso, and the Unheralded Players Who Integrated Chicago's Major League Teams' (3 Field Books). Deeply researched and written by Don Zminda, a smart and passionate guy, it is a winner. 1 of 38 A studio photo of Cubs great Ernie Banks early in his career. (John Austad/Chicago Tribune) Zminda is a former director of STATS LLC, the Loop-based provider of sports information and statistics, and the author of the books, one about Harry Caray and, showing his (or his publisher's) affinity for long titles, another called 'Double Plays and Double Crosses: The Black Sox and Baseball in 1920.' He writes that long before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, 'Chicago was a major hub of Black baseball,' and proceeds to give the reader reasons why. None of them are pretty. But he makes Ernie Banks, who was Black, and Minnie Miñoso (full name Saturnino Orestes Armas Arrieta Miñoso, and Cuban), come to life along with dozens of deserving others, such as pitcher Robert Luther Burns. Less formally known as 'Blood' Burns, he expressed a charmingly laid back attitude in salary negotiating: 'People would say, how much bread do you want? I'd say, let me talk to the man … and sometimes I would say, that's not enough for me … but I got on with them. I made money, I spent money and I had a hell of a good time. I don't regret a bit.' Banks (of the Cubs) and Miñoso (White Sox) are the 'stars' of this book. But we also learn of the many others who deserved to play in the majors and why they didn't. Famously, the Tribune's Mike Royko, a lifelong passionate Cubs, focused on this in what would be his final column, printed only a week before his death on April 29, 1997. The headline says it all: 'It was Wrigley, not some goat, who cursed the Cubs.' OK then, Opening Day … Enjoy, watch, cheer, boo, or read. Baseball can still bring out the best in some people and allow you to touch your childhood, a simpler time. rkogan@
