Dave Parker: 79 All Star Game
July 17, 1979 The National League wins its 8th straight All-Star Game, 7 – 6, at Seattle. Lee Mazzilli homers to tie the game in the 8th, and walks in the 9th to bring in the winning run. Dave Parker, with two outstanding throws, is named the game’s MVP, and Pete Rose plays a record 5th All-Star position. The Red Sox provide the starting OF for the American League in Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, and Fred Lynn, though Yaz has played 1B most of the season.
Parker on winning the MVP. “When Bowie handed me the All-Star hardware, man, I carried that thing through the dugout, through the clubhouse and out the Kingdome. It sat beside me on the hotel bar late that night while I cooled out with all the fellas from the game. I might’ve even bought it a drink. Stared at it before I fell asleep. Carried it through Sea-Tac Airport like a damn Cabbage Patch doll.
You got no idea what that trophy meant to me, what that moment means to me now, and it touches me beyond words that the moment means so much to you.”
Did you know?
July 17, 1909 At League Park, Addie Joss and the Cleveland Naps were up early on the visiting Boston Red Sox 3-0. Joss was cruising along until the 5th when a series of infield singles and a misplayed double play by second-baseman, George Perring allowed the Red Sox to score 3 unearned runs. Second-year man Smoky Joe Wood comes in, sporting a 2-3 record, this would be his 9th appearance on the season. Things appeared headed in the wrong direction right away as he gave up back to back singles then he would strikeout 7 of the next 9 batters, and over 4 innings fan 10 of the 17 men he faced to establish a new MLB record.
The Red Sox will pull out the win 6-4 vs the NAP’s
TRIVIA
Who tied a teammate for most games played the games played in the majors the same year that he finished second in Most Valuable Player voting behind a future teammate who himself went on to be a first-round Hall of Famer?
Hint: #1 This Angelino once played for the Angels.
Hint: #2 He once had his jaw broken during a game where the same pitcher had broken his teammate’s hand earlier in the same game!
July 17, 1924 On Tuberculosis Day at Sportsman’s Park, the Cards’ Jesse Haines hurls his only shutout in two years, a 5 – 0 no-hitter over the Braves. “While the majestic northpaw was realizing his lifelong pitching ambitions, the Cardinals were making merry with the right-hand shoots of McNamara” (St. Louis Globe-Democrat). It is the first no-hitter by a St. Louis hurler since 1876, and the first-ever National League no-hitter in St. Louis. It will be 54 years before another no-hit game is thrown in St. Louis, a span that will end in 1978 when Bob Forsch holds the Phillies hitless at Busch Stadium. Rogers Hornsby chipped in with 3 hits to power the Cardinal offense.
July 17, 1941, New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio sees his hitting streak halted at 56 games by two Cleveland Indians pitchers, Al Smith and Jim Bagby. Third baseman Ken Keltner makes two great plays on hot smashes by DiMaggio, robbing the “Yankee Clipper” of hits each time. DiMaggio’s 56-game streak stands as the longest in major league history.
July 17, 1947 Less than two weeks after Larry Doby’s debut with the Indians, Hank Thompson and Willard Brown become the second and third black players in the American League and first for the Browns. The former Kansas City Monarchs standouts will play in less than 30 games for St. Louis because their presence does not significantly raise attendance.
July 17, 1959 Mel Allen asks his director to replay Jim McAnay’s ninth-inning single, the first hit allowed by Ralph Terry in the team’s eventual 2-0 loss to Cleveland at Yankee Stadium. The Yankee broadcaster’s request marks the first use of instant replay in a baseball broadcast.
July 17, 1961, Hall of Famer Ty Cobb dies at the age of 74. One of the greatest hitters of all-time, the “Georgia Peach” led the American League in batting 12 times. Cobb also reached the coveted .400 mark three times in his career. When he retired, Cobb held the all-time record for most hits, runs scored, RBI and highest career batting average.
July 17, 1961 Commissioner Ford Frick decrees that Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in a 154-game schedule in 1927 “cannot be broken unless some batter hits 61 or more within his club’s first 154 games.”
