A Sunday in Boston Massachusetts. A Sunday in which the high for the day was 56 degrees, the low only 46. Yet encompassed in that rather innocuous, disparity, was the rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning around the old ballyard in Kenmore Square. Indeed, an unusual occurrence considering the time of year.
The Red Sox were doing baseball battle with the New York Yankees it was their sixth encounter in the young ’67’ season and in two of those encounters a 25-year-old rookie southpaw named Billy Rohr had made some noise. On April 14th in Yankee Stadium, he carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning only to see it vanish with an Elston Howard single with two outs in the final frame. A week later in Fenway Park, he carried a shutout into the eighth inning only to have it disappear on an RBI single by the same Elston Howard.
And as mystical cosmic forces coalesced in the skies over Fenway, tumult reigned on the field. In the top of the fifth with the Red Sox leading 5-4, Elston Howard (that guy again) stepped up with two outs and runners on first and second. With two strikes on him Howard took a pitch that both pitcher Jose Santiago and manager Dick Williams thought was strike three. Umpire John Flaherty called it a ball and Williams started howling from the dugout. The next pitch Howard doubled scoring two and giving the Yankees a 6-5 lead. Williams continued to howl and was run by Flaherty, his first ejection as a manager. Carl Yastrzemski led off the bottom of the fifth. He’d hit a two-run homer in the first and when Flaherty called strike two on Yaz, he expressed his displeasure. “We cussed at each other’, he told the Globe’s Will McDonough. “…I didn’t try to make him look bad…It was silly, we were like two little kids fighting over a toy. The next thing I knew he tells me I’m out of the game and I couldn’t believe it.” The manager was not as gracious. “Just an incompetent umpire, that’s all.” He told Harold Kaese. “I don’t know what he said to me, he has a mouthful of mush when he talks…If he calls a better game, he has no arguments.”
Fenway Park circa 1967.
Dick Williams and Yaz 1967. Both these dudes made it to Cooperstown. Yaz, a first ballot selection in 1989 and Williams, a Veterans Committee as a manger in 2008.
Tacking on a run in the top of the ninth, the Yankees prevailed 7-5, preventing the Sox from cracking the .500 mark. Perhaps one last payment to satisfy a past mistake of a bygone day.
A Fenway crowd of 18,000+ witnessed the arrival of the cosmic forces which ordained a 27-year-old outfielder the “Minister of Miracles” and deliverer of “Impossible Dreams” in a year that would save a ballpark and transform a franchise.
A plethora of significant baseball related events have occurred on April 23rd and on the 57th anniversary of that long ago April Sunday, I share a few.
April 23, 1869
Cincinnati Enquirer lists the game featuring the Cincinnati Red Stockings versus The Field.
In the first professional baseball exhibition game – The Cincinnati Red Stockings 24, Cincinnati Amateurs 15.
April 23, 1903
The New York Highlanders (Yankees) register the franchise’s first win, 7-2 against the Washington Senators in Washington’s American League Park.
Harry Howell pitched a complete game striking out two and walking no one. He pitched 13 seasons in the big leagues and only one was in New York. He also went 2-4 in the franchise’s first win, scoring a run and driving in another becoming the answer to a trivia question.
April 23, 1914
The first game ever was played at Wrigley Field, then known as Weeghman Park. The Chicago Federals of the upstart and short-lived Federal League defeated the Kansas City Packers 9-1.
Art Wilson, backup catcher for NY Giants John McGraw for three pennant winning season in a row (1911-1913) jumped to the Federal League in 1914 and for its two-season run was the best catcher in the league. He hit the first home run ever at what would become the legendary home of the Chicago Cubs in 1916. It became known as Cubs Park from 1920-26 and was named Wrigley Field in 1927.
Art Wilson hit 24 home runs in his major league career, 17 of them in the Federal League and two of them on this day.
April 23, 1921
On April 23, 1921, Warren Edward Spahn was born in Buffalo New York.
Thirteen-year-old Warren Spahn (seated second from left) played for the Lake Citys and were defeated in Buffalo’s 1934 Class A Midget Championship game 2-1.
He made his Major League debut in 1942 but spent the next three years in the Army, becoming the only Major League player to receive a battlefield Commision during the war. The most decorated MLB player of WW II he earned a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and a Presidential citation, to go along with his battlefield promotion from Staff Seargent to Lieutenant.
His first win came in 1946 at the age of 25.
He went on to garner more wins (363) than any other left-handed pitcher in the history of baseball. Only five pitchers have won more games. A 12-time 20 game winner, he led the league in wins eight times, including five in a row. Nine times he led the league in complete games (seven in a row) and he pitched 5,244 innings, the most of any lefty in history. Once asked by a writer how many games he thought he’d have won if he had not lost three years to WW II. The humble lefty said, “I matured a lot in those [war] years, If I had not had that maturity, I wouldn’t have pitched until I was 45.”
Spahn was a first ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1973 earning 83.2% of the votes from the members of the BBWAA. Inexplicably 64 knuckleheads among the voting members did not think Warren Spahn Hall of Fame worthy. Yikes!
April 23, 1937
New York Giants Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell started the 1937 season with his 17th consecutive win: a 3-0 three hit shutout against the Boston Bees (Braves). He would win another seven straight extending his record to 24 consecutive victories. A record he still holds. In 1947, Hubbell entered the Hall of Fame, elected with 87% of the vote.
April 23, 1939
Ted Williams launched his first career home run on April 23, 1939. A two-run shot in the first inning of the fifth game of his career, deep into the right field bleachers at Fenway. He’d hit three more homers on April 23rd: career homer number 32 in 1940, number 198 in Yankee Stadium in 1948 and home run number 420 at Fenway in 1957.
Ted became the fourth Major Leaguer to hit 500 career home runs with his 512th and last one coming in his last Major League at bat in Fenway on September 28, 1960. “The greatest hitter” was inducted into the Hall of Fame his first time on the ballot in 1966, receiving 93.4% of the vote. Believe it or not, 20 writers DID NOT vote for him!
In his induction speech Ted called for the inclusion of Negro League players in the Hall of Fame.“I hope that someday,” He told the assembled, “the names of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson can … be added to the symbol of the great Negro League players that are not here only because they were not given a chance,”
April 23, 1952
Hoyt Wilhelm won his first game in relief on April 23, 1952, in the third appearance of his career. He entered the game against the Boston Braves in the 3rd inning with the Giants leading 3-2, one out and men on first and second. After inducing a popout to short, he surrendered a single which tied the game. A popout to the catcher ended the inning. The game entered the bottom of the fourth still knotted at three when Willie Mays led off with a walk. After he was thrown out attempting to steal, right fielder Don Mueller homered giving the Giants the lead. Al Dark was hit by a pitch and Wes Westrum homered extending the lead to three runs. Hoyt Wilhelm stepped in for his first Major League at bat and he deposited a pitch deep into the Polo Grounds right field seats. A home run in his first at bat! He went five and a third innings to get the win.
In 1985, Wilhelm became the first pitcher, who was primarily a reliever, to be elected to the Hall of Fame. He registered 492 more plate appearances and never hit another home run.
April 23, 1954
When the Milwaukee Braves broke camp in 1954 they took with them 20-year-old Henry Louis Aaron. He’d won the right field job and was inserted in the sixth spot in the line up between center fielder Andy Pafko and shortstop Johnny Logan. He had five hits in his first six games and was hitting .217 when the Braves traveled to St. Louis for a three-game set with the Cardinals. Unbeknownst to the 14,577 present, for the opening game of the series, history was about to be made. Three firsts in the career of Hank Aaron occurred, with two of them coming in the very first inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, young Henry stepped to the plate facing veteran right-hander Vic Rashi. He promptly singled, scoring third baseman Danny O’Connell giving the Braves a 1-0 lead and notching the first RBI of his career. In the bottom half of the inning, Aaron committed his first error when an errant throw to O’Connell at third, on a single by Stan Musial, allowed Red Schoendienst to score.
It is a twist of irony that Hank Aaron’s first career home run was but a foot note in the recap of the Braves 14 inning win written by UPI Sportswriter Stan Mockler in the Madison Capital Times.
A total of 754 home runs followed “Hammerin Hank’s” first shot in 1954. Five of them came on April 23rd: career number 143 in 1959, number 303 in 1963, number 486 in 1968, number 560 in’70’ and homer 641 came in 1972. Another 2,296 RBI followed his first one, more than any other player in history!
Hank Aaron went on become, well, Hank Aaron! Enduring vitriolic, rancorous, nonsense, to become and remain one of baseball’s most adored players, revered by generations of Americans and throughout the world. Fifty years ago this month, he hit an Al Downing pitch into the Atlanta Braves bullpen for home run number 715; surpassing Babe Ruth as baseball’s all-time home run leader.
In 1982 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, receiving 97.8% of the vote of the BBWAA, yet incredibly, nine nincompoops did not find him worthy of first ballot induction!
And both Vic Rashi and Danny O’Connell became answers to trivia questions and are eternally linked to Henry Aaron.
A six-time World Champ with the New York Yankees, Vic Rashi served up Hank Aaron’s first RBI and first home run.
Danny O’Connell is the first teammate driven in by “The Hammer.”
Some non-baseball related yet highly significant historic events also occurred on the 23rd day of April.
April 23, 1564, and April 23, 1616
Let’s start off with this fellow, who really needs no introduction.
William Shakespeare was pretty adept at spinning a yarn. Maybe more adept than any spinner before or since. He was born on April 23, 1564, and then he took its magic to another level, dying on his 52nd birthday, April 23, 1616.
A wordsmith like no other, Ole Willie Boy’s words of a half millennia ago are sprinkled across the landscape of Western Culture and are as relevant today as they were when written. The joy, the sorrow, the celebration, the tragedy that is life, drip from his words.
A few tid-bits…
From Julius Caesar…”Cowards die many times before their death, the valiant taste of death but once.”
A few from my favorite work of Sir William, A Midsummer Night’s Dream…”The course of true love, never did run smooth,” and “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
From Romeo and Juliet…”What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
His essay on hopelessness articulated in 40 words, from Macbeth, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
And, who else but Willie, could write a treatise in 12 words? This one on hope from Hamlet…”We know what we are but know not what we may be.”
April 23, 1665
The Boston Latin School was founded in Boston Massachusetts. Not only is Latin the first public school in the United States, but it is also the first public institution of any kind. Founded nearly a century before John Hancock, a Latin alum, became the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Latin boasts a list of luminaries as alumni. Among them, Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, Cotton Mather, Josiah Quincy and Helen Magil White. Boston Latin and Boston English have played a football game every Thanksgiving since 1887 the longest, continuous rivalry in the United States.
April 23, 1789
On April 23, 1789, this fella moved from his home in Virginia to New York City and took up residence
in this place. The Samuel Osgood House which also was known as the Walter Franklin House. You see he assumed a new job as President of the United States. This was the first presidential residence and George and his family lived here until February 23, 1790.
He was greeted with quite a fanfare which was chronicled in Philadelphia’s Dunlap and Claypoole’s American Daily Advertiser.
“In the evening the city was elegantly illuminated. The joy and satisfaction universally expressed on the fase (initial) arrival of this illustrious personage, clearly evince (reveal) that patriotism and magnanimity are still held in respect and veneration among our citizens. His Excellency having, in a distinguished manner displayed those eminent virtues, in a series of important and faithful services, rendered his country, in the most gloomy and distressing periods.”
April 23, 1861
It is a grim irony that George Washington and this fella would share April 23rd marking monumentally significant events in their lives.
Robert Edward Lee was married to the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. His father “Lighthorse” Harry Lee: fought under George Washington in America’s battle for independence, was present at the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and he was summoned by President Washington to quell the “Whiskey Rebellion” in 1794.
An 1827 graduate of West Point, Lee finished second in his class. After distinguishing himself in the war with Mexico and as Superintendent of West Point, Colonel Lee was widely recognized as the finest officer in the United States Army. Forty-four days following the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Mississippi joined them on January 9, 1861, Florida followed on January 10th and Alabama the next day. By the time Lincoln assumed the office on March 4th, seven states had left the Union. On April 12th the war commenced with the attack on Fort Sumter and on the 17th, Virginia became the eighth state to seceded. The following day US Army Commander, Winfield Scott, at the behest of President Lincoln, met with Colonel Lee offering him command of the Army which was being raised to “put down the rebellion.” Two days later Colonel Lee sent a letter to General Scott expressing his intent to resign his position in the United States Army. “Save in the defense of my native State”, he wrote to Scott, “I never desire again to draw my sword.” He echoed that same sentiment in letters to his brother and sister and on April 23rd he accepted command of the Army of Virginia.
Lee’s connection with George Washington would expand and intensify as he ultimately drew closer to him in death than he was in life. Following the war, Lee accepted the position of President of Washington College in Lexington Virginia; named after our first president because of the $20,000 donation he made to keep the college afloat in 1794. Lee served as its president until his death in 1870 and today it bears the name Washington/Lee University.
Robert E Lee is interred in the chapel on the grounds of Washington/Lee University.
Eternally linked.
On April 23, 1967, the Cosmic Tumblers clicked, a portal opened and through the thunder and lightning of a spring squall, an energy force arrived and hovered over a “lyric bandbox of a ballpark” in Boston. An energy forced which culminated in a region sharing a collective joy that comes once, maybe twice in a lifetime. An energy which echos across time and space reverberating through generations. An energy that continues to whisper the words of Terrance Mann, “there comes a time when all the cosmic tumblers click, and the universe opens up to show what’s possible.”
Another April 23rd is here, and the tumblers still click to whisper a reminder that even in “the most gloomy and distressing periods,” all things are possible.
And so it is on this day, April 23, 2024, reminder day.
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