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Did you know....that like the Tampa Bay Rays after them, the Houston Astros had two nicknames and needed 11 seasons to put together their first winning record. The Astros - or the Colt .45s for their first three years - tied the Dodgers for second place in the NL West in 1972 with an 84-69 mark. (The Astros did finish with a .500 mark in 1969.)
Unlike the Rays, though, the Astros' first division title and postseason appearance wouldn't come for another eight years, in 1980.
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Between No-Hitters
Did you know.......that the longest no-hitter drought ever in Major League history was from August 8, 1931 to September 18, 1934? From Bobby Burke of the old Senators to Bobo Newsom of the old St Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles), the stretch lasted three years and forty-one days.
Seeing Chan Ho Park in a Dodgers uniform again reminded me of this one:
Did you know...that Fernando Tatis became the only player in major league history to hit two grand slams in an inning? His feat on April 23, 1999 for the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium also set a single-inning RBI record with eight. Both slams were off Chan Ho Park.
After 1999, Tatis battled injuries and never followed up on his breakout season, eventually retiring for a couple seasons before making a comeback to the big leagues in 2006. He batted .297 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs in 97 games for the Mets this year.
Did you know..... that in 1941 while Joe DiMaggio was compiling his 56 game hitting streak, Ted Williams had a 64 game on-base streak. (in 1949 Williams turned in an 84 game streak)
...that the 1991 Houston Astros finished with the worst record in the National League but had nine future All-Stars on the roster, with every position covered among them except shortstop? They were Craig Biggio (an All-Star in 1991), Jeff Bagwell, Ken Caminiti, Luis Gonzalez, Steve Finley, Kenny Lofton, Darryl Kile, Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling. All of them except Harnisch made at least two All-Star teams in their career.
...or that Biggio is the only player to be selected to an All-Star team one year at one position (catcher in 1991) and at another position the following year (second baseman in 1992), and the only player to play every day of a 162-game season without grounding into a double play (1997).
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First Game Greatness
Did you know........that only one player in Major League history since 1900 has had five hits in his very first big league game? No player has ever done it since then. It was Cecil Travis, a former shortstop for the original Washington Senators. He accomplished the feat in 1933 and batted .314 in a 12-year career. Might be the best player to not yet be voted into the Hall of Fame.
Did you know.... that Connie Mack managed in the major leagues for 53 seasons? First with the Pirates (1894-1896) and then the Philadelphia Athletics. (1901-1950) Well known for being a tight-wad - his team traveled to Cleveland for a single game and he didn't want to pay train fare for all of his pitchers. So he took only two. The starter (whose name was omitted in the Wikipedia item) got knocked out in the first inning and the reliever (Eddie Rommel) pitched 17 innings. The Indians had 33 hits that day, but the A's won 18-17.
Did you know.....that Al Simmons real name was "Aloisius Symanski"? He changed his name to Al SImmons to sound more "American". He never won the MVP, but hit .387 in 1925, .392 in 1927, .381 in 1930, and .390 in 1931. He accumulated a .334 career average, 307 career homers, a .535 slugging percentage and got inducted into the HOF in 1953.
That the 1962 National League expansion that brought the Mets and Colt .45s into the league was the result of a colossal bluff? Branch Rickey's 1960 proposal for the Continental League was born purely out of the desire to return NL baseball to New York. (He was a pretty good guess as to where baseball's future would lie, as eight of the ten proposed Continental League cities wound up with expansion teams).
Did you know....in 2006 there were no 20-game winners among major league pitchers for the first time in modern major league history, excluding the strike-shortened seasons of 1981, 1994 and 1995?
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Between No-Hitters
