An Untitled Blog

At Connie Mack Stadium, Sandy Koufax throws his third no-hitter in three years, blanking the Phillies 3-0. The Dodgers’ southpaw, who will add a perfect game to his resume next season, joins Bob Feller as the only other modern major leaguer to pitch three career hitless games.

The Red Sox release fan-favorite Rico Petrocelli. The two-time All-Star shortstop will call it quits, ending his 13-year career, all with Boston, with a .251 batting average.

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By a vote of 93-1, the Ohio House passes Bill 59, setting aside October 7 each year in honor of Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first openly African-American to play under contract in the major leagues. In 1884, the bare-handed catcher played for the American Association’s Toledo Blue Stockings, until a rib injury and the team’s excessive payroll led to his release late in the season.

After spending the first 12 years of his career with the team, veteran outfielder Harry Hooper is traded by the Red Sox to the White Sox for Nemo Leibold and Shano Collins. Hooper will finish his career in Chicago, hitting .302 during his five seasons in the Windy City, thirty points higher than his average in Boston.

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announces the Special Committee on the Negro League Hall of Fame selection of Buck Leonard (left) and Josh Gibson (right), a power-hitting catcher who was called the “black Babe Ruth” during his playing day. Leonard, a teammate of Gibson on the Homestead Grays who once turned down a MLB contract believing he was too old to compete at that level, was ranked #47 on a 1999 Sporting News poll of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players

This moment showed me, in a concrete way, why ancient studies matter. They may not seem important now, not to many people at least. But history represents so much of our cultural identity: it teaches us where we come from, explains who we are, and guides us as we go forward. Lose it, and we lose a part of ourselves. As historians, our role is to preserve this knowledge as best we can and pass it on to future generations who will need it. I helped pass it on to two little Syrian children that day. They learnt that their country isn’t just blood and bombs, it’s also scribes and powerful kings and Sun-Gods and stories about immortality and tablets that make your hands sticky. And that matters.

Warren Spahn becomes only the sixth player elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, receiving 316 of the 380 (83.2%) votes cast by the BBWAA scribes. Spahn, who recorded thirteen 20-win seasons with the Braves, retired as the winningest left-handed pitcher in big league history with 363 victories.

The Brewers trade first baseman George Scott and outfielder Bernie Carbo to the Red Sox for Cecil Cooper. Cooper will become a dominant player during the early eighties, appearing in five All-Star games and batting over .300 in the first seven of his eleven years with Milwaukee.

Under the moon’s reddish tint caused by a lunar eclipse, the Red Sox exorcised 86 years of agonizing losses by winning their first World Series since 1918. In one of the most dominating Series performances, Boston, who never trailed during the four games, blanks the Cardinals, 3-0, to complete the sweep.