Connie Mack's Surprise Starter

Connie Mack had Lefty Grove and George Earnshaw, two of the best pitchers in baseball, rested and ready for Game 1 of the 1929 World Series. He handed the ball to Howard Ehmke instead.

Ehmke was 35 and near the end of the line. He had pitched sparingly all year and hadn't thrown a pitch in almost a month. What nobody knew was that Mack had sent him to quietly scout the Cubs in September. Ehmke studied a lineup loaded with right-handed power and saw an opportunity in the slow stuff, thrown from angles that never let a hitter get comfortable.

On October 8 at Wrigley Field, he struck out 13 Cubs and won 3-1. It set a World Series record that stood for 24 years, until Carl Erskine broke it in 1953.

Baseball rarely gives a veteran one perfect afternoon like that. Ehmke got his, and the Cubs spent the rest of their lives trying to explain it.