Harry Hooper's Lucky Bounces
An owner's extra seats backfire, a veteran who wouldn't stay gone, October under the lights, and two teammates headed for Cooperstown together.
Ed. 10.13.26
Harry Hooper's Lucky Bounces (1915)
For the 1915 World Series, the Phillies squeezed extra seats into Baker Bowl's outfield. It backfired. Boston's Harry Hooper, who hit two home runs all season, bounced two over the fence in Game 5, and under the rules of the day both counted as homers. The second one, in the top of the ninth, hopped into those new seats and won the Series, 5-4. Today it would have been a ground-rule double.
Mickey Vernon Wasn't Done (1959)
Milwaukee released Mickey Vernon on this day, a 41-year-old two-time batting champ coming off a .220 season. His boyhood pal Danny Murtaugh, the Pirates' manager, hired him to coach first base. Pittsburgh activated him that September, and nine games in 1960 made him one of the rare players to appear in four decades. One year to the day after his release, he was on the Pirates' staff when Bill Mazeroski's homer won the World Series.
The World Series Goes Prime Time (1971)
Commissioner Bowie Kuhn wanted a bigger audience, so Game 4 in Pittsburgh became the first World Series game ever played at night. A record TV audience tuned in. Baltimore scored three in the first, but rookie Bruce Kison and the bullpen shut them out the rest of the way, and pinch-hitter Milt May's seventh-inning single won it, 4-3. It came 11 years to the day after Pittsburgh's last Series game, Mazeroski's. Today every World Series game is played at night.
Two Tigers Do It All (1984)
Alan Trammell hit two-run homers in the first and third, and that was all the offense Detroit needed. Jack Morris handled the rest, a five-hit complete game for a 4-2 win and a 3-1 Series lead over San Diego, Trammell's hometown team. The Tigers finished it the next day, and Trammell was named Series MVP. Thirty-four years later, the longtime teammates went into the Hall of Fame in the same class.
