The Debut That Never Really Ended

On this date in 2001, every ballpark in America went dark. Play did not resume for six days. We remember.

The Debut That Never Really Ended (1886)

A 23-year-old catcher named Cornelius McGillicuddy played his first big league game for Washington, a 4-3 win over Philadelphia in front of about 1,500 people. He was six-foot-two, 150 pounds, and hit .244 over eleven seasons. Then he started managing and did not stop for 53 years. Connie Mack's 3,731 wins are still the most anyone has ever had, and second place is 847 behind him.

The Series the Pigeons Called (1918)

Carl Mays three-hit the Cubs for a 2-1 win at Fenway and Boston had its fifth championship. The war had forced the season to end by Labor Day, so this remains the only World Series ever played entirely in September and the earliest any of them has ever finished. At the end of every inning, two men from the Army Signal Corps released carrier pigeons from the ballpark to fly the score back to the troops at Fort Devens. Boston would not win another for 86 years.

Nineteen Innings, Nothing to Show (1946)

Johnny Vander Meer worked fifteen innings at Ebbets Field and struck out fourteen. Hal Gregg gave Brooklyn ten scoreless. Darkness ended it 0-0 after nineteen, still the longest scoreless game in major league history. Vander Meer knew the place. Eight years earlier he had thrown the second of his back-to-back no-hitters on that same grass.

The Play They Never Should Have Run (1969)

The Cubs came to Connie Mack Stadium on a seven-game skid. Third inning, 3-2 on Dick Allen, runners on first and second, and Dick Selma wheeled and fired to third instead of home. He and Ron Santo had worked on it and never used it. "I missed the sign," Santo said later. The ball went into left, the tying run scored, and Philadelphia won 4-3. Eighth straight loss. Some seasons end on a throw nobody was waiting for.