Detroit Sweeps the Browns Clean
A shutout served twice, a city spooked by its own party, a crowd you could count, and a nation's first twenty.
Ed. 09.22.26
Detroit Sweeps the Browns Clean (1936)
The defending champion Tigers played a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns and never let them score. Detroit won the opener 12-0. Then, apparently still hungry, it won the nightcap 14-0. The Browns were a seventh-place club on the way to 95 losses, and this day did nothing to change the forecast. Some days you just pack the bats and try again tomorrow.
Chicago Hears the Sirens (1959)
The White Sox had waited 40 years for a pennant, and they finally clinched one with a 4-2 win in Cleveland. With the bases loaded in the ninth, Gerry Staley came out of the bullpen and threw exactly one pitch. Vic Power grounded it to Luis Aparicio, who started the game-ending double play. Back home, Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn celebrated by switching on the city's air raid sirens. It was the height of the Cold War, and thousands of Chicagoans feared the worst before they realized it was only a pennant.
The Quietest Day in the Bronx (1966)
Just 413 fans showed up at Yankee Stadium to watch the last-place Yankees lose, 4-1. The visitors? Those same White Sox, seven Septembers after the sirens. Red Barber asked for a camera shot of the empty stands and was turned down, so he told viewers himself that the crowd was the story, not the game. Days later, the new team president told him over breakfast he would not be back.
Fernando Reaches Twenty (1986)
Fernando Valenzuela two-hit the Astros in a 9-2 win at the Astrodome for his 20th victory of the season. No pitcher born in Mexico had ever won 20 in the majors. He finished with a league-leading 21 wins and 20 complete games, and was runner-up for the Cy Young. It was the only 20-win season of his career, five years after Fernandomania swept Los Angeles. Before the season was out, Teddy Higuera made it two.
