Mickey Welch might be smiling, but The Boss isn't going to be thrilled when he realizes he can't bring any reinforcements into today's Birthday Team.

C: Wayne Nordhagen
1B: Chief Roseman
2B: Jose Oquendo
3B: Vinny Castilla
SS: Hal Lanier
LF/Manager: Chuck Tanner
CF: Bill Tuttle
RF: Duke Kenworthy

SP: Smiling Mickey Welch
SP: George Mullin
SP/GM: Jim Beattie
SP: Jack Warhop
SP: Dan Larson
RP: Brendan Donnelly

Owner: George Steinbrenner
Drafted by Angels, chose football and meth instead: Todd Marinovich

And "Bang the Drum Slowly" SP: Henry Wiggen (in 1931)

Did Bump Bailey die on July 4th?

100 years ago today, George Mullin had the greatest birthday ever, throwing a no-hitter, getting a couple hits & driving in some runs. IIRC, he turned 29 that day.

Did Bump Bailey die on July 4th?

Maybe in the movie, not in the novel.

And of course, 73 years ago today it was Lou Gehrig Day at Yankee Stadium.

Ben Davidson, star of the "Ball Four" TV series, has passed away.

Game of the day (yesterday): White Sox 19, Rangers 2.

Just kidding. That was actually the third-least dramatic game of the year; the Rangers have now participated in all of the bottom four (they're 2-2 in these games). Unsurprisingly, Texas has a pretty healthy "lead" in the race to be the boringest team in terms of in-game drama.

Actual Game of the day (yesterday): Brewers 13, Marlins 12 (10). You're all shocked, I'm sure.

Miami played a pretty thin lineup in this one, starting without both Hanley Ramirez and Giancarlo Stanton, but the game started out all right for them anyway. Jose Reyes flied out, but Donovan Solano doubled; after Greg Dobbs (hitting third!) struck out, Logan Morrison homered to give the Marlins an early lead against Milwaukee's Marco Estrada. Marlin starter Anibal Sanchez worked a quick first, and after Estrada was perfect in the second, Sanchez kept the Brewers scoreless while only retiring one actual batter: Corey Hart singled, but was picked off; Rickie Weeks and Cody Ransom followed with a pair of singles, and Martin Maldonado hit into a double play to end the inning.

Estrada was flawless again in the third, and in the bottom of the inning, his offense rewarded him. Estrada himself led off the inning with a double, Carlos Gomez added an infield hit, and Norichika Aoki singled in the run from third (although Gomez was thrown out trying for third on the play). Ryan Braun added a single, and Aramis Ramirez followed with a go-ahead two-run double. Sanchez rallied to strike out Hart and Weeks, but the Brewers had taken the lead, and they showed very little interest in letting it go.

Estrada worked around a single and steal from Dobbs in the fourth, and he and Sanchez combined to keep the score the same through the top of the sixth. Corey Hart ended the drought in the bottom of that inning, leading it off with a home run. Weeks doubled and Ransom walked to chase Sanchez from the game in favor of Chad Gaudin; Maldonado bunted the runners over, and Estrada was lifted for pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa, who was intentionally walked to load the bases. Gomez grounded into what should have been a forceout, but Reyes dropped the ball, scoring the second run of the inning and keeping the bases loaded. Aoki then added a sacrifice fly, and Braun followed that with a three-run homer, completing the explosion of the lead into a 9-2 score.

The Marlins did their best to make the game interesting again in the sixth. Justin Ruggiano led off with a homer against Jose Veras, and after an out, they loaded the bases on a hit, a walk, and a hit batter. Reyes followed with an RBI single to chase Veras, and Solano greeted Manny Parra with a run-scoring groundout, reducing the deficit to a slightly more manageable 9-5. But Milwaukee struck again in the bottom of the inning, with a Hart double, a Weeks single (scoring Hart, with Weeks taking second on the throw home) and a Maldonado single increasing the margin by two.

Kameron Loe then came in to pitch the eighth, and everything went to hell.

Morrison led off with a double. Ruggiano then contributed to the "things you don't see every day" fund, adding a double that somehow only advanced Morrison to third. Omar Infante rendered that irrelevant by singling to drive in both runners. Gaby Sanchez struck out, but John Buck homered, and suddenly it was 11-9.

Francisco Rodriguez came in for Loe, and Scott Cousins entered as a pinch hitter. Milwaukee won the battle of substitutes, as Cousins homered. Reyes doubled, then moved to third when Weeks dropped a pickoff throw, and came in with the tying run on Dobbs's sac fly.

Naturally, now that it was 11-11, the teams stopped scoring. Randy Choate and Steve Cishek combined on a perfect eighth. John Axford walked the Miami leadoff man in the ninth, but countered that with a double play ball. Cishek retired the first two Brewers in the ninth, but then allowed a hit to Ransom, which was exacerbated when Maldonado reached on an error by Ransom, putting runners at the corners. Mike Dunn entered to pitch, part of an involved sequence of defensive maneuvers that resulted in Hanley coming off the bench to play third; George Kottaras was inserted to hit for Maldonado, but popped out, leaving the winning run on third.

Livan Hernandez entered to pitch the tenth for Milwaukee. He set down the first two Marlin hitters, but Reyes worked the count to 3-1 and then homered, giving the Marlins their first lead in a span of 18 runs. Heath Bell entered to secure the game; he walked Gomez to lead off the inning, but got Aoki to fly out and fanned Braun, with Gomez stealing second. That brought up Aramis Ramirez.

As a Cubs fan, I've seen the end of this movie a few times. Ramirez launched a come-from-behind, game-winning two-run homer. I'm not sure how many walkoffs he's had in his career, but it seems like it must be a large number.

So... 25 runs, 15 pitchers, 31 hits, 8 home runs, and an extra-inning comeback. That's obviously very, very good; it is, however, less good than might be expected given all that. If the game had featured a couple more lead changes, rather than the one giant lead and comeback, it'd have had an excellent shot to break into the top 10 of the year, rather than sitting in a highly-respectable 35th place.

Given the final score, I find it especially interesting that Estrada, Milwaukee's starter, actually had a really good game. 6 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, no walks, and 6 K's, the only major blemish being the Morrison home run. His bullpen then gave up 10 runs in 4 innings.

Game of the day (last year): Mets 3, Yankees 2 (10). RA Dickey worked a perfect first for the Mets. Freddy Garcia looked like he was about to do the same, retiring the first two hitters in the bottom of the inning, but Carlos Beltran doubled and Daniel Murphy singled him home to give the Mets an early lead. Dickey and Garcia were both spotless from there until the bottom of the third, which Dickey led off with a single before being stranded.

With one out in the fourth, Dickey walked Curtis Granderson, making him the first Yankee to reach base in the game. Granderson later stole second, but was left there at the end of the inning. Garcia gave up a pair of hits in the bottom of the inning, but Murphy was thrown out stealing and Jason Bay was erased on a double play ball.

Dickey finally gave up his first hit in the fifth, a double by Robinson Cano. Nick Swisher followed that with a single, and suddenly a dominating pitching performance had turned into a tie game. An error and a walk combined to load the bases with two out, but Granderson grounded out to leave all three runners on. The Met starter was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the inning, and replaced on the mound by Pedro Beato, who combined with Garcia to continue the predominantly non-scoring ways of the game; the teams managed one additional hit each through the seventh.

Jason Isringhausen replaced Beato in the eighth, and Brett Gardner hit his seventh pitch for a leadoff triple, then came in to score on Granderson's sac fly. Isringhausen also allowed a double to Mark Teixeira and intentionally walked Cano, but limited the damage to just the one run; of course, since it was a tiebreaking run in the eighth inning, it was still plenty damaging. David Robertson quickly retired the first two Mets in the bottom of the eighth, but walked the next two, putting the tying run in scoring position before Josh Turner struck out to end the inning. The Yankees picked up a pair of two-out singles against Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth, but didn't score; still, they were handing a one-run lead to Mariano Rivera, which is usually not a bad thing.

Rivera struck out Beltran, then got Murphy to ground out on the first pitch. And then, on a full count, he walked Bay. Lucas Duda followed with a single, moving Bay to third, and Ronny Paulino, pinch hitting for his catching counterpart, grounded a hit between first and second to bring Bay home with the tying run. That didn't end the excitement of the inning; Ruben Tejada grounded to short, but Ramiro Pena, playing for Jeter on this particular day, botched the play, letting the ball escape into left. Duda rounded third and raced toward the plate, but Gardner threw him out to send the game into extras.

K-Rod kept the "pitcher retires the first two batters" formula going in the tenth, and then gave up a triple to Cano. Jorge Posada pinch hit for Rivera, and was intentionally walked to bring up Russell Martin, who grounded into a force. Yankee reliever Luis Ayala went off script in the tenth, walking pinch hitter Scott Hairston to start the inning. Angel Pagan bunted the runner to second, and Turner was hit by a pitch behind him. Beltran struck out, but Murphy reached on Pena's second error in a two-inning span to load the bases, and Bay ended the game with a single.

Best thing about the game (depending on how you feel about the Yankees losing)? Two-out rallies. Lots of them. Not all of them successful, of course, but enough of them were, especially the one against that Rivera fellow. Really, any game in which Mo blows a save is very likely to be a good one, just because it's so unusual.

Ben Davidson, star of the "Ball Four" TV series, has passed away.

Sucks. He was a fixture on Pro Football Hall of Fame weekend when I was a kid growing up in Canton. Helluva nice guy, at least in my interactions with him.

Side note: Today's games will include the halfway point of the MLB regular season schedule (through yesterday, there have been 1209 played, and there should be 2430 total on the year).

There is a pretty good chance that Cliff Lee gets his first win of the season. 9th inning, the Phils are up 9-2 after being behind 2-0 going into the 7th. Papelbon is pitching the 9th with a 7 run lead because Pap hasn't pitched in 8 days.

EDIT: 1-2-3 9th. Cliff Lee gets first win on the 4th of July.

I'm not sure how many walkoffs he's had in his career, but it seems like it must be a large number.

6 (home runs; I'm not sure total walkoff hits)

Ben Davidson, star of the "Ball Four" TV series, has passed away.

Davidson is also the only actor to have bit parts in "MASH," "Behind the Green Door," and "Conan the Barbarian."

Eric J - how does yesterday's game rank on the year? I have as the second best on the year (or fifth best, if I include my extra credit thing for walk-off slams, which I've increasingly come to view as a mistake).

I got the May 2 Atlanta 15-13 win over the Phillies ahead of it only.

As a Cubs fan, I've seen the end of this movie a few times. Ramirez launched a come-from-behind, game-winning two-run homer. I'm not sure how many walkoffs he's had in his career, but it seems like it must be a large number.

Sixth walk-off homer.

Five walk-off singles

One walk-off double

One walk-off walk

81 other times he made an out to end a game, including 18 game-ending Ks, & 1 game-ending GIDP.

(Walk-off homers can be found at B-ref's Homer log, available for each player. If you have a Play Index subscription, you can find the rest by going to batting events).

Eric J - how does yesterday's game rank on the year?

I've got it at #35 - still excellent (97th percentile), but not in the absolute top tier. My system prefers games that have lots of small-to-medium leads overcome to games with one really big one (for instance, it finds the 9-0 comeback game from the Yankees earlier this year to be pretty average - the one comeback itself is exciting, but the building of a 9-0 lead, not so much). This one has other things going for it apart from the big comeback, of course, particularly the extra-inning rally, but there are other games that have similar rallies and were closer throughout regulation, or extended longer.