How thin is the pitching staff on today's Birthday Team? Aaron Fultz is second in career innings pitched.

C: Mike Piazza
1B: Eddie Waitkus
2B: Frank White
3B: Jason Donald
SS: Luis Lopez
LF: Tillie Walker
CF: Paul Householder
RF: Ken Harrelson

SP: Doyle Alexander
SP: Jim Mooney
SP: Sun-Woo Kim
SP: Ken Wright
SP: Carl Druhot
RP: Aaron Fultz

Manager: Red Corriden
Cult Hero: Pat Neshek

As noted at THT, today is also the 10th anniversary of one of the most famous regular season games of the 21st century. Also having their anniversary: the game that helped ensure the Merkle Game would happen, Mathewson & Moredcai square of one final time, and an Ozzie Smith homer like none other.

1891 In response to critics who say he is too old to play, Chicago first baseman Cap Anson, 39, plays the entire game with a false white beard. He goes 0-for-3.

How have I never heard of this before?

Cap Anson -- the (1985) Mike Schmidt of his day.

He also put "BOO" on the back of his uniform. Which was particularly striking since uniforms had neither names nor numbers at the time.

I heard "Channel 17", but that does seem less likely.

1891 In response to critics who say he is too old to play, Chicago first baseman Cap Anson, 39, plays the entire game with a false white beard

Sure, and Bobby Valentine wears a fake mustache once in the dugout and everyone
goes crazy!

Game of the day (yesterday): Dodgers 4, Padres 3 (11). In the first inning, San Diego's Will Venable singled with one out against Joe Blanton, stole second, and trotted the rest of the way home on Chase Headley's two-run homer. Padre starter Andrew Werner was appropriately grateful for the rare gift of run support, shutting out the Dodgers through four on two hits and a walk; his teammates would try their best to give him a larger cushion, but left a runner at second in the third and runners at all three bases in the fourth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Luis Cruz led off with a single, took second on Blanton's one-out bunt, and scored on Mark Ellis's single. After Blanton restrained the Padres for another inning, Hanley Ramirez hit a two-out solo homer in the sixth to tie the game. Then, with one out in the seventh, Werner hit for himself; before MGL could go into an apoplectic fit, he singled. After the second out, Blanton was removed, and Logan Forsythe singled against reliever Randy Choate. Werner was then lifted for pinch runner Clayton Richard, who of course is also a pitcher. Ronald Belisario came on to face Headley, who delivered a single that put San Diego in front once more.

Nick Vincent worked a perfect seventh for the Padres, and Jamey Wright matched him for LA in the eighth. Three San Diego hurlers combined on a scoreless bottom of the eighth, allowing only a single to Adrian Gonzalez. After Wright was spotless once more in the ninth, Luke Gregerson came out for the bottom of the inning. He retired Ramirez for the first out, but Andre Ethier then went deep, tying the game at 3 and sending it to additional innings.

Brandon League worked around a hit batter and an intentional walk in the tenth, courtesy of a Chris Denorfia double play ball. Brad Brach set the Dodgers down in order in the bottom of the inning, and League allowed only a two-out single in the top of the eleventh. In the bottom, Cory Burns quickly recorded the first two outs. Ethier and Cruz then singled, putting the winning run at third, and after Cruz advanced on defensive indifference, AJ Ellis singled as well to end the game.

If you'll notice, Chase Headley drove in all of the Padres' runs in this game. This doesn't happen as often as you might think - it's only three times this year for Headley, despite the fact that he's clearly the best hitter on a pretty bad offense, and the other two games both involved the Pads only scoring once. I wonder if PI would support a search for most games in which a player drives in all of his team's runs? Or most multi-RBI games satisfying that requirement?

Game of the day (last year): Pirates 7, Cubs 5. The Pirates struck first, with an Alex Presley double, a passed ball, and a Derrek Lee single putting them ahead 1-0 against Casey Coleman in the first. Pittsburgh's Ross Ohlendorf promptly loaded the bases with Cubs in the bottom of the inning on a single by Starlin Castro and a pair of one-out HBPs (Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena), but Alfonso Soriano hit into a force at home and Marlon Byrd grounded out to leave three runners on. The starters put one runner on in each of the next three half-innings, a streak that ended in the bottom of the third. That inning made it look like Ohlendorf got off easy in the first when he hit Ramirez and Pena, as Ramirez singled and Pena doubled. Soriano's sac fly tied the score at 1.

It took Pittsburgh three batters to recapture the lead. Lee led off the fourth with a single, Neil Walker hit into a force at second, and Walker raced around to home on Ryan Doumit's double. The Bucs would leave runners at first and second in the inning, and the teams each stranded a runner at second in their next chances before the Cubs struck again in the fifth. Darwin Barney led off with a single, and Ramirez and Pena both drew walks to load the bases. Soriano followed with a single, tying the game once more and chasing Ohlendorf from the mound. Chris Leroux retired the next three Chicago hitters, but Byrd's force at second still drove in the go-ahead run.

Coleman and Leroux were both perfect in the sixth. Kerry Wood entered for the seventh, and things went south quite quickly, as Ronny Cedeno led off with a triple. Garret Jones came on as a pinch hitter and tied the score with a sac fly; Wood would give up two further hits in the inning but no additional runs. Pittsburgh put Daniel McCutchen on the mound in the bottom of the inning, and he quickly gave up a single to Ramirez, a walk to Pena, and a wild pitch that put the two of them on second and third. Soriano once again cashed in the baserunners, this time with a go-ahead two-run double. McCutchen then hit Byrd with a pitch before being replaced by Chris Resop, who escaped the inning without further damage.

Sean Marshall threw a perfect eighth for the Cubs; Resop threw an imperfect one for the Pirates, allowing a single, steal, and intentional walk, but didn't dig his team's preexisting hole any deeper. That brought Carlos Marmol into the game. His entry requires a dramatic pause.

All right, pause complete. Xavier Paul singled, and took second on a passed ball. Jason Jaramillo struck out. Jose Tabata walked. Presley struck out, putting Marmol one out away. Andrew McCutchen walked, bringing Lee to the plate. And on a 1-1 pitch, Lee partied like it was 2005, cranking a grand slam over the left field wall to put his new team ahead of his old team. Joel Hanrahan set the Cubs down on twelve pitches and three flyouts, and that, as they say, was that.

This game was relatively high-scoring, but it wasn't the highest-scoring of the day. What gives it the best score for the day is the fact that it didn't have any of what you might call wasted runs - that is, every scoring play either tied the game or gave the scoring team the lead (either from a tie or from behind).

Of course, the fact that it featured the classic two outs, bases loaded, ninth inning, game-winning grand slam doesn't hurt either.

the game that helped ensure the Merkle Game would happen

AKA the Warren Gill game.

One key difference between this game and the Merkle game was that O'Day worked this one alone, which made his job approximately 20 times more difficult; in the Merkle game he was paired with Bob Emslie.

-- MWE

Jim Mooney is almost Jim Maloney (just saying).

there was an awful play that just ended the top of the 4th inning for the phillies in cincinnati.

bases loaded, 1 out, nate scierholtz hits a low line drive to CF that is trapped by the CFer. there was no immediate call, so none of the runners advanced. the CF immediately threw the ball to 2nd base, where there was a force out. and then, the ball was thrown to home, where again, the runner was ruled out on a force. 8-4-2 doubleplay.

except, once the runner was forced out at 2B, there was no forceplay at home.

so, then the play was ruled a catch in CF, despite the ball clearly having been trapped, and then a forceout at 2B, where the runner hadn't tagged up, because there was no call on the original trap.


i don't even have a clue at how replay would go about correcting this situation, but it was absolutely horrendous to watch.