Pittsburgh Press, April 18, 1912:

Even Jennings falls for the old line of mildewed goods, says a contemporary. Every coacher round the circuit now barks, parrot-like, "at-a-boy!" to the batsman, presumably a condensation of "That's the boy!" and Jennings parrots it just like the rest.

He did this because 'Humm Baby' had not yet been coined.

Not sure which will induce more cringes among the fans of today's Birthday Team: The ace starter being unable to throw a baseball or the third baseman being unable to field one. A couple HOF-quality bats should help soothe the pain.

C: Hughie Hearne
1B: Rico Brogna
2B: Doug Flynn
3B: Miguel Cabrera
SS: Tommy McMillan
LF: Duffy Lewis
CF: Jim Eisenreich
RF: Sam Crawford

SP: Steve Blass
SP: Dennis Rasmussen
SP: Jack Scott
SP: Mike Paul
SP: Bobby Castillo
RP: Chuck Taylor

Owner: Frank Navin
Not that one: Deacon Jones

50 years ago today, Orioles pitcher Milt Pappas homered for the only run in a 1-0 victory over the Yankees. Not bad. It was one of five times he homered in a shutout.

TRIVIA QUESTION:
The record for most homers in a shutout by a pitcher is six. Can you name who did it? To find the answer, click on the link above. It's in the part of Pappas, in the next-to-last paragraph before the day-versaries begin.

My first two guesses were Gooden and Ferrell, both of which are incorrect.

Bob Lemon?

Not sure which will induce more cringes among the fans of today's Birthday Team: The ace starter being unable to throw a baseball or the third baseman being unable to field one.

or the second baseman unable to hit one.

Trivia: Don Drysdale

"most homers in a shutout" sounds funny.

I cheated and looked at the answer. It's not Drysdale or Lemon.

I would have guessed Drysdale. Newcombe? Ruth?

This is the answer. Not a goofy picture of Madeleine Albright or anything - I just TinyURL'd it so you'd actually have to click to find out.

he was returned from Louisville last week

He should've caught the first thing smoking Chicago-way.

Game of the day (yesterday): Indians 9, Mariners 8. The Indians scored in the first; the Mariners responded with a 2-run homer by John Jaso in the third, then batted around to score 6 times in the fourth (as you'd expect from a 6-run rally by the Mariners, it included a bases-loaded HBP). Cleveland responded with remarkable immediacy, tying the game with 7 runs in the top of the 5th, highlighted by Carlos Santana's 3-run homer. The Mariners put their first two hitters on base in the bottom of the inning, but failed to score, allowing the Indians to retake the lead in the 7th on what must have been the easiest single to advance on of the year (Travis Hafner scored from second, Shelley Duncan went first-to-third) by Jason Donald. The Mariners put the tying run at third with one out in the 9th, and loaded the bases with 2 away, but failed to score.

One caveat here - there's an error in B-R's PBP for the Pirates-Diamondbacks game, which also grades out pretty well (Garret Jones's tiebreaking 6th-inning homer is listed as having occurred after the bottom of the 5th, but in the top of the 1st). It shouldn't make up the difference between the two games, since this is the only play affected, but it throws off the WPA totals in this one, and creates a jump in the WE graph, which is pretty funny looking.

Game of the day (last year): Pirates 7, Reds 6. This one beats out a 12-inning affair between the Giants and D'Backs, and does so handily, so you know it's good. It started out looking like a fairly dull game in the making, as Andrew McCutchen and Jose Tabata started off with back-to-back homers, leading to a 4-run first inning for Pittsburgh. The Reds tallied single runs in the second (Jonny Gomes homer) and fourth (Paul Janish single, and they stranded runners at second and third) to pull back within striking distance, and then, in the bottom of the 5th, they struck. Miguel Cairo started things off with a one-out homer (seriously!). Joey Votto singled, and Scott Rolen doubled him in to tie the game. And with two outs, Jay Bruce drove in Rolen to give Cincy its first lead.

It was a short-lived advantage. With one out in the top of the 6th, Garret Jones went yard to re-tie the game, and after a Ronny Cedeno walk (seriously!), John Bowker put the Bucs back ahead with an RBI double. The Reds, however, were hardly done; they loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning on an error, single, and HBP, only to see Votto and Rolen strand all three runners. Undeterred, Bruce came through once more in the 7th with a game-tying home run; the inning would later see the go-ahead run reach second base with one out, but no further scoring.

The same couldn't be said of the top of the 8th. Garret Jones singled, stole second, and moved to third on an error... only to be thrown out at home on a grounder by Cedeno. One out later, McCutchen was up, and drove in the go-ahead run with a single, producing the last run of the game just as he had the first.

The scoring was finished, but the excitement wasn't. In the bottom of the 8th, the Reds had two on with one out before Scott Rolen lined into a double play. Then, with one out and nobody on in the 9th, the following play description occurred:

Single to C (Ground Ball to Front of Home); Bruce out at 2B/2B-1B

I have no idea what happened there (was anyone on the thread watching this game?), but it looks as though Jay Bruce tried to stretch an infield single, and the effort worked about as well as you'd expect. This was especially unfortunate, given that the next three batters singled, singled, and walked, respectively, before Drew Stubbs finally ended things with a flyout.

All in all, a genuinely outstanding (and often weird) game, and the highlight of an excellent day of baseball, especially in the NL.