Also in the news 100 years ago...

* A day after the White Sox purchased pitcher Eddie Cicotte, the Pittsburgh Press reports the Southsiders have raised their bid for catcher Ray Schalk. Meanwhile, Chick Gandil is accused of attempting to spike Philadelphia's Eddie Collins and ministers in Portland, Oregon have stepped in to stop a planned boxing match involving Abe Attell.

* Jesse Tannehill has been released from the South Bend club in the Central League. Powder is hitting .300, but is also accused of "promoting discord in the team". The Toledo News-Bee says Tannehill tried to "persuade his co-workers into the belief that the man they were working for was a ripe cheese" and opines that he would be "a right little guy to have working around a dynamite factory".

* The Milwaukee Sentinel's game recap of the Milwaukee-Louisville American Association game (on page 5) provides some impressive writing:

The Looeyville ginks were choked off without a run again on Tuesday, Ralph Cutting's magic codfish tying them to the mast and returning the Duffymen winners by the toothsome count of 5 and 0. It was the second successive whitewash for the ginks...

Having tasted the codfish ball before and found it bitter as gall, Generalissimo Hayden...sent his best pitching bet to wage war with the dresden doll. The gent's name is Toney, and though he hails from Goat hill in Nashville, he never feazed [sic] the New Hampshire midget, who had the visitors tied in knots all the way.
...

The Colonels, playing with all the animation of a flock of icehouses, were given a taste of what was coming to them in the first.

There are at least two or three excellent BTF handles in there.

Today's Birthday Team features three All-Star position players, one of whom is in the Hall of Fame, and a second baseman that Nap Lajoie called the greatest of all time. It's still a pretty blah team, though.

C: Mike Brumley
1B: Lee Stevens
2B: Bobby Lowe
3B: Bob Bailor
SS: Gene Alley
LF: Hal McRae
CF: Andre Dawson
RF: Marty Cordova

SP: Johnny Niggeling
SP: Rich Hand
SP: Ad Liska
SP: Ed Dundon
SP: Hal McKain
RP: Buddy Groom

Owner/Manager/Spare Outfielder: Jimmy McAleer
Negro Leagues Great: Dick Lundy
Prospect Flameout: Jesse Foppert
As his career grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1: Tyrell Godwin
Minor league shortstop turned football coach: Urban Meyer
Not that one: Will Smith

As noted at THT, today is the 80th anniversary of arguably the wildest game in baseball history (non-Rick Camp division).

Can you guess what the game is before clicking on the link? (Heck, maybe you've never heard of it - but it sure was a doozy - especially for the stat line of the winning pitcher on the day).

I went to a Mets game last week and they asked a trivia question: "Besides the Hairstons, who are the other two three-generation MLB families?" The Bells and Boones have been around forever, but I had no idea that there was now a 4th family. Casey Coleman's father and grandfather were major league pitchers.

Can we go ahead and consider Jamie Moyer and Julio Franco to be one-man three generation MLB families?

Casey Coleman's father and grandfather were major league pitchers.

All three of them are "Joseph" Coleman too, except the modern Cubs pitcher goes by his middle name "Casey."

All three of them are "Joseph" Coleman too, except the modern Cubs pitcher goes by his middle name "Casey."

Maybe the current one should consider becoming known by "Joseph" instead of "Casey" to see if it makes him a better pitcher. It seemed to work for his grandfather and his father.

Or increase his degree of difficulty by going by "Choo Choo".

Bud Selig is doing a Q&A in town on the state of the game. Here are some tweets from his answers:

Bud Selig: "The appetite for more instant replay in the sport is very low."

Selig likes idea of DH in NL park and P hitting in AL in interleague play. "It's something this winter we ought to bear down on."

Selig: #Rays low attendance "inexcusable" and 'disappointing" and he's "concerned,' but NO timetable for any action

"I want to play games in Europe and take this sport to new heights."

What about Bonds returning to Giants? "That's up to Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants," Selig said.

"People will look back at this as the golden era of baseball"

especially for the stat line of the winning pitcher on the day).

Perhaps it would have been a good idea to bring Jimmie Foxx in to pitch at some point.

especially for the stat line of the winning pitcher on the day).

pitchers who got a W despite allowing 10 or more runs

Game of the day (yesterday): None. Which frees up a decent amount of my afternoon, although not as much of it as I'll have on Thursday, which will be the day after not one gameless day but two, thanks to last year's All-Star break.

Game of the day (last year): Reds 8, Brewers 4 (10). Milwaukee's Shaun Marcum worked around a two-out single by Joey Votto to produce a scoreless first inning. His teammates scored twice against Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto in the bottom of the inning; Rickie Weeks led off with a single, moved to second on an errant pickoff throw and third on a flyout, then scored on a hit by Corey Hart. Hart then moved up on a wild pitch, and after a grounder produced the inning's second out, came home on a hit by Mark Kotsay.

The Reds looked at this run manufacturing by Milwaukee and scoffed. Jay Bruce led off the second with a walk, and one out later, raced home on a double by Fred Lewis (who somehow amassed 210 plate appearances in 2011 while totally escaping my notice). Ramon Hernandez followed that with a two-run homer, putting Cincy in front.

Miwaukee started up the manufacturing plant again in the bottom of the second. Yuniesky Betancourt led off with a double, took third on a comebacker, and scored on Marcum's squeeze bunt to tie the score. And from that point, the game settled into one of the most exciting extended periods of scorelessness I can remember encountering.

A single and two walks loaded the bases for the Reds in the top of the third before Cueto struck out Scott Rolen and Lewis to strand the runners. The Brewers also loaded them in the bottom of the inning, thanks to a two-out error and a pair of walks, before Betancourt grounded out to defuse the rally. The Reds went 1-2-3 in the fourth, but the Brewers put a pair of runners on with two outs before Hart grounded back to the mound. Two singles sandwiched around an error put three Cincinnati runners on again in the fifth; Rolen hit into a force at home, and Lewis grounded out. Milwaukee managed only a two-out single in the bottom of the fifth, and both teams went in order in the sixth.

Takashi Saito replaced Marcum to start the seventh, and things heated up once more, as Votto and Bruce both singled against him before Rolen's strikeout stranded the two runners. Cueto issued a one-out walk to Hart in the bottom of the inning, then was relieved by Aroldis Chapman; Chapman promptly picked Hart off of first, and after walking Prince Fielder, struck out Kotsay on a full count to end the inning.

Latroy Hawkins worked an efficient eighth, allowing only a two-out ROE. Casey McGehee led off the home half of the inning by drawing a walk against Logan Ondrusek, and Betancourt followed with an attempt at a sacrifice bunt; it was less than successful, as pinch runner Josh Wilson was forced at second, and Betancourt still couldn't reach first safely. Jonathan Lucroy then singled, but was forced at second on George Kottaras's grounder.

John Axford set the Reds down in order in the ninth. Ondrusek allowed a leadoff hit to Weeks, then was pulled for Bill Bray, whose inaccurate pickoff throw moved Weeks to second. Nyjer Morgan struck out on a foul bunt, presumably trying to advance the runner; it would have been helpful if he'd succeeded, because Corey Hart's ensuing fly ball was deep enough to move Weeks to third, so he almost certainly would have scored if he'd started the play there. Fielder was intentionally walked, and Kotsay lined out to send the game to extras.

Marco Estrada replaced Axford to start the tenth, and the 7-inning scoreless stretch ended with remarkable immediacy, as Bruce launched his third pitch over the right field wall for a go-ahead home run. Rolen doubled, Edgar Renteria sacrificed him to third, and Hernandez singled him home. Chris Heisey then reached on an error by newly-inserted third baseman Craig Counsell; Drew Stubbs whiffed for the second out, but Miguel Cairo, Votto, and Brandon Phillips followed that with three consecutive RBI singles. Bruce lined out to end the inning; it's never a good sign when the opposing team bats around, and that goes double for extra innings.

Closer Francisco Cordero pitched the bottom of the inning with a 5-run lead, because hey, they had him warming anyway. Josh Wilson led off with a double, and Betancourt singled him home, but Cordero retired the next three hitters to end the game.

The teams combined to leave 24 runners on base, including the bases loaded three times and first and third once, and the game was tied basically the entire time that was happening. That's a good way to produce an exciting outing.