Baseball Daily Miscellany

Baseball Hall of Fame members who were inducted wearing an Oakland Athletics cap:

The Athletics relocated to Oakland, California for the 1968 season after a relatively unsuccessful 13 year stint in Kansas City. Success soon followed as the A’s won three consecutive World Series Titles from 1972 to 1974.

In March 1973, New York Yankees’ pitchers Mike Ketich and Fritz Petersen announced to a stunned spring training press conference audience that they had swapped wives. Included in this unique family exchange were two children apiece as well the family dogs. The trade faired better for Petersen who later married Ketich’s wife, Suzanne whilst Ketich’s affair with Marilyn Petersen soon fizzled out.

In 1984, perennial underachievers the Chicago Cubs made their first post season appearance since 1945. They took the first two games against the San Diego Padres at Wrigley Field in the best of five National League Championship Series and only had to win one game of the next three to move into the World Series. They promptly lost all three games at the Jack Murphy stadium.

The ensuing World Series was a match up between Managers Sparky Anderson of the Detroit Tigers and Dick Williams of the Padres. The winning manager would be the first ever to have won a World Series title with both an American League and National League team. Anderson prevailed as the Tigers took the series 4-1.

After purchasing the fledging St Louis Browns in 1951, eccentric owner Bill Veeck tried some outrageous publicity stunts in an effort to lure the crowds back to Sportsman’s Park. His most notorious stunt was to allow a 3 foot, 7 inch midget by the name of Eddie Gaedel to bat in second game of a double header against the Detroit Tigers in August 1951. Gaedel was promptly walked by amused pitcher Bob Cain and did not come to the plate again. His contract was declared void by the American League and his appearance struck from the record books the next day. Although Gaedel never played again, his record was officially reinstated a year later and his official statistics show an on-base percentage of 1.000. He earned $100 for his only major league appearance.

Short plate appearance