Baseball History on October 8
Major League Baseball Events on October 8 | Baseball Almanac
Baseball history on October 8, including a list of every Major League baseball player born on October 8, a list of every Major League baseball player who died on October 8, a list of every Major League baseball player who made their big league debut on October 8, and a list of every Major League baseball player whose final big league game was on October 8.
"No matter how your mind works, baseball reaches out to you. If you're an emotional person, baseball asks for your heart. If you are a thinking man or a thinking woman, baseball wants your opinion. Whether you are left-brain or right-brain, Type A or Type Z, whether your mind is bent towards mathematics or toward history or psychology or geometry, whether you are young or old, baseball has its way of asking for you. If you are a reader, there is always something new to read about baseball, and always something old. If you are a sedentary person, a TV watcher, baseball is on TV; if you always have to be going somewhere, baseball is somewhere you can go. If you are a collector, baseball offers you a hundred things that you can collect. If you have children, baseball is something you can do with children; if you have parents and cannot talk to them, baseball is something you can still talk to them about." - Baseball Historian Bill James in The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (Free Press Publishing, 06/13/2003, "Part 1: The Game", Page 5)
Baseball history on October 8 includes a total of Major League baseball players born that day of the year, Major League baseball players who died on that date, baseball players who made their Major League debut on that date, and Major League baseball players who appeared in their final game that date.
On October 8 in Baseball History...
- 1908 - Later admitting he had nothing on the ball, Christy Mathewson loses to the Cubs 4-2 in the playoff replay of the disputed game on September 23. Three Finger Brown, relieving Jack Pfiester in the first, gets the win.
- 1915 - The Phillies win their first-ever World Series game behind Grover Cleveland Alexander, 3-1. Red Sox rookie Babe Ruth grounds out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of the opener and will sit out the rest of the Series.
- 1919 - Ed Cicotte pitches Game Seven, and the White Sox play like they mean it. Joe Jackson and Happy Felsch drive in two runs each for a 4-1 win to cut the Reds' lead to four games to three in the best-of-nine Series.
- 1924 - Giants rookie third baseman Fred Lindstrom is 4-for-5 with two RBI against Walter Johnson, and New York hurler Jack Bentley (16-5) clouts a two-run homer and earns the 6-2 win. The Giants hold a 3-2 World Series edge heading back to Washington.
- 1927 - Facing elimination at Yankee Stadium, the Pirates are tied with the Yankees 3-3 in the last of the ninth. Reliever Johnny Miljus strikes out Lou Gehrig and Bob Meusel with the bases loaded, but a two-strike wild pitch to Tony Lazzeri allows Earle Combs to score the winning run and capture the World Series.
- 1929 - Howard Ehmke, a surprise starter for the Philadelphia Athletics, struck out 13 Chicago Cubs to win the opening game of the World Series 3-1.
- 1930 - George Earnshaw finishes off the Cardinals 7-1 to win the World Series for the Athletics. He is clearly the pitching star of the World Series with two wins and a 0.72 ERA.
- 1940 - With only one day's rest, Bobo Newsom comes back for the Tigers and nearly has enough to win Game Seven. Cincinnati's Paul Derringer gives up seven hits in the first six innings but sets the Tigers down in order in the final three frames for the 2-1 win, giving the Reds the Series.
- 1945 - Stan Hack's double takes a tricky bounce over left fielder Hank Greenberg's shoulder with two outs in the 12th inning to score runner Bill Schuster and give the Chicago Cubs an 8-7 win in Game Six to even the World Series with Detroit.
- 1956 - Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the only perfect game in World Series history for a 2-0 triumph over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sal Maglie, the opposing pitcher, gave up five hits.
- 1958 - The Yankees win the World Series on Moose Skowron's three-run home run off Lew Burdette in the eighth inning of Game Seven that puts the game on ice, 6-2. Eddie Mathews strikes out for the 11th time, a record that will stand until l980 when it is broken by Willie Wilson of Kansas City. This is Casey Stengel's seventh championship, tying him with Joe McCarthy.
- 1959 - The Los Angeles Dodgers win 9-3 to take the World Series over the White Sox. Larry Sherry wins in relief of Johnny Podres in Game Six.
- 1961 - The Yankees' Whitey Ford set a World Series record for consecutive scoreless innings by extending his streak to 32 innings in a 7-0 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds in Game 4.
- 1973 - Rusty Staub's two home runs powered the New York Mets to a 9-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds and a 2-1 lead in the NLCS. Pete Rose of the Reds and Bud Harrelson of the Mets scuffled at second base in the fifth inning after Rose slid hard into the base.
- 1986 - Mike Scott equaled a playoff record with 14 strikeouts and threw a five-hitter as the Houston Astros defeated the New York Mets 1-0 in the first game of the NLCS. Glenn Davis opened the second inning with a home run off Dwight Gooden.
- 1988 - Dodgers ace reliever Jay Howell is ejected in the eighth inning of Game Three of the NLCS for having pine tar on his glove and the Mets go on to score five times in the inning on the way to an 8-4 win. Howell will be suspended for three days by the NL.
- 1989 - Oakland beats Toronto 4-3 in Game Five to advance to the World Series for the second straight year. Rickey Henderson, who hit .400 with eight stolen bases, is named Series MVP.
- 1995 - Edgar Martinez drives home the tying and winning runs with a double to left field to rally the Mariners to a 6-5 win in the bottom of the 11th inning to win the Division Series. Martinez bats .571 with 10 RBI against the Yankees in the five-game series. Ken Griffey, Jr., who beats the relay throw home to score the winning run, hits five home runs in the series.
Did you know that there were baseball players born on every date of the year and baseball players who died on every date of the year? Use the calendar below to select any date in baseball history.
January | February |
| |
March | April |
| |
May | June |
| |
July | August |
| |
September | October |
| |
November | December |
| |
|
Bill James, on the same page of the same book we used at the top of this page, said, "But as I began to do research on the history of baseball (in order to discuss the players more intelligently) I began to feel that there was a history a baseball that had not been written at that time, a history of good and ordinary players, a history of being a fan, a history of games that meant something at the time but mean nothing now." To that end, I have created Baseball Almanac. A site to worship baseball. A site by a fan who is trying to tell the history of good and ordinary baseball players.