Three days after SABR’s founding in Cooperstown, the 40-year-old Mays had himself a day in San Francisco: three hits, including a double and a triple, plus a steal of third base. In the fourth inning he caught Tommie Agee’s fly ball, recording his 6,789th putout as an outfielder, breaking Tris Speaker’s record. Maybe. Putout and assist totals are fraught with errors even in the 1970s, let alone in Speaker’s time. We are fairly confident that Mays has the record, and thought Willie was an appropriate person to kick off this list.
|
Needing 15 strikeouts to tie Sandy Koufax’s season strikeout record set eight years earlier, Ryan pitched 11 innings and struck out 16 in his final start of the season. Rich Reese, batting for the Twins in Anaheim, was the final victim. No pitchers other than Randy Johnson and Ryan himself have come within 50 strikeouts of the record since then.
|
Aaron’s fourth-inning home run off Dodgers pitcher Al Downing broke Babe Ruth’s all-time career record, one of the most revered in baseball history. Aaron’s chase was a national story for more than a year. He retired after the 1976 season with 755 home runs.
|
This record did not make many headlines at the time. For one thing, Marshall, pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers at Cincinnati, was breaking his own record for appearances he had set the previous year when pitching for the Montreal Expos. Marshall finished with 106 games in 1974, still the most in major-league history.
|
Maury Wills had stolen 104 bases in 1962, aided in part by the new 162-game schedule. A little over a decade later, Brock, facing the Phillies, bested Wills in the Cardinals’ 142nd game. Brock finished the season with 118 steals and held both the single-season and career records for steals when he retired.
|
Just a few weeks into his two-season stint with the Brewers to end his career, Aaron singled off Detroit’s Vern Ruhle to break Babe Ruth’s long-standing record of 2,209 RBIs — or so we thought. Later record sleuthing has added five RBIs to Ruth’s total, meaning that Aaron actually broke the record on May 15 with a sacrifice fly off the Rangers’ Steve Hargan. Aaron finished his career with 2,297 RBIs, still the all-time best.
|
Ty Cobb held the career stolen base record for over half a century, and Brock’s pursuit of Cobb’s 892 was a well-covered story. Brock’s record-setter, in San Diego off pitcher Dave Freisleben and catcher Dave Roberts, was celebrated on the field with speeches and second base held aloft. Later reckoning has given Cobb five more stolen bases, so Brock actually broke the record, to little fanfare, with his 898th steal on September 22 in Montreal.
|
After a tumultuous first season with the Yankees, Jackson came through with five home runs in the World Series against the Dodgers, including three in the final game. His eighth-inning blast off Charlie Hough broke the previous record of four set by Babe Ruth in 1926, and tied by Lou Gehrig in 1928 and Duke Snider in both 1952 and 1955. Jackson’s record has since been tied by Chase Utley (2009 Phillies) and George Springer (2017 Astros).
|
Early Wynn retired in 1963 with an MLB record 1,775 free passes, but it took Ryan just 14 full seasons to surpass him with a walk of the Mets’ Lee Mazzilli in the fourth inning. Ryan handled the achievement in stride, likely helped by his 10 strikeouts and his five-hit shutout. He retired 12 years later with 2,795 career walks allowed, dwarfing Steve Carlton’s second place 1,833.
|
After tossing four no-hitters with the California Angels between 1973 and 1975, tying Sandy Koufax’s career record, it took Ryan six years to get #5. Pitching for the Houston Astros, he allowed just three walks and struck out 10 in defeating the eventual World Series champion Dodgers 5-0. Ryan threw two more no-hitters after the age of 40 to finish with seven; no other pitcher has matched Koufax since.
|
The Oakland A’s had set a record by going 11-0 to start the season in 1981, but their mark fell only one year later. The Braves broke the tie by beating the Reds 4-2, then added a 13th win the next day. The record 13-0 start was matched by the 1987 Brewers, but remains the best in major-league history.
|
Facing the Detroit Tigers at Anaheim, Jackson’s seventh-inning strikeout against Pat Underwood broke Willie Stargell’s career record. Stargell was winding down his own career that season and finished with 1,936 strikeouts, but Jackson never relinquished the lead. When he retired five years later, Reggie had 2,597 strikeouts, still a record.
|
Just eight years after Lou Brock had set the season record for stolen bases, Henderson broke it with more than a month to spare. He entered this game against the Brewers in Milwaukee tied with Brock, but stole second base in the third inning and then added three more later in the game. Henderson ended the season with 130 steals, still the most in history.
|
In the Brewers’ 10-0 opening game rout of the Cardinals, leadoff man Molitor led the way with five singles in six trips against St. Louis pitchers. No one had ever done this before in the World Series, although the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols matched the feat in 2011.
|
Needing five strikeouts to break Walter Johnson’s 55-year-old career record, the Astros’ Ryan struck out Montreal Expos pinch-hitter Brad Mills in the eighth inning to pass the mark. Johnson was later discovered to have one additional strikeout, so Ryan actually passed him in his next start, at Shea Stadium, when he fanned Hubie Brooks. Ryan didn’t hold the record long, just until Steve Carlton passed him on June 7. The two exchanged the record 15 times (not including mid-day exchanges) over the next year-and-a-half, until Ryan passed Carlton for good on September 5, 1984. Ryan ended his Hall of Fame career with 5,714 strikeouts, dwarfing Randy Johnson’s now-second place total of 4,875.
|
Playing for the Montreal Expos against his former (and future) team, the Reds, Rose’s appearance put a new name at the top of the games played leaderboard for the second straight year — Carl Yastrzemski had surpassed Hank Aaron in 1983 and finished his career with 3,308. Rose extended his record to 3,562 games when he finally retired in 1986 and still holds the top spot today.
|
Herb Score had struck out 245 as a rookie for the 1955 Cleveland Indians, and entering this game against the Pirates, New York Mets phenom Gooden needed 11 to break the mark. He got it by fanning Marvell Wynne in the sixth inning. The 19-year-old fireballer struck out 16 on the day, on his way to a rookie record 276 strikeouts on the season.
|
In one of the most anticipated record-setting events ever, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, Rose singled off San Diego’s Eric Show in the first inning for his 4,192nd hit, passing Ty Cobb’s presumed total. It is now known that Cobb recorded 4,189 hits, which means Rose broke the record three days earlier with a single at Wrigley Field off Chicago’s Reggie Patterson.
|
When the game at Fenway Park began, Clemens was a promising 23-year-old who had won his first three starts for the Red Sox in April 1986. When it ended, having struck out 20 Seattle Mariners, he was a sensation, and he went on to win 24 games and both the Cy Young and MVP awards. The previous high of 19 strikeouts in a game had been achieved five times, though just thrice — by Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, and Nolan Ryan — since the pitching distance was set at 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893. Three pitchers have logged 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game since Clemens did it: Clemens again in 1996, Kerry Wood in 1998, and Max Scherzer in 2016. (Randy Johnson also struck out 20 in nine innings in 2001, but the game went into extra innings.)
|
When the Indians’ Jay Bell homered off Minnesota’s Blyleven in the top of the third inning, it broke Robin Roberts’ record of 46 home runs allowed in a season set in 1956. Blyleven finished the season having allowed 50 and no one has matched him since. For Bell, the home run came on the first pitch he ever saw as a major-league player.
|
The previous record of eight home runs in a game had been established by the 1939 Yankees and matched six times by 1987. The Blue Jays broke the record with Ernie Whitt’s seventh-inning home run off the Orioles’ Tony Arnold. Fred McGriff made it an even 10 when he connected off Tony Arnold an inning later. Another record also fell on this night: Cal Ripken’s 8,264 consecutive innings played, when his father, Orioles manager Cal Senior, rested him for the ninth inning.
|
Facing the Red Sox’ Bruce Hurst at Yankee Stadium, Mattingly broke up a scoreless game in the third inning with a long home run in what would be a 6-0 Yankee victory. The previous record for grand slams in a season was shared by Ernie Banks (1955 Cubs) and Jim Gentile (1961 Orioles). Mattingly’s record was later tied by Travis Hafner of the 2006 Indians. These were the only six grand slams of Mattingly’s career.
|
Playing at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, the Orioles’ 8-6 loss broke a record previously held by the 1904 Washington Senators and the 1920 Detroit Tigers. Remarkably, the Orioles lost seven more games, falling to 0-21, before getting their first win of the season.
|
Entering his final start of the season against the Padres, Hershiser needed nine shutout innings to tie the record set by Don Drysdale 20 years earlier. When the game went into extra innings in a 0-0 tie, Hershiser stayed in for one more inning and broke Drysdale’s record of 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings by one out. The Dodgers went on to lose 2-1 in 16 innings. Six days later, Hershiser shut out the Mets for the first eight innings in Game One of the NLCS, though this does not count towards the record.
|
On a Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Twins twice turned around-the-horn triple plays. In the fourth inning Tom Brunansky hit a ground ball to third baseman Gary Gaetti, who stepped on third, threw to second baseman Al Newman, who threw to first baseman Kent Hrbek. In the eighth inning, Jody Reed hit another grounder to Gaetti, and the same three players turned it again. It remains the only game in big-league history in which a team had two triple plays.
|
This may have been less suspenseful than many other record chases because Henderson was just 32 years old and, in fact, would play for another 12 seasons. Facing the Yankees in Oakland, Henderson was caught stealing in the first inning, but set the record by stealing third base in the fourth. Lou Brock, whose record he broke, was on hand to help mark the occasion. Henderson finished his career with an astounding 1,406 stolen bases.
|
One of baseball’s most iconic moments came on this day, when Ripken bested Lou Gehrig’s legendary accomplishment. Gehrig’s streak was thought unreachable, just as Ripken’s — a ridiculous 2,632 consecutive games played in more than 16 seasons — is now.
|
Granted that saves have only been an official statistic since 1969, it is still remarkable that only one pitcher has managed to save four games in a World Series. After finishing off the Braves in Games Three, Four, and Five, New York Yankees closer Wetteland made it four in a row in Game Six. It was not a cakewalk — entering a 3-1 game, he allowed three hits and a run before securing the final out on Mark Lemke’s foul pop-up to Charlie Hayes at third base.
|
Roger Maris’s 61 home runs, hit for the Yankees in 1961, had been one of baseball’s most famous records. After a summer-long duel with the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa, McGwire passed Maris first with a home run off Chicago’s Steve Trachsel (with Sosa watching from right field). Both men kept hitting home runs, and they were tied up at 65 and then 66 in late September. McGwire hit four in the last two games to finish his record-breaking season with 70.
|
There were a lot of great home run feats in this era, but this one was pretty amazing, especially since both of Tatis’ grand slams were hit off the same pitcher, Chan-Ho Park of the Dodgers. Nursing a 2-0 lead after two innings, Park allowed 11 runs in the top of the third. Tatis hit 34 home runs with 107 RBIs for the Cardinals in 1999, his best season. Earlier that year, his son, future major-leaguer Fernando Tatis Jr., was born in January.
|
Pitching at home for the Baltimore Orioles, Orosco entered the game with two outs in the seventh inning to face the Twins’ Todd Walker, who he retired on a lazy pop fly to center field. Orosco broke the record set the year before by Dennis Eckersley. Though 42 years old, Orosco pitched four more years, retiring after 24 seasons and 1,252 games, which is still the record.
|
This record understandably took a back seat to a bigger mark Bonds took down two days later, but Babe Ruth’s record for walks in a season had stood since 1923. Bonds walked three times in this game, and it was his second one — a sixth-inning pass surrendered by Houston’s Nelson Cruz — that set the new record. Bonds ended the season with 177 walks, then broke his own mark with 198 in 2002 and 232 in 2004.
|
Ty Cobb’s run scored record had lasted 73 seasons until Rickey Henderson finally bested it on this day. Playing at home for the San Diego Padres, he hit a home run off Dodgers starter Luke Prokopec in the third inning. As teammates waited at home plate, Rickey executed a feet-first slide to tally the record run.
|
The night after hitting #70 in Houston to match Mark McGwire’s three-year-old record, Bonds returned home to Pac Bell Park in San Francisco and hit #71 off the Dodgers’ Chan-Ho Park in the first inning in front of 41,730 screaming fans. Bonds hit another one later in the game, and finished the season with 73.
|
Batting for Rey Ordóñez, the Mets’ Harris broke Manny Mota’s career pinch-hit record with a single off the Expos’ Carl Pavano. Harris ended his career with 212 pinch hits in 804 at-bats.
|
Hitting just .238 with five home runs to start the game, Green ended his slump in a big way by going 6-for-6 with four homers, a double, and a single. Green was a fine slugger, having hit 49 homers the year before, and this game catapulted him to a .285/.385/.558 season.
|
Facing the Rangers in Seattle, Ichiro needed one hit to tie George Sisler’s 1920 record for hits in a season. He singled in the first and third innings, both off Texas starter Ryan Drese, to set a new standard. Ichiro finished the season with 262 hits.
|
Dunn’s eighth-inning strikeout against the Marlins’ Taylor Tankersley set the new record. Bobby Bonds’s mark of 189 for the 1970 Giants had been approached several times in recent years, but managers found reasons to sit their players down to avoid the ignominious record. Dunn ended his season with 194 whiffs, a total that has been topped 25 times since. The current mark is 223 by Mark Reynolds of the 2009 Diamondbacks.
|
Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s beloved career record with a long home run off the Nationals’ Mike Bacsik in the bottom of the fifth inning. Because of his link to PEDs, Bonds’s record chase was met with boos in many major-league parks, but the sellout home crowd at Pac Bell Park in San Francisco celebrated the record with gusto.
|
Since 1900, the record high for team runs in a single game was 29 by the 1950 Red Sox and the 1955 White Sox. The Rangers set a new standard when Ramon Vazquez hit a three-run home run in the ninth inning off Paul Shuey, finishing the scoring in their 30-3 romp over the Baltimore Orioles. Wes Littleton even recorded a save with three quiet innings of relief. Remarkably, this was the first game in a doubleheader; Texas also won the nightcap, 9-7.
|
Having previous caught no-hitters by Hideo Nomo (2001), Derek Lowe (2002), and Clay Buchholz (2007), Boston Red Sox catcher Varitek achieved a new mark when he was behind the plate for Jon Lester’s no-hitter on this date. Hall of Famers Roy Campanella and Ray Schalk had previously caught three. Carlos Ruiz tied this record in 2015 (including one in the postseason.)
|
Bobby Thigpen’s record for saves in a season, set for the 1990 Chicago White Sox, lasted 18 years until Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth against the Mariners to get #58 with the Angels. He finished the season with 62, the current standard.
|
Rodriguez set the record as a Houston Astro, playing against his old team, the Texas Rangers, in Arlington. He took down the mark held by Carlton Fisk. Early in his career, Rodriguez was given the nickname Pudge in tribute to Fisk. Rodriguez eventually extended his mark for games behind the plate to 2,427.
|
Pitching for the Phillies against the Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park, Moyer allowed a home run to Vernon Wells to break Robin Roberts’ all-time career record. The 47-year-old lefty shook off the homer to win his 267th game. Moyer finished his career with 522 home runs allowed.
|
With his Padres visiting Milwaukee, Stairs hit an eighth-inning, two-run homer off Kameron Loe to break the record held by Cliff Johnson. Stairs hit two more pinch-homers in September, and retired a year later with 23 pinch home runs (out of his 265 total).
|
Trevor Hoffman finished his Hall of Fame career in 2010 with 601 saves, a record Rivera broke just one year later with a 1-2-3 ninth inning against the Twins at Yankee Stadium. Rivera retired in 2013 with 652 saves and in 2019 became the first unanimous selection to the Hall of Fame.
|
Pujols’s historic performance in Game Three of the World Series included three home runs and two singles, which led the St. Louis Cardinals to a 16-7 rout over the Texas Rangers. Although the Cardinals won a thrilling fall classic in seven games, these would be Pujols’s only home runs and RBIs (6) of the series.
|
Facing the Giants in a 1-1 game at Yankee Stadium, Rodriguez hit a seventh-inning grand slam off George Kontos to break Lou Gehrig’s long-held record. Rodriguez retired in 2016 with 25 career grand slams.
|
In Game Seven at Dodger Stadium, the Astros’ Springer broke the previous record of 25 total bases held by Reggie Jackson (1977) and Willie Stargell (1979). Springer’s first-inning double off Yu Darvish tied the record, then he homered off Darvish in the second. He ended the series 11-for-29 with three doubles and five home runs to capture MVP honors.
|
The Yankees had set the team home run record in 2018, but the Twins beat it with a month to go on Mitch Garver’s home run off the Tigers’ Joe Jimenez at Comerica Park. The Yankees and Twins battled for the top spot throughout September, with the Twins prevailing 307 to 306. The Astros (288) and Dodgers (279) also topped the previous record.
|
