Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Baker Bowl (Cont'd)

In 1929, Philadelphia's Baker Bowl witnessed an offensive explosion (nearly) unparalleled in baseball history. On July 6th of that year, the Cardinals dropped their eleventh straight with a 10-6 loss to the Phillies in the opening game of a doubleheader. The nightcap was a coming out party for the Redbirds.

Using the klunky dimensions of the Baker Bowl to an advantage, St. Louis scored 10 runs in the first and 10 more in the fifth on the way to a 28-6 thrashing of the home crew. The run and hit totals for this game were a National League record for the twentieth century. Other records were set as well with nine Cardinal players scoring at least 2 runs and five players collecting at least 4 hits apiece (one of them was Fresco Thompson of the Phillies).

For Philadelphia pitchers, it was a day to forget. Claude "Weeping" Willoughby and Elmer Miller were charged with 8 runs between them without retiring a single batter in the first inning. Right-hander June Greene, who took over in the disastrous 10-run fifth, gave up 11 runs on 12 hits the rest of the way. Not surprisingly, it was his last major league appearance.

Hall of Famer Jim Bottomley was the busiest Cardinal of all with a grand slam and 7 RBI's to go with his two homers in the opener. Together, the two clubs combined for 73 hits in the doubleheader, tying a major league record set by the Washington Nationals and Philadelphia Phillies on July 4, 1896. Can you guess where THAT game took place?

That's right--The Baker Bowl.

No comments:

Post a Comment