Historically Speaking: 5-4-09

It was really a lovely weekend. The weather was nice. The Royals took a series against the Twins. Got to see the Hatton-Pacquiano fight. The wife did some gardening. And now, I could just weep at the notion of going back to work.

* Today in 1904, Boston Pilgrim Cy Young tossed the second of his three no-hitters, this one a 3-0 perfect game against the Athletics of Philadelphia. This stretch would lead to 24 hitless, 45 shutout innings for the ace.

* It was 1922 when Bill Bayne of the St. Louis Browns took a no-hitter into the ninth against the Tigers. The Tigers' skipper, Ty Cobb, sends five consecutive pinch hitters to bat against Bayne. The first batter breaks up the no-hitter. One of the batters is sent to the plate in place of the manager. That was Bob Fothergill, who struck out, becoming the only guy to ever pinch hit for the old man Cobb.

* We've got a trio of Philadelphia phunnies to start things off this morning: It was 1954 when the Phillies and the Cards set a N.L. record when, in a Phillies 14-10 win, the two teams combined used 42 players; it was 1963, a Phillies 5-4 win over the Braves, when the hometown team took 20 innings to get the victory, the longest ever at Veteran's Stadium; and the year was 1980 when the Dodgers batted out of order against the Philies in the first innings.

* The St. Louis Blues were part of the NHL's 1969 expansion, and for the first three years of their existence, the Blues went to the Stanley Cup Finals. They also got smoked in each of those series, the first of which concluded today in '69, a sweep by the Canadiens.

* A guy by the name of Pete Rose got a single today in 1978 off of Montreal pitcher Steve Rogers. Though the Expos would take the game 4-3, the hit for Rose was number 3000.

And your Sports Illustrated quote of the day? Well it came from the mouth of the one, the only...



Joe Theismann. Theismann, as you may know, was a Washington Redskin quarterback, an announcer for ESPN, and the subject of a hero's shrine for a young Old No. 7. As the middle of those three, Theismann, in 1992, offered up this gem: "The word genius isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."