April 22, 1970: Tom Seaver, perhaps the greatest New York-based pitcher of baseball's post-1920 Lively Ball Era, has perhaps his greatest performance. Yes, better than the near-miss of a perfect game he'd done the season before.
The New York Mets were hosting the San Diego Padres at Shea Stadium, a 2:05 PM start on a Wednesday afternoon. Only 14,197 people paid to see this game, and if everyone who's said they were there actually were, it probably would have sold the Flushing Meadow facility out.
Tom Seaver, whose pitching had led the Mets to a "Miracle" World Series win the season before, started against Mike Corkins. Corkins pitched pretty well himself, going 7 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, but 5 walks, and 5 strikeouts.
In the bottom of the 1st inning, Bud Harrelson singled, and Ken Boswell doubled him home. In the top of the 2nd, Al Ferrara hit a home run off Seaver, to tie the game. But Tommie Agee led off the bottom of the 3rd with a single, and Harrelson tripled him home. That made it 2-1 Mets, and that would be the final score.
But that would not be the big story. "Tom Terrific" went the distance, allowing only 4 baserunners: The home run to Ferrara, a walk to Bob Barton in the 3rd, and a walk to Ferrara and a single to Dave Campbell in the 4th. He got out of that jam by striking out Jerry Morales, and ended up retiring the game's last 16 batters.
And he struck out the last 10: In the 6th, Ferrara; in the 7th, Nate Colbert, Campbell and Morales; in the 8th, Barton, Ramon Webster and Ivan Murrell; and, in the 9th, Van Kelly, Cito Gaston and Ferrara.
This gave Seaver a total of 19 strikeouts. That tied the major league record for a 9-inning game, set by another future Hall-of-Famer, Steve Carlton, then with the St. Louis Cardinals, set the previous September 15 -- against the Mets, at Busch Memorial Stadium, and Carlton lost the game, 4-3, due to giving up 2 home runs to Ron Swoboda.
Since then, 19 strikeouts in 9 innings has been done by Nolan Ryan in 1974, David Cone in 1991, and Randy Johnson twice in 1997. It has been topped with 20 in 9 innings by Roger Clemens in 1986 and again in 1996, Kerry Wood in 1998, Johnson in 2001, and Max Scherzer in 2016.
The MLB record for strikeouts in a game is 21, by Tom Cheney of the Washington Senators against the Baltimore Orioles, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, on September 12, 1962. But he needed 16 innings to do it. He got 12 in the 1st 9 innings, and ended up walking 4 batters. Today, the 16 innings pitched would seem his most amazing feat of the day. Luis Tiant needed 10 innings to get 19 in a 1968 game.
Before this performance by "The Franchise," the record for most consecutive strikeouts was 9, and it was achieved by a pitcher for a New York team in the National League. But it was a long time ago, when the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate was only 50 feet, not 60 feet, 6 inches; there wasn't a raised mound, just a flat box; and most pitching actually was "pitching," as in throwing underhanded.
On August 28, 1884, Mickey Welch of the New York Gothams -- they didn't become the "Giants" until 1886 -- struck out 9 straight members of the Cleveland Blues, at the original version of the Polo Grounds. He fanned 14 Blues in a 2-1 Gothams victory. Between 1884 and 1970, a few pitchers struck out 8 straight, but never 9. Seaver made it 10.
That feat would not be matched until the 2021 season, the year after Seaver's death -- when, out of the blue, 2 All-Star pitchers did it within 43 days:
* Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies did it to the Mets at Citi Field on June 25, finishing with 12 strikeouts and 1 walk -- having pitched to only 22 batters. You see, the Phillies' manager is Joe Girardi, and he tends to panic when a pitcher throws too many pitches, and Nola hadn't yet gotten out of the 6th inning, but had already thrown 99 pitches. The next Phils pitcher blew the lead, and the next one was the losing pitcher, as the Mets won, 2-1.
* And Corbin Burnes of the Milwaukee Brewers did it to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on August 12, finishing with 15 strikeouts and no walks. It was overkill, as the Brewers won the game 10-0. Burnes began the season with a record 58 strikeouts before issuing his 1st walk, and ended it in the National League Division Series and with the NL's Cy Young Award.
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April 22, 1970 was a Wednesday. There were 10 other Major League Baseball games played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 2-1 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. It was one of the longest games in Yankee history. Bobby Murcer hit a home run in the 9th inning to send the game to extra innings, but the Yanks wasted a runner on 1st after Murcer's homer in the 9th, a man on 2nd and nobody out in the 10th, a man on 2nd with 1 out in the 11th, 1st and 3rd and nobody out in the 12th, a man on 1st with 2 out in the 13th, 1st and 3rd with 2 out in the 14th, 1st and 2nd with 1 out in the 15th, and a man on 1st with 2 out in the 16th. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially
the leadoff variety.
Finally, Ed Stroud led off the bottom of the 18th with a walk off Ron Klimkowski. Hank Allen (Dick's brother) singled him over to 3rd. John Cumberland was brought in to pitch, but he gave up a sacrifice fly to Mike Epstein, and that got Stroud home with the winning run for the Senators.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Willie Mays went 0-for-4 for the Giants.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Montreal Expos, 9-2 at Jarry Park in Montreal.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Frank Robinson went 3-for-4, but Brooks Robinson went 0-for-4.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-5, Willie Stargell went 1-for-3, and each had an RBI. Despite a lineup with such renowned hitters as Tommy Davis, Joe Pepitone, Jimmy Wynn, John Mayberry and Joe Morgan, Steve Blass limited Houston to a run on 3 hits and 3 walks. It doesn't exactly make a fellow proud to be an Astro. (At least they didn't cheat.)
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Northrup hit a home run, and Al Kaline went 1-for-4 with an RBI, in support of Mickey Lolich, who pitched a 5-hit shutout, striking out 7 and walking none.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. For the Cards, Joe Torre and Leron Lee hit home runs, and Lou Brock went 2-for-5. But for the Cubs, Don Kessinger homered, Johnny Callison went 4-for-5, Billy Williams went 2-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Ernie Banks went 0-for-3.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. This game was shortened to 5 innings by rain.
* The California Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 at Anaheim Stadium. (It was renamed Edison International Field in 1997, and Angel Stadium of Anaheim in 2004.)
* The Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, the team that replaced them in Kansas City, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3.
* And the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds were not scheduled to play.
Football was out of season. It was an off-day in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which would be won by the Boston Bruins over the St. Louis Blues, 18 days later. And the NBA Playoffs were between the Conference Finals and the Finals, with the New York Knicks beating the Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games, 16 days later.
There were 4 games played in the American Basketball Association's Playoffs:
* The New York Nets lost to the Kentucky Colonels, 128-101 at the Island Garden in in West Hempstead, Long Island, New York.
* The Washington Capitols beat the Denver Rockets, 131-114 at the Washington Coliseum. The Capitols do not survive, but the Rockets do, having changed their name to the Denver Nuggets in 1974.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Carolina Cougars, 115-106 at the Charlotte Coliseum.
* And the Los Angeles Stars beat the Dallas Chaparrals, 144-138 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Pacers would go on to beat the Stars for the ABA Championship.
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