September 27, 1935: The Chicago Cubs Win Their 21st Straight Game

Bill Lee, pitcher -- but probably not the one you know.

September 27, 1935: The Chicago Cubs sweep a doubleheader from the St. Louis Cardinals, their arch-rivals and the defending World Champions, at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. They win the opener, 6-2, Bill Lee outpitched future Hall-of-Famer Dizzy Dean, allowing only 6 hits, 2 to the Cards' manager and 2nd baseman, future Hall-of-Famer Frankie Frisch.

Former New York Giants star Freddie Lindstrom, another future Hall-of-Famer, went 4-for-5 with 3 RBIs. Stan Hack went 3-for-4 with a solo home run. Augie Galan went 3-for-5. Lee helped his own cause with an RBI single.

This game clinched the National League Pennant for the Cubs. They also won the nightcap, 5-3, coming back from a 3-0 deficit, scoring 3 runs in the 7th and 2 in the 9th to win it. They got 3 hits each from Galan and yet another future Hall-of-Famer, Billy Herman.

That 2nd game was the Cubs' 21st straight win, setting a new major league record. In 1884, the National League's Providence Grays and the Union Association's St. Louis Maroons each had a 20-game winning streak.

The American League record, at this point, was 19 straight, by the 1906 Chicago White Sox. The New York Yankees tied that mark in 1947. The Oakland Athletics won 20 straight in 2002, and the Cleveland Indians raised the record to 22 straight in 2017.

The 1880 Chicago White Stockings, forerunners of the Cubs, won 22 straight decisions; and the 1916 New York Giants won 26 straight decisions. However, each of those streaks included tie games.

Managed by Charlie Grimm, the Cubs were 10 1/2 games out of 1st place on July 5. Then they went on an 8-game winning streak, lost 2, won 5, lost 1, then won 11. This 24-3 run closed them to within half a game of the League-leading Giants.

On September 2nd, they won the 1st game of a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Reds, and lost the 2nd game. They had the 3rd off. On the 4th, they beat the Philadelphia Phillies, and the streak was on. They began that day 3 games behind the Giants, and then won 21 straight to clinch the Pennant and set the record. But they lost the World Series to the Detroit Tigers.

Lee would go 167-155 in a major league career that lasted from 1934 to 1947. He helped the Cubs win Pennants in 1935 and 1938, and made the NL All-Star Team in 1938 and 1939. In 1938, he led the NL in wins and ERA. Had there been a Cy Young Award at the time, he probably would have won it.

"Big Bill" Lee appears not to have been related to the later Bill Lee who went 119-90 in a major league career that lasted from 1969 to 1982, mostly with the Boston Red Sox; however, that Bill Lee, "the Spaceman," had a grandfather who played in the Pacific Coast League, and an aunt who pitched in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

*

September 27, 1935 was a Friday. Hockey player and coach Al MacNeil was born. Only 2 other baseball games were played, also a doubleheader, at Braves Field in Boston. The Boston Braves beat the New York Giants in the 1st game, 6-4. Buck Jordan went 4-for-5 with an RBI. The Giants won the 2nd game, 8-5. Player-manager Bill Terry did not put himself or his best player, Mel Ott, into either game, and took his ace, Carl Hubbell, out after just 2 innings of the 1st game.

September 10, 1978: The Boston Massacre, Game 4

September 10, 1978: On this Sunday morning, Boston Red Sox fans could have been forgiven for feeling like the narrator of Kris Kristofferson's 1969 country music classic, best known for its version by Johnny Cash:

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad
so I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
and found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day...

On a Sunday morning sidewalk
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
that makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short of dying
that's half as lonesome as the sound
of a sleeping city sidewalk

and Sunday morning coming down.

For the New York Yankees: A share of 1st place in the American League Eastern Division was on the line. For the Red Sox: Keeping themselves in good position to keep their best chance at a World Championship in 60 years.

Legend has it that, before the Sunday afternoon game, Carl Yastrzemski, as team Captain, went into manager Don Zimmer's office, and begged him to start Bill Lee against the Yankees.

Lee, part pitching ace and part mad philosopher, was known as the Spaceman. He used a sinking fastball to go 12-5 vs. the Yankees in his career. And he was a lefthander, and, thanks to the Kansas City Royals in the previous year's AL Championship Series, the word had gotten around that, "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching."

It was also suggested that Luis Tiant, also with with a good record against the Yankees, start, but he was 37 years old, and would have been on 3 days' rest.

Zim refused to start Lee, and (according to the legend), to explain why, reached into his desk, and showed Yaz a bunch of newspaper clippings he had saved, in which Lee had insulted him, calling him things like "the Designated Gerbil."

Zim said he was sticking with his established choice for the game, Bobby Sprowl, a 22-year-old from Sandusky, Ohio with 1 major league game (7 innings) under his belt. To be fair, Sprowl was also a lefthander. Zim said he was told by Sox scouts that Sprowl "has icewater in his veins."

I ask you: Does this look like somebody

with icewater in his veins?

Sprowl got knocked out of the box in the 1st inning, and the Yankees took a 5-0 lead. Ed Figueroa pitched well, and Goose Gossage stopped a Sox rally in the 9th. Yankees 7, Red Sox 4.

Reggie Jackson went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Yaz, who had long been one of the great clutch hitters in baseball history, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

In 4 games, the Yankees had outscored the Red Sox 42-9. The sweep was completed, and the teams were tied for 1st place, with 20 games to go, including 3 more between them, the following weekend at Yankee Stadium.

The series became known as the Boston Massacre, after the 1770 event outside what's now known as the Old State House in downtown Boston, often considered the beginning of the American Revolution.

What happened to Sprowl? The kid with "icewater in his veins" made 1 more appearance for the Sox in '78, was traded to the Houston Astros, made 3 major league appearances for them in '79, 1 more in '80, and 15 more in '81, spent the next 3 seasons in the minor leagues, and threw his last professional pitch before turning 30. He's now a college coach in Alabama.

It's become accepted Red Sox lore that Zimmer kept Lee out of the starting rotation out of spite; and that, if he'd started Lee instead, Lee would have beaten the Yankees. The truth? Rather than being the answer to the hole in the rotation that Sprowl couldn't fill, Lee was the hole in the rotation.

On July 15, 1978, Lee was 10-3, and a big reason why the Sox had a big Division lead. From then until September 7, the start of the Boston Massacre series, he'd made 9 appearances, pitching 48 1/3rd innings. He was 0-7. His ERA was 5.96 -- and that doesn't count 5 unearned runs during that stretch. And 3 of those losses were by 1 or 2 runs. Had Lee been just a little bit better in any one of those 3 games, there never would have been a Bucky Dent Game.

Throw in that blooper pitch that Tony Pérez turned into a home run in Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, and Bill Lee may be more responsible for the Red Sox not winning the World Series from 1975 until 2004 than any single person. And yet, he is celebrated by Sox fans, because no Sox player ever hated the Yankees more.

And if Zim was keeping Lee out of games due to spite, why would he have brought him in to relieve in Game 2 of this series, the 13-2 Yankee win? He went 7 innings, and allowed only 1 earned run -- although he allowed 4 others that were charged to starter Jim Wright. If you had a must-win game, would you trust the start to a guy who pitched 7 innings only 2 days ago, no matter how good he was? I wouldn't. Don Zimmer didn't.

By the way, Zim did bring Lee in during that September 10 game. He pitched 2 1/3rd innings, allowing no runs -- but the game was already lost. And pitching 2 1/3rd innings effectively isn't the same as pitching 7 or more. There's no guarantee that Lee would have been the right choice to start, even if he hadn't gone 7 just 2 days before. So, obviously, Zim was willing to put his personal feelings about Lee aside.

*

Something else Yankee-related happened on September 10, 1978: For the first time, a commercial for Miller Lite beer aired. Or, as the product was then called, including in the ad, "Lite beer from Miller." It became one of the beer's "Less Filling" vs. "Tastes Great" arguments, although, Billy Martin, the once-and-four-times-future manager, who was very skinny, and George Steinbrenner, the team owner, who was already pudgy, should have reversed their positions:

Billy: Less filling, George.

George: Billy, it tastes great!

Billy: Less filling, George!
George: Billy!

Billy: Yeah, George?

George (with a big smile on his face, and his hand on Billy's shoulder): You're fired!

Billy, laughing: Not again!

The Yankees also took the 1st 2 games of the next weekend's series, to rise to 3 1/2 games ahead. In just 2 months, they'd gained 17 1/2 games. But the Sox won the Sunday game, with Eckersley beating Beattie.

And that's when things turned around again. The Sox won 10 of their last 12, including their last 8. The Yankees won their next-to-last game, against the Indians, with Figueroa becoming the 1st (and still only) Puerto Rican-born pitcher to win 20 games in a season. But on October 1, they lost the season finale, with Rick Waits, one of those lefthanded pitchers they supposedly couldn't hit, shutting them down.

The Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-0, on a shutout by Luis Tiant. The Fenway scoreboard put up, "THANK YOU RICK WAITS." 

Did you think I was kidding?

Did you think the Red Sox wouldn't be that petty?

There would be a Playoff game the next day. The Red Sox won a coin flip, and the game would be at Fenway Park.

The Sox felt like everything they'd done from April 8 to September 6 was wasted. The Yankees must've felt the same about everything they'd done from July 20 to September 30. Now, the regular season was over, and both teams had 99 wins... and neither team was guaranteed a berth in the postseason proper.

It would come down to 9 innings on an Autumn Monday afternoon at Fenway Park. And the story would get no less wild than it had already been.

*

September 10, 1978 was a Sunday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-9, completing a 4-game sweep at Shea Stadium. Dwight Bernard was the winning pitcher, in relief of Jerry Koosman. Willie Stargell had an RBI single as a pinch-hitter.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 6-3 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-6 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-4 with a walk. Ken Reitz tripled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-5 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench hit a home run. Pete Rose went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-4 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The Twins won in spite of Rod Carew going 0-for-4. They got a home run from Glenn Borgmann. Paul Molitor went 0-for-5. Robin Yount did not play.

* The California Angels beat the Kansas City Royals, 13-3 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Carney Lansford went 4-for-5. Don Baylor went 2-for-5 with 5 RBIs, including a grand slam. Nolan Ryan went the distance, striking out 12. George Brett went 2-for-3.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 3-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* A doubleheader, forced by the previous day's rainout, was split at the Oakland Coliseum. The Texas Rangers won the opener, 8-3. The Oakland Athletics won the nightcap, 2-1.

* And the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays were rained out at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. The game was never made up.

This was also the opening week of the NFL's regular season, and these games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 34-24 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills, 21-20 at Rich Stadium (later Ralph Wilson Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Baltimore Colts, 42-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 35-30 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 15-7 at Tampa Stadium.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks, 21-10 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cleveland Browns beat their in-State rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals, 13-10 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Don Cockroft kicked a 27-yard field goal to win it in overtime.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the New Orleans Saints, 28-17 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 16-6 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 20-17 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the San Diego Chargers, 21-20 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium and SDCCU Stadium). The Raiders won it on the last play of the game, a controversial one known as the Holy Roller Play. I have a separate entry for that event.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 10-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* The Chicago Bears beat the San Francisco 49ers, 16-13 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Minnesota Vikings beat the Denver Broncos, 12-9 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Rick Danmeier kicked 4 field goals, including a 44-yarder for the win in overtime.

May 20, 1976: The Yanks-Sox '76 Brawl

Left: Lou Piniella and Carlton Fisk. Right: Bill Lee.

May 20, 1976: The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox begin a 4-game series at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx.

In 1967, there had been an exchange of beanballs there that led to a bench-clearing brawl. In 1973, at Fenway Park in Boston, a home-plate collision between the teams' All-Star catchers, Carlton Fisk at the plate and baserunner Thurman Munson, led to another big brawl. Now, as the Sox were defending American League Pennant winners, and the Yankees were trying to start a new dynasty, the old rivalry was well and truly back on.

In the bottom of the 6th, with the Yankees leading, 1-0, Lou Piniella on 2nd base and Graig Nettles on 1st base, Otto Vélez singled to right field. Piniella came around to score, but Fisk got the throw from Dwight Evans in right. "Sweet Lou" barreled into "Pudge," hoping to make him drop the ball, but it's no use: Fisk hung on, and Piniella was, unquestionably, out.

In retaliation, Fisk shoved Piniella, and here we go again. This one was even nastier than the brawls of '67 at The Stadium and '73 at Fenway.

The combatants were separated, but Sox reliever Bill Lee -- who may have hated the Yankees more than any Red Sock ever, at least until the Roid Sox of 2003-16 -- started yelling at Nettles, claiming that Nettles had hurt his shoulder. Spewing obscenities like a typical drunken lout Sox fan, "the Spaceman" (may NYPD Detective Sam Tyler of Life On Mars, wherever he is, forgive me) called Nettles out.

Lee was a pretty good pitcher up until this point, but this incident may have been the effect of drugs on his brain. (He has occasionally expressed his liking of marijuana, which usually leaves one much mellower than this.) If you call Graig Nettles out, he's going to clobber you. He did. Yeah, it was a sucker punch, but then, Lee was a sucker.

The Sox went on to win the game, 8-2, but lost the fight, only split that 4-game series, and were well back of the Yankees, who went on to win the Pennant.

Lee later said, "The Yankees fought like hookers swinging their purses." First of all, How would he know how hookers fight? And second of all, What does it say about him that he still lost the fight?

Sox fans like to say that Nettles ruined Lee, a great pitcher until then, but who never recovered. Actually, Lee was only a pretty good pitcher until then, and Lee did recover -- after yet another brilliant Sox trade, sending Lee to the Montreal Expos for Stan Papi. Not the Papi that Sox fans like to remember.

*

May 20, 1976 was a Thursday. These other Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3 at Shea Stadium. Yes, both New York teams were at home on the same night, and both lost. Despite facing the team in 1st place in the National League Eastern Division, a roadtrip of only 100 miles for their fans, the Mets only drew 16,914 fans. But then, the Yankees, facing their arch-rivals in a key AL East race, only got 28,418.

At any rate, Mike Schmidt hit a home run for the Phils, Dave Kingman for the Mets, and former Red Sox AL Cy Young Award winner Jim Lonborg outpitched reigning NL Cy Young winner Tom Seaver.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Woodie Fryman (7 2/3rds inning) and Dale Murray combined on a 7-hit shutout.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Surprisingly, Rod Carew went 0-for-4.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Lou Brock went 2-for-4 with a stolen base. Willie Stargell went 1-for-4.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 2-for-5 with an RIB.

* The California Angels beat the Texas Rangers, 6-3 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Diego Padres, 5-4 at San Diego Stadium (later Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Dave Winfield hit a home run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Pete Rose went 2-for-3 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* And the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers and the Milwaukee Brewers were not scheduled.

The NBA Playoffs were between the Conference Finals and the Finals. The Boston Celtics went on to beat the Phoenix Suns in 6 games. The NHL season ended 4 days earlier. The Montreal Canadiens swept the Philadelphia Flyers in 4 straight in the Stanley Cup Finals.

Game 1 was played in the World Hockey Association Finals. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Houston Aeros, 4-3 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has been converted into the "Central Campus" of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) The Jets won in 4 straight, to take their 1st title. They would win 3 of the WHA's last 4 titles.