October 15th in Baseball

If today's your birthday, you share it with Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer. The three-time Cy Young Award winnner (1973, '75 '76) he won 268 games in a 19-year career spent entirely with the Orioles. The only pitcher in baseball history to win World Series games in three different decades -- the '60s, 70s and 80s -- Palmer's shutout in the 1966 World Series at Dodger Stadium handed a loss to Sandy Koufax, in the final game of Koufax’s career. Palmere then comfortably moved into broadcasting and remains a part of Baltimore's TV crew.

Also on today's cake and candles list:

  • Jack Flaherty, the Cardinals budding young ace, who just pitched in the NLCS.
  • Teoscar Hernandez, the promising Blue Jays slugger, who has belted 22 and 28 homers in his first two full big league seasons.

And there's plenty of October 15th history as well:

  • The Cardinals clinched a pair of World Series on this date. In 1946, Enos Slaughter raced home to score from 1st on Harry Walker's 8th inning single in the bottom of the 8th for a 4-3 game seven win over the Red Sox. Then, in 1964, Bob Gibson struck out nine and tosses his second complete game of the Series. Despite two home runs from Mickey Mantle (in his final World Series), St. Louis holds off the Yankees at the first Busch Stadium.
  • In 1986, the Mets win game six of the National League Championship Series with a dramatic, come from behind, 7-6 16 inning victory at the Astrodome.
  • In 1988, Kirk Gibson crushes a game-winning pinch hit grand slam in the bottom of the 9th that brings the Dodgers from behind to beat the A's 5-4 in the first game of the World Series. In one of the oddest baseball coincidences that comes to mind, pop star Debbie Gibson (below) sang the national anthem before that game. 




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