On this day in baseball history: Aaron joins 600-HR club, Ryan passes Johnson

Unto the Breach ^ | April 27, 2018 | Chris Carter

[fugazi]

On April 27, 1971, Hank Aaron faces fellow Hall-of-Famer Gaylord Perry, sending the infamous San Francisco spitballer’s pitch sailing 350 feet into Atlanta’s left field stands – Aaron’s 600th home run.

The 18-year veteran becomes just the third player to reach the elite milestone, joining Babe Ruth and Willy Mays.

While Aaron takes the longest to reach 600, the player who accomplished the feat in the shortest amount of time is Barry Bonds. On this day in 1996, Bonds hits his 300th home run, becoming one of only four athletes (to that point) to hit 300 home runs and also steal 300 bases.

Bonds joins his father Bobby and godfather Willie Mays, who watched Aaron hit his 600th HR from the Giant dugout 25 years ago, along with Andre Dawson in the 300-300 club.

Also, on this date in 1983, the Houston Astros hurler Nolan Ryan (featured image) strikes out Montreal Expos pinch hitter Brad Mills – eclipsing Walter Johnson’s 56-year record of 3,508 strikeouts. The “Ryan Express” accomplishes the feat a full five seasons quicker than...

[fugazi]

Every time I see Nolan Ryan - now an executive assistant to his son Reid, who is the President of the Houston Astros - I remember the bench-clearing fight he had with Robin Ventura. Beatdown.

Did you know that Ryan struck out seven sets of major league fathers and sons?

[Rome2000]

Ryan was one of the great NY Mets, hardcore.

[Jolla]

Got to see Aaron hit a record setter in Arlington Texas #737

I check out the website National Pastime every day, today had another very interesting event on this day in 1930

Bud Clancy, playing first base during the entire nine-inning game, never touches the ball while it is in play. The first sacker’s lack of work doesn’t hurt the White Sox when they beat the Browns at Sportsman’s Park, 2-1.

[C210N]

Bud Clancy...

Does that mean during the game no grounders went his way? Any throw to first for an out, ball is dead when he takes it out of the glove.

[yarddog]

I remember when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were both battling to hit 60 home runs.

There was a story in one of the newspapers listing Babe Ruth’s percentage of hitting them. It was way better than any other player. No other was even close.

[fugazi]

I was there to watch McGwire tie Maris’ 61 home runs in a season, but that must have been incredible to see Aaron live!

Hard to believe a first baseman not touching the ball for an entire game.

[AppyPappy]

Mark McGwire possesses the MLB record for home runs per at bat with a career ratio of 10.61 at bats per home run and Babe Ruth is second, with 11.76 at bats per home run.

[fugazi]

I seem to remember Bill James writing about whether you were better off, scientifically speaking, intentionally walking Babe Ruth every at-bat rather than pitching to him. I think he concluded that managers were better off pitching to him.

But I wonder if Ruth was on a cellar-dwelling team if that would still have been the case.

[edh]

Yeah, but McGwire juiced up on steroids. Ruth juiced up on beer and hot dogs. Big difference :-).

[Alberta's Child]

Very interesting. Something important to consider there is that Babe Ruth batted in front of Lou Gehrig in the Yankee lineup for most of his career. That’s surely a big reason why Gehrig hit 23 grand slams in his career — a record that stood for decades until Alex Rodriguez broke it 2013.

[TBP]

And one of their worst trades.

[Alberta's Child]

A full game with no putouts or assists by the first baseman is a rarity indeed.

Here's something that might be even more rare: Toby Harrah once played shortstop for the Texas Rangers and never touched a ball in play -- during both games of a doubleheader!

I love those peculiar scenarios in baseball history -- like the extremely rare unassisted triple play.

I was surprised to see how many times a pitcher has struck out more than three batters in an inning -- which means he struck out three batters but then one of them got to first base on a wild pitch or passed ball on strike three, then he struck out a fourth batter. It's happened more than 80 times in MLB history. I would have thought it was more rare than that.

Chuck Finley actually did it THREE TIMES!

[DFG]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdyeWgsa_R8 http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/nolan-ryan-robin-ventura-fight-brawl-video-1993-rangers-white-sox/cidcjskuaff1xilfk26ucbtd

[DFG]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdyeWgsa_R8

[Alberta's Child]

At the time of the trade it wasn't such a bad deal. Ryan had an impressive fastball early in his career, but he was all over the place, walked a lot of batters, and had a high ERA. He didn't become a dominant pitcher until after he got to California, and he really didn't master his control until he was in his mid-30s.

Ryan might have had one of the oddest statistical seasons for a pitcher in 1987. He pitched for a Houston Astros team that gave him almost no run support, going just 8-16 even though he led the National League with a 2.76 ERA and 270 strikeouts!

[yarddog]

Ruth also had an impressive on base percentage.

[Jolla]

I think it means more than that, the ball was not even thrown to him at first. Getting an assist on a putout means he would have touched the ball. Never having to field in a game would not be that much of an oddity. As noted above it happened once in a double header Texas Rangers Toby Harrah

[Eagles Field]

Bonds doesn’t count, steroids, a vile cheat. Nor does Sosa, McGwire, A-Rod, Clemens & company. Ryan, luckily he was just able to be over .500 in the win column. The only question is who was a bigger stain on Baseball ... Bonds or Rose.

[Figment]

“Also on this date in 1930, Chicago White Sox first baseman Bud Clancy goes an entire game without touching the ball against the St. Louis Browns; no assists, no putouts, no errors.”

I would like to see some details on this one. A perfect game with 27 strikeouts? 27 popups? How does first baseman not touch ball?