This Week in Tiger Stadium History, June 22-28

By

Richard Bak

– June 22, 2012

In 1998, Sammy Sosa set a big league record at Tiger Stadium.

June 23, 1943 at Briggs Stadium: In the aftermath of a bloody race riot, 350 armed troops guard the stadium during a Detroit-Cleveland doubleheader.

June 23, 1950 at Briggs Stadium: The Tigers and Yankees set a record by combining for 11 home runs. The final one, an inside-the-parker by Hoot Evers in the ninth, gives Detroit a 10-9 victory.

June 24, 1962 at Tiger Stadium: Jack Reed hits the only home run of his career in the 22nd inning, leading New York past the Tigers, 9-7. The seven-hour marathon sets a record for the longest game in big-league history.

June 25, 1998 at Tiger Stadium: Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs hits his 19th home run of the month, breaking Rudy York’s 1937 major-league mark.

June 27, 1961 at Tiger Stadium: The Tigers and White Sox square off in front of 57,271 fans, the largest Detroit crowd ever for a twi-night doubleheader.

June 28, 1976 at Tiger Stadium: Mark Fidrych’s 5-1 victory over the Yankees in a nationally televised night game sets off “Birdmania.”

Tags: 1976, chicago cubs, Chicago White Sox, Hoot Evers, Jack Reed, Mark Fidrych, New York Yankees, Race Riot, Rudy York, sammy sosa

About Richard Bak

Richard Bak grew up on Detroit's west side cheering for the likes of Jerry Lumpe, Karl Sweetan, and Fern LeBlanc, basically because he didn't know any better. He is a contributing writer to Hour Detroit magazine and the author of nearly 30 books, including Peach: Ty Cobb in His Time and Ours and Turkey Stearnes and the Detroit Stars: The Negro Leagues in Detroit, 1919-1933. Bak has two new books out: The Big Jump, the story of Charles Lindbergh and the great New York-to-Paris air race of the 1920s, and Detroitland, a collection of his history pieces. He currently is finishing When Lions Were Kings: The Detroit Lions and the Fabulous Fifties, which will be published in 2013.

2 Comments

1. KalineCountry Ron

   Posted June 25, 2012 at 8:07 AM

   1953 – Signed to a contract with the Detroit Tigers less than a week ago, after graduating from Baltimore Southern high school, 18 year old teen phenom Al Kaline makes his major league debut vs. the Philadelphia Athletics and pitcher Harry Byrd.

2. Mark Goldberg

   Posted June 26, 2012 at 3:50 PM

   6/24/62—We went out to dinner for my mother’s birthday. I had my little transistor radio with me. We were on the way home (from Ted’s at Woodward and Square Lake) when Jack Reed, a/k/a Mickey Mantle’s caddy, hit the HR off Phil Regan. I recall that Rocky Colavito went 7-for-10, and that Frank Lary, the Yankee Killer, got knocked out early that day. Al Kaline was still out with that broken collarbone suffered on 5/26. The scheduled second game of the double-header was postponed because the first game took so long. Actually, the time of the game was 6:59, but official scorer Joe Falls made it 7:00 because he thought it looked or sounded better for history’s sake. That time was a record for many years. And the next day, the Tigers made a terrible trade, sending my boyhood favorite, Charlie Maxwell, to the White Sox for the legendary Bob Farley. Fifty years ago. Wow!