This Day In History – Baseball History!

Tonight, Tuesday, October 1, 2019,  Major League Baseball's playoff season gets underway when the Milwaukee Brewers travel to Washington, D.C. to take on the Nationals in the National League Wild Card Game. 

The two teams played each other 6 times during the regular season with the series going to the Brewers 4-2.  TBS will carry the game on TV and our sister station AM 1460 ESPN has radio coverage starting with the pregame at 4:30 Pacific .

Will history be made tonight? One thing is for sure. This day, October First, has baseball and baseball playoff history to it's name.

For starters, on October 1,1903, the Pittsburgh Pirates played the Boston Pilgrims in the first game of the first modern World Series. The Pirates won the first game of the best of nine series but Boston ultimately prevailed, winning the last four to take the Series, five games to three.

29 years later in 10-1-1932, when the awesome Babe Ruth hit his famous "called shot" home run against Chicago Cubs pitcher Charlie Root in the fifth inning of Game 3 of the World Series.  It's legend but is it myth?  Experts still aren't in agreement whether Ruth actually pointed to center field just before hitting a home run there.

Finally, jump ahead to October 1,1961,when New York Yankee Slugger Roger Maris hit his 61st home run, breaking the aforementioned Babe Ruth's single long standing season record.  October First - an historic day in baseball history!

(Maris' own record was broken in 1998 by Mark McGwire who finished with 70 homers, and then McGwire's record was broken in 2001 by Barry Bonds who hit 73).