April 23

By Will Johnson, Sports Editor
Posted 4/29/20

For those out there that are die hard St. Louis Cardinal baseball fans, April 23 proved to be a good day if one follows the history of baseball.

Back in 1999, former Cardinal infielder Fernando …

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April 23

Posted

For those out there that are die hard St. Louis Cardinal baseball fans, April 23 proved to be a good day if one follows the history of baseball.

Back in 1999, former Cardinal infielder Fernando Tatis did something that has yet to be duplicated to this date.

Trailing 2-0 in the top of the third inning at Dodger Stadium, Tatis came to the plate with the bases loaded facing pitcher Chan Ho Park.

Tatis crushed a grand slam home run over the left field bullpen wall giving the Cardinals a 4-2 lead.

Leading 7-2 later in the inning, Tatis came up again with the bases loaded still with Ho Park on the mound.

One swing later, Tatis hit his second grand slam home run of the inning into the right-field bleachers to cement his place in the Major League Baseball (MLB) history books.

In addition to becoming the first player to hit two grand slam home runs in one inning, Tatis also set a MLB record with eight runs batted in (RBI) in the inning.

Dodger pitcher Chan Ho Park became just the second pitcher in over a century to surrender two grand slams in one inning.

Back in 1890, Pittsburgh Alleghenys pitcher Bill Phillips also gave up two grand slam home runs in the same inning.

The only difference between  him and Park was that two different hitters hit home runs.

Those dingers came off the bats of Chicago Colts hitters Tom Burns and Malachi Kittridge.

Before the Cubs were named as Chicago’s north side baseball team, they were known as the White Stockings (1876) and the Colts before officially becoming the Cubs in 1903.

Going back five years from Tatis’ two historic swings, former Cardinal closer Lee Smith became the quickest reliever in MLB history to reach nine saves needing only 16 games in a Baltimore Oriole uniform.

Smith also pitched for the Cubs, Boston’s Red Sox, New York’s Yankess, California’s Angels (now known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Montreal’s Expos (now known as the Washington Nationals).

Forty years earlier, hammering Hank Aaron hit his first of 755 career home runs off of Cardinal pitcher Vic Raschi during Atlanta’s 7-5 victory in 14 innings four decades ago.