This day in baseball — April 30, 1961

[Oeditpus Rex]

The San Francisco Giants hit eight homers — four by Willie Mays — against the Braves at Milwaukee County Stadium.

Mays hit two off Lou Burdette, one off Seth Morehead and one off Don McMahon. He drove in eight runs.

Orlando Cepeda and Felipe Alou also homered for the Giants, and diminutive shortstop Jose Pagan, who hit only 52 homers in a 16-year career, hit two.

The Giants won the game 14-4. Billy Loes threw a complete game.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1961/B04300MLN1961.htm

Backstory: The night before the game, Mays got food poisoning after he and his road roommate, Willie McCovey, had a late-night snack of barbecued ribs from room service at the Schroeder Hotel. Mays got only a couple hours' sleep and at the ball park the next day told manager Alvin Dark, "Cap, I'm weak as a cat."

Mays had only three singles in his last 15 at-bats before the game. He didn't hit another homer for two weeks, when he hit two off Milwaukee's Bob Buhl at Candlestick Park.

[Call Me Wesley]

1. April 30 is, indeed, a magic date ...

Lots of historical stuff happening on this date.

;)

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. Isn't it also the anniversary of the day

you allowed 137 goals against the Bournemouth Gynaecologists?

[Faygo Kid]

3. April 30, 1984: Tigers were 16-2, on their way to 35-5.

And of course, they won the whole enchilada that year.

Going away.

Sweet.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Four years later...

:bounce:

[5thGenDemocrat]

5. Hey! Bob Buhl!!

The most famous and successful baseball player ever out of my hometown of Saginaw, Michigan. Also, the worst batter in major league history (he went 0 for 70 in 1962 -- still the MLB record for futility).
But he also won 166 games (against 132 losses) in his career (one more than Sandy Koufax) and played in two World Series and one all-star game.
John
Curt Young, the Oakland Athletics pitching coach, is also from Saginaw (and went to Arthur Hill -- my old high school). Buhl attended Saginaw High -- our arch-rivals.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Pittsburgh right fielder Xavier Nady is from hereabouts

His bio says he was born in Carmel, which is true, but he grew up in Salinas. Played ball at Salinas High, where he hit something like .573 in his senior year with a mess of homers. When I was a sportswriter, I did a feature on him on a day he happened to hit two homers, one a grand slam, and drive in nine runs.