Fortieth Birthday Post #23: 40 Years Ago Today in Baseball

SCOREBOARD: JULY 3, 1967

Chicago Cubs 12, Atlanta Braves 6 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium

New York Mets 5, San Francisco Giants 3 at Shea Stadium

Pittsburgh Pirates 5, Los Angeles Dodgers 2 at Forbes Field

St. Louis Cardinals 7, Cincinnati Reds 3 at Busch Stadium II

Boston Red Sox 9, California Angels 3 at Anaheim Stadium

Baltimore Orioles 1, Chicago White Sox 0 at Comiskey Park I

Detroit Tigers 2, Cleveland Indians 1 at Cleveland Stadium

Minnesota Twins 3, New York Yankees 0 at Metropolitan Stadium

Compiled by Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org) Monday, July 3rd IN THE NEWS: At the launching pad in Atlanta, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, and Randy Hundley homer for Chicago, and Rico Carty and Felipe Alou answer for the Braves—all in the first inning, a major league record. Carty adds another homer later, but Glenn Beckert's three-run shot helps put the game out of reach. Ray Culp emerges the winner, 12–6. In St. Louis the fans get boxing with their baseball in the Cards, 7–3, win over the Reds. After Bob Gibson pitched inside to Tony Perez in the 5th inning, the pair exchange words after Perez flies out. Both benches empty but there is no fighting until the Reds bullpen, led by Bob Lee, show up. It takes 12 minutes before the police are needed to restore order.

I don't know but it seems fitting that Billy Williams homered the day I was born.

And can you imagine nowadays needing the police to restore order to a ballgame?