Say Goodbye, It’s Independence Day…

…Independence Day all down the line, and baseball connects the years.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. How about a little Fourth of July baseball history for you to enjoy with your barbecue (or however you celebrate)…

Ninety-five years ago…

Pittsburgh 8, St. Louis 4—Thirty-three-year-old rookie Heinie Meine won his fourth game without a loss, and the Waner brothers, Lloyd and Paul, managed four hits and three runs as the Pirates moved into first place in the National League.

Big Jim Bottomley socked a home run for the Cardinals in the loss.

Heinie Meine—better known as the Count of Luxembourg, even though he is not from Luxembourg and has never been there*—pitched briefly in the big leagues in 1922 after serving in the U.S. Cavalry during the Great War.

*Meine grew up in a neighborhood South of St. Louis that was known locally as Luxembourg.

He then bounced around the minor leagues before returning home to St. Louis to run a bar, even though this was during Prohibition. “Some of the boys in the tavern kept riding me, saying that I could win in semipro ball and the minors but never the majors,” he said. He went to play for the Kansas City Blues, and the Pirates traded for him before the season began.

He has since won all four of his decisions using an arsenal of slow pitches, including, many suspect, a spitball.

Eighty-five years ago…

Washington 3, New York Yankees 2; Yankees 11, Senators 1—In front of 61,808 fans—the largest crowd of the year at Yankee Stadium—the lowly Senators drew first blood on Tuesday as Dutch Leonard’s famed knuckleball danced and disoriented an emotional Yankees team. Leonard allowed just six hits, and he helped his own cause by singling in Rick Ferrell for what turned out to be the winning run.

The Yankees’ bats awoke in the second game, though, as Joe DiMaggio cracked three hits, George Selkirk hit his second home run of the day and Joe Gordon drove in four runs for the easy victory.

The day was dedicated to Lou Gehrig,