Major League Baseball is not lacking for hot weather venues. On any given night during the summer, there might be games taking place outdoors in Miami, Atlanta, Arlington, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Anaheim and others. As such, you wouldn't expect one of the hottest games in major league history to have been played in Milwaukee, but on this day in 1995 that's what happened.
The game-time temperature was 104 as the Brewers and White Sox took the field for the opening game in a four game series at County Stadium, but 22,432 people (including a 12 year old future BCB Managing Editor) showed up anyway to watch the game between these heated rivals. The heat must've gotten to White Sox manager Terry Bevington: Despite having Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, John Kruk and Ray Durham available to him, he started Mike Devereaux (a career .254/.308/.401 hitter) in the cleanup spot.
Of course, the only thing better than baseball in extreme heat is extra baseball in extreme heat: The two teams traded runs in the ninth inning to send the game to extra innings, and Darryl Hamilton drove in Jeff Cirillo with a double in the tenth to give the Crew a walkoff victory.
According to B-Ref, the 104 game-time temp was tied for the 19th hottest recorded in major league history.
With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:
- Seattle Pilot Jack Aker, who turns 71.
- 1901 Milwaukee Brewer Jiggs Donahue, who would have turned 122.