On this day in 1984 the Brewers lost 7-6 to the Twins on Dave Engle's walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Brewers scored six runs in the game despite the fact that their 1-3 hitters combined to go 0-for-12 in the contest. The offense on this day was powered by DH Ted Simmons, who had one of the stranger batting days of his career.
Simmons was 34 years old and a longtime catcher spending the day at DH, so something must have happened to allow him to record an RBI triple to tie the game at two in the fourth inning. Then, two innings later, it happened again: Simmons' second triple drove home Robin Yount to make it a 5-3 game in the sixth, and he scored on an error on the play.
That second triple made Simmons just the fifth player in Brewer franchise history to hit two three-baggers in the same game. Nine others have since joined him on that list. The hits were also his only triples of the entire 1984 season. He went on to play 462 more games in the majors but only tripled two more times.
With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:
- 1999-2000 Brewer Jason Bere, who turns 41.
- 1974-76 Brewer Bob Hansen, who turns 64.
- 1971 Brewer Al Yates, who would have turned 67.
Today is also the 43rd anniversary of Hank Aaron's 500th career double, making him just the third player in major league history with 500 doubles and 500 home runs. We covered that event in this space last year.