Today In Brewer History: Loretta's walkoff plunk

On this day in 1999 the Brewers and Cardinals took a 4-4 tie to the bottom of the 11th inning at County Stadium. Mark McGwire had already homered twice in the game, but a different kind of hit would produce the game-deciding run.

Jeff Cirillo led off the inning with a bunt single, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Marquis Grissom walked and Ronnie Belliard legged out an infield single to set the stage for Mark Loretta, who was hit by the second pitch of his at bat to force home the game-winning run.

To date, this is the only walkoff hit by pitch in Brewer franchise history. The pitcher, Juan Acevedo, was traded to Milwaukee after the season.

With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, we'd like to wish a happy birthday today to:

• AZL Brewer Paul Eshleman, who turns 23.
• Nashville Sound Stephen Parker, who turns 26.
• Nashville Sound R.J. Seidel, who turns 26.
• 2012 Brewer Juan Perez, who turns 35.
• 1998-2002 Brewer Chad Fox, who turns 43.
• 1998-99 Brewer Eric Plunk, who turns 50.
• La Crosse, Wisconsin native Ed Konetchy, who would have turned 128. Konetchy played 15 MLB seasons between 1907-21 as a member of the Cardinals and five other teams.

Today is also the second anniversary of George Kottaras hitting for the cycle in 2011 and the 37th anniversary of Mike Hegan becoming the first Brewer ever to cycle in 1976. We covered those events in this space last year and two years ago, respectively.