June 14, 1934: Durocher Hits An Inside The Park Slam To Bury The Braves In St. Louis

     On June 14, 1934, Leo Durocher's fifth inning inside-the-park grand slam broke up a 6-6 tie, and propelled the Cardinals to a 12-9 over the Boston Braves at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The contest was a hit festival, with the Gashouse Gang piling up 16 hits, which included three home runs, five doubles, and a triple.

     The group from Boston piled up 18 hits of their own, with 14 of those coming against Redbird starter Tex Carleton, who was charged with six runs, while seven men crossed the dish while he was on the bump. The inside-the-parker by Durocher came against Boston's Leo Mangum. He had come on in relief after starter Ben Cantwell did not pitch so well. Cantwell was yanked after two and a third after he giving up six runs on seven hits.

     Mangum went the rest of the way and took one on the chin when Durocher put good wood on the ball, then wheeled around the bases. The other big flies came off of Frankie Frisch's bat and catcher Bill Delancey's bat as well. Dizzy Dean cleaned up an inherited mess in the seventh, then picked up a three inning save. It was a wild contest that had a little bit of everything. It was a great day to be a hitter, a rough day to be a pitcher, and a great day to be a fan who got to witness an inside-the-park grand slam at the ole ballpark.

Side notes: The picture featured with today's fact is Durocher in 1937. He was no power hitter. However, he did have a solid 17-year career. Over the course of that time he hit 24 home runs total. Two of those were of the inside-the-park variety, with the one that came on this day being the first of those two. His second came the next season. Durocher wore the Birds on the Bat for five years. He did not lead the way in offensive categories, but he like every other man on that roster was important when it came to winning a championship. His career spanned well past his playing days, as he became a manager that won more than 2,000 games. If you would like to know more about the man they called Leo "The Lip" check out his SABR biography here: http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/35d925c7

You can also take a glance at his career numbers here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/durocle01.shtml

Check out the box score here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN193406140.shtml