August 10, 1955: 1,000 Extra Base Hits For Stan The Man

     On August 10, 1955, Stan "The Man" Musial became just the ninth player in the history Major League Baseball to record 1,000 extra base hits during a 7-2 win over the Braves at County Stadium in Milwaukee.

      The big hit came off Lew Burdette in the first, as Musial doubled off the hurler to join the elite club. Burdette got out of that inning with no damage done, but he would be handed a loss by day's end, as the Birds snapped a four game skid on their own end, and a three game winning streak on the Braves side of the diamond. The two clubs were tied 2-2 after four innings of play, which stood until the Cardinals plated three runs in the sixth.

     The three run rally was sparked by a lead off triple off the bat of Red Schoendienst. A rather funny incident followed, as the Cardinals catcher attempted to drop down a squeeze bunt, and it looked like he did make contact, as the ball flew into the air behind him and hit the net. However, the umpire Tom Gorman thought it hit Burbink and sent him trotting down to first. This led to the skipper of the Braves, Charlie Grimm out to have a heated discussion with the ump. All the while, Burbink had thought the umpire thought it hit him in the hand, so he was standing there shaking it like it pained him greatly. As it turned out, Gorman thought it hit him in the shoulder, so as soon as Burbink became aware of that fact he grabbed his shoulder. He was trying to win an Emmy award on that fine day. A frustrated Grimm gave up on the argument he could not win, and made his way back to the Milwaukee bench. Things unraveled for Milwaukee thereafter, as shorstop Alex Grammas doubled in a run, then an error led to the other two runs crossing the plate to give the Redbirds a 5-2 lead.

      The Cardinals added to their totals in the ninth with two more runs to cap things off, and the last of those two was scored by The Man of the hour Stan Musial, who singled in the inning. Musial finished the day with three hits, a walk, and the run scored. With that said, the story of the day was the 1,000th extra base hit. He was well on the way to breaking the all time record, set by Babe Ruth with 1.356. When Musial hung up the cleats in 1963, he had 1,377 extra base hits to his credit, which stood as the a record, until it was surpassed by the current record holder Hank Aaron, who finished his storied career with 1,477 extra base hits.

Check out the box score here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MLN/MLN195508100.shtml

The Milwaukee Journal  and  Milwaukee Sentinel  provided the details about the Burbink incident. Needless to say the fans in Milwaukee were not pleased, as it was looked at as a turning point in the ballgame.