It seemed insignificant at the time, and the record books have all but forgotten it. But for the final inning and a half of an otherwise meaningless September baseball game, Gene Baker made history.
Near the end of the 1963 season, the 8th-place Pirates traveled to play a three-game series in Los Angeles against the pennant-bound Dodgers. In the top of the eighth inning of the Sept. 21 game, the Pirates took a 3-2 lead, chasing Dodgers starter Sandy Koufax to the clubhouse.
The Pirates ended up stranding three runners on a close play at first base.