Oct. 4

Today in sports history

Today is Oct. 4. On this date in:

1895: The inaugural U.S. Open golf championship concluded at Newport Golf Club, where England’s Horace Rawlins won by two strokes to claim the first U.S. Open title.

1925: Detroit’s Harry Heilmann collected six hits in a doubleheader and edged teammate Ty Cobb for the American League batting title, .393 to .389, while Cobb finished his 20th consecutive season batting above .300.

1948: The Cleveland Indians defeated the Boston Red Sox 8-3 in a one-game playoff at Fenway Park to capture the American League pennant behind Gene Bearden and player-manager Lou Boudreau.

1955: The Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees 2-0 in Game 7 to win the first World Series championship in franchise history. Johnny Podres threw a shutout and became the first World Series MVP.

1969: The New York Mets played the first postseason game in franchise history, defeating the Atlanta Braves 9-5 in the first National League Championship Series game.

1991: The Edmonton Oilers traded captain Mark Messier to the New York Rangers for Bernie Nicholls, Steven Rice and Louie DeBrusk. Messier later captained the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years in 1994.

1995: Jim Leyritz hit a two-run homer in the 15th inning to give the New York Yankees a 7-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners in Game 2 of the AL Division Series. The 5-hour, 13-minute game became the longest postseason game in major league history at the time.

1997: WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis stopped Andrew Golota in the first round in Atlantic City.

1999: Al Leiter threw a two-hit shutout as the New York Mets defeated the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 in a one-game playoff for the National League wild card.

2001: Barry Bonds hit his 70th home run of the season, tying Mark McGwire’s major league single-season record as the San Francisco Giants played the Houston Astros.

2001: San Diego Padres outfielder Rickey Henderson homered to pass Ty Cobb and become Major League Baseball’s career leader in runs scored.

2011: Arizona Diamondbacks rookie Paul Goldschmidt hit a grand slam and drove in five runs in an 8-1 victory over Milwaukee in Game 3 of the NL Division Series.

2014: Brandon Belt homered in the 18th inning as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Washington Nationals 2-1 in Game 2 of the NL Division Series. The 6-hour, 23-minute contest became the longest postseason game by time in major league history at the time.

2020: Tom Brady threw five touchdown passes in Tampa Bay’s 38-31 win over the Los Angeles Chargers, becoming the oldest quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in a game and continuing his record-setting NFL career.

2020: The Seattle Storm defeated the Las Vegas Aces 104-91 in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, setting a Finals record with 33 assists and moving within one win of the franchise’s fourth championship.

2022: New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run of the season, surpassing Roger Maris to set the American League single-season record.

— USA TODAY Network

This story was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of information gathering, review, editing and publishing. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Today in sports history, October 4

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Diamondbacks fans and fans across the country.

It’s September 1st, and the Diamondbacks are in the thick of a battle for a wild-card spot. To some extent, this is a bit of a miracle to be here, considering the team currently has $75 million of cash salaries on the IL – more than one-third of its total payroll. Two weeks ago, a Fangraphs analysis had the D-backs the NL team most hurt by injuries this season. But despite all that, the team are in all likelihood, a good month from reaching the post-season. But having that good month depends on a number of factors going (more or less) their way. So, if you had one wish for the team down the stretch, what would it be?

There’s no doubt that there is scope for improvement across the whole team. The starting rotation is currently a bit of a patchwork, to put it mildly. There should be help coming the remainder of the way, in the shapes of Corbin Burnes, Michael Soroka and Zac Gallen. But all are returning from injury and there are question-marks of varying sizes over all of them. The bullpen was 19th in August by ERA, at 4.16, and dumped closer Paul Sewald (anyone notice he has pitched 5.2 scoreless innings for Toronto?). Roles since have been… flexible, but there have been bumps in the road, even in the post-Sewald era.

Meanwhile, offense overall was fine: a .748 OPS was fourth in the majors. But by runs they were markedly lower, at equal eighth, largely due to issues with runners in scoring position (as was seen last night). The bad news? There may not be anything that can actually be done about that, beyond crossing your fingers and hoping for better, because clutch hitting is notoriously difficult to control. Or maybe we just need the team to put all the fuss of KetelGate behind them, and pull as one in the common direction of the post-season. Perhaps there could even be something else – an absence of further injuries?

That’s what this week’s poll is about. The options are below, but feel free to provide specific information in the comments. If you vote for “clutch hitting”, I expect details… 🙂

Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke has bought Major League Baseball franchise the Los Angeles Angels in a deal reportedly worth $4bn.

Kroenke, who has had a controlling stake in Arsenal since 2011, now owns teams in six major sporting leagues.

The Angels join NFL side the Los Angeles Rams, the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche of the NHL and MLS team the Colorado Rapids, as well as the Gunners, in being under the 79-year-old's control.

While the cost of the deal was not announced, the Los Angeles Times have reported that it is a record price for an MLB team, exceeding the $3.9bn the San Diego Padres were sold for in August.

"The Angels are a storied franchise anchored in a great market," Kroenke said in a statement.

"We look forward to an exciting future with the Angels organisation."

Previous owner Arte Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 but had come under pressure from fans to sell the club after 11 years without qualifying for the play-offs.

With less than a month of the regular season remaining, that is set to extend to 12 seasons - the longest active play-off drought in the MLB - with the Angels holding the joint-worst record in the American League.

Fan discontent has intensified this season with their "Tarps Off" protest, in which supporters went shirtless and waved their shirts above their heads, going viral.

Chants of "sell the team" and "we want play-offs" have also been heard regularly at Angel Stadium.

A statement from Moreno read: "The Moreno family has been honoured to steward the Angels for 23 years and we believe with [Kroenke's holding company] Kroenke Sports & Entertainment's experience and success, they are the best next owner for the franchise."

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When the Angels won their lone World Series, this was the headline in the Los Angeles Times: “Fantasyland!”

Can we run that headline again?

For your new owner, Angels fans, you get a proven winner and real estate developer — more on that in a second — whose very name drips with baseball history.

You know him as Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Rams. His full name is Enos Stanley Kroenke, so named in honor of two St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famers: Enos Slaughter and Stan Musial.

Read more:Rams owner Stan Kroenke agrees to buy Angels, ending Arte Moreno's troubled tenure

As he assembled his sports empire, baseball was the one sport that eluded him. He has the Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and Arsenal. He badly wanted the Dodgers, a runner-up in the bidding when Mark Walter bought them in 2012.

Now he is acquiring the Angels — at a $4 billion valuation, a record for a baseball team — and getting the closest thing to a blank slate that any owner can get without buying an expansion team.

The general manager? He’s an interim, and his contract expires this year.

The manager? His contract expires this year, too.

The roster? The only players currently under contract for next year are outfielder Mike Trout — the Angels’ answer to Musial — and pitcher Yusei Kikuchi.

The stadium? The lease expires in six years.

The Angels’ playoff drought? The longest in the majors, going on 12 seasons. Go, Super Bowl champ, go!

For Kroenke, the first order of business might well be a comprehensive search for what would be the Angels’ answer to Les Snead and Sean McVay, the GM and head coach duo that led Kroenke’s Rams to a Super Bowl championship. The players might not be the next order of business. The deal is not expected to be approved until early 2027, according to a sale announcement, and who knows whether owners still will be locking out players by then?

But Kroenke appears to be the perfect guy to resolve the longest-running and most critical order of business in Anaheim: resolving the Angels’ future there.

For 60 years, the Angels have played in a stadium surrounded by 130 acres of parking lots. For 60 years, fans have driven into the parking lots, watched the game, and driven home. For 60 years, the city has lost untold millions in tax revenue by failing to build anything atop those parking lots.

Kroenke just does it. He is doing it around SoFi Stadium, which he built. He is doing it around the Rams’ training facility in Woodland Hills, which he built. He plans to do it around the sports arena he is building in San Diego.

Now Kroenke could lobby for a new ballpark in Inglewood, in place of the Forum, and call it synergy. James Butts, the mayor of Inglewood, has said he would frown upon a ballpark there.

Read more:Shaikin: What's next as John Mozeliak revamps the Angels? The interim GM discusses his plans

But here’s betting Kroenke won’t ask. The sale announcement highlighted Kroenke’s “presence in one of the largest sports and entertainment markets in the United States” and said the purchase of the Angels “extends this footprint south into a market of more than three million residents with its own distinct civic identity, corporate base and tourism economy.”

Kroenke wants what all sports owners want these days: money coming out of a stadium site 365 days a year, not just on game days. That means shops, restaurants, homes, hotels, offices, parks, music venues, and food halls. And good luck to Kroenke or any other developer trying to find a vacant 130 acres in any urban area in Southern California, much less one adjacent to a train station and within three freeways.

This is already happening across the 57 Freeway from Angel Stadium, where Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli are putting up what they call the OC Vibe. Kroenke’s history indicates he would do something just as fun, and likely grander given that he’ll have more land, and suddenly Anaheim could be the coolest place to be in Orange County (*unless Olivia Rodrigo is putting on another Daisy Chain Fields festival in Irvine).

And, if Kroenke is willing to rename the team the Anaheim Angels, the city and its local assemblyman just pushed through a new law that could provide him with a significant financial incentive for development, which in turn could reduce his cost to build the new ballpark the Angels so desperately need.

The city owns the stadium and parking lots, so they were not part of the team sale. City officials have not met with Kroenke.

“Fans and residents welcome the start of a new chapter for baseball in Anaheim,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said. “I am encouraged by Stan Kroenke’s track record with the Rams and his commitment to investing in and uplifting neighborhoods.

“I look forward to working with the team’s incoming ownership to advance our city’s priorities around housing, open space and youth sports at the right time.”

For decades, Anaheim has loftily labeled the land around the neighborhood around the “Platinum Triangle.” Now the city might well have struck gold.

The local assemblyman that introduced that law, Avelino Valencia, could hardly have been any happier Tuesday.

“This is a big day for Anaheim,” Valencia texted me. “For 60 years, our community has filled Angel Stadium, raised a World Series banner as the Anaheim Angels, and shown up through every season.

“Few cities can offer a new owner a foundation like that. New ownership means new possibilities, and Anaheim is ready for them.

“I congratulate Stan Kroenke and Kroenke Sports and Entertainment on their agreement to purchase the Angels, and I welcome them home. Let’s build a partnership rooted in pride of place, a team that reflects the city it calls home, and the return of the Anaheim Angels.

“Anaheim is ready to work together, and Anaheim is ready to win.”

In a statement, State Sen. Tom Umberg called it “a great day for Angels fans and Anaheim.”

Read more:Shaikin: As Angels fans urge Arte Moreno to sell the team, the least he can do is try to win

As the stalemate between the city and Angels owner Arte Moreno grew more entrenched, the condition of Angel Stadium deteriorated. So did Moreno’s investment in the team.

Three years ago, the city commissioned an assessment of what it would take to keep Angel Stadium up and running for decades to come. We’re still waiting.

Those words, in a nutshell, exemplified the relationship between the team and the city in recent years. When the news broke Tuesday, a city official reached out to me to ask if it were true. And, after years of city officials sniping that the Angels had for a decade clipped the “of Anaheim” from their “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” name, the Angels e-mailed a statement confirming the sale with this headline: “Kroenke Sports & Entertainment to Acquire the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.”

After a season of “Sell The Team” chants, Moreno did. And, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Valencia’s bill into law last week, the title of the law actually sounded more appropriate Tuesday: “The Home Run for Anaheim Act.”

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

With active rosters expanding from 26 to 28 players now that it’s September, the Mets have recalled outfielder Nick Morabito and right-handed relief pitcher Dylan Ross from Triple-A Syracuse.

Morabito made his major league debut in a brief stint with the Mets earlier this season. He went without a hit in 12 plate appearances over the course of the five games in which he appeared. In Syracuse, though, he’s hit .254/.355/.388 with 13 home runs and 42 stolen bases in 46 attempts. That line is good for just a 96 wRC+ given the context of the International League.

Ross has yet to make his major league debut. Drafted by the Mets in the 13th round in 2022, he made his professional debut with one appearance in Single-A in 2024 before throwing 54.0 innings with a 2.17 ERA and a 3.32 across High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A stints in 2025. This year, he’s thrown all but a few of his innings in Syracuse, and he has a 6.94 ERA and a 5.90 FIP in his time at that level. His walk rate—7.68 per nine or 16.8 percent—has been a significant problem, and he’s given up quite a few home runs.

We have reached September, which means it’s time to start looking ahead. The Phillies have used an August to remember to vault themselves back into contention not just for a wild card spot in the National League, but they have also made the East a division that looks winnable if they can continue to keep up the hot hitting and solid pitching (and get some help from the Braves).

How do you think this ends?

Can the Phillies actually somehow doing the once thought to be impossible – winning a division that they really never had a shot at? It would take a decent sized collapse from the Braves to do so, but the amount of times the two teams play each other, it’s at least in the realm of possibility that it will happen.

Even though a collapse of their own seems like something that can’t really happen, it’s something that needs to be considered. Were that to happen, we’d be having a whole new conversation about jobs and roster spots and all the other things that go with it.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Phillies fans and fans across the country.

The hatred, the criticism, the nastiness, is all over.

They can’t get Arte Moreno anymore.

Moreno, who tried to sell the Los Angeles Angels four years ago but changed his mind five months later, remained patient and finally got his price to escape baseball’s rat race, just ahead of baseball’s anticipated Dec. 1 lockout.

He is selling the franchise for an MLB record $4 billion to sports mogul Stan Kroenke, according to a high-ranking MLB official with knowledge of the agreement. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the terms of the deal were not immediately public.

Moreno, 80, who purchased the Angels for less than $200 million – just one year after they won the World Series – to become baseball’s first Latino owner with his wife, Carole, never came close to duplicating the success.

They spent money, brought in some of the biggest stars in the sport with Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton, and had a franchise player in Mike Trout, earned five division titles in a six-year span, but haven’t made the postseason since 2014.

They have the worst team in the American League (53-85), with their postseason drought extending to 12 years, and are on pace to lose 100 games for the first time in franchise history.

Now, after enduring chants of “Sell the Team," with attendance shrinking and Angels’ fans turning their backs on the franchise, Moreno decided it was time to get out.

The decision stunned some of his closest friends in the industry, although one associate said he wasn’t surprised at all, believing that Moreno already showed signs of losing interest.

Really, we should have all seen this coming. When Moreno fired GM Perry Minasian in June and brought in former St. Louis Cardinals baseball chief John Mozeliak, on the advice of president Molly Jolly, Mozeliak suddenly had more autonomy that existed under the last three Angels GMs.

Mozeliak was able to trade away veteran players like outfielder Jo Adell and starter Jose Soriano for prospects at the deadline, something that Moreno would have prohibited the last two decades. Mozeliak, who brought in nine prospects at the trade deadline, even was permitted to completely restructure his front office this week.

Yet, he refused to allow Minasian to even take serious offers for Shohei Ohtani three years ago at the trade deadline, wanting to re-sign him in the off-season. When Ohtani received his free-agent offers and told Moreno that he’d come back for the same 10-year, $700 million contract that he was being offered by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and San Francisco Giants – including $680 million in deferrals – Moreno passed without bothering to counter.

Even with the historic amount of deferred money, Moreno told his front office, “It’s still $700 million."

Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the final month of the season just ahead, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.

Note: All records and stats are for games played as of Monday morning.

First Place: Houston Astros (69-68)

Top Position Player: Yordan Alvarez (5.8 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Peter Lambert (2.0 fWAR)

The Astros remain the team that cannot be killed, as they lead this rock fight despite being barely above .500 themselves. During August, they made a move generally associated with being bad in making a general manager change and getting rid of Dana Brown, but they’ve been just good enough to stay at the top of a very gross division.

They’re led by Alvarez, a legitimate MVP candidate who leads the league in a whole host of offensive categories — including all three Triple Crown categories (though he shares the home run lead with Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero). Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes have been good, while Hunter Brown has been their best on the mound, despite missing all of April and May. The rest of their roster is generally just solid enough to have them at the top of the division.

Second Place: Texas Rangers (67-70, 2 GB)

Top Position Player: Ezequiel Durán (4.4 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Jacob deGrom (3.3 fWAR)

The Rangers are a very weird team. Their collective 108 OPS+ is the third best of any team in baseball. However, their 4.04 runs per game is the third worst of any team in baseball. I can’t say I understand how exactly they’ve managed that, considering that they’ve gotten really good seasons out of the likes of Durán, Joc Pederson, Josh Jung (who is currently on the IL), Wyatt Langford, and others. It’s not as if they have remarkably worse numbers with runners on and/or in scoring position either.

On the pitching front, you can definitely spot an issue as Cal Quantrill is their only starter with more than 10 starts who has a better than average ERA, and he only barely clears that 10 threshold. Now, that does include deGrom, whose FIP is more than a full run better than this ERA, so it’s maybe not as bad as things seem on the surface, but this can’t be particularly fun team to follow as a fan right now. MacKenzie Gore hasn’t been a particularly inspiring offseason trade addition, Nathan Eovaldi was placed on the IL with right elbow inflammation in mid-August and hasn’t returned, and Jack Leiter is on a rehab assignment from ankle surgery. Old friend Jordan Montgomery is now back from his second Tommy John surgery and working out of the bullpen.

Third Place: Seattle Mariners (64-73, 5 GB)

Top Position Player: Randy Arozarena (3.6 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Bryan Woo (3.0 fWAR)

Speaking of infuriating teams to follow, both this season and every year, I present the Seattle Mariners! Remember when they were eight outs from their first ever World Series appearance less than a year ago? The follow-up has been just about as ugly as that of their victorious foe.

It was always unlikely that Cal Raleigh would post another 60 home run season with a 168 OPS+, but he’s at 19 homers and a 84 OPS+ for 2026. He’s only even at those numbers because he’s had a good last month. Besides Arozarena, pretty much every standout performer from last year’s ALCS team has taken a step back. Even if the dips those key players had taken were just 10 percent better, Seattle could be clear at the top of this weak division. It’s just that a big reason this division is so weak is that so many M’s players have tumbled off a cliff.

Fourth Place: The Athletics (53-84, 16 GB)

Top Position Player: Nick Kurtz (2.6 fWAR)
Top Pitchers: Gage Jump and J.T. Ginn (1.7 fWAR)

After a 2025 season that featured some impressive years from some young players, the A’s were firmly in “interesting” status going into 2026. They then had a pretty good April and sat in first in the division at the end of it. However since then, the A’s have gone 36-70. That winning percentage over the course of a full season would equate to 55 wins.

What hasn’t helped with that is that two of their young stars, Kurtz and Jacob Wilson, are both on the 60-day IL, and several other contributors to their preseason “interesting” status are currently also out with injures. That includes former Yankee Luis Severino, who has been limited to just over 60 innings. That one has helped lead to a pretty poor season from A’s pitching, as their 5.74 runs allowed per game is tied with the Rockies for the worst, and Colorado infamously has a built-in hinderance there — though Sacramento’s minor-league park isn’t much better.

Last Place: Los Angeles Angels (52-85, 17 GB)

Top Position Players: Mike Trout and Zach Neto (2.9 fWAR)
Top Pitcher: Reid Detmers (3.8 fWAR)

Mike Trout should be allowed to football tackle Arte Moreno as a treat.

Today is September 1 and thus MLB teams can expand rosters.

This is done differently now than in years gone by, when the entire 40-man roster could be recalled if teams wanted to do that. Now, teams can add just two players for a 28-man active roster.

And the Cubs have added right-handed reliever Tyler Ferguson and utility player B.J. Murray to the active roster.

Let’s talk about Murray first. He’s a native of the Bahamas but attended high school in Florida, from where the Cubs drafted him in the 15th round in 2021. He’s played a lot of first base at Triple-A Iowa this year, likely why he’s being called up. The Cubs didn’t really have a right-handed first base backup for Michael Busch, and now they do. Murray has batted .294/.395/.500 with 16 home runs in 118 games for Iowa this year, by far his best minor league season.

He’ll be the second Bahamas native to play for the Cubs when he makes his debut. Shortstop Andre Rodgers played for the Cubs from 1961-64, and was the regular there for the last three of those seasons. The other native of the Bahamas currently active in MLB is Jazz Chisholm Jr. of the Yankees.

Murray will wear uniform No. 83.

Ferguson has a 3.45 ERA (6 ER/15.2 IP), 19 strikeouts, two walks and a 0.77 WHIP in 16 games with the Cubs this season. He was acquired from the Athletics on May 7 for cash considerations. All told in 2026, the righty has a 5.29 ERA (10 ER/17.0 IP) with 20 strikeouts, two walks and a .215 opponent batting average in 17 major league games between the two clubs. Ferguson has posted a 0-1 record with a 3.79 ERA (8 ER/19.0 IP) across 17 games with the I-Cubs since joining the organization

Murray needed to be added to the 40-man roster, while Ferguson was alreadyon it. There was one open spot following the DFA of Hoby Milner last week, so the 40-man roster is now full.