5/17/1925 - Speaker joins 3,000 club

Tris Speaker collects the 3,000th hit of his career off Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. Speaker would wind up with 3,514 hits and a .345 batting average, one of the highest averages in baseball history. Speaker also acted as manager for the Cleveland Indians, but was forced to resign in 1926 when allegations arose that he and Ty Cobb had fixed a game (both players were later exonerated by the commissioner).

5/17/1970 - Aaron joins 3,000 club

45 years after Tris Speaker did it, Hank Aaron is the ninth player to score 3,000 career hits. Aaron singled off Wayne Simpson of the Cincinnati Reds to become the only active player in the 3,000 club. Afterward, he was met on the field by an ecstatic Stan Musial, who had come all the way to congratulate him. "It was getting awfully lonely in the club," said Musial, who had 3,630 hits in his career, "and when you are the only living member of it, you wait around for somebody to join you so at least there will be somebody to talk to."

5/17/1979 - Phillies best the Cubs 23-22

If you had a friend or relative who wasn't interested in baseball, this game would have be the one to take them to. In May of 1979, the Cubs and Phillies played the second highest-scoring game in Major League Baseball history.

The Phillies got off to a great start with 7 runs in the top of the first, with homers from Mike Schmidt, Bob Boone, the pitcher Fred Lerch. The Cubs responded in the bottom half of the inning with 6 of their own, including a three-run blast by Dave "King Kong" Kingman. Both starting pitchers, Chicago's Dennis Lamp and Philadelphia's Lerch, went only 1/3 of an inning, giving up a combined 11 earned runs and 11 hits.

After a scoreless second, the onslaught resumed in the third when Philadelphia put eight runs on the board. Going into the bottom of the fourth, the Cubs were down 17-6 when they began to catch fire. They scored 13 runs in the next three innings, but still trailed the Phillies 21-16 after six. The Cubs would add five more runs to pull within one, and in the 8th inning, a Barry Foote single scored the Cubs 22nd run to knot it 22-22. A scoreless ninth by both teams sent the game to extra innings.

In the top of the 10th, future-Hall-of-Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt got the better of future-Hall-of-Fame closer Bruce Sutter for his second homer of the day. Rawly Eastwick retired the side in the bottom of the inning, and the Phillies won the marathon 23-22.

Overall, the game tallied 45 runs with 50 hits and 11 home runs. Some of the notable performances were Bill Buckner's grand slam and 7 RBI, Kingman's 3 home runs, Larry Bowa's 5 hits, Pete Rose's 3 hits, Garry Maddox going 4-4, and Schmidt's 2 homers, including the game-winner. 11 pitchers were used (I would've expected more) in the four-hour game that only 14,952 people saw. Coincidentally, the highest scoring game was also between the Cubs and Phillies: a 26-23 affair back in 1922. On that occasion, the Cubs were the ones to come away the victor.