Oct. 29

1931 — Lefty Grove, winner of 31 games for the Philadelphia A’s, was named the American League MVP.

1942 — Branch Rickey, the architect of the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm system, resigned as the team’s vice president. Rickey was named president of the Dodgers on Nov. 1.

1979 — Willie Mays severed all ties to major league baseball after signing a contract with the Bally Corporation, which is involved with legalized gambling in Atlantic City, N.J.

2008 — Brad Lidge and the Philadelphia Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint to win a suspended Game 5 nearly 50 hours after it started, capturing their first World Series title since 1980. Left in limbo by a two-day rainstorm, Pedro Feliz singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Lidge closed out his perfect season to deliver the title.

2009 — New York’s Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui hit solo homers off Pedro Martinez to back a sharp performance by A.J. Burnett and tie give the Yankees a 3-1 victory the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2 of the World Series.

2014 — Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants succeeded where no team had in 3 1/2 decades, winning Game 7 on the road for their third World Series title in five years. Bumgarner came out of the bullpen to pitch five scoreless innings on two days’ rest as the Giants held off the Kansas City Royals 3-2.

2016 — Corey Kluber earned his second win in this World Series and the Cleveland Indians moved within one victory of their first championship since 1948, routing the Chicago Cubs 7-2 with home runs by Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis.

2017 — Houston’s Alex Bregman hit a game-ending single off Kenley Jansen with two outs in the 10th inning and the Astros outslugged the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-12 to take a 3-2 World Series lead.

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Oct. 30

1945 — Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a minor-league contract for the 1946 season with Montreal of the International League.

1956 — The Brooklyn Dodgers sold Ebbets Field to real estate developer Marvin Kratter. Kratter leased the stadium back to the Dodgers through the 1959 season before using the site for a housing development.

1963 — Sandy Koufax of Los Angeles became the second player to win the Cy Young and MVP in the same year. Koufax beat out Dick Groat of the St. Louis Cardinals for the MVP award.

1974 — Oakland’s Catfish Hunter, who led the league with 25 wins and a 2.49 ERA, was named the American League’s Cy Young winner.

2001 — Roger Clemens and Mariano Rivera shut down Arizona for a 2-1 win that cut the Diamondbacks’ World series lead to two games-to-one. Clemens allowed only three hits and struck out nine and Rivera threw two perfect innings in relief. An early home run by Jorge Posada and a tiebreaking single by Scott Brosius in the sixth were enough to win for the Yankees.

2010 — Mitch Moreland hit a three-run homer in the second inning, Josh Hamilton added a solo shot in the fifth and the Texas Rangers beat the San Francisco Giants 4-2 to close to 2-1 in the World Series.

2013 — David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox, baseball’s bearded wonders, capped their remarkable turnaround by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 in Game 6 to win their third World Series championship in 10 seasons. Ortiz, named Most Valuable Player, had himself a Ruthian World Series. He batted .688 (11 for 16) with two homers, six RBIs and eight walks — including four in the finale — for a .760 on-base percentage in 25 plate appearances, the second-highest in Series history.

2015 — David Wright and Curtis Granderson homered, rookie Noah Syndergaard pitched six effective innings and the New York Mets roughed up the Kansas City Royals 9-3, cutting their World Series deficit to 2-1.

2016 — Aroldis Chapman got eight outs in the longest relief appearance of his career and the Chicago Cubs held off Cleveland 3-2, cutting the Indians’ lead in the World Series 3-2. Kris Bryant’s homer sparked a three-run burst in the fourth inning that gave Jon Lester and the Cubs the lead.

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Oct. 31

1961 — A federal judge ruled that Birmingham, Ala. laws against integrated playing fields were illegal. This ruling eliminated the last barrier against integrating the Southern Association.

1967 — San Francisco’s Mike McCormick won the National League Cy Young award. Mike McCormick led the league with with 22 victories. It was the first year in which pitchers are honored in both leagues.

1972 — Gaylord Perry, a 24-game winner with the fifth-place Cleveland Indians, won the American League Cy Young award. Perry won by a 64-58 margin over Wilbur Wood of the Chicago White Sox.

1973 — Tom Seaver of the New York Mets became the first pitcher to win the National League Cy Young award with less than 20 wins. Seaver went 19-10 and led the league in ERA (2.08) and strikeouts (251).

2001 — Derek Jeter hit a game-winning home run off Byung-Hyun Kim in the bottom of the 10th inning to lift New York over Arizona 4-3 and tie the World Series at 2-2. The Yankees’ Tino Martinez hit a dramatic two-run homer off closer Kim to tie it with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. It was the first time in World Series history that a team tied a game with a ninth-inning homer and won with a homer in extra innings.

2009 — Alex Rodriguez wound up with a home run after the first instant replay review in World Series history, and the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5 for a 2-1 edge in the World Series.

2010 — Madison Bumgarner allowed three hits in eight innings, Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey homered and San Francisco beat the Texas Rangers 4-0 to take a 3-1 World Series lead.

2015 — The Kansas City Royals rallied for three runs in the eighth inning after second baseman Daniel Murphy’s error and beat the New York Mets 5-3 for a 3-1 lead in the World Series. The Royals posted their seventh postseason comeback win this October.

2017 — Chris Taylor hit a tying double off Justin Verlander during a two-run rally in the sixth inning and Corey Seager had a go-ahead sacrifice fly to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Houston Astros 3-1 to even the World Series at three games apiece.

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