Old Sweater
05-17-2011, 06:59 AM
1903 - Cool Papa Bell is born in Starkville, Mississippi. Bell will enjoy a successful career in the Negro Leagues from 1922 to 1946. An outfielder with blazing speed and the first Mexican League Triple Crown winner, Bell will be selected to the Hall of Fame in 1974.
1905 - Waseda University of Tokyo defeats Los Angeles High School, 5 - 3, in the first game of an American tour. It is the first baseball game ever played by Japanese outside Japan. Waseda started a powerhouse tradition at Japan's Big Six universities that continues to this day.
1912 - Historic Fenway Park in Boston is officially dedicated, as the Red Sox host the Chicago White Sox. Playing in front of an overflow crowd, the Red Sox lose the game, 5 - 2.
1915 - Chicago Cubs pitcher George "Zip" Zabel comes out of the bullpen with two outs in the first inning, and winds up with a 4 - 3, 19-inning victory over the Brooklyn Robins in the longest relief job ever in major league history.
1925 - At League Park, Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians collects his 3,000th hit off Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. Zachary leads Washington to a 2 - 1 victory. George Uhle is the loser.
1939 - The first baseball game ever televised - Princeton against Columbia at the Baker Bowl - is watched by a handful of viewers via W2XBS in New York City. Bill Stern announces the ten-inning victory of visiting Princeton, 2 - 1. Reviewing the game the next day, the New York Times reports: "it is difficult to see how this sort of thing can catch the public fancy."
1941 - The city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania declare a legal holiday to honor Philadelphia Athletics manager on Connie Mack Day at Shibe Park.
1945 - For the fourth time in four days, every American League game is postponed because of rain.
1959 - Just over 2 weeks after teammate Dick Stuart's May 1st moon shot, Roberto Clemente rips a colossal home run which, like its predecessor, will leave the Bucs one run short in a 7 - 6 loss while drawing admiring remarks from the magnanimous victors. In terms of both sheer distance and historical significance, however, Clemente's clout is in another league entirely. Making his bid to become the first batter ever to reach Wrigley Field's distant right centerfield scoreboard, Clemente's got the distance, but not quite the direction. Whereas Bill Nicholson in 1948 had missed just to the right, today's ball shoots by on the left-hand side, its majestic exit from Wrigley leaving the elusive edifice untouched, as it remains to this day. No other batter has come close. Cubs slugger Ernie Banks is duly impressed: "That's the longest one I've seen hit there and we all agreed it must have traveled more than 500 feet on its trip into Waveland Avenue." Even more impressed is the Cubs' batting instructor, himself a figure of some note. Les Biederman of The Sporting News reports: "Rogers Hornsby said it was the longest he ever witnessed and Cubs' skipper Bob Scheffing agreed." For the record, Hornsby was present on October 6, 1926 to witness Babe Ruth launch two rockets estimated, respectively, at 515 and 530 feet, in Game Four of the 1926 World Series.
1961 - Roger Maris hits his first home run of the season at Yankee Stadium (fourth overall) on his way to a major league season-record 61.
1963 - Don Nottebart of the Houston Colt .45s pitches the first no-hitter in franchise history, leading Houston past the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, 4 - 1.
1964 - Roberto Clemente puts on quite a show but can't prevent Pittsburgh's 3 - 2 loss to Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers. Frank Finch of the Los Angeles Times reports: "Pittsburgh's exciting right fielder, Roberto Clemente, waged a one-man war against Los Angeles with a spectacular display of throwing and batting. The fiery Puerto Rican smacked a triple, double and single to keep Koufax in hot water, but it was his arm that captured the fans' fancy and left two baserunners for dead. Dick Tracewski ended a promising scoring spree in the second inning when Clemente's strike to Ducky Schofield nailed him as he tried to scramble back to second base. When Ron Fairly's triple eluded Clemente in the seventh, he retrieved the ball and threw it on the fly from the warning track to home plate. And then Roberto took John Roseboro's game-winning sacrifice fly and pegged another shot to the plate that nearly nipped Fairly. The next batter, Willie Davis, challenged Clemente's arm by trying to stretch a single. He was out at second by a couple of lengths. Not since their own Carl Furillo was in his prime have the Dodgers seen such a display of throwing as Clemente's."
1970 - During a 7 - 6 Atlanta loss to Cincinnati in the second game of a doubleheader, Hank Aaron collects his 3,000th career hit and his 570th home run. Aaron, the ninth man to amass 3,000 hits, is the first to also have 500 home runs.
1971:
Roberto Clemente's two-out, two-run, walk-off triple transforms a frustrating 5 - 4 loss to fifth-place Montreal into a sudden-death 6 - 5 decision, pulling Pittsburgh to within one game of the New York. After failing twice in crucial spots earlier in the game, Clemente clubs Mike Marshall's 1-1 pitch high off the wall near the 410-foot mark.
Tommy McCraw of the Washington Senators hits one of the shortest home runs in major league history. McCraw's 140-foot pop fly falls in between three Cleveland Indians, shortstop Jack Heidemann and outfielders Vada Pinson and John Lowenstein. When the three players collide, McCraw circles the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
1973 - California Angels center fielder Bobby Valentine tries to scale a wall to prevent a Dick Green home run during a 5 - 4 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Valentine catches his spikes in the wall and fractures his leg. The injury will ruin his career.
1977 - The Chicago Cubs hit seven home runs in beating the San Diego Padres, 23 - 6, at Wrigley Field. Larry Biittner (two), Gene Clines, Steve Ontiveros, Dave Rosello, Jerry Morales and Bobby Murcer homer for the Cubs, with Biittner, Morales, and Murcer hitting consecutive shots in the fifth inning.
1978 - Lee Lacy hits a pinch-home run to help the Dodgers to a 10 - 1 victory over Pittsburgh. It is Lacy's third consecutive home run in a pinch-hitting role, setting a major league record. His previous blasts were on May 2 and May 6.
1979 - With the wind really blowing out at Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies join in a wild ten-inning slugfest won by the Phillies, 23 - 22. Dave Kingman hits three home runs and collects six RBI for the Cubs while teammate Bill Buckner has a grand slam and seven RBI. Mike Schmidt belts two home runs, including the game-winner in the tenth inning. Bob Boone, pitcher Randy Lerch, and Garry Maddox also homer for the Phillies and Steve Ontiveros and Jerry Martin do it for the Cubs. The eleven home runs between the two teams tie a major league game record. The contest includes 50 hits. In 2010, the MLB Network named it the 20th greatest game of the previous 50 years.
1984 - Alan Wiggins of the San Diego Padres ties a National League record by stealing five bases in one game. Wiggins joins three others who have performed the feat: Dan McGann in 1904, Davey Lopes in 1974 and Lonnie Smith in 1982.
1985 - The Texas Rangers name Bobby Valentine as their new manager, replacing the departed Doug Rader. Under Rader, the Rangers had posted a record of 9-23, the worst in the major leagues. With Valentine at the helm, the Rangers will show some improvement, but will still finish last in the American League West.
1992:
Catcher Gary Carter, back with the Montreal Expos, joins Bob Boone and Carlton Fisk in the exclusive 2,000 games caught club.
The Toronto Blue Jays surpass one million in attendance earlier than any team in major league history. It takes the Blue Jays 21 dates to draw 1,006,294. The previous record was shared by the 1991 Blue Jays and the 1981 Dodgers.
1996 - Jesús Sommers of the Poza Rica Oilers connects for his 3,000th career hit. Elmer Dessens is the victimized pitcher.
1998 - David Wells pitches the 13th perfect game in modern major league history as the Yankees beat Minnesota, 4 - 0. Wells, whose "perfecto" is the first by a Yankees pitcher since Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, also sets an American League record by retiring 37 batters in a row, dating back to his start on May 12 against Kansas City. Minnesota shortstop Pat Meares flies out to right fielder Paul O'Neill to complete the perfect afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
2001:
Ike Brown dies from cancer in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 59. A popular member of the Detroit Tigers for six seasons, Brown was one of the last Negro League players still active in the majors during the 1970s. The versatile Brown played every infield and outfield position but center field during his Tigers stint.
Mets free agent acquisition Steve Trachsel becomes the first pitcher in franchise history to give up four home runs in an inning, pitching himself out of the starting rotation in the process (one day later, he'll be off the roster altogether, off to Norfolk for a three-week Triple A stint). To be fair, the Met bullpen does not exactly cover itself in glory either, with Rick White and John Franco each contributing 4 runs to San Diego's 15-run total; an uncharacteristically economical Franco accomplishes all this in one third of an inning. The one Met bright spot is the performance turned in by a newcomer assigned mop-up duty in the ninth, namely super sub Desi Relaford, who moves over from SS to make the only mound appearance of his ML career. Sporting a tailing change-up and a fastball, which at 91 MPH is about 5 MPH faster than anything Trachsel was able to muster, Desi fans the opposing pitcher, then induces two consecutive Padres to fly out to the deepest part of the park.
2002 - Erubiel Durazo hits three home runs with a double and nine RBI to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 12 - 9 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Bank One Ballpark.
2007 - Yukio Tanaka goes 3 for 4. The veteran Nippon Ham Fighters player tops the 2,000-hit level for his career, joining the meikyukai.
2009:
An error by manager Joe Maddon in filling out the line-up card forces Tampa Bay to forego the designated hitter and bat pitcher Andy Sonnanstine third. He hits an RBI double in the 4th on his way to a 7 - 5 win over Cleveland.
Scott Feldman pitches six scoreless innings and three relievers complete the whitewash as Texas beats Los Angeles to complete a sweep. David Murphy drives in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly in the 7th, then Ian Kinsler and Marlon Byrd hit RBI doubles to seal the affair. Texas has now won seven in a row, and 13 of its last 15 games.
In a 2 - 0 win by the Giants over the Mets, New York hurler Mike Pelfrey balks 3 times. It had been 15 years since Al Leiter was the last pitcher to have three balks in a game.
2010:
It's another epic battle between the Yankees and Red Sox at New Yankee Stadium. The Yanks take a 5 - 0 lead in the first inning against Daisuke Matsuzaka, but the Sox storm back to take the lead with five home runs, two by Victor Martinez, and one each by David Ortiz, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis. Then, in the bottom of the 9th, Jonathan Papelbon gives up a pair of two-run homers, to Alex Rodriguez and Marcus Thames, and the Yankees end up on top, 11 - 9.
The Dodgers extend their winning streak to 8 games with a 6 - 2 victory over the Astros. Rookie John Ely allows only one run in 7 innings facing the worst offense in the major leagues; he has yet to allow a walk while striking out 25 in 25⅓ innings this season. Blake DeWitt hits two triples for the Dodgers who have moved to within 2 games of the NL West lead after a slow start.
---------- Post added at 04:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 AM ----------
An error by manager Joe Maddon in filling out the line-up card forces Tampa Bay to forego the designated hitter and bat pitcher Andy Sonnanstine third. He hits an RBI double in the 4th on his way to a 7 - 5 win over Cleveland.
Talk about luck! How often does an error, lead to something good?
1905 - Waseda University of Tokyo defeats Los Angeles High School, 5 - 3, in the first game of an American tour. It is the first baseball game ever played by Japanese outside Japan. Waseda started a powerhouse tradition at Japan's Big Six universities that continues to this day.
1912 - Historic Fenway Park in Boston is officially dedicated, as the Red Sox host the Chicago White Sox. Playing in front of an overflow crowd, the Red Sox lose the game, 5 - 2.
1915 - Chicago Cubs pitcher George "Zip" Zabel comes out of the bullpen with two outs in the first inning, and winds up with a 4 - 3, 19-inning victory over the Brooklyn Robins in the longest relief job ever in major league history.
1925 - At League Park, Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians collects his 3,000th hit off Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. Zachary leads Washington to a 2 - 1 victory. George Uhle is the loser.
1939 - The first baseball game ever televised - Princeton against Columbia at the Baker Bowl - is watched by a handful of viewers via W2XBS in New York City. Bill Stern announces the ten-inning victory of visiting Princeton, 2 - 1. Reviewing the game the next day, the New York Times reports: "it is difficult to see how this sort of thing can catch the public fancy."
1941 - The city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania declare a legal holiday to honor Philadelphia Athletics manager on Connie Mack Day at Shibe Park.
1945 - For the fourth time in four days, every American League game is postponed because of rain.
1959 - Just over 2 weeks after teammate Dick Stuart's May 1st moon shot, Roberto Clemente rips a colossal home run which, like its predecessor, will leave the Bucs one run short in a 7 - 6 loss while drawing admiring remarks from the magnanimous victors. In terms of both sheer distance and historical significance, however, Clemente's clout is in another league entirely. Making his bid to become the first batter ever to reach Wrigley Field's distant right centerfield scoreboard, Clemente's got the distance, but not quite the direction. Whereas Bill Nicholson in 1948 had missed just to the right, today's ball shoots by on the left-hand side, its majestic exit from Wrigley leaving the elusive edifice untouched, as it remains to this day. No other batter has come close. Cubs slugger Ernie Banks is duly impressed: "That's the longest one I've seen hit there and we all agreed it must have traveled more than 500 feet on its trip into Waveland Avenue." Even more impressed is the Cubs' batting instructor, himself a figure of some note. Les Biederman of The Sporting News reports: "Rogers Hornsby said it was the longest he ever witnessed and Cubs' skipper Bob Scheffing agreed." For the record, Hornsby was present on October 6, 1926 to witness Babe Ruth launch two rockets estimated, respectively, at 515 and 530 feet, in Game Four of the 1926 World Series.
1961 - Roger Maris hits his first home run of the season at Yankee Stadium (fourth overall) on his way to a major league season-record 61.
1963 - Don Nottebart of the Houston Colt .45s pitches the first no-hitter in franchise history, leading Houston past the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, 4 - 1.
1964 - Roberto Clemente puts on quite a show but can't prevent Pittsburgh's 3 - 2 loss to Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers. Frank Finch of the Los Angeles Times reports: "Pittsburgh's exciting right fielder, Roberto Clemente, waged a one-man war against Los Angeles with a spectacular display of throwing and batting. The fiery Puerto Rican smacked a triple, double and single to keep Koufax in hot water, but it was his arm that captured the fans' fancy and left two baserunners for dead. Dick Tracewski ended a promising scoring spree in the second inning when Clemente's strike to Ducky Schofield nailed him as he tried to scramble back to second base. When Ron Fairly's triple eluded Clemente in the seventh, he retrieved the ball and threw it on the fly from the warning track to home plate. And then Roberto took John Roseboro's game-winning sacrifice fly and pegged another shot to the plate that nearly nipped Fairly. The next batter, Willie Davis, challenged Clemente's arm by trying to stretch a single. He was out at second by a couple of lengths. Not since their own Carl Furillo was in his prime have the Dodgers seen such a display of throwing as Clemente's."
1970 - During a 7 - 6 Atlanta loss to Cincinnati in the second game of a doubleheader, Hank Aaron collects his 3,000th career hit and his 570th home run. Aaron, the ninth man to amass 3,000 hits, is the first to also have 500 home runs.
1971:
Roberto Clemente's two-out, two-run, walk-off triple transforms a frustrating 5 - 4 loss to fifth-place Montreal into a sudden-death 6 - 5 decision, pulling Pittsburgh to within one game of the New York. After failing twice in crucial spots earlier in the game, Clemente clubs Mike Marshall's 1-1 pitch high off the wall near the 410-foot mark.
Tommy McCraw of the Washington Senators hits one of the shortest home runs in major league history. McCraw's 140-foot pop fly falls in between three Cleveland Indians, shortstop Jack Heidemann and outfielders Vada Pinson and John Lowenstein. When the three players collide, McCraw circles the bases for an inside-the-park home run.
1973 - California Angels center fielder Bobby Valentine tries to scale a wall to prevent a Dick Green home run during a 5 - 4 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Valentine catches his spikes in the wall and fractures his leg. The injury will ruin his career.
1977 - The Chicago Cubs hit seven home runs in beating the San Diego Padres, 23 - 6, at Wrigley Field. Larry Biittner (two), Gene Clines, Steve Ontiveros, Dave Rosello, Jerry Morales and Bobby Murcer homer for the Cubs, with Biittner, Morales, and Murcer hitting consecutive shots in the fifth inning.
1978 - Lee Lacy hits a pinch-home run to help the Dodgers to a 10 - 1 victory over Pittsburgh. It is Lacy's third consecutive home run in a pinch-hitting role, setting a major league record. His previous blasts were on May 2 and May 6.
1979 - With the wind really blowing out at Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies join in a wild ten-inning slugfest won by the Phillies, 23 - 22. Dave Kingman hits three home runs and collects six RBI for the Cubs while teammate Bill Buckner has a grand slam and seven RBI. Mike Schmidt belts two home runs, including the game-winner in the tenth inning. Bob Boone, pitcher Randy Lerch, and Garry Maddox also homer for the Phillies and Steve Ontiveros and Jerry Martin do it for the Cubs. The eleven home runs between the two teams tie a major league game record. The contest includes 50 hits. In 2010, the MLB Network named it the 20th greatest game of the previous 50 years.
1984 - Alan Wiggins of the San Diego Padres ties a National League record by stealing five bases in one game. Wiggins joins three others who have performed the feat: Dan McGann in 1904, Davey Lopes in 1974 and Lonnie Smith in 1982.
1985 - The Texas Rangers name Bobby Valentine as their new manager, replacing the departed Doug Rader. Under Rader, the Rangers had posted a record of 9-23, the worst in the major leagues. With Valentine at the helm, the Rangers will show some improvement, but will still finish last in the American League West.
1992:
Catcher Gary Carter, back with the Montreal Expos, joins Bob Boone and Carlton Fisk in the exclusive 2,000 games caught club.
The Toronto Blue Jays surpass one million in attendance earlier than any team in major league history. It takes the Blue Jays 21 dates to draw 1,006,294. The previous record was shared by the 1991 Blue Jays and the 1981 Dodgers.
1996 - Jesús Sommers of the Poza Rica Oilers connects for his 3,000th career hit. Elmer Dessens is the victimized pitcher.
1998 - David Wells pitches the 13th perfect game in modern major league history as the Yankees beat Minnesota, 4 - 0. Wells, whose "perfecto" is the first by a Yankees pitcher since Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, also sets an American League record by retiring 37 batters in a row, dating back to his start on May 12 against Kansas City. Minnesota shortstop Pat Meares flies out to right fielder Paul O'Neill to complete the perfect afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
2001:
Ike Brown dies from cancer in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 59. A popular member of the Detroit Tigers for six seasons, Brown was one of the last Negro League players still active in the majors during the 1970s. The versatile Brown played every infield and outfield position but center field during his Tigers stint.
Mets free agent acquisition Steve Trachsel becomes the first pitcher in franchise history to give up four home runs in an inning, pitching himself out of the starting rotation in the process (one day later, he'll be off the roster altogether, off to Norfolk for a three-week Triple A stint). To be fair, the Met bullpen does not exactly cover itself in glory either, with Rick White and John Franco each contributing 4 runs to San Diego's 15-run total; an uncharacteristically economical Franco accomplishes all this in one third of an inning. The one Met bright spot is the performance turned in by a newcomer assigned mop-up duty in the ninth, namely super sub Desi Relaford, who moves over from SS to make the only mound appearance of his ML career. Sporting a tailing change-up and a fastball, which at 91 MPH is about 5 MPH faster than anything Trachsel was able to muster, Desi fans the opposing pitcher, then induces two consecutive Padres to fly out to the deepest part of the park.
2002 - Erubiel Durazo hits three home runs with a double and nine RBI to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 12 - 9 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies at Bank One Ballpark.
2007 - Yukio Tanaka goes 3 for 4. The veteran Nippon Ham Fighters player tops the 2,000-hit level for his career, joining the meikyukai.
2009:
An error by manager Joe Maddon in filling out the line-up card forces Tampa Bay to forego the designated hitter and bat pitcher Andy Sonnanstine third. He hits an RBI double in the 4th on his way to a 7 - 5 win over Cleveland.
Scott Feldman pitches six scoreless innings and three relievers complete the whitewash as Texas beats Los Angeles to complete a sweep. David Murphy drives in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly in the 7th, then Ian Kinsler and Marlon Byrd hit RBI doubles to seal the affair. Texas has now won seven in a row, and 13 of its last 15 games.
In a 2 - 0 win by the Giants over the Mets, New York hurler Mike Pelfrey balks 3 times. It had been 15 years since Al Leiter was the last pitcher to have three balks in a game.
2010:
It's another epic battle between the Yankees and Red Sox at New Yankee Stadium. The Yanks take a 5 - 0 lead in the first inning against Daisuke Matsuzaka, but the Sox storm back to take the lead with five home runs, two by Victor Martinez, and one each by David Ortiz, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis. Then, in the bottom of the 9th, Jonathan Papelbon gives up a pair of two-run homers, to Alex Rodriguez and Marcus Thames, and the Yankees end up on top, 11 - 9.
The Dodgers extend their winning streak to 8 games with a 6 - 2 victory over the Astros. Rookie John Ely allows only one run in 7 innings facing the worst offense in the major leagues; he has yet to allow a walk while striking out 25 in 25⅓ innings this season. Blake DeWitt hits two triples for the Dodgers who have moved to within 2 games of the NL West lead after a slow start.
---------- Post added at 04:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 AM ----------
An error by manager Joe Maddon in filling out the line-up card forces Tampa Bay to forego the designated hitter and bat pitcher Andy Sonnanstine third. He hits an RBI double in the 4th on his way to a 7 - 5 win over Cleveland.
Talk about luck! How often does an error, lead to something good?