BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

ON THIS DATE
May 23​

1901: The Cleveland Blues, later known as the Indians, scored nine runs with two outs in the ninth inning to beat the Washington Senators 14-13.
1910: In the top of the ninth inning in a game against Boston, Cincinnati’s Dode Paskert stole second base, third base and home plate. The theft gave the Reds a 6-5 win.
1924: Washington’s Walter Johnson struck out 14 in a 4-0 one-hitter over the White Sox for his 103rd shutout.
1925: Cincinnati pitcher Pete Donohue had five hits--four singles and a homer-- in beating the Phillies 11-2.
1935: The first major league night game, scheduled for Cincinnati, was postponed because of rain.
1948: Joe DiMaggio hit three consecutive home runs, the first two off Bob Feller, to lead the New York Yankees to 6-5 win over Cleveland.
1962: New York’s Joe Pepitone hit two homers in the nine-run eighth inning of the Yankees’ 13-7 triumph over Kansas City.
1970: The San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants battled for 15 innings, with the Padres winning 17-16. Nate Colbert led San Diego with five hits and four RBIs.
1991: Tommy Greene, making the 15th start of his major league career, pitched a no-hitter and the Philadelphia Phillies beat Montreal 2-0.
2000: The Orioles defeat the Mariners’ 4-2. Seattle’s Rickey Henderson draws his 2’000th career walk in the 9th inning’ making him the third player to reach that level’ after Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
2002: Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Shawn Green became the 14th man in major league history to homer four times in a game and set a big league record with 19 total bases. He went 6-for-6, scoring six times with seven RBIs in a 16-3 win at Milwaukee.
2003: Jeremi Gonzalez earned his first major league victory in nearly five years as Tampa Bay beat Anaheim 3-1. Gonzalez won for the first time since June 28, 1998, while with the Chicago Cubs. He had elbow surgery in 1998 and ‘99 before the Cubs released him in 2001.
2005: Lefthander Mark Mulder of the St. Louis Cardinals becomes just the 12th National League pitcher since 1976 to throw a complete game shutout of 10 innings or more when he blanks the Astros, 1-0, in 10 innings. Greg Maddux posted the last extra-inning shutout in the National League in 1988.
2009: Jason Giambi hit his 400th homer in the Oakland Athletics’ 8-7 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks, becoming the 44th player to reach the milestone.
2011: Corey Hart hit his first three home runs this season and drove in seven to tie both club records, lifting Milwaukee to an 11-3 win over Washington.
2018: The Seattle Mariners sign a new 25-year lease to continue playing at Safeco Field. The lease will take effect at the expiration of the current 20-year lease at the end of the season, a lease which was signed when the ballpark opened in 1999.
2023: Gerrit Cole records the 2,000th strikeout of his career when he fans Jorge Mateo of the Orioles in the 2nd inning, becoming the third-fastest pitcher to the mark in terms of both games pitched (278) and innings pitched (1,714 2/3).

May 24
1918: Cleveland’s Stan Coveleski pitched 19 innings in the Indians’ 3-2 victory over the New York Yankees. Former pitcher Joe Wood hit a home run for the win.
1935: In the first major league night game in Cincinnati, the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 before 25,000.


1936: Tony Lazzeri, batting eighth for the New York Yankees, drove in 11 runs with a triple and three home runs: two of them grand slams: in a 25-2 rout of the Philadelphia A’s.
1940: The New York Giants beat the Boston Bees 8-1 before 22,260 in the first night game at the Polo Grounds.
1940: The Cleveland Indians edged the Browns 3-2 in the first night game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The crowd of 24827 was the largest in attendance since 1922.
1947: Brooklyn’s Carl Furillo batted for Gene Hermanski: in the first inning: and hit a three-run homer. Why the move? Phillies manager Ben Chapman started righty Al Jurisch just to pitch to Brooklyn’s first two hitters: Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. Reese struck out and Robinson walked. Lefty Oscar Judd, warming up from the start, came in to pitch to the next three lefty hitters: Pete Reiser, Dixie Walker, and Hermanski. Reiser walked and Walker popped out. Furillo came in for Hermanski and connected to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. The Dodgers lost to Philadelphia 4-3 in 10 innings.
1964: Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins hit the longest home run in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, a 471-foot shot to left-center off right-hander Milt Pappas.
1984: Jack Morris led the Tigers to their 17th straight road win, setting an AL record. Morris allowed four hits and Detroit beat the California Angels 5-1.
1990: Chicago’s Andre Dawson was walked intentionally five times by the Cincinnati Reds to break the record shared by Roger Maris and Garry Templeton.
1992: The Braves’ John Smoltz sets a franchise record by striking out 15 batters in a 2-1 win over the Expos.
1994: The St. Louis Cardinals set a major league record by stranding 16 runners without scoring, losing to David West and three Philadelphia Phillies relievers 4-0.
1995: Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley became the sixth pitcher with 300 saves in a 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

1998: Freshman Matt Diaz hit four homers, tying a school and regional record, and drove in seven runs as Florida State routed Oklahoma 23-2 to advance to the NCAA Atlantic II Regional final.

2000: For the third time in major league history a team blew a seven-run lead twice in a week. The Houston Astros lost a 7-0 lead at home against Philadelphia after blowing a 9-2 lead in the ninth inning at Milwaukee two days earlier.
2001: Jon Lieber of the Chicago Cubs threw a 79-pitch, one-hit shutout in a 3-0 blanking of the Reds. It was the first shutout of the Reds in an NL-record 208 games.
2006: Adam Wainwright homered in his first major league at-bat and pitched three innings of relief to earn the win in St. Louis’ 10-4 victory over San Francisco. Wainwright, who had no batting practice since spring training, hit the first pitch he saw out to left in the fifth for a solo homer.
2007: John Smoltz of Atlanta pitched seven shutout innings and became baseball’s first pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves with a 2-1 win over the New York Mets.
2007: Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went 3-for-6 with a homer in his 1,000th major league game. Suzuki compiled 1,414 hits in those games: the second most by a player in his first 1,000 games since 1900. Hall of Famer Al Simmons (1924-44) had 1,443 hits in that span.
2009: Milwaukee’s Mike Cameron homered in the Brewers’ 6-3 loss at Minnesota, becoming the 20th player in major league history to have 250 home runs and 250 steals. He has 291 career steals.
2010: Omar Vizquel, who already owns the record for most games played at shortstop, reaches another mark, tying Luis Aparicio’s total for second-most hits at the position, 2,764.
2011: Chicago’s Carlos Quentin hit three home runs to lead the White Sox to an 8-6 win over Texas. The game was delayed nearly 3 hours by heavy rain and hail. Quentin’s third homer: a solo shot off Dave Bush in the ninth: made it 8-6.
2013: Anibal Sanchez took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Minnesota’s Joe Mauer broke it up with a one-out single, and that was the only hit the Detroit right-hander allowed in the Tigers’ 6-0 victory over the Twins.
2015: On the day they retire Bernie Williams’ number 51 and unveil a plaque in his honor in Monument Park, the Yankees suffer their 10th loss in 11 games to fall to .500. The Rangers’ 5-2 win completes a three-game sweep, as a two-run homer by Adam Rosales off Chris Capuano, and two RBIs by Prince Fielder, account for the bulk of the damage.
2019: Trevor Story of the Rockies becomes the fastest shortstop to the 100-homer mark when he connects off Shawn Armstrong of the Orioles in the 7th inning. It comes in his 448th game, whereas Alex Rodriguez had needed 470.

May 25
1906: Jesse Tannehill’s 3-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox snapped a 20-game losing streak: 19 at home: for the Boston Red Sox.

1935: Babe Ruth, winding up his career with the Boston Braves, hit three homers and a single at Pittsburgh, but the Pirates won 11-7. Ruth connected once off Red Lucas and twice off Guy Bush.

1941: Boston’s Ted Williams raised his batting average over .400 for the first time during the season. Williams finished the season batting. 406.

1951: Willie Mays, a highly touted rookie for the Giants, went 0-for-5 in his debut against the Philadelphia Phillies.
1982: Ferguson Jenkins became the seventh pitcher to strike out 3,000 batters in the Chicago Cubs’ 2-1 loss at San Diego. Jenkins reached the milestone by striking out Garry Templeton in the third inning.


2001: Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs allowed one hit and struck out 14 in a 1-0 win over the Brewers. Wood took a no-hit bid into the seventh before giving up a leadoff single to Mark Loretta.
2001: Hideo Nomo of the Boston Red Sox tossed a one-hitter and struck out 14 in a 4-0 win over Toronto. Nomo faced one batter over the minimum of 27, giving up a leadoff double in the fourth to Shannon Stewart.
2002: Shawn Green of the Los Angeles Dodgers homered twice in a 10-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, setting a major league record with seven homers in his last three games.
2005: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1, in 12 innings, as manager Tony La Russa wins his 823rd game with the Cardinals, passing Whitey Herzog for second place on the franchise list. La Russa is 218 victories behind Cardinals leader Red Schoendienst.
2009: Jim Thome passes Mike Schmidt for 13th on the all-time home run list, as the White Sox thump the Angels, 17-3.
2009: Cleveland rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the fourth as Victor Martinez’s two-out, two-run single in the ninth capped a seven-run inning and lifted the Indians to an 11-10 victory over Tampa Bay. The Indians became the first team in the majors to win after trailing by 10 runs since the Texas Rangers rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 16-15 on May 8, 2004.
2011: Andruw Jones hit a pair of two-run homers, Mark Teixeira also hit a two-run shot and Mariano Rivera made a milestone appearance in New York’s 7-3 victory over Toronto. Rivera pitched the ninth inning in a non-save situation, the 1,000th game he’s played for the Yankees. The 11-time All-Star closer became the first player in major league history to reach the plateau for one team and the 15th to make it overall. Jones homered in the second inning and Teixeira in the third off Jo-Jo Reyes, who matched a major league record by making his 28th consecutive start without a win.
2011: Infielder Wilson Valdez wound up as the winning pitcher when the Philadelphia Phillies needed 19 innings to outlast the Cincinnati Reds 5-4. Valdez threw a hitless 19th inning in his first professional pitching appearance. He became the first position player to become a winning pitcher since Colorado catcher Brent Mayne on Aug. 22, 2000.
2012: Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam and tied his career high with eight RBIs, Josh Hamilton hit his 19th home run of the season and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 14-3. Cruz’s grand slam came in the seventh inning and gave Texas a 14-1 lead. He also had a three-run double in the first and an RBI single in the sixth.
2013: Angel Pagan became the first San Francisco player to end a game with an inside-the-park homer, connecting with a runner aboard in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Giants a 6-5 victory over Colorado. The last major leaguer to hit an inside-the-park home run that ended a game was Rey Sanchez for Tampa Bay on June 11, 2004: also in a 10-inning victory over Colorado.
2014: Josh Beckett of the Dodgers records the first no-hitter of the year by blanking the Phillies, 6-0. It is the first no-hitter by a Dodgers pitcher since Hideo Nomo pitched one in 1996, and the first nine-inning no-hitter by an opposing pitcher in Philadelphia since Bill Stoneman of the Montreal Expos back in 1969.
2019: The Padres set a franchise record with 7 homers in a 19-4 win over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. Wil Myers and Hunter Renfroe hit two each while Austin Hedges blasts a grand slam off Edwin Jackson. Cal Quantrill is the beneficiary of this power display as he records his first career victory a short distance from his hometown of Port Hope, ON, while another local boy, Josh Naylor from Mississauga, ON, collects his first three big league hits for the Padres in the game.
2021: By working home plate in a game between the Cardinals and White Sox, Joe West sets a new career record with 5,376 games as an umpire, passing Bill Klem, whose last game was in 1941.
2022: Anaheim City Council votes unanimously to cancel the sale of Angel Stadium and surrounding land to Los Angeles Angels owner Arte Moreno, following the resignation of Mayor Bill Sidhu on corruption charges a few days earlier. The $350 million sale had been agreed in December 2019 but not yet finalized, and was at the center of an FBI investigation that led to accusations that Sidhu had provided insider information to the team and in return demanded kickbacks in the form of campaign contributions. The city councillors are now no longer convinced that the proposed deal reflects the city’s best interests, and are willing to risk a breach of contract lawsuit from Moreno in order to examine a potential deal again, starting from scratch.

May 26
1916: Benny Kauff of the Giants was picked off first base three times by Boston’s Lefty Tyler. The miscues didn’t hurt as New York won its 14th consecutive road victory beating the Braves, 12-1.
1925: In Detroit’s 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, Ty Cobb became the first to collect 1,000 career extra-base hits. He finished his career with 1,139.
1929: Pinch-hitters Pat Crawford of the Giants and Les Bell of the Boston Braves hit grand slams in New York’s 15-9 victory.
1930: Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians, who fanned only three times in 353 at-bats during the season, was struck out twice in the same game by Pat Caraway of the White Sox.
1937: Billy Sullivan and Bruce Campbell appeared for the Cleveland Indians as pinch hitters. Each hit a home run, making this the first time two American League pinch hitters hit home runs in the same game. The Indians beat the Athletics, 8-6.
1956: Cincinnati Reds pitchers John Klippstein, Hershell Freeman and Joe Black combined for 9 2-3 hitless innings, but lost 2-1 in 11 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies.
1959: Harvey Haddix of Pittsburgh pitched 12 perfect innings before losing to Milwaukee 1-0 in the 13th on an error, a sacrifice and Joe Adcock’s double.
1962: Sandy Koufax struck out 16 Phillies to lead the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory.
1969: Hank Aaron of the Atlanta Braves hits his 500th career double, becoming only the third major leaguer to reach 500 doubles and 500 home runs.
1995: Southern California and Fresno State combined for an NCAA postseason baseball record of 39 runs in the Trojans’ 22-17 win in the West Regional. USC scored three runs in the top of the ninth to break the record of 37 set by the Trojans and Houston in 1990.
1996: The Chicago White Sox became the 16th team in AL history to hit four homers in one inning in their 12-1 win over Milwaukee. Frank Thomas, Harold Baines and Robin Ventura hit consecutive homers and Chad Kreuter added another in Chicago’s seven-run eighth.
1997: Chicago’s Sammy Sosa and the Pirates’ Tony Womack hit inside-the-park homers in the sixth inning of the Cubs’ 2-1 win. It was the first time two inside-the-park homers had been hit in the same inning in 20 years.
2004: Daryle Ward hit for the cycle and tied his career best with six RBIs in Pittsburgh’s 11-8 win over St. Louis.
2006: Derek Jeter gets his 2,000th career hit, becoming the eighth player in Yankees history to reach the milestone.
2008: Chase Utley tied the National League lead with his 16th homer and drove in six runs as Philadelphia routed Colorado 20-5. The Phillies batted around three times and had season-highs in hits (19) and runs.
2011: The hot-hitting Boston Red Sox routed the Detroit Tigers 14-1 in an eight-inning, rain-shortened game. The Red Sox, who beat Cleveland 14-2 the previous day, scored at least 14 runs in back-to-back games for the first time since 1998.
2016: Major League Baseball hands out a suspension of 82 games to Braves OF Hector Olivera, following a domestic violence incident in April. It is by far the most severe penalty yet handed out under baseball’s new domestic violence policy.
2018: Mike Trout has the first five-hit game of his career and drives in 4 runs to lead the Angels to an 11-4 win over the Yankees.
2021: Commissioner Rob Manfred issues his ruling following the completion of the investigation of allegations of improper behavior towards a number of women against former manager and coach Mickey Callaway. Callaway is found guilty of violating Major League Baseball policies and is declared ineligible for the remainder of this season and all of 2022, after which he may apply for reinstatement. For their part, the Angels fire him from his position of pitching coach, from which he has been suspended since the allegations surfaced in February, and the Indians, who were Callaway’s employer when some of the offensive incidents took place, state that they will take steps to ensure a more respectful environment in which employees feel empowered to denounce workplace harassement in the future.
2023: Craig Kimbrel becomes the eighth pitcher to record 400 career saves in Philadelphia’s 6 - 4 win over the Braves, barely two weeks after Kenley Jansen became the seventh.


May 27
1904: Dennis McGann of the New York Giants stole five bases in one game to set a major league record.
1937: Carl Hubbell, working in relief for the New York Giants, won his 24th straight game over two seasons. Hubbell pitched two innings and Mel Ott hit a ninth-inning home run to beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-2. Hubbell’s string started July 17, 1936.
1955: Norm Zauchin of the Boston Red Sox knocked in 10 runs with three home runs and a double in the first five innings of a 16-0 victory over the Washington Senators.
1960: Baltimore catcher Clint Courtney used the “big mitt” for the first time to catch knuckleball pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm. The mitt, designed by Paul Richards, was 50 percent larger than the standard. Nothing got by Courtney as the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 3-2.
1968: Montreal and San Diego were awarded National League franchises as the league expanded for the first time in seven years.
1974: Pittsburgh’s Ken Brett beat the San Diego Padres 6-0 with a two-hitter and in the second game of the doubleheader, hit a pinch-hit triple to give the Pirates an 8-7 victory.
1981: Seattle’s Lenny Randle dropped to his hands and knees in an attempt to “encourage” Amos Otis’ slow roller to go foul. Umpire Larry McCoy accused the Mariner third baseman of blowing the ball foul and gave the Kansas City outfielder the single. Randle explained he was merely yelling at the ball not to stay fair. The Royals won 8-5.
1986: At Cleveland, the Boston Red Sox were leading the Indians, 2-0, in the sixth inning when the game was delayed then called on account of fog.
1995: Oakland’s Steve Ontiveros pitched 3-0 one-hitter against the New York Yankees. Luis Polonia got the only hit for New York.
1997: Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr. broke his own major league record for home runs hit through May by connecting for his 23rd of the season in an 11-10 loss to Minnesota. Griffey’s homer broke the mark he set in 1994.

2004: Carlos Pena was 6-for-6 with two home runs, five RBIs and four runs in Detroit’s 17-7 victory over Kansas City.
2009: Daisuke Matsuzaka and the rest of Boston’s pitchers tied a modern-day record with six wild pitches. Matsuzaka tied a franchise record set 80 years ago with four, while relievers Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson also sent catcher George Kottaras scrambling. It was just the fifth time since 1900 that a team threw six wild pitches in a game.
2010: Florida International’s Garrett Wittels extended his hitting streak to 50 games, after a third-inning single against Western Kentucky. Wittels moved within eight games of matching the NCAA Division I record of 58, set by Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura in 1987.
2012: Taylor Sewitt threw 11 shutout innings of relief, entering the game with no outs in the first, to help Manhattan College beat Canisius 3-2, for the school’s second straight Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.
2012: Paul Konerko hit a tiebreaking three-run homer: his 400th with the White Sox: and Chicago routed the Cleveland Indians 12-6. The offensive outburst gave Chicago nine or more runs in four consecutive games. The White Sox last accomplished that feat June 27-30, 1938.
2015: Cubs pitcher Jon Lester sets a new record for most hitless at bats to begin a career with 58 at bats without a hit.

May 28
1918 -- Boston’s Joe Bush pitched a 1-0 one-hitter against the Chicago White Sox and drove in the lone run. The only Chicago hit was by Happy Felsch. It occurred when he threw his bat at the ball on a hit and run.
1939 -- Philadelphia pitcher Robert Joyce was victimized two straight days by New York’s George Selkirk. Joyce gave up two homers to Selkirk a day earlier. Joyce came on in relief on this day and gave up two more homers to Selkirk. Selkirk ended with four homers in four at-bats against the same pitcher over two successive games. The Yankees won 9-5.
1946 -- The Washington Senators beat New York 2-1 in the first night game at Yankee Stadium. The first ball was thrown out by General Electric president Charles E. Wilson.
1951 -- After going 0-for-12 in his first three major league games, Willie Mays of the New York Giants hit a home run off Warren Spahn in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Braves.
1956 -- Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a home run in his eighth consecutive game, a major league record. Long connected off Brooklyn’s Carl Erskine at Forbes Field.
1968 -- The American League announced the league will be split into two divisions. The East division will consist of Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New York and Washington. California, Chicago, Kansas City, Minnesota, Oakland and Seattle will make up the West.
1979 -- George Brett of the Kansas City Royals hit for the cycle and added another home run to beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-4 in 16 innings.
1986 -- Joe Cowley of the Chicago White Sox set a major league record by striking out the first seven batters he faced. He lasted 4 2-3 innings in a 6-3 loss to the Texas Rangers.
1995 -- The White Sox and Tigers set a major league record with 12 homers, and combined for an American League-record 21 extra-base hits in Chicago’s 14-12 victory in Detroit.
1998 -- Arizona manager Buck Showalter intentionally walked Barry Bonds with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, and the Diamondbacks held on to beat San Francisco 8-7.
2003 -- Atlanta became the second team in major league history to start a game with three straight homers in its 15-3 win over the Reds. Rafael Furcal, Mark DeRosa and Gary Sheffield hit consecutive home runs off Jeff Austin in the bottom of the first. The Padres did it against the Giants on April 13, 1987.
2006 -- Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run during the San Francisco Giants’ 6-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies to slip past Babe Ruth and pull in behind Hank Aaron and his long-standing record of 755.
2007 -- Adrian Beltre tied a franchise record with four extra-base hits, including two homers, as Seattle pounded the Los Angeles Angels 12-5.
2010 -- Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera hit three homers in a 5-4 loss to Oakland. Oakland’s Ben Sheets gave up three runs -- on Cabrera’s first two homers -- worked seven innings in his longest start of the season.
2012: The Cubs end a twelve-game losing streak, their longest since 1997, with an 11-7 win over the Padres at Wrigley Field.
2010 -- Matt Cain pitched a one-hitter to match a career best, giving up only a two-out double in the second to Mark Reynolds, and San Francisco beat Arizona 5-0.
2013: The Mets honor Yankees great Mariano Rivera, who has announced his retirement at the end of the year, by having him throw the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the two teams from the Big Apple at Citi Field, with retired Mets closer John Franco acting as his catcher for the occasion.
2016: In the 3rd inning of a game against the Dodgers, Mets P Noah Syndergaard is ejected for throwing at Chase Utley, in apparent retaliation for Utley’s aggressive slide which injured Mets SS Ruben Tejada in last year’s NLDS. Umpire Adam Hamari also tosses Mets manager Terry Collins for arguing his decision, then Utley gets his revenge when he opens the score with a solo homer off Logan Verrett in the 6th and adds a grand slam off Hansel Robles in the 7th. The Dodgers hit five homers in total as they win the game, 9-1.
2019: Derek Dietrich continues his unlikely homer binge as he hits three, all two-run shots, in leading the Reds to an 11-6 win over the Pirates. With 17 homers this year, he has already topped his career high, and 12 of his last 17 hits have gone over the fence. For the Pirates, rookie Kevin Newman hits his first career homer, a grand slam off Lucas Sims.
2023: Spencer Strider of the Braves becomes the fastest starting pitcher to record 100 strikeouts in a season, doing so in his 61st inning in an 11 - 4 win over the Phillies. Last year, Strider set the record for the fastest pitcher to reach 200 Ks in a season.

May 29
1916 -- Christy Mathewson defeated the Boston Braves 3-0 for the New York Giants’ 17th consecutive road win.
1922 -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled organized baseball was primarily a sport and not a business, and therefore not subject to antitrust laws and interstate commerce regulations. The suit had been brought by the Federal League’s Baltimore franchise.
1928 -- Bill Terry hit for the cycle to lead the New York Giants to a 12-5 win over Brooklyn at Ebbets Field. Terry became the first player in major league history to include a grand slam as part of the cycle.
1942 -- New York’s Lefty Gomez, self-described as the worst-hitting pitcher in baseball, banged out four hits while pitching a 16-1 four-hitter against Washington.
1946 -- In a reverse integration role, Edward Klep became the first white to play in the Negro leagues in a game played in Grand Rapids. Klep pitched seven innings for the Cleveland Buckeyes against the American Giants in his debut with the Negro American League team.
1956 -- Dale Long went hitless for the Pirates, ending his major league record streak of home runs in eight consecutive games. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat Pittsburgh, 10-1.


1965 -- Philadelphia’s Richie Allen hit a 529-foot home run over the roof of Connie Mack Stadium off Chicago’s Larry Jackson in the Phillies’ 4-2 victory.
1976 -- Houston’s Joe Niekro was the winning pitcher and hit a home run off his brother, Phil Niekro. The Astros beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1. It was the only home run hit by Joe in his 22-year major league career.

1990 -- Oakland’s Rickey Henderson broke Ty Cobb’s 62-year-old American League stolen base record, but the Toronto Blue Jays still beat the Athletics 2-1. Henderson’s 893rd steal came in the sixth inning.

2000 -- Oakland second baseman Randy Velarde turned the 10th unassisted triple play in regular-season history during a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees. With runners on first and second in motion, Shane Spencer hit a line drive to Velarde who caught the ball, tagged out Jorge Posada (running from first) and stepped on second to beat Tino Martinez.
2002 -- Roger Clemens recorded the 100th double-digit strikeout game of his career, fanning 11 in seven innings against Chicago. Nolan Ryan (215) and Randy Johnson (175) were the others to have 100 double-digit strikeout games.
2002 -- In an article in Sports Illustrated former NL MVP Ken Caminiti stated that about 50 percent of current major league players used some form of steroids.
2003 -- Colorado, behind Todd Helton’s three home runs and Ron Belliard’s five hits beat the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers 12-5. Helton added a single and drove in six runs.
2010 -- Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay threw the 20th perfect game in major league history, beating the Florida Marlins 1-0. It was the first time in the modern era that there were a pair of perfect games in the same season. Halladay faced three Marlins pinch-hitters in the ninth. Mike Lamb led off with a long fly ball, Wes Helms struck out, and Ronny Paulino to hit a grounder to third for the 27th out. Halladay struck out 11 and went to either 3-1 or 3-2 counts seven times, twice in the game’s first three batters alone.
2013 -- Chris Davis went 4 for 4 with two home runs, and the Baltimore Orioles overcame three homers by Ryan Zimmerman to beat the Washington Nationals 9-6.
2013 -- Dioner Navarro had the first three-homer game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Navarro drove in a career-high six runs and scored four times.
2014: Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter faces the minimum 27 batters in spite of allowing three hits in a complete game shutout defeat of the Cincinnati Reds. The three Reds baserunners were erased on double plays.
2015: Lewis-Clark State wins their 17th NAIA baseball title.
2021: The Twin’s Josh Donaldson scored the two-millionth run in major league history.

 

MIKE BIANCHI SENTINEL SPORTS

When it comes to the Orlando Dreamers and the burgeoning public campaign to bring Major League Baseball to Central Florida, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings hasn’t exactly grabbed a bat and sprinted out of the dugout.

He hasn’t thrown out the ceremonial first pitch. He hasn’t been photographed in an Orlando Dreamers cap. He hasn’t rushed to a microphone to declare that MLB in Orlando is a grand slam just waiting to happen.

And you know what?

That’s OK.

As much as I’m on the baseball bandwagon and as much as I think Orlando has a real shot at landing the Tampa Bay Rays if they become available, Mayor Demings is probably playing it smart by staying quiet, even if I wish he’d say, “If the Rays need a new home, Orlando’s only 85 miles away, and we’re open for business, baby!”

There are some critics who believe Demings is anti-baseball, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say this is all part of his master plan. If we’re talking baseball metaphors, Demings knows it’s not quite time to swing for the fences. He’s not trying to be the showboating slugger. He’s the patient leadoff hitter, working the count, waiting for the right pitch. In short: he’s playing small ball. And for a man whose job is to protect the financial interests of 1.5 million Orange County residents, that’s exactly what he should be doing.

“I’m open to the (baseball) conversation,” Demings told Ryan Elijah of Fox 35 earlier this week. “The conversation has to work both for the ownership groups and it has to work for our community. I’m very interested in seeing how many dollars the ownership groups will bring to the table to make it a reality. If it doesn’t have the right balance, it won’t see the light of day. If it has the right balance, it has a chance.”

I believe if the Rays leave Tampa, Orlando would not only have a chance; we would be a lock. According to Gov. Ron DeSantis, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has made it clear that he wants to keep a second team in Florida, besides the Miami Marlins. And it certainly appears Orlando’s effort is gaining financial and political momentum.

Orlando resident Rick Workman, the founder of the largest dental services corporation in the country, has agreed to be the anchor investor while another longtime Orlandoan — John Morgan, the founder of the largest injury law firm in the country — has said he is willing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the project.

Orange County Commissioner Michael Scott, who represents the International Drive tourism district near the proposed stadium location, came out earlier this week and endorsed the baseball effort. In addition, the International Drive Chamber of Commerce, made up of many influential business leaders in the tourism district, has invited the key figures in the baseball effort — Workman, Morgan, Dreamers co-founder Jim Schnorf and Dreamers frontman and MLB Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin — to a panel discussion next month.

Still, there is much work to be done. Yes, it’s fun to dream about Orlando having a baseball team, but dreams don’t pay for stadiums. And stadiums, especially in 2025, don’t come cheap.

Any team that relocates or expands into Orlando is going to want a stadium — a state-of-the-art, domed/retractable-roofed, fan-friendly stadium with all the bells and whistles. (Hey, it’s Orlando, how about a roller coaster in center field?) And any stadium of that scale will require a public-private partnership. That’s not speculation. That’s straight from Manfred.

 

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Gorman Thomas
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