On This Day - May 26th

OTD - 1959 - In another of Bill Veeck's stunts, 3-feet 7 inch Eddie Gaedel returns to a major league field along with three other midgets. Arriving by helicopter and dressed as Martians, the quartet shakes hands with Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio near second base on Comiskey Park's infield and gives them toy ray guns as the PA announcer informs fans the crowd the ETs have arrived to help the somewhat short keystone combo in their struggle with giant earthlings.


OTD - 1964 - In front of a meager crowd of 2,503 fans at Wrigley Field, the visiting Mets pummel the Cubs, 19-1. New York's 25-year old first baseman Dick Smith, batting leadoff, becomes the first player in franchise history to collect five hits in a game.


OTD - 1993 - Jose Canseco can't be accused of not using his head by anyone in Cleveland. The Texas right fielder drifts back to line up a long drive by Carlos Martinez and, when he turns his head to take a look at the wall, the ball skims off his glove, hits his head and bounces over the fence for a home run.


OTD - 1997 - Two inside-the-park home runs are hit in a span of five minutes on Memorial Day in Pittsburgh. First, Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa touches them all in the top of the sixth inning, then Tony Womack flies around the bases in 13 seconds in the bottom of the inning. The Cubs hold off the Bucs, 2-1, but it is the first time in 21 years that two N.L. players hit inside-the-parkers in the same game.


OTD - 2004 - In the second game of a twin bill at US Cellular Field, Frank Catalanotto becomes the first Blue Jay in franchise history to collect six hits in one game. The left fielder’s double and five singles contribute to Toronto’s 10-6 victory over the White Sox.



Cheers,

On This Day - May 25th

OTD - 1923 - Crossing the plate for the 1,741 time, Ty Cobb surpasses Honus Wagner's for most runs score in a career. The 'Georgia Peach' will tally 2,245 runs during his 24-year tenure in the major leagues, a mark which will not be equaled until 2001 when Rickey Henderson breaks the record.


OTD - 1941 - Ted Williams raises his batting average over .400 for the first time during the season. His run to be the first since Bill Terry in 1930 to exceed the magic number will be marked in newspapers throughout the season, although it will often give way to the batting streak by Joe DiMaggio.


OTD - 1951 - The much-heralded Giants rookie Willie Mays makes his major league debut against the Phillies at Shibe Park. The 20-year old outfielder, who hit .477 in the minor leagues with the Minneapolis Millers in 35 games before being called up, goes hitless in five trips to the plate, but makes two outstanding defensive plays to contribute to New York’s 8-5 victory


OTD - 1981 - Carl Yastrzemski plays in his 3,000th major league game, scoring the winning run in Boston's 8-7 triumph over Cleveland. Yaz joins Ty Cobb, Stan Musial, and Hank Aaron as the only major leaguers to appear in 3,000 games.


OTD - 2006 - At Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, Californian-borned Rick Guttormson becomes the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in interleague play in Japan. The former Padres minor league pitcher of the year holds the Golden Eagles hitless as the Yakult Swallows beat Rakuten, 6-0.



Cheers,

On This Day - May 24th

OTD - 1909 - After beating the Cardinals a record 24 consecutive times, Giants' legend Christy Mathewson finally loses to the Redbirds, 3-1. The winning streak spanned five years starting in May of 1904.


OTD - 1935 - The Cincinnati Reds host the Philadelphia Phillies in the first major league night game, winning 2-1. On the initiative of Larry MacPhail, President Franklin D. Roosevelt throws the switch at the White House to turn on the lights. The Reds will play seven night games, one each against the other N.L. teams. Ben Chapman is on base seven times in the game, a major league record, on two doubles and five walks.


OTD - 1964 - Harmon Killebrew tags the longest homer ever hit in Baltimore's Memorial Stadium. The Twins left fielder's 471-foot shot, which clears the hedge in left center field, is hit off Milt Pappas in the eighth inning of 7-6 loss to the Orioles.


OTD - 1995 - Tossing a scoreless ninth inning in the A's 5-2 win over Baltimore, Dennis Eckersley records his 300th career save. The Oakland right-hander becomes the sixth reliever in major league history to reach the milestone.


OTD - 2006 - Swinging on the first pitch in his first major league at-bat, Adam Wainwright homers in the fifth inning of the Cardinals 10-4 win over San Francisco at AT&T Park. The 24-year old right-hander also tosses three innings in relief to record his second career victory.


Cheers,

On This Day - May 22nd

OTD - 1962 - Roger Maris is intentionally walked four times to establish a major league record. The quartet of free passes is issued are by four different Halo hurlers in New York's' 2-1 victory over the Angels in 12 innings at Yankee Stadium.


OTD - 1963 - Mickey Mantle hit a pitch from Kansas City's Bill Fischer off the right-field facade at Yankee Stadium in an 8-7 victory over the A's.


OTD - 1982 - In his last major league at bat, Mario Mendoza, who will become a minor league hitting instructor, reaches first on a fielder’s choice ending his nine-year career with a .215 batting average. The Ranger infielder’s name will become infamous as players struggling at the plate will be described as performing below the ‘Mendoza Line’


OTD - 1990 - During the Cubs 2-1 victory against the Reds in a 16-inning contest at Wrigley Field, Andre Dawson is walked five time intentionally to set a major league record. The previous mark of four free passes in a game was established by Yankees outfielder Roger Maris in 1962 and then equaled by Padres shortstop Gerry Templeton in 1985.


OTD - 2002 - Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura approves a financing framework for a $330 million open-air stadium. The bill is the result a seven-year effort by the Twins to secure help from the state, but the plan has only tepid support from the club because team officials are unsure if they'll be able to find $120 million for a required down payment and get a guarantee from major league baseball that a team will play in Minnesota for at least 30 years.



Cheers,

On This Day - May 20th

OTD - 1918 - In what will become a precursor of a tragic event, Indian outfielder Tris Speaker is struck on the head by a pitch thrown by Red Sox hurler Carl Mays. The submarine pitcher, who will fatally bean Ray Chapman with a pitch in 1920 as a member of the Yankees, denies Speaker's allegation that the pitch was intentional.



OTD - 1945 - Pete Gray is the star in St. Louis as the Browns sweep the Yankees 10-1 and 5-2. Gray, who has only one arm, has two RBI on three hits in the opener and in the nightcap scores the winning run and hauls in seven fly balls, three on spectacular catches.

**Note to the Custom Card makers out there, Pete never had an official card produced.**




OTD - 1947 - In a game which features no extra-base hits, the Pirates defeat Boston at Forbes Field, 4-3. The teams collect a total of 22 hits,
all singles with Pittsburgh collecting a dozen.



OTD - 1962 - During the Cubs' doubleheader sweep of the Phillies, Ken Hubbs strokes eight singles in eight trips to the plate at Connie Mack Stadium. The Chicago second baseman will be selected as the Rookie of the Year.



OTD - 1991 - Jeff Reardon gains his 300th career save in relief of Matt Young and Jeff Gray. Reardon preserves the 3-0 Boston win over Milwaukee



Cheers,

On This Day - May 19th

OTD - 1910 - Cy Young won his 500th game as the Cleveland Indians defeated Washington 5-4 in 11 innings.



OTD - 1960 - Juan Marichal, in his first game with the San Francisco Giants, pitched a one-hitter to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0.



OTD - 1984 - Joining the club in St. Louis, Eric Davis makes his major league debut grounding out to short as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning of the Reds' 9-1 loss to the Redbirds. The 22-rookie is forced to wear a numberless jersey when Cincinnati forgets to pack an extra road uniforms.



OTD - 2002 - Cubs' first baseman Fred McGriff's two-run homer at Miller Park ties Ellis Burks' record of homering in 40 different major league parks. The 'Crime Dog's' eighth inning blast knots the score 3-3 in an eventual 4-3, 11-inning victory over the Brewers snapping Chicago's nine-game losing streak.



OTD - 2008 - Jon Lester, who was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma two seasons ago, no-hits the Royals, 7-0, becoming only third lefty in franchise history to throw a no-no at Fenway Park. The 24-year old’s battery mate, Jason Varitek also makes the record books for being the first backstop to catch four no-hitters in the majors.



Cheers,

On This Day - May 17th

OTD - 1925 - In a 2-1 loss to the Senators, Indians' outfielder Tris Speaker singles off pitcher Tom Zachary to collect his career 3000 hit. The 'The Grey Eagle' becomes the fifth major leaguer to reach the milestone, joining Cap Anson (1897), Honus Wagner (1914), Nap Lajoie (1914), and Ty Cobb (1921)



OTD - 1963 - At Colt Stadium, Don Nottebart throws first no-hitter in franchise history when the Colt 45's beat the Phillies, 4-1. It is the 197th game the team has played since its inception last season.



OTD - 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.




OTD - 1984 - In a 5-4 victory over Montreal at Jack Murphy Stadium, Padres’ second baseman Alan Wiggins ties a National League record by stealing five bases in one game. Dan McGann (1904), Davey Lopes (1974), and Lonnie Smith (1982) also accomplished the feat in the senior circuit.



OTD - 1998 - David Wells pitches the 13th perfect game in modern major league history as the Yankees beat the Twins 4-0. Wells, whose perfecto is the first by a Yankee since Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, also sets an A.L. record by retiring 37 batters in a row, dating back to his start May 12 against the Royals. Twins shortstop Pat Meares flies out to Paul O'Neill in right field to complete the perfect afternoon at Yankee Stadium.



Cheers,

On This Day - May 16th

OTD - 1902 - Two deaf-mutes face each other for the first time when William Ellsworth Hoy leads off for the Reds against Luther Haden Taylor of the Giants. The Reds win 5-3 with a five-run rally in the ninth. Hoy goes 2-for-4.



OTD - 1939 - The first A.L. night game is played at Shibe Park, with Cleveland beating the host Philadelphia Athletics 8-3 in ten innings.



OTD - 1957 - The Yankees celebrate Billy Martin's 29th birthday in a raucous fashion. An ensuing fight at Manhattan's Copacabana Club leads to $5,500 in fines and the eventual trade of Billy to Kansas City. Hank Bauer allegedly starts the fight by hitting a patron, although Bauer denies it.


OTD - 1965 - Future Jim Palmer Hall of Famer, pitching 3.2 innings in relief, wins his first major league game when the Orioles defeat the Yankees at Memorial Stadium, 7-5. The 19-year old Orioles' rookie right-hander makes the day more memorable when he hits a two-run homer off Jim Bouton in the fourth inning.


OTD - 1981 - Astros' shortstop Craig Reynolds hits three triples in one game helping Houston to beat the Cubs, 6-1. The Texan native is only the seventh player to accomplish this feat.



Cheers,

On This Day - May 15th

OTD - 1922 - In a game at New York, Ty Cobb beats out a grounder to shortstop Everett Scott. Veteran writer Fred Lieb scores it a hit in the box score he files with the Associated Press. But official scorer John Kieran of the Times gives an error to Scott. At the season's end, the A.L. official records, based on AP box scores, list Cobb at .401. New York writers complain unsuccessfully that it should be .399, based on the official scorer's stats.


OTD - 1941 - Joe DiMaggio gets a single against Eddie Smith of the Chicago White Sox to start his 56-game hitting streak. Joe D's hit goes unnoticed as the Yankees lose 13-1.


OTD - 1952 - Virgil Trucks throws the first of his two hitters this season blanking the Senators, 1-0. In August, the Tigers' right-hander will also keep the Yankees hitless in another 1-0 game that becomes controversial when Phil Rizzuto's third inning at-bat is first ruled an error then a hit, only to be changed back into an error three frames later.


OTD - 1968 - Hoping to fill the void created when the Braves moved to Atlanta, the White Sox play the first of nine games in Milwaukee. A crowd of 23,403 fans watches the Pale Hose lose to the Angels, 4-2, in the first American League contest to take place in Milwaukee since 1901.


OTD - 1973 - California's Nolan Ryan strikes out 12 and hurls his first career no-hitter in beating Kansas City 3-0. For catcher Jeff Torborg, it is his third no-hitter.



Cheers,