On This Day - May 14th

OTD - 1913 - Washington's Walter Johnson gave up a run in the fourth inning against the St. Louis Browns to end his streak of 56 scoreless innings. The Senators won 10-5.


OTD - 1920 - The Giants inform the Yankees, tenants since 1913, their lease to play at the Polo Grounds will not be renewed at the end of the season. There is speculation the National League team, who later will decide to continue sharing their home until the Yankee's new stadium is completed in 1923, may have been reacting to the team's recent acquisition of Babe Ruth.


OTD - 1927 - In the top of the seventh in the Phillies' game against St. Louis, a section of the right field stand of the Baker Bowl collapses causing hundreds of fans to fall on the patrons below. Although there are many injuries, the only death is caused by the stampeding crowd.


OTD - 1977 - The first no-hitter is thrown by a Kansas City pitcher at Royals Stadium when Jim Colborn blanks the Rangers, 6-0. California's fireballer Nolan Ryan recorded the first no-hitter in the ballpark during its inaugural season in 1971.


OTD - 1989 - Benny Distefano became the first left-handed catcher in a major league game in nine years when he caught the ninth inning of the Pittsburgh Pirates' 5-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Mike Squires caught two games with the Chicago White Sox in 1980 and Dale Long caught two games for the Chicago Cubs in 1958.




Cheers,

On This Day - May 12th

OTD - 1915 - White Sox hurler Red Faber hurls only 67 pitches in his complete-game 4-1 victory over the Senators. The future Hall of Fame right-hander's low-pitch count is assisted when he needs to throw only three pitches to retire the side in both the third and fifth innings.


OTD - 1926 - Walter Johnson wins the 400th game of his career, defeating the St. Louis Browns 7-4.


OTD - 1932 - Carey Selph of the White Sox strikes out for the ninth time this season. It won't happen again. Selph will go another 89 games, a major league-record, without whiffing, hitting .283 (in 396 at bats) in his second and last season.

Carey Selph - Third from left, middle row.

OTD - 1970 - Ernie Banks becomes the eighth member of the 500 home run club, connecting off Pat Jarvis during a 4-3 Cubs win over the Braves. It his 1,600th career RBI. Atlanta's Rico Carty, meanwhile, hits safely in his 30th consecutive game


OTD - 2004 - In one of the most remarkable at-bats in big league history, Alex Cora fouls off 14 consecutive pitches and then hits the 18th thrown to him by the Cubs’ Matt Clement's over the right-field fence for a two-run home run which doubles LA's lead to 4-0. The Dodger Stadium crowd cheered each foul ball as the total started to be displayed on the scoreboard.



Cheers,