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This Day in Dodgers History
May 13th

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4 Fact(s) Found
1947 During the pregame infield practice, the Cincinnati fans directed racial slurs at Jackie Robinson during the Dodgers' first visit to Crosley Field this season. Brooklyn shortstop Pee Wee Reese, a Southerner from Kentucky with friends attending the game and captain of the team, converses with the black infielder, putting his arm around his teammate's shoulder, a gesture that stuns and silences the crowd. (Ed. Note: Although the teammates were good friends, various accounts questioned the year and place of the gesture. Further research suggests the incident most likely occurred in 1948, either in Cincinnati or Boston's Braves Field. - LP)

Statue of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese outside MCU Park, 08/02/10: zoom-lens close-up of  Pee Wee's arm around Jackie (IMG_1908)

Photo from Flickr by Gary Dunaier

1952

"He grabbed me by the shoulder and said, 'Larry, you're going to be in the big leagues and the first time you hit a home run, I'm going to be the announcer to tell the world about it.' Can you imagine that? He's 15 years old. I'll be damned if it didn't happen." - LARRY MIGGINS, recalling his prep school friend's prediction during a school assembly.

Larry Miggins, who had shared his dreams of being a big leaguer with a Fordham Prep buddy, hits the first of his two major league round-trippers, going deep off Preacher Roe in the fourth inning of the Cardinals' 14-8 loss to the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. The friend turns out to be Brooklyn's play-by-play announcer Vin Scully, the 15-year-old classmate with aspirations of being a baseball broadcaster who had predicted he would call his friend's first big-league homer during that conversation.

1958 San Francisco teammates Willie Mays and Darryl Spencer have four long hits each, driving in four and six runs in the team's 16-9 victory over the Dodgers at LA's Memorial Coliseum. The Giants' center fielder and shortstop combine for 28 total bases, with Mays hitting two homers, two triples, and a single and Spencer adding two round-trippers, a three-bagger, and a double to the offensive outburst.
2013 Thanks to a seventh-grade history class project, a three-mile stretch of the Kansas K-79 highway, from K-16 highway to Circleville, is designated by the Kansas legislature as the Barnes Brothers Memorial Highway in honor of Ozzie and Virgil. The McAlister middle schoolers' research about the siblings, who grew up in the community and played with the Braves, Giants, and Dodgers in the 1910-20s, brought to light many of their major league accomplishments, including being participants in the first brother matchup in big-league history.

Text of Kansas HB 2612


4 Fact(s) Found