<< Yesterday

This Day in Baseball History
August 13th

Tomorrow>>
44 Fact(s) Found
1902 In an attempted double steal by the A's at Columbia Park, the Tigers concede second base to Harry Davis, freezing Dave Fultz, the runner on third, prompting Davis to return to first base on the pitcher's next delivery. When Davis takes off for second for the second time, he draws a throw and, in the resulting run-down, Dave Fultz scores from third, getting back to second again, given credit for one stolen base for all of his efforts during the sixth frame of Philadelphia's 9-0 victory over Detroit.
1906 A reliever replaces John W. Taylor for the first time since June of 1901 when the Brooklyn Superbas knock him out of the game in the third inning. During the five years, the Orphans' right-hander completed a remarkable 1,727 innings of work, including 187 consecutive complete games, finishing 15 games in relief.
1910 In a game that features each team having 38 at-bats, 13 hits, 12 assists, two errors, five strikeouts, three walks, one hit batsman, and one passed ball, the Pirates and the Superbas (later to be known as the Dodgers) play to what else - an 8-8 tie.
1913 Goober southpaw Harry Hedgpeth pitches two complete nine-inning games when he starts both ends of a Virginia League doubleheader against Richmond. The Peterburg pitcher throws a one-hitter in the Colts in the opener, 1-0, and then follows up the gem with a 10-0 no-hitter.
1926 Lou Gehrig hits two home runs off Walter Johnson in the Yankees' 7-5 victory over the Senators at Griffith Stadium. The Iron Horse's accomplishment marks only the second time in the Big Train's 20-year career that the right-hander has allowed two homers in the same game to the same player.
1932 After blanking Washington for nine innings in a scoreless tie, Red Ruffing hits a solo home run in the top of the tenth. The right-hander then closes out the Senators in the bottom of the frame to preserve the Yankees' 1-0 victory.
1947 At Sportsman's Park, pinch-hitter Willard Brown of the Browns becomes the first black player to hit a home run in the American League. The historic homer, an inside-the-parker off future Hall of Fame hurler Hal Newhouser, helps the Browns beat the Tigers, 6-5.
1948 The Phillies set a major league record by tallying nine runs before making an out when they beat the Giants at Shibe Park, 12-7. Philadelphia sends 14 batters to the plate in the fateful first frame and scores ten times to erase an early three-run deficit easily.
1950 In the bottom of the twenty-second inning, with both starting pitchers still in the game, Don Richmond lines a single down the right-field line, plating Dick Cole to give Rochester a 3-2 victory over Jersey City at Red Wing Stadium. After yielding two unearned runs in the top of the second, Tom Poholsky hurls 20 consecutive scoreless innings for a complete-game victory, being matched until the last inning by Andy Tomasic, who also goes the distance, giving up single runs in the first two frames.
1951 Any fan who shows up with a musical instrument during the Dodgers' Musical Depreciation Night is admitted free to the Ebbets Field contest against Boston. With an assortment of trumpets, trombones, zithers, tubas, accordions, bugles, flutes, various types of drums, violins, mandolins, assorted horns, a glockenspiel, a washboard, and a piano, 2,426 fans, which is about ten percent of the entire crowd, take advantage of the team's unusual promotion.

Musical Depreciation Night

1954 White Sox left-hander Jack Harshman hurls a 16-inning shutout, beating the Tigers at Comiskey Park, 1-0. Detroit's starter, Al Aber, also goes the distance, giving up the game's lone run when Minnie Minoso's one-out triple to right field scores Nellie Fox, who had singled leading off in the final frame.
1963 Warren Spahn breaks Rube Waddell's record for career strikeouts by a left-hander when he whiffs pinch-hitter Al Ferrara for the final out in the Braves' 4-3 victory over LA. The crafty southpaw strikes out five batters during the County Stadium contest, giving him 2,382.
1965 Dean Chance establishes an American League record when he fans to extend his streak to 11 consecutive plate appearances with a strikeout. The Angels' right-hander falls one shy of the major league mark set by Sandy Koufax, who whiffed in 12 consecutive plate appearances in 1955.
1969 Oriole right-hander Jim Palmer, coming off the disabled list just four days earlier, throws a no-hitter against Oakland. Baltimore's 8-0 victory gives the team a comfortable 14½ game lead in the first-ever American League East Division race.
1969 After serving as the interim replacement for William Eckert, Bowie Kuhn is unanimously elected to a seven-year term by the major league owners to be baseball's fifth commissioner. Before his election to his new post, the 42-year-old lawyer, who once worked as the scoreboard boy for a dollar a day at Washington's Griffith Stadium, served as legal counsel for the sport for nearly 20 years.
1969 After being swept in a three-game series by Houston at the Astrodome, the eventual World Champion Mets fall ten games behind the front-running Cubs in the first-ever NL East race. The third-place New York team will finish the season at a torrid 39-11 pace, finishing eight games in front of Chicago.

1972 To stop a four-game losing streak, Detroit skipper Billy Martin asks Al Kaline to pick the Tigers' starting lineup order out of a hat for the first game of a doubleheader. The unorthodox selection results in slow-footed slugger Norm Cash leading off and with the cleanup slot occupied by light-hitting shortstop Ed Brinkman, whose sixth-inning double ties the score in the team's eventual 3-2 victory over the Indians.

(Ed. Note: Detroit edges the Indians in the opener, but the team drops a 9-2 decision using a regular lineup in the Tiger Stadium nightcap. - LP)

1976

"Blue Jays, Lump it or like it … that’s the name for Toronto’s American League ball club." - TORONTO STAR HEADLINE, TORONTO STAR HEADLINE, announcing the selection of the city's expansion team's name.

The new franchise in Toronto will be known as the Blue Jays, a name submitted by 154 people in a contest that featured 30,000 submissions, including more than 4,000 unique names. A panel of 14 judges narrowed the list to ten finalists for consideration by the Metro Baseball Limited Board of Directors, who made the final decision.

1978 Although the Yankees score five runs in the top of the seventh before the rain ends the game, the Bronx Bombers lose to the Orioles, 3-0, when the score reverts to the last completed inning. In 1980, the rules committee decides to suspend contests, not cancel, starting from the point of the delay.
1979 Against the team that traded him, Lou Brock reaches the 3000 hits milestone when his line drive caroms off Dennis Lamp's pitching hand in the 3-2 Cardinal victory over the Cubs at Busch Stadium. The 40-year-old Redbird outfielder, who will retire at the end of the season with a lifetime .293 batting average, is the fourteenth major leaguer to reach the coveted plateau.

1982 At Chavez Ravine, Dodger second baseman Steve Sax steals his 41st base to set a franchise record for rookies when he swipes second base in LA's 6-1 victory over San Francisco. The eventual National League Rookie of the Year, the fourth consecutive Dodger to win the award, will extend the record to 49.
1983 Royals right-hander Gaylord Perry becomes the third of three major leaguers this season to surpass Walter Johnson's career strikeout mark of 3,508 K's, a record that had survived since 1927. Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton reached the milestone in April and May.

(Ed. Note - Some websites, including the Baseball Hall of Fame, ESPN, and Baseball-Reference, differ from the official MLB stats, crediting the Washington Senator legend with 3,509 career strikeouts, with an extra strikeout recorded in his rookie season accounting for the difference. - LP)
1986 Future Hall of Famer Barry Larkin, pinch-hitting for southpaw Rob Murphy, makes his major league debut off Terry Mulholland at Riverfront Stadium. The 22-year-old Reds’ rookie fifth-inning groundout to short plates the first run in the team’s eventual 8-6 comeback victory over the Giants.
1987 Billy Williams joins Ernie Banks as the second Cubs player to be honored by having his uniform #26 retired by the team. Sweet Swingin' Billy from Whistler (AL) played 16 of his 18 major league seasons in the Windy City, hitting .296 and 392 home runs for the team that plays on the Northside of Chicago.
1995 At Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, baseball legend Mickey Mantle, 63, succumbs to liver cancer with his estranged wife Merlyn at his side. Ironically, before a moving tribute in the Bronx ballpark for the fallen hero, the Yankee Stadium scoreboard displays "At Bat: 7" until the start of the game because the leadoff batter for the Indians, Kenny Lofton, wears number 7.
1998 Orlando Hernandez breaks a 30-year-old Yankee rookie record when he retires Mark McLemore on a called third strike to end the eighth inning of the team's 2-0 victory over Texas in New York. El Duque's 13 strikeouts, which he will reach only once more in his career, surpasses the freshman mark established by Stan Bahnsen, the 1968 American League Rookie of the Year.
2000 Royals' first baseman Mike Sweeney becomes the fastest player in franchise history to reach the 100 RBI plateau when he homers off B.J. Ryan, contributing to the team's 10-5 victory over Baltimore at Kauffman Stadium. The 27-year-old All-Star infielder, reaching the century mark for the second straight season, will finish the year with 144 runs batted in, breaking the club record of 133 established in 1982 by Hal McRae.
2000 Jeff Bagwell goes 4-for-5, homering twice, in the Astros' 14-7 rout of the Phillies at Veterans Stadium. The Houston 32-year-old first baseman's ten total bases drive in a club-record seven runs.
2003 After missing nearly three months with a groin injury, Mike Piazza makes a dramatic return to the New York lineup when he homers and drives in five runs on Italian Night at Shea Stadium. The backstop's 3-for-5 performance, including a home run in the third inning, an RBI single in the fourth, and a two-run single in the seventh, contribute to the Mets' 9-2 victory over the Giants.
2003 Just as the Expos' starting right-hander Javier Vazquez is about to throw a full-count pitch to Rockies outfielder Jay Payton, a second-inning hour-long blackout at the enclosed Olympic Stadium leaves the fans and players in total darkness. Tomorrow, Montreal arrives in New York on their off-day just in time to experience a massive blackout that leaves more than 50 million Americans in the dark.
2004 At Seattle's Boeing Field, Edgar Martinez is on hand to greet George W. Bush. The President, who had requested to meet the retiring designated hitter, exchanges autographed baseballs with the man who routinely helped the Mariners beat his Rangers when the chief executive was the managing partner of Texas.
2004 J.T. Snow slams three home runs, twenty-five percent of his homers this season, in the Giants' 16-6 rout of Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. The light-hitting first baseman goes deep in the first inning with a two-run dinger off starter Brett Myers and then delivers solo shots off relievers in the fifth and seventh frames.
2005

The A's retire uniform #43 as a tribute to Hall of Fame right-hander Dennis Eckersley, who saved 320 games during his nine seasons with the team. The 1992 Cy Young and AL Most Valuable Player awards recipient anchored the bullpen for Oakland's three straight American League championships, starting in 1988.

2006 At Jacobs Field, right-hander Luke Hudson gives up 11 runs in one-third of an inning in the Royals' 13-0 loss against the Indians. Eight hits, two walks, and one error fuel the Tribe's top-of-the-first-frame barrage.
2006 During Cleveland's 11-run first inning at Jacobs Field, Travis Hafner ties the single-season mark for grand slams, established in 1987 by Don Mattingly. The Indians' designated hitter's 35th homer is his sixth one with the bases loaded.
2006 LA's Greg Maddux and SF's Jason Schmidt hook up in a classic West Coast pitcher's duel, reminiscent of match-ups of Koufax and Marichal, as the Dodgers beat the Giants, 1-0, thanks to Russell Martin's 10th inning walk-off home run. When Giants slugger Barry Bonds lines into a double play in the first inning, it marks the only time in baseball history that a 300-game winner pitches to a batter with over 700 homers.
2007 Placido Polanco establishes a big-league record for second basemen when he plays his 144th straight game without committing an error. The Detroit infielder, who hasn't made a misplay since July 2 of last season, surpasses the previous mark set by Luis Castillo, who accomplished the feat playing for the Twins.
2007 Tom Hallion ejects Dodger Nomar Garciaparra, marking the first time in 1,303 games the easy-going infielder gets tossed. The 12-year veteran infielder gets booted for arguing a called third strike in the fourth inning, with teammates restraining him when he continues to shout and points his bat toward the home plate umpire.
2010 A day after major league baseball formally approves the team's sale, the new owners of the Rangers, including Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, announce lower costs for concessions, parking, and merchandise. According to sports attorney Chuck Greenberg, another new club owner, lowering prices is one way of showing appreciation to the Texas fans for their loyalty and support.
2010 The Giants obtain Jose Guillen from Kansas City, hoping the well-traveled veteran can help the club down the stretch run. The departure of the 34-year-old, who has played with ten teams in the past 14 years and was designated for assignment by the Royals last week, allows highly touted prospect Kila Ka'aihue to play daily.
2013 For only the second time in big-league history, beginning in 1916, both leadoff batters homer in their first at-bat and add another when Seattle's Brad Miller and Tampa Bay's Ben Zobrist hit a pair of homers. Before the Mariners' 5-4 win at Tropicana Field, Chuck Knoblauch of the Twins and Detroit's Tony Phillips last accomplished the feat in 1994 at Tiger Stadium.
2015 The Blue Jays join the 1954 Indians as the only teams to have two 11-game win streaks in the same season when they beat the A's at the Rogers Centre, 4-2. At the beginning of June, Toronto also accomplished the feat en route to finishing first in the AL East, posting a 93-69 record.
2018 Ronald Acuña Jr. becomes the fourth player in history to lead off both games of a doubleheader with a home run when he smacks Merandy Gonzalez's first pitch of the nightcap over the SunTrust Park's centerfield wall. The 20-year-old phenom joins Harry Hooper (Red Sox, May 30, 1913), Rickey Henderson (A,s, July 6, 1993), and Brady Anderson (Orioles, Aug. 21, 1999) as the only players to accomplish the feat.
2020 The Phillies, changing their policy of only considering players inducted into the Hall of Fame, announces the team will retire Dick Allen's #15 on September 3, the anniversary of his major-league debut in 1969. The Wampum Walloper played nine seasons of his stormy 15-year career with Philadelphia, including his first year when he garnered the Rookie of the Year Award in 1964.
44 Fact(s) Found