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This Day in Baseball History
July 21st

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31 Fact(s) Found
1892 In a match up of 300 game winners at the Philadelphia Baseball Grounds, Phillies’ submariner Tim Keefe sinks Jim "Pud" Galvin and the Browns, 2-0. The next time two National League pitchers with 300 or more victories will face each other will occur in 2005 when Greg Maddux of the Cubs beats Astros ace Roger Clemens at Minute Maid Park, 3-2.
1921 The Indians and the Yankees bang out 16 doubles collectively to establish a new American League record. The Tribe, with nine of the two-baggers, beat the Bronx Bombers in Cleveland's League Park, 17-8.
1930 George Puccinelli and Jim Bottomley of the Cardinals and Dodgers Hal Lee and Harvey Henrick all homer appearing as pinch-hitters in one game.
1945 At Philadelphia's Shibe Park, the A’s and Tigers play the second longest game in major league history. After 4 hours and 48 minutes, the 24 inning contest ends in a 1-1 tie with Les Mueller pitching 19 2/3 innings for Detroit.
1946 Lew Flick sets a professional baseball record when he collects nine consecutive hits in a single game, before grounding out in his final at-bat in the 19-inning opener against Memphis. The Little Rock Travelers outfielder will get three more hits off the Chicks' pitching staff in the nightcap, finishing the day 12-for-13 in the Southern Association (AA) doubleheader.
1947 Frankie Frisch (.316) becomes the first switch-hitter inducted into the Hall of Fame. The 'Fordham Flash' is joined by Carl Hubbell, Mickey Cochrane, and Lefty Grove as the newest members to be enshrined at Cooperstown.
1956 In a 13-6 defeat to the Cubs, Dodgers' shortstop Pee Wee Reese becomes one of five active players to collect 2000 hits and teammate Junior Gilliam sets a major league record by handling 12 assists at second base.
1959 Under intense public pressure and the Massachusetts Committee Against Discrimination investigation, the Red Sox become the last club to integrate. Fourteen years after Boston passes on Jackie Robinson despite a successful tryout in 1945, Elijah 'Pumpsie' Green pinch runs and plays shortstop to become the first black to play for the team.
1961 With back-to-back homers in the top of the first at Fenway Park, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris continue their assault on Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record. The game’s decisive hit, however, is a pinch-hit grand slam by Johnny Blanchard with two-out in the ninth-inning which propels the Bronx Bombers past the Red Sox‚ 11-8.
1962 Craig Anderson throws a seven-hit, complete-game against Cincinnati, but New York cannot overcome Marv Throneberry's error which would have ended the fifth inning, giving Vida Pinson the opportunity to hit two-out, two run homer. The eventual 5-3 defeat at Crosley Field makes the right-hander the third consecutive Mets' starter, following losing efforts by Jay Hook and Roger Craig, to pitch a complete game and not get a victory.
1963 The usually mild-mannered Dodger manager Walter Alston is thrown out of both games of a doubleheader when the Braves sweep a twin bill from Los Angeles for the first and only time in Milwaukee, 7-2 and 13-7. To make matters worse, the manager has beer thrown in his face by a hometown fan as he leaves the second game. (My thanks to Lee for sharing this entry. He attended the game at County Stadium as 10-year old. -LP)
1963 Pirates outfielder Jerry Lynch pinch hits a three-run home run off Chicago's Lindy McDaniel in the ninth- inning to tie the Forbes Field contest at five, a game the Bucs will evenually win in 14 innings, 6-5. The heroic homer is the left-handed hitter's 14th career round-tripper off the bench, tying a major league mark established by former Cincinnati teammate, George Crowe.
1970 Ignoring Clay Kirby’s bid for a no-hitter, Padres manager Preston Gomez, with his club trailing the Mets,1-0, in the eighth inning, decides to pitch hit for his starting pitcher. Reliever Jack Baldschun fails to keep New York hitless yielding a leadoff hit to Bud Harrelson and San Diego eventually loses the Jack Murphy Stadium contest, 3-0.
1975 Mets' infielder Joe Torre becomes the first player in National League history to hit into four straight double plays in one game. Felix Millan singles in four consecutive at bats against the Astros making the dubious mark possible.
1980 Al Cowens is suspended for seven games by American League president Lee McPhail, following yesterday's attack on Ed Farmer at Comiskey Park. The Tigers' outfielder, who now also has warrant issued for his arrest that forces him to skip the remainder of the series in Illinois, seeking revenge for missing 21 games last season after having his jaw and several teeth broken by a pitch thrown by the White Sox pitcher last season when he was with the Royals, chargede the mound after batting an infield ground ball and hit the right-hander from behind instead of running to first base.
1982 The Reds, 24 games below .500, fire manager John McNamara and replace him with third base coach, Russ Nixon. Cincinnati will win only 27 games of the 70 they play for their new manager, who will replaced at the end of next season after another last place finish.
1988 The Red Sox suspend Jim Rice for three days for shoving manager Joe Morgan. The Boston outfielder became upset when the skipper pinch hit for him using the light-hitting shortstop Spike Owen.
1988 The Yankees trade Jay Buhner, minor league prospect Rich Balabon, and a player to be named later (Troy Evers) to the Mariners in exchange for 33 year-old Ken Phelps. The one-sided deal will be immortalized on Steinfield by Frank Costanza, George 's dad, when he laments the Bronx Bombers' poor judgment, "How could you have traded Buhner for Ken Phelps?".
1993 Astros shortstop Jose Uribe walks on a 3-2 count thanks to home umpire Harry Wendelstedt losing track of the pitches.
2000 Thanks to Harold Baines' four hits, the Orioles halt their 20-game Canadian losing streak defeating the Blue Jays, 9-5. It is Baltimore's first victory north of the border since June 13, 1998.
2003 At Dodger Stadium, Vladimir Guerrero hit his 226th career home run breaking Andre Dawson's club record. The Expos' right fielder hits his milestone round-tripper off Odalis Perez, a 454-foot blast over left field wall.
2004 Mark Buehrle faces the minimum 27 batters as the White Sox rout the Indians, 14-0. Throwing just ninety piches, the 25-year old southpaw allows only two hits with both runners being erased as a result of a double play.
2004 A third piece of concrete, which apparently fell from the park's upper deck, is discovered at Wrigley Field by a club employee. Two other chunks have also fallen recently in different sections in the 90-year-old stadium prompting Mayor Richard Daley to say he would not hesitate to close sections -- or all -- of the facility to protect fans from potential harm.
2004 Thanks to an unusual play in the outfield, David Newhan hits a rare inside-the-park homer at Fenway. Inexplicably, outfielder Manny Ramirez, from left field, cuts off the relay throw from center fielder Johnny Damon allowing two Orioles to score in Baltimore's 10-5 victory.
2005 Hideki Matsui plays in his 395th consecutive game to start his career breaking Al Simmons's 1926 American League record. The Japanese outfielder will also surpass Ernie Banks' NL mark of 424 en route to establishing the new major league record of 518 consecutive contests.
2006 Going deep in the third inning, 30-year old Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez collects his 2,000th career hit and at the same time becomes the youngest player to reach the 450 home run plateau. Later in the day, Padres catcher Mike Piazza also becomes a member of the 2000 hit club with a second inning double to left at San Francisco's AT&T Park.
2006 In the opening game of a week-end series against Chicago, George Washington wins the first Presidents Race ever held at Nationals Park. Mascots Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln will also chalk up wins in the next two day, but Teddy Roosevelt's will not, thus beginning his infamous streak over more than 500 attempts before finally crossing the finish line first on the final day of the 2012 season.

2008 Jose Reyes' fourth-inning three-bagger in the Mets' 7-5 victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park makes him the franchise leader in triples. The speedy shortstop's 11th three-base hit this season, his sixty-third of his career, all as a Met, puts the 25-year old infielder one ahead Mookie Wilson.
2008 Coming out of the bullpen in the eighth, Jimmy Gobble allows ten runs in two-thirds of an inning setting a franchise record for the most runs allowed by a Royals reliever in a game. The 26-year old southpaw, who will be placed on the 15-day disabled list the next day with a stiff lower back, gives up seven hits and walks four batters facing 13 Tigers.
2008 Randy Johnson becomes the first major leaguer to collect 2,000 strikeouts for two different teams. The southpaw, who fanned 2,162 batters pitching for the Mariners from 1989-98, whiffs Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez to earn the distinction.
2012 At Cooperstown's Doubleday Field, Fox analyst Tim McCarver and Toronto Sun's Bob Elliott are honored by the Hall of Fame for their longtime contributions in covering baseball. The pair, respectively, receive the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting and the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for sports writing.
31 Fact(s) Found