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This Day in Baseball History
August 22nd

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45 Fact(s) Found
1886 Louisville's Chicken Wolf hits a game-winning inside-the-park home run, thanks to a stray dog impeding Abner Powell from fielding the ball. The canine, who had been sleeping by the fence, refuses to let go of the pant leg as the Reds center fielder watches in dismay as the Colonel batter races around the bases in the team's 5-4 loss at Eclipse Park.
1917 In a 22-inning contest against the Dodgers, Pirates' outfielder Carson Bigbee sets a major-league record with 11 at-bats. The game was also the fourth straight extra-inning game played by Pittsburgh (59 innings), setting a National League record.
1933 Bill Veeck suggests a mid-summer series of interleague games and proposes a split-season schedule format. Although the Cub president's concept of games between the two circuits received some support, Senator owner Clark Griffith opposed the proposal, calling the American League a major league, not in need of grandiose schemes he deemed as "Hippodrome stuff."
1934 Wes Ferrell hits two home runs to give the Red Sox an extra-inning 3-2 victory over the White Sox. With his team trailing 2-1, the Boston hurler hits a home run in the eighth inning to tie the score, and, with two out in the 10th, he goes deep again for the game-winner.
1939 In front of 50,000 fans at Comiskey Park, the Yankees win their first night game in franchise history, defeating the hometown White Sox, 14-5. The Bronx Bombers collect 14 hits in the evening tilt, nine of which are for extra bases.
1947 After trailing by six runs with one out and the bases empty in the ninth inning, the Tigers come back to beat the Senators, 7-6. In their incredible walk-off victory in the first game of a twin bill at Briggs Stadium, Detroit collects nine hits, eight singles, and a home run in the final frame.
1949 After the Giants offer 36-year-old Johnny Mize, who had expressed his displeasure about his playing time, to every team in the National League, Yankee general manager George Weiss acquires him for $40,000. The slugging first baseman doesn't disappoint, finishing his career playing solidly in a part-time role during his five years with the team, with the future Hall of Fame first baseman helping the Bombers win World Series in each season with the team.
1957 Stan Musial tears a muscle and chips a bone swinging at a pitch in the fourth inning against the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. The injury appears to end Stan the Man's consecutive game streak at 894, but by pinch-running in a game suspended on July 21 and completed on August 27, he still establishes a new NL mark, officially playing in 895 straight contests
1961 In his record-setting season, Roger Maris becomes the first player to hit his 50th home run before September. The 26-year-old All-Star outfielder connects off Ken McBride in the Yankees’ 4-3 loss to the expansion Angels at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles.

(Ed. Note: The New York slugger will end the month with 51, homering against the A’s on August 26. - LP)

1961 At LA's Wrigley Field, the Angels edge the Yankees, 4-3, in front of 19,930 fans, the season's largest home crowd. The expansion team will have an average attendance of 6,620 patrons per game in its first season, but that total almost triples when the Bronx Bombers are the opponents.
1965 Juan Marichal thinks Johnny Roseboro throws too close to his head while returning the ball to Sandy Koufax and attacks the Dodger catcher with his bat. The Los Angeles backstop suffers cuts on the head during the 14-minute brawl.
1966 All-Star slugger Frank Robinson, a non-swimmer who accidentally jumps into the pool's deep end to avoid being thrown in by his Oriole teammates, is saved from drowning by rookie backstop Andy Etchebarren. The private evening swim party for the team took place at the home of Leonard Ruck, a funeral director.
1968 After walking on a 3-2 count, which included pitches sailing over his head to the backstop and a ball thrown behind him, Dick McAuliffe charges the mound, driving his knee into White Sox hurler Tommy John causing the pitcher's shoulder to separate. The Tigers' shortstop is suspended for five games and fined $250 by AL president Joe Cronin due to the bench-clearing incident that ended Tommy John's (10-5, 1.98) season.
1973 Trailing by a run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and a man on second, Felix Millan, Rusty Staub, and John Milner hit consecutive singles to give the Mets an improbable 3-2 decision at Shea Stadium. The first victory for the 0-6 Tug McGraw appears to ignite the "Ya Gotta Believe" reliever, who once again will become one of the best closers in the league.
1982 The Cubs pay tribute to Ernie Banks, who played his last game in 1971 when the team retires his uniform number #14 that he wore for 19 seasons. The Hall of Famer becomes the first player in the franchise's 106-year history to be honored in this manner.
1982 With two outs and two strikes in the 12th inning, Glenn Brummer steals home, giving the Cardinals an overtime walk-off 5-4 victory over the Giants at Busch Stadium. The reserve catcher will finish his major league career with just four stolen bases.

1984 Dwight Gooden strikes out Garry Templeton in the eighth inning of the Mets' 5-2 victory at Jack Murphy Stadium to become the 11th pitcher to strike out 200 batters in his rookie season. The 19-year-old freshman becomes the third teenager to accomplish the feat, joining Bob Feller (1938 Indians) and Gary Nolan (1967 Reds).
1984 Graig Nettles' fourth-inning two-run homer off Dwight Gooden is his seventh round-tripper in his last six games, tying a National League record shared by Walker Cooper, George Kelly, and Willie Mays. The Padres third baseman's blast, one of only three hits given up by the New York 19-year-old rookie in the Mets' 5-2 victory, accounts for all of San Diego's runs in the Jack Murphy Stadium contest.
1987 Gino Petralli ties a major league record when he commits four passed balls in one inning during the seventh frame of the Rangers' 6-4 victory over the White Sox at Arlington Stadium. The Texas batterymate of Charlie Hough equals the 1954 mark established by Giants backstop Ray Katt, trying to catch knuckleballs thrown by Hoyt Wilhelm.
1989 On a 96-mph fastball, A's Rickey Henderson swings and misses, making Nolan Ryan the first and only major league pitcher to strike out 5000 batters. The 'Ryan Express' strikes out 13, giving up only five hits, but loses the game to Oakland, 2-0.
1992 In the seventh inning of a Class A Florida State League contest, the Clearwater Phillies string together two walks and two sac bunts to score the game's only run, beating the Winter Haven Red Sox, 1-0. Opposing minor league hurlers Andy Carter and Scott Bakkum do not give up any hits, making it the first professional game to be hitless in 40 years.
1998 In the Orioles' 6-3 win over the Indians, Cal Ripken scores his 1,500th career run. The 'Iron Man' will cross the plate 1,647 times for Baltimore during his 21-year career in the big leagues.
1998 With his 52nd home run, Mark McGwire breaks Babe Ruth's record for round-trippers in three consecutive seasons. 'Big Red' has 162 homers in three seasons (1996-52, 1997-58), compared to the Bambino's 161 dingers hit in 1926-28.
1998 Although no penalties or testing exist for using performance-enhancing substances in Major League Baseball, the discovery of a jar of androstenedione in Mark McGwire's locker garners much attention. The Cardinal slugger will finish the season with a record 70 home runs and admit he uses the steroid precursor.
1999 Cardinal first baseman Mark McGwire becomes the first player to reach the fifty-homer plateau in four consecutive seasons. 'Big Red' goes deep twice (#'s 49 and 50) in an 8-7 loss to the Mets at Shea Stadium.
2000 Dodger first baseman Eric Karros, hitting a solo blast and a three-run round-tripper during a nine-run sixth inning of a 14-6 victory over the Expos, becomes the first player in the 111-year franchise history to hit two homers in an inning.
2000 Rockies' catcher Brent Mayne, working a scoreless 12th in a 7-6 victory over the Braves, becomes the first position player to be a winning pitcher in 32 years. In 1968, outfielder Rocky Colavito, as a Yankee, homered and threw 2.2 shutout innings against his former teammates, helping the Bronx Bombers to beat the Tigers.
2000 Reds' outfielder Alex Ochoa helps set a major league record by hitting the 142nd grand slam of the season. The Cincinnati outfielder's first career bases-loaded homer eclipses the previous mark for grand slams, established in 1996.
2003 For the fourth consecutive season, Garret Anderson drives in 100 runs, becoming the first player in team history to do so. The Angels' outfielder was also the first to have three straight 100-RBI seasons.
2007 Brandon Webb's scoreless streak ends at 42 innings in the first frame of the Diamondbacks' 3-2 victory at Chase Field. The 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner, who had thrown three straight shutouts, falls 17 innings short of Orel Hershiser's 1988 major league record of 59 consecutive shutout innings.
2007 After feeling a near game-removing pain close to the top of his right hamstring, Albert Pujols hits a first-inning two-run homer off Scott Olsen of the Marlins at Busch Stadium to become the first player to hit 30 or more homers in his first seven seasons. It is the fifth consecutive game the Cardinal first baseman has gone deep.
2007 The Rangers become the first post-1900 big league team to score 30 runs in a game. After beating the Orioles, 30-3, setting a club single-game record of 29 hits in the first game of the twin bill, Texas wins the nightcap, 9-7, to break the AL mark of 36 tallies established by the 1937 Tigers during an August 14 doubleheader against the Browns.
2007 Appearing as the skipper in his 4,409th game, Tony La Russa passes Bucky Harris for third place on the all-time list for the total number of contests managed in the major leagues. Only Connie Mack (7,755 games) and John McGraw (4,769) have spent more time in the dugout as a manager than the current Cardinal field boss.
2007 Mets shortstop Jose Reyes surpasses Roger Cedeno’s franchise mark set in 1999 with 67th stolen base, his third in the team’s 7-5 loss to the Padres at Shea Stadium. New York’s five steals in the contest brings their season’s total to 159, equaling the club record established in 1987.
2007 Rangers' relief pitcher Wes Littleton earns his second career save, pitching the last three innings of the record 30-3 rout of the Orioles. The 24-year-old reliever from Hayward (CA) establishes a new major league mark for recording a save with the largest winning margin.
2008 Joining Lou Gehrig (2,721) and Babe Ruth (2,518), Derek Jeter becomes the third player to collect 2,500 hits in a Yankee uniform. The milestone safety is a first-inning bloop single off Radhames Liz in New York's 9-4 comeback victory over the Orioles in Baltimore.
2008 In an 18-3 rout of the Braves, the Cardinals collect 26 hits, tying a franchise record established in 1930. All but five hits are singles, two shy of the major league record set by the Astros in 1976.
2009 In the 14th inning of the 1-0 Mariners' victory over Chicago, Adrian Beltre, who scores the winning run, is hit below the belt by a ninth-inning ground ball scorched by Alexei Ramirez. The Seattle third baseman, who doesn't wear a protective cup because it makes him feel uncomfortable, will be placed on the disabled list with a torn right testicle, much to his manager's chagrin.
2011 With two outs in the eighth inning in a game against the Dodgers at Busch Stadium, Matt Holliday exits the game when a moth gets stuck in his right ear. Using tweezers, the team trainers remove the deeply embedded insect from the Cardinal left fielder's auditory canal, which comes out alive.

2012 Baseball suspends Oakland right-hander Bartolo Colon for 50 games after testing positive for testosterone. The infraction will end the 2005 Cy Young Award winner's season with a 10-9 record (.526) and an ERA of 3.43 for the playoff-bound A's.
2014 Statues designed by Matt Glenn and a team of artists as a tribute to the youth sports organization are unveiled in Williamsport to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Little League. The 'Bases Loaded' project consists of ten life-sized bronze sculptures on Market Street that appear on a baseball diamond.
2017 Manny Machado goes yard three times, including a walk-off grand slam off Keynan Middleton in the Orioles' 9 -7 victory over the Angels. In addition to the 25-year-old third baseman's offensive output, which accounts for seven RBIs and three runs in the Camden Yards contest, Albert Pujols surpasses Sammy Sosa for most home runs (610) by a player born outside the United States.
2020 An unnamed bidder purchases Mike Trout's 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Superfractor rookie card during an online auction for $3.936 million. The one-of-a-kind item's selling price surpasses the $3.12 million paid in 2016 for a 1909 Honus Wagner T-206 card.
2021 Miguel Cabrera becomes the 28th major leaguer to collect 500 career home runs when he connects off Steven Matz in the sixth inning in the Tigers' 5-3 win over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. Detroit's 38-year-old DH is 46 hits shy of the 3,000-hit plateau, a milestone that will make him the seventh player to have 500 homers and 3,000 hits.
2022 Angel outfielder Mike Trout ties Garret Anderson for the most runs scored in franchise history when he hits a solo home run in the team's 4-3 extra-inning loss at Tropicana Field. Anderson scored 1,024 times, appearing in 2,013 games over 15 years, while Trout, in his twelfth season, reached the mark playing in 640 fewer games.
45 Fact(s) Found