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This Day in Baseball History
April 23rd

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36 Fact(s) Found
1902 🇨🇴 In his major league debut, Luis Castro plays second base for Connie Mack's Philadelphia's A's in an 8-1 victory over Baltimore at Oriole Park. The 25-year-old Medellin native becomes the first and last player from Colombia to appear in the big leagues until Orlando Ramrez joins the Angels in 1974.
1903 The Highlanders, previously called the Orioles before their recent move from Baltimore, win their first game representing New York. Spitballer Harry Howell goes the distance, throwing a two-hitter to get the win when the team that will become known as the Yankees beat Washington at American League Park, 7-2.
1919 Senator right-hander Walter Johnson records his fifth Opening Day shutout, beating the A's at Griffith Stadium, 1-0. The Philadelphia starter Scott Perry matches zeros with the 'Big Train' for a dozen frames until pinch-runner Mike Menosky scores the decisive run for Washington with one out in the bottom of the 13th inning.


Walter Johnson (1911)
Library of Congress - Benjamin K. Edwards Collection

1921 Warren Spahn is born in Buffalo, New York, the son of a wallpaper salesman who had once played semi-pro baseball. The future Hall of Fame southpaw, a mainstay with the Braves in the 1950s, is named after Warren Harding, a right-hander recently sworn in as the president of the United States.
1924 On WMAQ, Hal Totten, a Chicago Daily News reporter, does a play-by-play radio of the 12-1 Cubs' victory over the Cardinals. The broadcast of every Cub and White Sox home game of the season marks the first time a team's games will be heard regularly on the airwaves.
1939 At Griffith Stadium, Senators' right-hander Alejandro Carrasquel faces the Yankees in his major league debut. The 26-year-old from Caracas becomes the first player from Venezuela to appear in a major league game.
1944 Hack Miller homers in his first major league at-bat, hitting a three-run shot off Indian southpaw starter Al Smith in the eighth inning of the Tigers' 4-3 victory over the Tribe at Cleveland Stadium. The 31-year-old rookie backstop, with only ten plate appearances, will hit .444 during a brief two-year stint with Detroit.
1952 Both starters at Sportsman's Park toss a one-hitter, but Browns' southpaw Bob Cain gets the victory, beating Bob Feller and the Indians, 1-0. The contest's lone run scores when third baseman Al Rosen's error allows Bobby Young, who tripled to lead off the inning, to cross the plate in the bottom of the first frame.
1952 At the Polo Grounds, Hoyt Wilhelm goes deep in his first major league at-bat, a fourth-inning home run off Dick Hoover in the Giants' 9-5 victory over the Braves. The knuckle-balling future Hall of Fame hurler will never homer again during the next 21 years, covering 1070 games and 432 official at-bats.
1954 At Busch Stadium, Hank Aaron hits the first of his 755 career home runs in his seventh major league game. The Milwaukee outfielder's sixth-inning solo round-tripper comes on a pitch thrown by Cardinal right-hander Vic Raschi in the Braves' 7-6 extra-inning victory in St. Louis.
1955 At Kansas City's Municipal Stadium, the White Sox tie a modern major league mark for most runs scored by a single team in a game when the team drubs the A's, 29-6. The Red Sox also scored 29 runs against the Browns in 1950.

1958 In a 7-6 loss to Chicago at the LA Coliseum, two Dodger mainstays from Brooklyn and future Hall of Famers reach career milestones. First baseman Gil Hodges, who will finish his 18-year major league tenure with the most home runs (370) ever by a right-handed batter, hits his 300th career round-tripper, and Pee Wee Reese, the team captain and shortstop, plays in his 2000th game.
1961 Art Mahaffey sets a franchise record when he strikes out 17 batters in the Phillies' 6-0 victory over Chicago. The 23-year-old right-hander whiffs at least one hitter in each inning during the Connie Mack Stadium contest.
1962 In the team's tenth attempt, the Mets win their first game in franchise history, defeating the Pirates at Forbes Field, 9-1. Jay Hook's five-hit complete-game victory snaps Pittsburgh's record-tying winning streak of 10 games from the start of the season without a loss.
1964 At Colt Stadium, Ken Johnson becomes the first pitcher to lose a nine-inning no-hitter when the Reds beat the Colt .45s, 1-0. Pete Rose, attempting to bunt, reaches second on a throwing error by the pitcher, scores the game's lone run in the top of the ninth inning when Nellie Fox boots Vada Pinson's two-out ground ball to second base.

Courtesy of the Houston Astros network via
Astrosdaily.com

1969 At Memorial Stadium, the Orioles walk off the Tigers, 3-2, in an extra-inning pitching duel that features Detroit's Denny McLain retiring 21 straight batters and Baltimore's Mike Cuellar getting 20 consecutive hitters. Mark Belanger's tenth-inning single plates Ellie Hendricks, who had doubled to start the final frame to snap the Detroit right-hander's streak, with the winning run for the Birds.
1969 The Boston fans at Fenway Park warmly welcome back team legend Ted Williams when he emerges from the visitor's dugout to exchange lineups with the umpires. The new Washington manager shakes hands with the Red Sox coach and dear friend Bobby Doerr at home plate, much to the crowd's delight.
1972 Trailing by four runs at Candlestick Park, the Astros score ten times in the ninth inning to beat the Giants, 13-7. Seven hits, two walks, a passed ball, and an error fuel the fireworks in the final frame.
1978 Joe Morgan's major league record streak of 91 consecutive errorless games for a second baseman ends. The Reds infielder's errant toss during a second-inning rundown is his first error since July 6, 1977.
1985 Don Baylor collects his 999th and 1000th RBIs when he hits a two-run home run off Oil Can Boyd in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the Bronx Bombers on the board in New York's 5-4 extra-inning loss to Boston at Yankees Stadium. The 36-year-old outfielder/DH will end his 19-year career driving in 1276 runs.
1990 White Sox utility player Steve Lyons plays all nine positions during an exhibition game against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. 'Psycho,' however, will not join the small list of players, including Bert Campaneris (1965 A's) and Cesar Tovar (1968 Twins), who have accomplished the feat in a major league game.
1995 In the Dodgers' 8-4 victory over the Mets at Holman Stadium, Henry Rodriguez becomes the first to hit four homers in a spring training game. The LA right fielder sends a 3-0 fastball from Josias Manzanillo over the fence, capping a perfect 4-for-4 performance at the plate, much to the delight of the Vero Beach (FL) crowd.
1999 Fernando Tatis becomes the only player in baseball history to hit two grand slams in one inning when he collects eight RBIs in one frame to break the old record of six. The Cardinal third baseman hits both off Dodger starter Chan Ho Park in an 11-run third of the team's 12-5 victory at Chavez Ravine.

2000 In a 10-7 victory over the Blue Jays at Toronto's SkyDome, Yankees Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada become the first teammates to each homer from both sides of the plate in the same game. Felipe Lopez and Tony Clark become the second pair of teammates to accomplish the feat, homering from each side of the plate for the Diamondbacks on Opening Day in 2009.

2000 The Dodgers sweep the Reds to notch their 1,000th win over baseball's oldest professional franchise. Since 1970, Los Angeles has been the only National League franchise to play over .500 ball (120-115) in Cincinnati (Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field).
2006 Sportsnet New York, the Mets' television network, reprimands Keith Hernandez for comments about the female in full uniform sitting in the Padres dugout last night. Spotting Kelly Calabrese, the Padres' full-time massage therapist, the Mets broadcaster remarked women "don't belong in the dugout" and will apologize for his insensitive comments during today's telecast.
2007 Riding as a passenger in a car near San Francisco, 73-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam dies in an auto accident. The prolific writer's books covered various topics in American history, including pennant races (The Summer of '49), World Series (October 1964), and ballplayers who were lifelong friends (Teammates).
2008 The Cubs join the Giants in becoming the second franchise in major league history to win 10,000 games, beating the Rockies in a ten-inning contest at Coors Field, 7-6. After winning six in a row, Chicago has a 10,000-9,465 all-time won-loss record during its 122-year existence in the Windy City.
2010 All-Star Ben Zobrist agrees to a three-year contract extension with the Rays, which guarantees him $18 million for 2010-13. The team's MVP last season, obtained in 2006 from Houston in the Aubrey Huff trade, had agreed to a one-year deal in March worth $438,100.
2010 The Rays' 10-2 victory over Chicago concludes a 9-1 road trip, making it the team's winningest road trip in the 13-year history of the franchise. Tampa's success on the road translates into a 12-4 record overall, their best start ever.
2013 2008 Joining the Giants, the Cubs become the second franchise in major league history to win 10,000 games, beating the Rockies in a ten-inning contest at Coors Field, 7-6. After winning six in a row, Chicago has a 10,000-9,465 all-time won-loss record during its 122-year existence in the Windy City.

2014 Conrado Marrero, the oldest living former major leaguer, dies two days before his 103rd birthday. The 5-foot, 5-inch Cuban right-hander, named to the American League All-Star team in 1951, compiled a 39-40 record with an ERA of 3.96 during his five seasons with the Senators.
2014 Due to his effort to get a better grip on the baseball on a chilly spring night at Fenway Park, the umpires eject Michael Pineda in the second inning for using pine tar after concealing the foreign substance on his neck. The Yankees right-hander will get a ten-day suspension for using the sticky material, which opponents usually overlook when discreetly used since it does not affect the ball's flight.

2018 Jenny Cavna, the Rockies’ pre-and post-game host, becomes the first woman in 22 years to do televised play-by-play for a major league game when she details the action in the team's 13-5 loss against the Padres at Coors Field. At the Metrodome in 1996, Yankee commentator Suzyn Waldman, after being an analyst for the first two games of the series, described the action in the Bronx Bombers' 9-5 defeat of the Twins on a WPIX telecast.
2021 Jacob deGrom, fanning 15, becomes the first pitcher to strike out 50 batters through his first four games to start a season, breaking the mark of 48 established earlier this week by Indians' starter Shane Bieber. With his 6-0 complete-game victory over the Nationals, the 32-year-old Mets right-hander joins Pedro Martinez (Red Sox, 1999) and Gerrit Cole (Astros, 2019) as the only pitchers to strike out 14 or more batters in three consecutive starts.
2022 Tigers legend Miguel Cabrera becomes the 33rd player and first Venezuelan to collect 3000 career hits, grounding an opposite-field first-inning single to right field off fellow countryman Antonio Senzatela in the team's 13-0 rout of the Rockies at Comerica Park. The 39-year-old two-time American League MVP (2012 and 2013) joins Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Willie Mays, Rafael Palmeiro, Eddie Murray, and Hank Aaron as the seventh major leaguer to have reached both the 3,000 hit and 500 home run milestones.

36 Fact(s) Found