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This Day in Baseball History
May 2nd

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47 Fact(s) Found
1876 At Cincinnati's Avenue Grounds, Chicago's Ross Barnes hits the first home run in the history of the National League. In addition to his inside-the-park homer, the former National Association superstar hits a single and a triple, steals two bases, and scores four runs in the White Stocking's 19-5 victory over the Reds.
1901 After the Tigers take the lead in the top of the ninth inning at Chicago's South Side Park, the White Sox, hoping for rain to wash out the five runs, scored in the top of the ninth, slowing down the pace of the game. Umpire Tom Connolly is not impressed and forfeits the game, the first in American League history, giving Detroit a 7-5 victory.
1901 The Chicago Orphans purchase future Hall of Fame hurler Rube Waddell from the Pirates for a stogie. The strange transaction for the 24-year-old eccentric and inconsistent southpaw resulted from Pittsburgh manager Fred Clarke's telling team owner Barney Dreyfuss, "Sell him; release him, drop him off the Monongahela Bridge. Do anything you like, so long as you get him the hell off my ball team!"
1909 Pirates' infielder Honus Wagner steals his way around the bases in the nightcap of a twin bill at Chicago's West Side Grounds. The Flying Dutchman's trio of thefts, three additional stolen bases, two walks, a batter hit by a pitch, two errors, and two hits add up to a five-run first frame in the Bucs' eventual 6-0 victory and a sweep of the twin bill.
1912 At South End Grounds, the hometown Braves score ten runs in the first two innings and hold on to defeat the Superbas, 11-7. Brooklyn scores four runs in the bottom of the third to knock out Boston's starter Buster Brown.
1917 At Weeghman Park, southpaw Hippo Vaughn of Chicago and Reds righty Fred Toney throw no-hitters against one another through the first nine innings. The deadlock is broken in the top of the tenth with a one-out single by Larry Kopf, an error, and an infield hit by Jim Thorpe, and Toney then sets the Cubs down to preserve his extra-inning gem.
1920 Dropping their 13th consecutive decision, the Tigers still do not have a victory this season when the team loses to Cleveland, 5-2. The club's futile 0-13 start matches the major league mark of the 1904 Washington Senators.
1920 The first game of the National Negro Baseball League is played in Indianapolis when the hometown ABCs beat the Chicago Giants at Washington Park, 4-2. Schorling's Park, the home field of the Giants, will be unavailable for another month due to the occupation of the National Guard stationed there as a result of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, prompting the delay of the inaugural season in the Windy City, a big disappointment for the newly-formed league.
1923 Senator right-hander Walter Johnson tosses his 100th career shutout when he blanks the Yankees at Griffith Stadium, 3-0. During his 21-year career, the 'Big Train' will establish a major league record, whitewashing the opponents 110 times.
1928 With the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning, Giants' manager John McGraw orders that Dodger rookie Del Bissonette be intentionally walked with the bases loaded by Larry Benton, forcing home a run. The strategy works when Harry Riconda strikes out, giving New York a 2-1 victory in the Polo Grounds contest.
1930 In Des Moines, Iowa, a Western League contest against Wichita becomes the first baseball game played at night under permanent lights. The unique event draws 12,000 fans instead of the usual 600 patrons, beginning a concept that will spread quickly through the minors and spare many organizations from the onslaught of the Great Depression.
1930 Joe Sewell's consecutive streak ends at 1,103 games when he doesn't appear in a game against the Red Sox at Fenway Park due to having a fever of 102 degrees. The Indians shortstop, who hasn't missed a game since 1922, is only 204 games shy of the major league record of 1,307 games set in 1925 by Yankee shortstop Everett Scott.
1939 Before a game with the Tigers in Detroit, Lou Gehrig tells his manager, Joe McCarthy, that he is benching himself "for the good of the team." The Yankee legend's record streak, which began in 1925, ends at 2,130 consecutive games.
1944 The Marine Corps commissions 25-year-old Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams, who received his pilot wings as a second lieutenant. The future Hall of Famer, fighting in WW II and the Korean War, misses five years of his major league career serving his country.
1946 Boston GM Eddie Collins announces the club will install lights at Fenway Park before the 1947 season. The Red Sox will be the 14th club out of 16 major league teams to play night games in their home park, leaving Wrigley Field (Cubs) and Briggs Stadium (Tigers) in the dark.
1951 As a pinch-hitter, Lou Limmer goes deep off Tigers' right-hander Saul Rogovin in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 3-3 in the A's eventual 5-3 extra-inning loss at Briggs Stadium. The at-bat marks the first time in major league history that a Jewish batter faces a Jewish pitcher with a Jewish catcher (Joe Ginsberg) behind the plate.
1954 In a twin bill at Sportsman's Park, eight-year-old Nate Colbert watches the Cardinals' Stan Musial become the first big league player to hit five home runs in a doubleheader. In 1972, as a 26-year-old Padres' first baseman, he becomes the only other major leaguer to repeat this feat.
1956 During a game where 48 players see action, Chicago's third baseman Don Hoak strikes out a record six times against six different New York pitchers. The Giants outlast the Cubs in the 17-inning Wrigley Field marathon, 6-5.
1958 George Weiss warns the National League there will be consequences, interpreted by some as a nationwide Yankees network, if teams continue to flood the market with games, trying to fill the void created when the Dodgers and Giants left the Big Apple. The Phillies have already committed to broadcast 78 of its games in NYC, with the Cardinals and Pirates planning to show their home games in the Big Apple when they play against the West Coast teams.
1964 At Memorial Stadium, the Orioles host "Safety Patrol Day" to honor students who helped their schoolmates travel to and from school safely by giving free admission to 20,000 children from around the state of Maryland to the team's game against Cleveland. An escalator accident causes the death of a teenager and injuries to 46 other children when a people channeler restricts the flow of kids in the wrong direction, causing riders to fall back onto one another when they could not exit at the same pace as people getting onto the moving steps.
1964 At Municipal Stadium, the Twins become the third team in major league history to hit four consecutive home runs in an inning when Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, and Harmon Killebrew all go deep in the top of the 11th frame of the team's 7-3 victory over the A's. Kansas City will surrender 220 round-trippers, breaking the big league mark of 199 established by the team's pitching staff last season.
1968 Mets hitter Bud Harrelson becomes the first batter in baseball history to gain a 3-0 ball-strike count advantage from the on-deck circle when umpire Ed Vargo penalizes Phillies reliever John Boozer for going to his mouth inside the 18-foot circle of the mound. Philadelphia manager Gene Mauch, incensed about the ball one call, orders his pitcher to do it again for ball two and then again for ball three, which promptly gets his right-hander and himself thrown out of the game, a 3-0 loss at Shea Stadium.
1972 Coming off a Cy Young Award season (24-8, 1.82), Vida Blue ends his holdout when he agrees to sign for $63,000, a raise of only $14,750. The A's 22-year-old southpaw will post a 6-10 record, failing to make Oakland's postseason starting rotation.
1983 Jose Oquendo makes his major league debut, grounding into a force out as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning of a 3-2 loss to Houston. The 19-year-old rookie shortstop, born on July 4, 1963, becomes the first person to play for the Mets, younger than the franchise that started in 1962.
1984 Don Mattingly's seventh-inning single breaks up LaMarr Hoyt's perfect game bid. The lone hit, an opposite-field blooper, is followed up by a double play, and the White Sox hurler faces the minimum 27 batters, defeating the Yankees, 3-0.
1988 One out away from immortality, Reds' right-hander Ron Robinson gives up a single to pinch-hitter Wallace Johnson and a Tim Raines home run to end his bid for a perfect game. Cincinnati holds on to beat the visiting Expos at Riverfront Stadium, 3-2.
1988 Furious about Dave Pallone's delayed call yesterday allowing the eventual winning run, Pete Rose becomes the first manager suspended for an on-field incident when National League president Bart Giamatti issues a 30-day suspension for his shoving of the first base ump. The ugly argument resulted in the fans throwing trash onto the field, temporarily delaying the game and making it necessary for the arbitrator to be removed from the game to calm tempers.
1988 At Memorial Stadium, 50,402 fans and Baltimore owner Edward Bennett Williams, attending his last Oriole game due to his losing battle with cancer, welcome their 1-23 team back from a road trip. Governor William Donald Schaefer announces that the team and the Maryland Stadium Authority have agreed upon a long-term lease for a new downtown ballpark for the start of the 1992 season.
1993 🇦🇫 Jeff Bronkey picks up a save in his big league debut, tossing three scoreless innings against the Brewers in the 9-7 Texas victory. The 27-year-old Rangers reliever becomes the first person born in Afghanistan (Kabul) to play in the major leagues.
1994 Changing their jersey color from white to blue to snap a losing skid doesn't work when the Cubs lose their record eleventh consecutive game. Chicago is limited to two hits by John Smiley in the Reds' rout at Wrigley Field, 9-0.
1995 🇯🇵 Hideo Nomo becomes the first Japanese native to play in the majors since Masanori Murakami appeared with the Giants in 1964. The 26-year-old right-hander from Osaka pitches five scoreless innings of one-hit ball but doesn't win when the Dodgers blow a 3-0 lead, bowing to San Francisco at Candlestick Park, 4-3.
1995 Mo Vaughn and John Valentin hit grand slams in consecutive innings, accounting for all the runs in the Red Sox' 8-0 victory over the Yankees at the Stadium. The sluggers were teammates on the Seton Hall University baseball team.
1998 At Kauffman Stadium, Darryl Strawberry blasts pinch-hit ninth-inning grand slam when he goes deep off Scott Service to extend the Yankees' lead over the Royals to 12-6. Straw's round-tripper is the first of his two pinch-hit bases-loaded homers this season, making him only the fifth player to accomplish the feat.

1999 Nike's 'Chicks Dig the Long Ball' commercial, starring Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, airs for the first time. The television ad depicts the Braves hurlers, both multiple Cy Young Awards recipients, as pitchers who want to become worshipped home run heroes after becoming frustrated by the attention being shown to Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire by Heather Locklear and a friend.

1999 Rafael Palmeiro reaches the 2,000 career-hit milestone with a fourth-inning double in the Rangers' defeat 8-6 victory over the Indians at The Ballpark in Arlington. The 34-year-old designated hitter will join Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray as the only players to compile 3,000 hits and 500 home runs during their major league careers.
2000 Kerry Wood throws in a game for the first time in nearly 19 months, giving up one run and three hits in six innings in the Cubs' 11-1 rout of Houston. The outing is the first test of the right-hander's reconstructed elbow.
2000 En route to the team's ninth division title in ten years, the Braves win their fifteenth consecutive game when they beat L.A. at Chavez Ravine, 5-3. The winning streak, which began on April 16, ties an Atlanta record.
2001 At the Metrodome, Paul O'Neill singles in the ninth inning off Minnesota reliever LaTroy Hawkins, becoming the 215th player to collect 2,000 hits. The Yankee right fielder will retire at the end of the season, recording another 105 safeties before ending his 17-year major league career.
2001 The game at the Metrodome, delayed for 12 minutes when the umps need to pull the opposing players off the field, comes close to being forfeited by the Twins when unruly spectators pummel Chuck Knoblauch with coins, plastic beer bottles, and golf balls in left field. Minnesota skipper Tom Kelly appeals to the crowd, including over 40 ejected fans, to be calm as the home team defeats their former second baseman and the Yankees, 4-2.
2002 In the Mariners' 15-4 victory over the White Sox, Mike Cameron becomes the 13th major leaguer to hit four homers in one game. The Seattle outfielder's first two dingers are followed by round-trippers by second baseman Bret Boone, making it the first time the same two teammates have hit back-to-back homers twice in one inning.

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2003 The players' association agrees to a two-year experiment in which the winning league of the All-Star Game will have the home-field advantage during the World Series. Other changes include a roster increase of 2 to 32 players and a separate ballot for managers, coaches, and players naming the additional nine position players and eight pitchers for each team.
2005 In front of 15,641 fans, the smallest attendance in the 14-year history of Camden Yards, the Orioles' eight-game winning streak ends when Toronto beat the Birds in 12 innings, 6-5. With the second-best record in the majors, Baltimore has experienced reduced crowds due to the Montreal Expos being relocated to nearby Washington to play as the Nationals.
2005 The Cardinals, trailing 9-3 after eight innings, mount their most remarkable ninth-inning comeback in franchise history, defeating the Reds at the Great American Ball Park. A three-run homer by Jim Edmonds and a two-run round-tripper by John Mabry fuels the seven-run rally in Cincinnati.
2007 Jarrod Saltalamacchia, on his 22nd birthday, makes his major league debut. With 14 letters in his last name, the Braves backstop has the longest surname in baseball history, besting 15 other major leaguers who played with 13 letters in their family name.

2007 Thanks to a winning rally that starts with an infield single in play after hitting the second-highest "B" ring at Tropicana Field, the Rays beat Minnesota, 4-3, in 10 innings. In tomorrow's contest, a mannequin wearing a Twins uniform will mark the spot where Carlos Pena's fortunate hit struck the roof.
2008 The Diamondbacks throw Jose Reyes out at home plate in an unusual attempt to complete the cycle with an inside-the-park homer. The shortstop's four hits pace the Mets' 7-2 win over Arizona, the club's 14th victory in the last 15 games played against Arizona at Chase Field.
2019 Noah Syndergaard homers en route to blanking the Reds at Citi Field, making it the seventh time in major league history that a pitcher's round-tripper accounts for the game's only run in a 1-0 shutout. 'Thor' becomes the first Met to accomplish the feat and the first since Dodger right-hander Bob Welch went deep for the only run in his complete-game victory in 1983.

47 Fact(s) Found