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This Day in Baseball History
June 9th

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34 Fact(s) Found
1901 The Giants establish a major league record banging out 31 hits in a 25-13 rout of the Reds at Cincinnati’s League Park. New York’s left fielder Kip Selbach leads the attack, going 6-for-7 with two doubles, four singles, and scoring four times.
1914 At the Baker Bowl, Honus Wagner becomes the second player in the game's history to collect 3000 hits when he doubles off Philadelphia's Erskine Mayer. Cap Anson is the only other major leaguer to amass as many hits.
1919 Dodger standout pitcher Rube Marquard breaks his leg running the bases, ending his season with a 3-3 mark. The hard-throwing southpaw will finish his 18-year Hall of Fame career in 1925 after compiling a 201-177 record and an ERA of 3.08.
1929 Brothers and teammates Lloyd and Paul Waner hit a home run in the same game in the Pirates' 9-6 loss to the Robins at Ebbets Field. The homers mark the second of three times Big Poison and Little Poison will accomplish the feat.
1934 In the eighth inning of the Senators' 8-1 victory over the Red Sox, Boston hurler Lefty Grove becomes the first pitcher in major league history to yield six doubles in one frame. The future Hall of Famer, ailing from a sore arm, gives up five consecutive two-baggers during Washington's barrage.
1946 At Forbes Field, umpires Tom Dunn and George Magerkurth eject Giants manager Mel Ott from each end of a doubleheader. The usually mild-mannered skipper's protests are to little avail when his team drops both games to the Pirates, 2-1 and 5-1.
1946 Ted Williams clouts the farthest home run ever hit at Fenway Park, a shot estimated to have traveled 502 feet before striking the straw hat of a fan sitting in seat 21 in the 37th row of section 42 in right field. The Red Sox will paint the seat red to commemorate the location of the Splendid Splinter's Ruthian blast, although the area consisted of bleachers, not individual seats.

The Lone Red Seat

'The Lone Red Seat' posted on Flickr
by Ewen and Donabel

1946 En route to becoming the first team to draw two million fans at home, the Yankees reach the one million mark at the earliest date in major league history. The Bronx Bombers, the first team to attract one million patrons as 1,289,422 go through the Polo Grounds turnstiles in 1920, will average 29,422 fans this season, 14,000 more a game than for any previous season at Yankee Stadium.
1949 In an eighteen-inning contest at Shibe Park, the Phillies walk off the Pirates, 4-3, when Jackie Mayo's one-out sacrifice fly plates Del Ennis, who had singled and moved to third on Andy Seminick's double. The intrastate rivals each have sixteen hits in sixty-eight at-bats, commit three errors, and make twenty-one assists.
1961 En route to fanning 11 Red Sox batters, Ryne Duren breaks an American League mark when he records seven consecutive strikeouts in the Angels' 5-1 victory over Boston. In the second game of a twilight-night doubleheader at Fenway Park, the bespectacled fireballing right-hander whiffs Frank Malzone to end the first inning and then proceeds to strike out the side in the second and third frame, sending Pete Runnels, Jim Pagliaroni, Don Buddin, Mike Fornieles, Chuck Schilling, and Gary Geiger back to the bench with their bats.
1963 In the first Sunday night major league game ever played, the Colt .45's extend the Giants' losing streak to seven games, blanking the visiting team, 3-0. Due to the extreme heat during the Texas summer months, baseball grants permission to play games in the evening at Colt Stadium.
1966 Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh at Metropolitan Stadium, the Twins erupt for the first five-home run inning in American League history. Rich Rollins, Zoilo Versalles, Tony Oliva, Don Mincher, and Harmon Killebrew all go deep to give the Twins a 9-4 victory over the A's.
1968 Unlike its decision in April to delay the start of the season after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Major League Baseball lets the teams decide if they will postpone games when an assassin's bullet kills Robert F. Kennedy. Rusty Staub and Bob Aspromonte, both traded at the end of the season, bench themselves in protest when Houston decides to continue playing their scheduled home contests.
1973 Rusty Staub becomes the pivot man in a very unusual double play during the Mets' 4-2 victory against the Dodgers at Shea Stadium. Racing in from the outfield, 'Le Grand Orange' gets a throw near second base from first baseman John Milner and tags Davey Lopes, picked off first, and then the right fielder throws the ball home to nail Tom Paciorek trying to score from second during the P-1B-SS-1B-2B-1B-2B-RF-C (1-3-6-3-4-3-4-9-2) rundown.
1973

The Mets retire Gil Hodges' number 14 in tribute to their late manager, who died of a heart attack just before the start of the season. In addition to piloting his underdog club to a World Championship in 1969, the quiet leader also hit the first home run in franchise history, a 1962 solo shot at Busch Stadium off St. Louis right-hander Larry Jackson.

1984 With the score tied 3-3 and the bases loaded in the 12th inning, Garry Hancock drops Pete O'Brien's long foul flyball to prevent the out from becoming a game-ending sacrifice fly. When the umpires rule the left fielder had caught the ball, Wayne Tolleson tags up and scores the winning run for Texas.
1986 Don Sutton (298) throws a two-hit shutout, beating Tom Seaver (306) and the White Sox 3-0. The starters have the highest combined win total (604) for opposing pitchers since 1926, when Washington's Walter Johnson (406) faced Chicago's right-hander Red Faber (197) in a Griffith Stadium contest.
1988 The first printing of the sheet music to Take Me Out to the Ball Game sells at an auction in New York City with a bid of $2,750. The signatures of Jack Norworth, who wrote the lyrics, and Albert Von Tilzer, who set the words to music, appear on their creative work.
1989 Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry hits his 200th career home run in a ten-inning, 4-3, loss to the Pirates. The six-foot, six-inch slugger will finish his 18-year major league career with 335 round-trippers.
1990 Eddie Murray ties Mickey Mantle's major league mark, hitting a homer from both sides of the plate for the tenth time in his career. The switch-hitting first baseman's second home run of the game, batting left-handed against Eric Show, is the eventual winning run in the Dodgers' 5-4 victory over San Diego in 11 innings at Jack Murphy Stadium.
1991

The A's retire their first number in franchise history, setting aside #27 in tribute to an emotional Catfish Hunter, who won 163 of his 224 (72.7%) career victories with the team, including a stretch of five consecutive 20-win seasons from 1971 through 1975. During his ten-year tenure with the club, the right-hander won the American League Cy Young Award in 1974 and tossed a perfect game against the Twins in 1968.

1994 Oakland signs first-round pick Ben Grieve, giving the recent Arlington HS (TX) graduate a $1.2 million bonus. The 18-year-old's incentive to sign with the A's is more money than his father, Tom, also a first-round selection, earned during his dozen seasons in the majors with the Senators, Rangers, Mets, and Cardinals.
1998 In the third inning of the Angels' 10-8 win over the Diamondbacks, Anaheim's Cecil Fielder and Arizona's Yamil Benitez hit grand slams in the Bank One Ballpark contest. The pair of bases-loaded home runs mark the first time both teams hit bases-full home runs in the same inning since 1992, when Cubs infielder Ryne Sandberg and Pirates slugger Jeff King also accomplished the feat, playing at Three Rivers Stadium.
1999 After being ejected in the 12th inning by plate umpire Randy Marsh for arguing a catcher's interference call, Bobby Valentine returns to the dugout with a fake mustache and glasses. The National League will suspend the Mets' manager for two games and fine him for using the disguise.

2007 At Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, Samsung Lions' outfielder Yang Jun-hyuk becomes the first player in the 26-year history of the Korean baseball league to collect 2,000 hits. The 14-year veteran singled on a 2-1 pitch in the ninth inning, much to the delight of the 23,000 Doosan Bears fans watching the visiting outfielder reach the unprecedented milestone.
2008 Ken Griffey, Jr. becomes the sixth player in major league history to hit 600 career home runs. Junior goes deep, with a runner on third base, in the first inning on a 3-1 pitch thrown by Marlins' moundsman Mark Hendrickson in the Reds' 9-4 victory at Dolphin Stadium.
2008 For the first time in franchise history, the Rays hit three consecutive home runs when Evan Longoria, Willy Aybar, and Dioner Navarro connect off Angels' southpaw Joe Saunders in the second inning of Tampa Bay's 13-4 rout in Anaheim. The feat will not occur again for the team until James Loney, Wil Myers, and Sam Fuld homer back-to-back-to-back at Tropicana Field in 2013.
2009 Twenty-one teams miss an opportunity to draft the 17-year-old high school standout Mike Trout, who, in three years, will become an impact player in the American League during his rookie season. The 'Millville Meteor,' selected in the first round of the Amateur Draft (25th overall) by the Angels, is most notably passed over by the Nationals and the Diamondbacks, teams that would pick twice before Los Angeles made its first selection.
2010 The Diamondbacks beat Atlanta, 2-1, thanks to a bizarre two-run inside-the-park homer hit by Gerardo Parra in the eighth inning of the Chase Field contest. The decisive runs score when Nate McLouth and Jason Heyward violently collide after sprinting into the gap in left-center field trying to make the play.
2011 During a nine-game losing streak, the A's fire manager Bob Geren, replacing him with Bob Melvin, who will serve as interim manager for the rest of the season. During his four-plus seasons at the helm, the 47-year-old former Oakland skipper compiled a 361-412 record with the team.
2014 Indian third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall drives in nine runs, tying a franchise record first established in 1991 by Chris James. The Cleveland infielder collects five hits, including three home runs, in the team's 17-7 rout of Texas at Globe Life Park in Arlington.
2015 In front of a dwindling crowd of mostly remaining Giants fans, Chris Heston, making his 13th career start, strikes out the side in the ninth inning to finish the season's first no-hitter, a 5-0 Giants victory over the Mets at Citi Field. The 27-year-old rookie right-hander's no-no, the 17th in franchise history, marks the fourth straight season the feat has been accomplished by a San Francisco hurler, with Matt Cain (2012) and Tim Lincecum (2013 and 2014) throwing complete games without yielding a hit during the past three years.

2019 At Miller Park, Mark Gruber wins a 2019 RAV4 when Mike Moustakas' game-winning two-run homer strikes a promotional vehicle perched above the right-center-field fence parked in Toyota Territory. The Brewers' season-ticket holder, who will get the keys to his new SUV in a pregame presentation on June 20th, becomes the first fan to take home the SUV during the six years of the car giveaway promotion.

2019 In a span of seven pitches off Padres right-hander Craig Stammen, the Nationals become the ninth team in baseball history to hit four consecutive home runs in one inning en route to a 5-2 victory at Petco Park.  Howie Kendrick, Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, and Anthony Rendon provide the eighth-inning back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers for Washington, who also accomplished the feat in 2017.

34 Fact(s) Found