September in Baseball History
Published by Evan Wagner
Oct 01, 2023
Interesting Baseball History for the month of September:
1872 - An unusual play highlights the Athletics-Boston match in Philadelphia. With the Athletics leading 4-1 in the seventh inning, and runners on first and second, Fergy Malone pops up to shortstop George Wright. Wright catches the ball in his hat and then throws the ball to third base, after which it is thrown to second base. Wright claims a double play has been completed, as a batter cannot be retired with a "hat catch," and thus runners Cap Anson and Bob Reach are forced out. The umpire finally gives Malone another at bat, declaring nobody out. The Athletics win 6-4.
1875 - The first baseball game played with women professionals takes place in Springfield, Illinois. The diamond is half-sized and a nine-foot high canvas surrounds the entire field. The uniforms are similar to the male version, except the pants are shorter.
1878 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings and Indianapolis Blues play an exhibition game in which they experiment with calling every pitch a ball or a strike and allowing only six balls for a walk. The rules up to this time provide for the umpire to call a "warning pitch" on the first wide delivery. The reaction is favorable.
1880 - The first night baseball is played in Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, between teams from two Boston department stores. The Boston Post reports the next day that "A clear, pure, white light was produced, very strong and yet very pleasant to the sight" by the twelve carbon-arc electric lamps.
1880 - The Polo Grounds in New York is leased by the new National Association Metropolitan club. The grounds, which have been used for polo matches, will be converted into the first commercial baseball park to be built on Manhattan Island. It opens three weeks later.
1881 - In a game in Albany, Troy's Roger Connor hits the first grand slam in National League history. The blow comes off Worcester's Lee Richmond with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning and wins the game 8-7.
1888 - The National League Indianapolis Hoosiers club tries its second experimental night game (the first was August 22), but the natural gas illumination is inadequate, and the idea is dropped.
1889 - The most controversial game in American Association history is held in Brooklyn. The St. Louis Browns hold a 4-2 lead in the ninth over the Bridegrooms and claim it is too dark to continue. The lighted candles in front of their bench make umpire Fred Goldsmith determined to finish the game no matter what. Several St. Louis players are hit with bottles as they leave the grounds. The Browns will forfeit the game the next day because they fear for their safety.
1900 - Tommy Corcoran of the Reds uncovers a wire in the coaching box that leads across the outfield to the Phils' locker room, where reserve catcher Morgan Murphy is reading the opposing catcher's signs and relaying them to the Phils' coach by a buzzer hidden in the dirt.
1902 - Tinker, Evers, and Chance appear together in the Chicago Cubs lineup for the first time, but not in the positions that will earn them immortality. Johnny Evers, a New York State League rookie, starts at shortstop, with Joe Tinker at third base, Frank Chance at first base, and Bobby Lowe at second base.
1903 - A new National Agreement signed by the National Association of minor league clubs officially organizes professional baseball under one comprehensive set of rules.
1905 - Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers engage in a fistfight on the field during an exhibition game in Washington, Indiana, because Evers took a taxi to the park, leaving his teammates in the hotel lobby. The pair will not speak to each other again for thirty-three years.
1906 - Playing as Sullivan, to protect his collegiate status, Columbia University junior Eddie Collins makes his debut at shortstop with the Philadelphia Athletics. He gets one hit off Ed Walsh and strikes out twice. Collins will play twenty-five years in the Major Leagues, bat .333, and become a member of the Hall of Fame.
1908 - Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs became the only pitcher to throw two shutouts in a doubleheader, beating the Superbas 5-0 and 3-0.
1908 - Fred Merkle of the New York Giants failed to touch second base (the Merkle Boner) as the apparent winning run crossed home plate in a crucial game with the Chicago Cubs. The ensuing dispute resulted in the game being declared a tie and played over on Oct. 8 when the Cubs and Giants ended the season in a tie.
1908 - The Pirates and Cubs are tied 0-0 in the last of the tenth at Pittsburgh. With two outs and the bases loaded, Pittsburgh's Chief Wilson singles to center, scoring Fred Clarke with the winning run. Warren Gill, on first base, does not get to second base buts stops short, turns, and heads for the dugout, a common practice. The Cubs' Johnny Evers calls for the ball from Jimmy Slagle, touches second base, and claims the run does not count as Gill has been forced. The lone umpire, Hank O'Day, has left the field. When queried, he rules that Clarke had already scored, so the run counts. The Cubs protest the game, but are denied. This is the first time the Cubs try this tactic, but not the last.
1908 - Walter Johnson pitched his third consecutive shutout in four days, a 4-0, two-hitter over the New York Highlanders.
1909 - Ty Cobb clinches the American League home run title with his ninth round-tripper. It is an inside-the-park drive against the Browns. In fact, all his nine home runs this season are inside the park, including two in one game on July 15. He is the only player in this century to lead in home runs without hitting one out of the park.
1909 - Ty Cobb wins the Triple Crown with a .377 batting average, nine home runs and 107 RBI. He also leads the American League with 216 hits, 116 runs and 296 total bases.
1910 - A Southern Association game between Mobile and Atlanta takes just thirty-two minutes to complete. The game is conducted as an experiment with batters swinging at every good pitch and little time taken between pitches. There are no strikeouts and one walk as Mobile wins 2-1.
1911 - Cy Young, forty-four, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 for his 511th and final Major League victory.
1912 - Center fielder Casey Stengel breaks in with Brooklyn and has four singles, a walk, two stolen bases, and two RBI in the 7-3 win over Pittsburgh.
1912 - Eddie Collins steals six bases in the Athletics' 9-7 win over Detroit, a 20th-century-record. Remarkably, on September 22, he will repeat with six against the Browns.
1912 - Eddie Collins stole six bases for the Philadelphia Athletics as they defeated the Detroit Tigers, 9-7. 11 days later Collins stole six more in a game on Sept. 22.
1913 - Cubs hurler Larry Cheney hurls a 14-hit shutout against the Giants, defeating them 7-0 while setting a Major League record for most hits allowed in a whitewashing. Milt Gaston of Washington will duplicate the feat on July 10, 1928.
1914 - Yankees shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, twenty-three, replaces Frank Chance and becomes the all-time youngest manager, and the seventh in the club's twelve-year existence. He will go ten-ten and will manage next at Cleveland in 1928.
1916 - Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed out their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game, 10-8.
1916 - Marty Kavanagh, Indians utility man, hits the American League's first pinch-hit grand slam for Cleveland in a 5-3 win over the Red Sox. The ball rolls through a hole in the fence and cannot be retrieved in time for a play at the plate.
1916 - Washington manager Clark Griffith excuses several regulars for the remaining games of the season so he can use some new players. Included is Walter Johnson, who has already won 25 games for the seventh-place club. In a league-leading 371 innings, he did not give up a home run, an all-time record.
1918 - Players on both sides threaten to strike the World Series unless they are guaranteed $2,500 to the winners and $1,000 each for the losers. They back off, however, when told they will appear greedy while their countrymen are fighting World War I.
1918 - The Cubs switch their home games to Comiskey Park with its larger seating capacity for the World Series. Babe Ruth, having completed thirteen scoreless innings in his first World Series two years ago, adds nine more in edging Hippo Vaughn 1-0 in the opener. During the seventh-inning stretch, a military band plays "The Star Spangled Banner." From then on, it is played at every World Series game, every season opener, and whenever a band is present to play it, though it is not yet adopted as the national anthem. The custom of playing it before every game will begin during World War II, after the installation of public address systems.
1918 - Ty Cobb pitches two innings against the Browns while the Browns' George Sisler pitches one scoreless inning. The Browns win 6-2 as Sisler hits a double off Cobb.
1919 - Babe Ruth ties Ned Williamson Major League single season mark of 27 home runs. Four days later he will hit number 28 over the roof of the Polo Grounds.
1919 - In the shortest nine-inning game in Major League history, 51 minutes, the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1.
1919 - The National Commission recommends a best-of-nine World Series. The lengthier World Series is seen as a sign of greed and is abandoned after three years.
1921 - Walter Johnson breaks Cy Young's career strikeout mark by fanning seven Yankees to run his total to 2,287.
1922 - The Yankees play their farewell home game in the Polo Grounds. An estimated crowd of 40,000 overflows the stadium with another 25,000 turned away. This is the last regular season American League game at the Polo Grounds as the Yankees will open Yankee Stadium in 1923.
1923 - Lou Gehrig hit his first homer in the majors, off Bill Piercy of the Boston Red Sox. On the same date, Sept 27, 15 years later, he hit his 493rd and last off Dutch Leonard of the Senators.
1924 - Jim Bottomley went six-for-six and batted in a record twelve runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 17-3. His hits included two home runs.
1924 - Urban Shocker of the St. Louis Browns pitched two complete games against the Chicago White Sox and won both, 6-2.
1928 - The Boston Braves started a grueling string in which they played nine straight doubleheaders, a Major League record.
1928 - Ty Cobb makes the last of his 4,189 hits, the 724th double of his career, as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning for the Philadelphia Athletics in the first game of a doubleheader at Washington. The hit is off Bump Hadley.
1930 - Brooklyn catcher Al Lopez drives one over the head of Cincinnati left fielder Bob Meusel, and the ball bounces into the bleachers at Ebbets Field. It will be the Major Leagues' last recorded bounce home run. The National League declares after the season that such a hit will henceforth be a double. The American League had made the change after the 1929 season.
1931 - Lefty Grove wins his 30th game over the White Sox 2-1. He is the first to win 30 since Jim Bagby of Cleveland in 1920 and will be the last American League hurler to do so until Denny McLain in 1968.
1931 - Lou Gehrig drives in four runs to break his old American League RBI mark of 175, set in 1927. By the season's end he will have a total of 184.
1931 - The most desperately contested battle for individual honors takes place in the race for the National League batting title. Chick Hafey, who reported late due to a contract dispute, goes into the final doubleheader with the Reds batting .353, ahead of last year's champ Bill Terry (.349). Hafey gets only one hit in eight times at bat to drop to .349. Against Brooklyn, Terry gets only one hit in four times at bat. The title goes to Hafey, who bats .3488 to Terry's .3486. Jim Bottomley, Hafey's Cardinal teammate, finishes at .3481.
1931 - The Philadelphia Athletics clinch the pennant, beating Cleveland at home. Eddie Rommel, veteran knuckleball pitcher for the A's, is the winning hurler, as Connie Mack wins his third successive pennant. It is Mack's ninth, and last, American League championship.
1934 - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis sells the World Series broadcast rights to the Ford Motor Company for $100,000. Previously no fee had been charged.
1935 - The Boston Braves lose their 110th game for a new National League record. They will lose 115, which remains the record until the 1962 expansion New York Mets lose 120 in a 162-game schedule. The Braves' winning percentage of .248 is a Twentieth Century low in the National League.
1935 - The Chicago Cubs won their 21st consecutive game and clinched the National League pennant.
1936 - Bob Feller, just seventeen, beat the Philadelphia A's 5-2 on two hits. The Cleveland youngster fanned an American League-record seventeen batters.
1936 - Walter Alston played in his only Major League game, as a late-inning substitute at first base for Johnny Mize of the St. Louis Cardinals. He made one error in two chances and struck out his only time at bat. He went on to have a good career as a manager.
1938 - A special committee names Alexander Cartwright to Baseball's Hall of Fame for originating the sport's basic concepts. Henry Chadwick, inventor of the box score and the first baseball writer, is also honored.
1938 - Brothers Lloyd and Paul Waner hit back-to-back homers for the Pittsburgh Pirates off Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. This was the first time brothers hit successive home runs in a Major League game! It was Lloyd Waner's last homer.
1938 - Gabby Hartnett hit his famous "Homer in the Gloamin" as darkness descended at Wrigley Field in the ninth inning to give the Chicago Cubs a 6-5 victory, their ninth straight. It was a key victory en route to the Cubs' National League pennant.
1939 - Ted Williams hits a home run off Thornton Lee, one of thirty-one home runs he will hit in his rookie season. Williams will homer off Thornton's son, Don Lee, twenty-one years later
1939 - The National League announces that for the first time in the 20th century, games will be transferred from one city to another. A doubleheader in Philadelphia will be moved to Brooklyn in an effort to top one million paid attendance.
1941 - Ted Williams went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A's to finish the season with a .406 average. No player has batted .400 since.
1943 - At sixteen years, eight months, five days, Philadelphia A's pitcher Carl Scheib became the youngest player to appear in an American League game.
1944 - After a 5-15 stretch that ate away a chunk of their 20-game lead, the Cardinals finally clinch the National League flag with a 5-4 win over Boston. They will finish with 105 victories.
1945 - Joe Kuhel hits an inside-the-park home run, the only homer hit by a Senator all season at Washington's Griffith Stadium. The Nats hit twenty-six on the road.
1945 - Punching umpire Joe Rue earns an indefinite suspension for Philadelphia A's catcher Greek George. George will not play in the majors again, though his lifetime batting average of .177 might be the main cause.
1946 - Disappointing on the field, the Yankees nevertheless finish their home season with an attendance of 2,265,512. The best previous draw was the 1929 Cubs at 1,485,166. Total Major League attendance was 18.5 million, 75 percent more than 1945.
1946 - The Boston Red Sox clinch the American League pennant, edging the Cleveland Indians 1-0 on Ted Williamss inside-the-park home run, the only one of his career. Williams punches the ball over the shift when left fielder Pat Seerey pulls in behind the shortstop position.
1946 - The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in five innings when the game was called because of gnats. The insects became such a problem for the players, umpires and fans that the game had to be stopped.
1947 - Jackie Robinson is named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News two weeks before the season is over. At year's end he has hit .297 and led the league in stolen bases and sacrifices. He has fourteen bunt hits, and in a game against the Cubs in June, scores from first base on a sacrifice.
1947 - On the season's last day, the St. Louis Browns, desperate for a ticket seller, bring announcer Dizzy Dean in to pitch against the White Sox. Diz gives up only three hits in four innings and laces a clean single in his only at bat, but a pulled leg muscle forces his retirement. The White Sox score all their runs in the ninth to win 5-2. Even with Diz, the game draws less than 16,000, and the Browns finish the year with only 320,000 attendance, less than half that of 1946.
1947 - Sept 30th, In the first televised World Series, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3 in the opening game.
1947 - The New York Yankees had eighteen hits, all singles, in an 11-2 victory over Boston at Fenway Park. Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio each had four hits.
1951 - Jackie Robinson homered in the 14th inning to give the Brooklyn Dodgers a 9-8 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, tying the New York Giants for first place in the National League and forcing a playoff.
1951 - The Cards split a rare doubleheader with two different teams, defeating the Giants 6-4 in the first game in the afternoon and losing to the Braves in the nightcap. It is the first time a team in the National League has played two different teams in the same day since the early years of the century.
1952 - The Braves play their last game in Boston's Braves Field before moving to Milwaukee, losing to Brooklyn's Joe Black 8-2. The crowd of 8,822 is the second largest of the season at the ballpark.
1953 - Billy Hunter becomes the last St. Louis Browns player to homer in a game. The Browns lose anyway 6-3 to Chicago.
1953 - Mickey Mantle's two-run home run off Chicago's Billy Pierce caps a seven-run fifth inning, as New York wins 9-3 at Yankee Stadium. Returning to center field after the fifth, Mantle is photographed blowing a huge bubble with a wad of gum. Manager Casey Stengel will publicly rebuke the Mick, who will apologize for the indiscretion. However, Mantle does get an endorsement fee from the Bowman Gum company.
1953 - The Dodgers tie the record for the most wins in a home park, beating Pittsburgh 5-4. They go an incredible 60-17 at Ebbets Field, tying the record of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1942. Only the 61 wins of the San Francisco Giants in 1962 in an 81-game home season will surpass the mark.
1953 - The St. Louis Browns play both their last game in Sportsman's Park and the last game in the franchise's 52-year history. Fittingly, they lose 2-1 to Billy Pierce and the Chicago White Sox in ten innings for their 100th defeat of the season.
1954 - Art Ditmar of the Athletics defeats the Yanks 8-6 in the last game the franchise will play in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City. In the game Yankees catcher Yogi Berra plays his only game at third base in his career and Mickey Mantle plays shortstop.
1954 - Joe Bauman, playing for Roswell of the Longhorn League, hit three home runs to give him 72 for the season. Bauman never made it to the majors.
1954 - Willie Mays made an over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz's long drive to center field, and pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes homered off Bob Lemon in the 10th inning to lead the New York Giants to a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series.
1955 - Detroit outfielder Al Kaline becomes the youngest batting champ (0.340) in history, as he takes the American League crown at age twenty. Kaline takes the age-record from Ty Cobb, who was only twelve days older than Kaline when he won it in 1907 (0.350).
1955 - Ted Williams finishes the season at .356, well ahead of Al Kaline's .340, but does not have enough at-bats to win the batting title. The same thing happened in 1954. Williams was walked 136 times in 1954 and 71 times this year. A rule change will be made to recognize plate appearances, not times at bat.
1955 - The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 10-2, to clinch the National League pennant with a seventeen-game lead.
1956 - White Sox hurler Jim Derrington becomes the youngest pitcher in modern history to start a game. He loses to Kansas City 7-6 at the age of 16 years and 10 months.
1957 - Duke Snider's 39th and 40th home runs are the last that will be hit at Ebbets Field. Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts, who has a penchant for throwing home run balls, is the loser, 7-3.
1957 - Gail Harris is the last player to hit a home run as a New York Giant in a 9-5 win over the Pirates in the second game of a doubleheader.
1957 - Hank Aaron's eleventh-inning homer gave the Milwaukee Braves a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and the National League pennant. It was the first time since 1950 that a New York team hadn't finished first
1957 - In the last game at Ebbets Field, 6,702 fans watch Dodgers lefty Danny McDevitt prevail over the Pirates 2-0. Gil Hodges has the last RBI.
1957 - The Dodgers play their last game in Jersey City, as Don Drysdale loses to Philadelphia 3-2 in 12 innings. Brooklyn ends with an 11-4 mark in New Jersey.
1957 - The Los Angeles City Council approves a 300-acre site in Chavez Ravine for a Dodger stadium if the club will finance a public recreation area
1957 - With 1895 manager Jack Doyle among the 11,606 looking on, the Giants lose their last game at the Polo Grounds 9-1. Bucs rookie John Powers hits a home run in the top of the ninth, the last homer and RBI at the Polo Grounds. This game is played on the 77th anniversary of the first Polo Grounds baseball game, Sept 29th.
1960 - For the first time since 1927, the Pirates are headed for the World Series. A gigantic torchlight victory parade in Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle at midnight celebrates the pennant.
1960 - In his final major-league plate appearance, against Baltimore's Jack Fisher, Ted Williams picks out a 1-1 pitch and drives it 450 feet into the right-center field seats behind the Boston bullpen. It is Williams' 521st and last home run, putting him third on the all-time list. The blast gives the seventh-place Red Sox a 5-4 victory. Williams stays in the dugout, ignoring the crowd's cheers, but when he trots out to left field in the ninth, he is replaced immediately by Carroll Hardy. He retires as a standing crowd roars.
1961 - Roger Maris tied Babe Ruth's 34-year-old record with his 60th homer, off Baltimore's Jack Fisher.
1961 - Sandy Koufax notches seven strikeouts in a 2-1 win over the Phillies to set a National League record for strikeouts in a season: 269. This surpasses Christy Mathewson's 267 in 1903, which was accomplished in 367 innings pitched, as opposed to Koufax's 255.
1962 - A 12-2 Dodgers' loss at St. Louis is enlivened by Maury Wills, who ties Ty Cobb's long-standing Major League single-season record of 96 steals by swiping second base after singling in the third, and breaks it with a repeat performance in the seventh.
1962 - Willie Mays homered to give the San Francisco Giants a 2-1 victory over the Houston Colt. 45s in the season's final day. That, coupled with the Los Angeles Dodgers' 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, forced a playoff for the National League pennant. The Giants won in three games.
1963 - All three Alou brothers - Felipe, Matty and Jesus - played in the outfield at the same time for the San Francisco Giants in a 13-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1963 - Baseball historian Lee Allen says the Indians vs Senators Sept 6th game is the 100,000th in Major League history.
1963 - Braves pitcher Warren Spahn ties Christy Mathewson with his thirteenth 20-win season by notching a 3-2 victory in Philadelphia. At forty-two, Spahn becomes the oldest twenty-game winner.
1963 - Playing in his one and ONLY Major League game, Houston Colt 45 outfielder John Paciorek, brother of Jim and Tom, went three for three (all singles), walked twice, had three runs batted in and scored four times.
1963 - The New York Mets lost their last game at the Polo Grounds to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, in front of only 1,752.
1964 - Manager Gene Mauch's first-place Phillies lost 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds on Chico Ruiz's steal of home in the sixth inning. It was Philadelphia's first of ten straight losses, a streak that cost the National League pennant.
1964 - Southpaw relief pitcher Masanori Murakami becomes the first Major League player from Japan. He debuts in a 4-1 San Francisco loss at New York. His first eleven innings will be scoreless ones.
1964 - St. Louis becomes the first National League club to score in each inning since the Giants did it on June 1, 1923. They coast 15-2 at Wrigley Field.
1965 - Another Kansas City publicity stunt makes the great Satchel Paige baseball's oldest performer. At fifty-nine, Paige hurls the first three innings, garners one strikeout, and allows just one hit, to Carl Yastrzemski, in his first Major League appearance since 1953. The Red Sox jump on reliever Don Mossi for a 5-2 win.
1965 - Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City A's played all nine positions in a loss to the Angels, 5-3, in 13 innings.
1965 - Preparing a move to Anaheim, the Angels change their name from Los Angeles to California. They will stay in LA for another year before going to Anaheim.
1966 - Los Angeles became the first team in Major League history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road as the Dodgers beat the Reds, 8-6, before 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.
1966 - The Baltimore Orioles clinched their first American League pennant in 22 years with a 6-1 victory over the Kansas City A's. Their last pennant came in 1944 when they were the St. Louis Browns.
1968 - Carl Yastrzemski maintains a .3005 batting average to win his second straight batting crown with the lowest championship average ever. Yaz is the American League's only .300 hitter; Oakland's Danny Cater is second with .290.
1968 - Cesar Tovar played one inning at each position for the Minnesota Twins, becoming only the second Major Leaguer in history to do it. Bert Campaneris of the Oakland A's was the other.
1968 - Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland A's 5-4 to become the first pitcher since Dizzy Dean in 1934 to win thirty games.
1968 - Denny McLain won his 31st game, the most in the American League since Lefty Grove's thirty-one in 1931
1968 - Mickey Mantle hit his last home run in the Major Leagues, a solo shot against Boston's Jim Lonborg. Mantle had 536 homers.
1968 - Ray Washburn pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, one day after the Giants' Gaylord Perry tossed a no-hitter against Washburn's St. Louis Cardinals
1971 - Baltimore achieves 108 wins for the season with a doubleheader sweep at Boston, 10-2, and 5-4. The Orioles become only the third team to win 100 games in three straight seasons.
1971 - The Senators, in their final game in Washington, hold a 7-5 lead over the Yankees with two outs in the ninth. Fans then swarm onto the field, causing the game to be forfeited to the Yanks.
1972 - Roberto Clemente doubled off Jon Matlack during Pittsburgh's 5-0 victory over the New York Mets. The hit was the 3,000th and last for the Pirates star right fielder, who was killed in a plane crash during the offseason.
1974 - Giants pitcher John Montefusco makes his Major League debut, homers in his first official time at bat, and hurls nine innings of relief to earn a 9-5 victory over the Dodgers.
1974 - It took the St. Louis Cardinals 25 innings - 7:04 - to beat the New York Mets. A record 202 batters went to the plate, as Felix Millan and John Milner had twelve appearances apiece.
1975 - The Pittsburgh Pirates routed the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field 22-0. It was the most one-sided shutout since 1900. Rennie Stennett had seven hits, including two two-hit innings.
1975 - The Red Sox top the Brewers 8-6 as Robin Yount breaks Mel Ott's 47-year-old record by playing in his 242nd game as a teenager.
1976 - Los Angeles catcher Steve Yeager was seriously injured when the jagged end of a broken bat struck him in the throat while he was waiting in the on-deck circle.
1976 - Minnie Minoso comes to bat for the White Sox after a twelve-year hiatus. He goes hitless in his three at bats against Frank Tanana, but his appearance makes him one of a handful of Major League players to play in four decades. His at bat in 1980 will match him with Nick Altrock as a five-decade player.
1976 - Minnie Minoso singled in three at-bats on Sept 12th, as the designated hitter for the Chicago White Sox. At age 53 he became the oldest player to get a hit in a regulation game
1976 - Walter Alston, after 23 years and 2,040 victories with the Dodgers, steps down as manager. Third base coach Tom Lasorda is promoted to the post
1977 - In the second game of a doubleheader in Boston, Tigers rookies Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell debut together. They will hold down the second base and shortstop jobs in Detroit for a record nineteen years.
1977 - Japan's Sadaharu Oh hits the 756th home run of his career to surpass Hank Aaron's total and make him the most prolific home run hitter in professional baseball history at that time.
1977 - The Angels acquire Dave Kingman from the Padres for cash. Nine days later the Yankees will buy Kingman, making him the first player to wear four uniforms in four divisions in the same year. Kingman, who started the season in New York with the Mets, will hit twenty-six home runs to set the mark for the most by a player with more than two teams.
1978 - The Red Sox throw 22-year-old Bobby Sprowl at the Yankees and the lefty last just two-thirds of an inning as the Yankees win 7-4. New York out hits the Red Sox 67-21, and outscores them 42-9, in a sweep that leaves the teams in a tie for first place, and caps a remarkable march to the top from fourth place, 14 games out.
1978 - The Yankees, four games behind the Red Sox in the American League East, arrive in Boston for a crucial four-game series. The Yanks begin the "Boston Massacre" with a 15-3 rout. New York outhits the Red Sox 67-21, and outscores them 42-9, in a sweep that leaves the teams in a tie for first place, and caps a remarkable march to the top from fourth place, 14 games out.
1979 - Atlanta's Phil Niekro notches his 20th win of the season by beating his brother Joe, the National League's only other 20-game winner of the season, 9-4. The Niekro brothers are the second pair (the other was Jim and Gaylord Perry) to win 20 games in the same year. Phil Niekro, who finishes at 21-20, is the first pitcher since fellow knuckleballer Wilbur Wood in 1973 to win and lose 20 games the same year, and the first National League pitcher to do so since 1905.
1979 - Lou Brock stole base No. 938, breaking Billy Hamilton's record, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Mets 7-4 in 10 innings.
1979 - Pete Rose singles as the Phillies fall to the Cardinals, 7-2. Rose reaches 200 hits in a season for the tenth time. He breaks the Major League record of nine such seasons held by Ty Cobb.
1979 - Royals third baseman George Brett collects his 20th triple of the season in a 16-4 romp over the Angels. Brett becomes the sixth player ever, and the first since Willie Mays in 1957, to collect twenty doubles, twenty triples, and twenty home runs in the same season. He will finish with totals of 42, 20, and 23.
1979 - Switch-hitting Cardinals shortstop Garry Templeton collects three hits against the Mets and becomes the first player to get 100 hits from each side of the plate. During the last nine games, he batted exclusively righthanded to set the record.
1980 - After surrendering a two-run home run to Rusty Staub, Rick Langford is removed with two outs in the ninth inning of Oakland's 6-4 win over Texas, ending his consecutive complete-game streak at 22
1980 - A's outfielder Rickey Henderson sets the American League single-season stolen base record with his 97th in a 5-1 win over the White Sox, breaking Ty Cobb's record of 96 set in 1915. Henderson will finish the season with one-hundred stolen bases.
1980 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends Fergie Jenkins indefinitely as a result of his August 25 drug arrest in Toronto. On September 22, the suspension will be overturned by arbitrator Raymond Goetz, the first time ever a commissioner's decision is overruled by an arbitrator.
1980 - George Brett goes 0-for-4 in a 9-0 loss to the A's to drop his average below .400 for good. He is now hitting .396 and will finish the season at .390.
1981 - Fernando Valenzuela sets the National League rookie record with his eighth shutout of the season, a three-hitter to beat the Braves, 2-0. He had shared the record with Irv Young (1905), Grover Alexander (1911), and Jerry Koosman (1968).
1982 - Playing against the Royals at Anaheim Stadium, outfielders Fred Lynn and Brian Downing crash through the left field fence while trying to catch a fly ball. Lynn makes the catch and it is ruled an out, the umpires reasoning that it is the same as if he had tumbled into the seats.
1983 - Oakland's Rickey Henderson steals three bases in a 6-5 win over Texas to give him 101 for the season. It is his third season with one-hundred or more steals.
1983 - Tim Raines becomes the first player since Ty Cobb to steal 70 bases and drive in 70 runs in the same season.
1984 - Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets struck out Ron Cey of the Chicago Cubs in the second inning - his 228th of the season setting a National League record for a rookie. Gooden passed Grover Alexander, who set the mark with 227 in 1911.
1984 - Pete Rose reached the 100-hit plateau for the 22nd consecutive year, an all-time record.
1984 - Rick Sutcliffe pitches a two-hitter in a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh to clinch the National League East title for the Cubs, who will be making their first postseason appearance since 1945. The win is Sutcliffe's 14th in a row.
1984 - The Padres clinch their first National League West title since entering the league in 1969 with a 5-4 win over the Giants. The key blow is winning pitcher Tim Lollar's three-run home run, his third home run of the season.
1985 - Expos outfielder Andre Dawson slugs three home runs, including a pair of three-run shots in a 12-run fifth inning, to lead Montreal to a wild 17-15 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Dawson joins Willie McCovey as the only players to hit two home runs in one inning on two different occasions.
1985 - One night after scuffling with a patron in the bar of the Yankees' Baltimore hotel, manager Billy Martin has his right arm broken by pitcher Ed Whitson in an early-morning brawl in the same bar.
1985 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the career hit leader with his 4,192nd hit to break Ty Cobb's record (Sept 11). Rose lined a 2-1 pitch off San Diego pitcher Eric Show to left-center field for a single in the first inning. It was the 57th anniversary of Ty Cobb's last game in the majors.
1986 - Bob Brenly of San Francisco tied a Major League record with four errors in one inning, but atoned with two homers, including the game-winner, to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Brenly, normally a catcher, was playing third base.
1986 - Chicago Cubs rookie Greg Maddux defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3. The losing pitcher was his brother, Mike, also a rookie. It was the first time brothers faced each other as rookies.
1986 - Minnesota's Bert Blyleven broke Robin Roberts' 1956 record of 46 home run pitches in a season, when he gave up a two-out, third-inning homer to Cleveland rookie Jay Bell. Despite giving up two more homers, Bert Blyleven was the winner when the Twins rallied in the eighth for a 6-5 victory.
1986 - Texas hit a club record seven home runs as the Rangers routed the Minnesota Twins 14-1. The Rangers rocked starter Bert Blyleven for five home runs, raising his season total to forty-four and breaking an American League record.
1987 - Detroit's Darrell Evans became the first 40-year-old player in Major League history to hit 30 home runs in a season as the Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6.
1987 - Padres catcher Benito Santiago extends his hitting streak to 28 games in a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers, setting a new Major League record for rookies. Pittsburgh's Jimmy Williams had held the record with a 27-game streak in 1899.
1987 - Williamsport (Eastern League) Bills catcher Dave Bresnahan introduces a new wrinkle to baseball, the hidden potato. With a Reading runner, Rick Rudblad, on third base, Bresnahan returns from a time out with a shaved potato hidden in his mitt. On the next pitch he throws the potato wildly on a pickoff attempt. When the runner trots home, Bresnahan tags him out with the real ball. The umpire, unamused, rules the runner safe, gives the catcher an error, and fines him $50. He is released the following day. But that night, their last game of the season, the Bills admit any fan for $1 and a potato. On each potato, Bresnahan autographs, "This spud's for you.
1988 - Bruce Sutter joins Rollie Fingers and Rich Gossage as the third pitcher to save 300 games as Atlanta beats San Diego 5-4 in 11 innings. It is the last save of his career.
1988 - Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays lost a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth for the second consecutive start, and finished with a 4-0 one-hitter over the Baltimore Orioles. Stieb faced the minimum 26 batters until Jim Trabor lined a single down the right-field line about 3 feet from the glove of first baseman Fred McGriff.
1988 - In his last start of the regular season, Orel Hershiser pitches ten shutout innings to extend his consecutive-scoreless-inning streak to 59, breaking Dodger Don Drysdale's Major League record by one.
1988 - Oakland's Jose Canseco becomes the founder of baseball's 40-homer, 40-stolen base club by stealing two bases in a 9-8, 14-inning win over Milwaukee. He also hits his 41st home run.
1988 - Wade Boggs became the first player this century to get 200 hits in six consecutive seasons as the Boston Red Sox pounded Toronto 13-2. Boggs also joined Lou Gehrig as the only players to get 200 hits and 100 walks in three consecutive years.
1989 - Dave Stewart becomes the first pitcher since Jim Palmer (1975-78) to win twenty games in three straight seasons by beating the Twins 5-2. It is also Stewart's 100th Major League win.
1989 - Eight days after banning Pete Rose from baseball for life, Commissioner Bart Giamatti dies suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51.
1989 - Five days after hitting a home run for the Yankees in a 12-2 win over the Mariners, Deion Sanders returns a punt 68 yards for a touchdown in his NFL debut with the Atlanta Falcons. He is the first player to accomplish both these feats in the same week at the professional level.
1989 - Wade Boggs becomes the first player in Major League history to achieve both 200 hits and 100 walks in four consecutive seasons. It is his seventh straight 200-hit season overall, extending his own modern Major League record.
1990 - Dave Stieb, who had lost three no-hit bids with one out to go in the previous two seasons, finally pitched one as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Cleveland, 3-0. It was the record ninth no-hitter of the season.
1990 - Ken Griffey and his son hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of the Seattle Mariners' 7-5 loss to the California Angels. The unprecedented father-and-son homers came off Kirk McCaskill.
1990 - Oakland beats New York 7-3 to complete a twelve-game sweep of the Yankees this year. The season sweep is a first for the Yankees.
1990 - The White Sox beat Seattle 2-1 in the last game played at historic Comiskey Park, which is to be torn down after eighty seasons of major-league ball. Chicago will play next season at the new Comiskey Park located across the street.
1991 - A 55-ton block collapses in Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The Expos, already in last place, will have to play the rest of their home games on the road.
1992 - Bip Roberts tied the National League record with his 10th consecutive hit, then grounded out against Pedro Astacio to end his streak in the Cincinnati Reds' game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1992 - Philadelphia second baseman Mickey Morandini made the first unassisted triple play in the National League in 65 years, just the ninth in Major League history, in the Phillies' 3-2, 13-inning loss to Pittsburgh.
1992 - Terry Mulholland of the Phillies becomes the new pickoff king. His 14 pickoffs are the most by any pitcher since the stat became official in 1989.
1992 - Toronto's Dave Winfield becomes the oldest player in Major League history to reach the 100-RBI plateau. The 40-year-old does the trick in his 2,700th career game.
1993 - Baseball joins the other major sports and expands the postseason as well as its divisions. The measure passes by a 27-1 vote with Texas, one of two teams other than the new expansion teams never to go to the postseason by the old setup, as the lone dissenter.
1993 - Paul Molitor's home run against California puts him over the 100-RBI mark for the first time in his career. At thirty-seven, Molitor is the oldest to reach this plateau for the first time.
1993 - The Colorado Rockies played their final game of their first season and finished with a Major League home attendance record. The Rockies played before 4,483,350.
1993 - The Yankees trail the Red Sox 3-1 in the ninth inning when Mike Stanley hits a popup to left field. Just before the pitch, a fan runs onto the field and umpire Tim Welke calls timeout, so the last out doesn't count. The Yankees rally for three runs and the Red Sox lose the game as well as the protest filed by the team.
1995 - Cal Ripken, Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive Major League game to surpass Lou Gehrig's 56-year record. Ripken received a 22-minute standing ovation and went 2-for-4, including a homer, in Baltimore's 4-2 win over California.
1995 - Cleveland ends a postseason drought of forty-one years by clinching the American League Central Division with a 3-2 win over the Orioles.
1995 - Greg Harris of the Montreal Expos became the first MODERN Major Leaguer to pitch with both arms. Harris faced four batters, two from his usual right side and two from the left, in the ninth inning of a 9-7 loss to Cincinnati.
1995 - Greg Maddux of the Braves sets a Major League record with his 17th consecutive road victory in a 6-1 triumph over the Reds.
1995 - Robin Ventura became the eighth player in Major League history - and the first in 25 years - to hit two grand slams in one game as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas, 14-3.
1995 - Tim Raines is out stealing in a 10-4 win over the Blue Jays to snap the White Sox outfielder's American League record streak of 40 consecutive stolen bases.
1996 - Mike Greenwell set a Major League record by driving in all nine Boston runs, the final one on a 10th-inning single to give the Red Sox a 9-8 victory over Seattle.
1996 - San Francisco's Barry Bonds became only the second player to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in a season. Jose Canseco was the other. Bonds, who had 42 homers, stole his 40th base in a 9-3 win over Colorado.
1996 - The Baltimore Orioles set baseball's season home run record with five against Detroit, including Mark Parent's record-breaking shot in the third inning and Brady Anderson's tenth leadoff homer of the year. The homers gave the Orioles 243, three more than the 1961 New York Yankees.
1997 - Mike Piazza becomes the first Dodger, and the first player in 25 years, to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. Piazza's 478-foot drive off Colorado's Frank Castillo bounces off the left field pavilion roof. Pittsburgh's Willie Stargell was the only other player to hit a ball out of the stadium (in right field), accomplishing the feat in both 1969 and 1973.
1997 - San Diego's Tony Gwynn tied Honus Wagner's record by winning his eighth National League batting title. Gwynn finished at .372, becoming the first to win four consecutive National League batting titles since Rogers Hornsby won six straight from 1920-25.
1997 - The Giants become the first team in baseball history to finish last two years in a row and then win a title. A 6-1 win over the Padres clinches the National League West. Wilson Alvarez, who came over from the White Sox on July 31, faces only 23 men in seven innings, allowing two hits and three walks.
1997 - Tim Raines, Derek Jeter and Paul O'Neill hit consecutive homers in the sixth inning against Cleveland, making the New York Yankees the first team to hit three straight homers in a postseason game. O'Neill's homer made it 8-6, the final score of the Yankees' Game 1 victory in the American League division series.
1998 - Cal Ripken, Jr. took himself out of the starting lineup and did not play in the Baltimore Orioles' loss to the New York Yankees, ending his consecutive-game streak at 2,632 games. After nearly 16 years, Ripken said he decided the time was right to end the streak, which began on May 30, 1982.
1998 - Denny Neagle put Atlanta's pitching staff into the record books as he improved to 15-11 with a 1-0 victory over Arizona. Neagle's victory made the Braves the first Major League team with five 15-game winners since the 1930 Washington Senators. Neagle joined Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Kevin Millwood.
1998 - Houston's Craig Biggio became only the second player this century to have 50 steals and 50 doubles in a season, joining Hall of Famer Tris Speaker. Biggio, with 51 doubles, singled for his second hit of the game and easily stole his 50th base with two outs in the sixth.
1998 - The New York Yankees officially clinched the American League East title (Sept 9th), the earliest in American League history, beating the Boston Red Sox 7-5. The Yankees improved to 102-41, 20 1/2-games ahead of second-place Boston.
1998 - The New York Yankees won their seventh straight game and ended the regular season with 114 victories. With a .704 winning percentage, the Yankees (114-48) became the first team since the 1954 Cleveland Indians (111-43) to play .700 ball over an entire season.
1872 - An unusual play highlights the Athletics-Boston match in Philadelphia. With the Athletics leading 4-1 in the seventh inning, and runners on first and second, Fergy Malone pops up to shortstop George Wright. Wright catches the ball in his hat and then throws the ball to third base, after which it is thrown to second base. Wright claims a double play has been completed, as a batter cannot be retired with a "hat catch," and thus runners Cap Anson and Bob Reach are forced out. The umpire finally gives Malone another at bat, declaring nobody out. The Athletics win 6-4.
1875 - The first baseball game played with women professionals takes place in Springfield, Illinois. The diamond is half-sized and a nine-foot high canvas surrounds the entire field. The uniforms are similar to the male version, except the pants are shorter.
1878 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings and Indianapolis Blues play an exhibition game in which they experiment with calling every pitch a ball or a strike and allowing only six balls for a walk. The rules up to this time provide for the umpire to call a "warning pitch" on the first wide delivery. The reaction is favorable.
1880 - The first night baseball is played in Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, between teams from two Boston department stores. The Boston Post reports the next day that "A clear, pure, white light was produced, very strong and yet very pleasant to the sight" by the twelve carbon-arc electric lamps.
1880 - The Polo Grounds in New York is leased by the new National Association Metropolitan club. The grounds, which have been used for polo matches, will be converted into the first commercial baseball park to be built on Manhattan Island. It opens three weeks later.
1881 - In a game in Albany, Troy's Roger Connor hits the first grand slam in National League history. The blow comes off Worcester's Lee Richmond with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning and wins the game 8-7.
1888 - The National League Indianapolis Hoosiers club tries its second experimental night game (the first was August 22), but the natural gas illumination is inadequate, and the idea is dropped.
1889 - The most controversial game in American Association history is held in Brooklyn. The St. Louis Browns hold a 4-2 lead in the ninth over the Bridegrooms and claim it is too dark to continue. The lighted candles in front of their bench make umpire Fred Goldsmith determined to finish the game no matter what. Several St. Louis players are hit with bottles as they leave the grounds. The Browns will forfeit the game the next day because they fear for their safety.
1900 - Tommy Corcoran of the Reds uncovers a wire in the coaching box that leads across the outfield to the Phils' locker room, where reserve catcher Morgan Murphy is reading the opposing catcher's signs and relaying them to the Phils' coach by a buzzer hidden in the dirt.
1902 - Tinker, Evers, and Chance appear together in the Chicago Cubs lineup for the first time, but not in the positions that will earn them immortality. Johnny Evers, a New York State League rookie, starts at shortstop, with Joe Tinker at third base, Frank Chance at first base, and Bobby Lowe at second base.
1903 - A new National Agreement signed by the National Association of minor league clubs officially organizes professional baseball under one comprehensive set of rules.
1905 - Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers engage in a fistfight on the field during an exhibition game in Washington, Indiana, because Evers took a taxi to the park, leaving his teammates in the hotel lobby. The pair will not speak to each other again for thirty-three years.
1906 - Playing as Sullivan, to protect his collegiate status, Columbia University junior Eddie Collins makes his debut at shortstop with the Philadelphia Athletics. He gets one hit off Ed Walsh and strikes out twice. Collins will play twenty-five years in the Major Leagues, bat .333, and become a member of the Hall of Fame.
1908 - Ed Reulbach of the Chicago Cubs became the only pitcher to throw two shutouts in a doubleheader, beating the Superbas 5-0 and 3-0.
1908 - Fred Merkle of the New York Giants failed to touch second base (the Merkle Boner) as the apparent winning run crossed home plate in a crucial game with the Chicago Cubs. The ensuing dispute resulted in the game being declared a tie and played over on Oct. 8 when the Cubs and Giants ended the season in a tie.
1908 - The Pirates and Cubs are tied 0-0 in the last of the tenth at Pittsburgh. With two outs and the bases loaded, Pittsburgh's Chief Wilson singles to center, scoring Fred Clarke with the winning run. Warren Gill, on first base, does not get to second base buts stops short, turns, and heads for the dugout, a common practice. The Cubs' Johnny Evers calls for the ball from Jimmy Slagle, touches second base, and claims the run does not count as Gill has been forced. The lone umpire, Hank O'Day, has left the field. When queried, he rules that Clarke had already scored, so the run counts. The Cubs protest the game, but are denied. This is the first time the Cubs try this tactic, but not the last.
1908 - Walter Johnson pitched his third consecutive shutout in four days, a 4-0, two-hitter over the New York Highlanders.
1909 - Ty Cobb clinches the American League home run title with his ninth round-tripper. It is an inside-the-park drive against the Browns. In fact, all his nine home runs this season are inside the park, including two in one game on July 15. He is the only player in this century to lead in home runs without hitting one out of the park.
1909 - Ty Cobb wins the Triple Crown with a .377 batting average, nine home runs and 107 RBI. He also leads the American League with 216 hits, 116 runs and 296 total bases.
1910 - A Southern Association game between Mobile and Atlanta takes just thirty-two minutes to complete. The game is conducted as an experiment with batters swinging at every good pitch and little time taken between pitches. There are no strikeouts and one walk as Mobile wins 2-1.
1911 - Cy Young, forty-four, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 1-0 for his 511th and final Major League victory.
1912 - Center fielder Casey Stengel breaks in with Brooklyn and has four singles, a walk, two stolen bases, and two RBI in the 7-3 win over Pittsburgh.
1912 - Eddie Collins steals six bases in the Athletics' 9-7 win over Detroit, a 20th-century-record. Remarkably, on September 22, he will repeat with six against the Browns.
1912 - Eddie Collins stole six bases for the Philadelphia Athletics as they defeated the Detroit Tigers, 9-7. 11 days later Collins stole six more in a game on Sept. 22.
1913 - Cubs hurler Larry Cheney hurls a 14-hit shutout against the Giants, defeating them 7-0 while setting a Major League record for most hits allowed in a whitewashing. Milt Gaston of Washington will duplicate the feat on July 10, 1928.
1914 - Yankees shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh, twenty-three, replaces Frank Chance and becomes the all-time youngest manager, and the seventh in the club's twelve-year existence. He will go ten-ten and will manage next at Cleveland in 1928.
1916 - Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed out their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game, 10-8.
1916 - Marty Kavanagh, Indians utility man, hits the American League's first pinch-hit grand slam for Cleveland in a 5-3 win over the Red Sox. The ball rolls through a hole in the fence and cannot be retrieved in time for a play at the plate.
1916 - Washington manager Clark Griffith excuses several regulars for the remaining games of the season so he can use some new players. Included is Walter Johnson, who has already won 25 games for the seventh-place club. In a league-leading 371 innings, he did not give up a home run, an all-time record.
1918 - Players on both sides threaten to strike the World Series unless they are guaranteed $2,500 to the winners and $1,000 each for the losers. They back off, however, when told they will appear greedy while their countrymen are fighting World War I.
1918 - The Cubs switch their home games to Comiskey Park with its larger seating capacity for the World Series. Babe Ruth, having completed thirteen scoreless innings in his first World Series two years ago, adds nine more in edging Hippo Vaughn 1-0 in the opener. During the seventh-inning stretch, a military band plays "The Star Spangled Banner." From then on, it is played at every World Series game, every season opener, and whenever a band is present to play it, though it is not yet adopted as the national anthem. The custom of playing it before every game will begin during World War II, after the installation of public address systems.
1918 - Ty Cobb pitches two innings against the Browns while the Browns' George Sisler pitches one scoreless inning. The Browns win 6-2 as Sisler hits a double off Cobb.
1919 - Babe Ruth ties Ned Williamson Major League single season mark of 27 home runs. Four days later he will hit number 28 over the roof of the Polo Grounds.
1919 - In the shortest nine-inning game in Major League history, 51 minutes, the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1.
1919 - The National Commission recommends a best-of-nine World Series. The lengthier World Series is seen as a sign of greed and is abandoned after three years.
1921 - Walter Johnson breaks Cy Young's career strikeout mark by fanning seven Yankees to run his total to 2,287.
1922 - The Yankees play their farewell home game in the Polo Grounds. An estimated crowd of 40,000 overflows the stadium with another 25,000 turned away. This is the last regular season American League game at the Polo Grounds as the Yankees will open Yankee Stadium in 1923.
1923 - Lou Gehrig hit his first homer in the majors, off Bill Piercy of the Boston Red Sox. On the same date, Sept 27, 15 years later, he hit his 493rd and last off Dutch Leonard of the Senators.
1924 - Jim Bottomley went six-for-six and batted in a record twelve runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 17-3. His hits included two home runs.
1924 - Urban Shocker of the St. Louis Browns pitched two complete games against the Chicago White Sox and won both, 6-2.
1928 - The Boston Braves started a grueling string in which they played nine straight doubleheaders, a Major League record.
1928 - Ty Cobb makes the last of his 4,189 hits, the 724th double of his career, as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning for the Philadelphia Athletics in the first game of a doubleheader at Washington. The hit is off Bump Hadley.
1930 - Brooklyn catcher Al Lopez drives one over the head of Cincinnati left fielder Bob Meusel, and the ball bounces into the bleachers at Ebbets Field. It will be the Major Leagues' last recorded bounce home run. The National League declares after the season that such a hit will henceforth be a double. The American League had made the change after the 1929 season.
1931 - Lefty Grove wins his 30th game over the White Sox 2-1. He is the first to win 30 since Jim Bagby of Cleveland in 1920 and will be the last American League hurler to do so until Denny McLain in 1968.
1931 - Lou Gehrig drives in four runs to break his old American League RBI mark of 175, set in 1927. By the season's end he will have a total of 184.
1931 - The most desperately contested battle for individual honors takes place in the race for the National League batting title. Chick Hafey, who reported late due to a contract dispute, goes into the final doubleheader with the Reds batting .353, ahead of last year's champ Bill Terry (.349). Hafey gets only one hit in eight times at bat to drop to .349. Against Brooklyn, Terry gets only one hit in four times at bat. The title goes to Hafey, who bats .3488 to Terry's .3486. Jim Bottomley, Hafey's Cardinal teammate, finishes at .3481.
1931 - The Philadelphia Athletics clinch the pennant, beating Cleveland at home. Eddie Rommel, veteran knuckleball pitcher for the A's, is the winning hurler, as Connie Mack wins his third successive pennant. It is Mack's ninth, and last, American League championship.
1934 - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis sells the World Series broadcast rights to the Ford Motor Company for $100,000. Previously no fee had been charged.
1935 - The Boston Braves lose their 110th game for a new National League record. They will lose 115, which remains the record until the 1962 expansion New York Mets lose 120 in a 162-game schedule. The Braves' winning percentage of .248 is a Twentieth Century low in the National League.
1935 - The Chicago Cubs won their 21st consecutive game and clinched the National League pennant.
1936 - Bob Feller, just seventeen, beat the Philadelphia A's 5-2 on two hits. The Cleveland youngster fanned an American League-record seventeen batters.
1936 - Walter Alston played in his only Major League game, as a late-inning substitute at first base for Johnny Mize of the St. Louis Cardinals. He made one error in two chances and struck out his only time at bat. He went on to have a good career as a manager.
1938 - A special committee names Alexander Cartwright to Baseball's Hall of Fame for originating the sport's basic concepts. Henry Chadwick, inventor of the box score and the first baseball writer, is also honored.
1938 - Brothers Lloyd and Paul Waner hit back-to-back homers for the Pittsburgh Pirates off Cliff Melton of the New York Giants. This was the first time brothers hit successive home runs in a Major League game! It was Lloyd Waner's last homer.
1938 - Gabby Hartnett hit his famous "Homer in the Gloamin" as darkness descended at Wrigley Field in the ninth inning to give the Chicago Cubs a 6-5 victory, their ninth straight. It was a key victory en route to the Cubs' National League pennant.
1939 - Ted Williams hits a home run off Thornton Lee, one of thirty-one home runs he will hit in his rookie season. Williams will homer off Thornton's son, Don Lee, twenty-one years later
1939 - The National League announces that for the first time in the 20th century, games will be transferred from one city to another. A doubleheader in Philadelphia will be moved to Brooklyn in an effort to top one million paid attendance.
1941 - Ted Williams went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia A's to finish the season with a .406 average. No player has batted .400 since.
1943 - At sixteen years, eight months, five days, Philadelphia A's pitcher Carl Scheib became the youngest player to appear in an American League game.
1944 - After a 5-15 stretch that ate away a chunk of their 20-game lead, the Cardinals finally clinch the National League flag with a 5-4 win over Boston. They will finish with 105 victories.
1945 - Joe Kuhel hits an inside-the-park home run, the only homer hit by a Senator all season at Washington's Griffith Stadium. The Nats hit twenty-six on the road.
1945 - Punching umpire Joe Rue earns an indefinite suspension for Philadelphia A's catcher Greek George. George will not play in the majors again, though his lifetime batting average of .177 might be the main cause.
1946 - Disappointing on the field, the Yankees nevertheless finish their home season with an attendance of 2,265,512. The best previous draw was the 1929 Cubs at 1,485,166. Total Major League attendance was 18.5 million, 75 percent more than 1945.
1946 - The Boston Red Sox clinch the American League pennant, edging the Cleveland Indians 1-0 on Ted Williamss inside-the-park home run, the only one of his career. Williams punches the ball over the shift when left fielder Pat Seerey pulls in behind the shortstop position.
1946 - The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 2-0 in five innings when the game was called because of gnats. The insects became such a problem for the players, umpires and fans that the game had to be stopped.
1947 - Jackie Robinson is named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News two weeks before the season is over. At year's end he has hit .297 and led the league in stolen bases and sacrifices. He has fourteen bunt hits, and in a game against the Cubs in June, scores from first base on a sacrifice.
1947 - On the season's last day, the St. Louis Browns, desperate for a ticket seller, bring announcer Dizzy Dean in to pitch against the White Sox. Diz gives up only three hits in four innings and laces a clean single in his only at bat, but a pulled leg muscle forces his retirement. The White Sox score all their runs in the ninth to win 5-2. Even with Diz, the game draws less than 16,000, and the Browns finish the year with only 320,000 attendance, less than half that of 1946.
1947 - Sept 30th, In the first televised World Series, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3 in the opening game.
1947 - The New York Yankees had eighteen hits, all singles, in an 11-2 victory over Boston at Fenway Park. Tommy Henrich and Joe DiMaggio each had four hits.
1951 - Jackie Robinson homered in the 14th inning to give the Brooklyn Dodgers a 9-8 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, tying the New York Giants for first place in the National League and forcing a playoff.
1951 - The Cards split a rare doubleheader with two different teams, defeating the Giants 6-4 in the first game in the afternoon and losing to the Braves in the nightcap. It is the first time a team in the National League has played two different teams in the same day since the early years of the century.
1952 - The Braves play their last game in Boston's Braves Field before moving to Milwaukee, losing to Brooklyn's Joe Black 8-2. The crowd of 8,822 is the second largest of the season at the ballpark.
1953 - Billy Hunter becomes the last St. Louis Browns player to homer in a game. The Browns lose anyway 6-3 to Chicago.
1953 - Mickey Mantle's two-run home run off Chicago's Billy Pierce caps a seven-run fifth inning, as New York wins 9-3 at Yankee Stadium. Returning to center field after the fifth, Mantle is photographed blowing a huge bubble with a wad of gum. Manager Casey Stengel will publicly rebuke the Mick, who will apologize for the indiscretion. However, Mantle does get an endorsement fee from the Bowman Gum company.
1953 - The Dodgers tie the record for the most wins in a home park, beating Pittsburgh 5-4. They go an incredible 60-17 at Ebbets Field, tying the record of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1942. Only the 61 wins of the San Francisco Giants in 1962 in an 81-game home season will surpass the mark.
1953 - The St. Louis Browns play both their last game in Sportsman's Park and the last game in the franchise's 52-year history. Fittingly, they lose 2-1 to Billy Pierce and the Chicago White Sox in ten innings for their 100th defeat of the season.
1954 - Art Ditmar of the Athletics defeats the Yanks 8-6 in the last game the franchise will play in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City. In the game Yankees catcher Yogi Berra plays his only game at third base in his career and Mickey Mantle plays shortstop.
1954 - Joe Bauman, playing for Roswell of the Longhorn League, hit three home runs to give him 72 for the season. Bauman never made it to the majors.
1954 - Willie Mays made an over-the-shoulder catch of Vic Wertz's long drive to center field, and pinch-hitter Dusty Rhodes homered off Bob Lemon in the 10th inning to lead the New York Giants to a 5-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series.
1955 - Detroit outfielder Al Kaline becomes the youngest batting champ (0.340) in history, as he takes the American League crown at age twenty. Kaline takes the age-record from Ty Cobb, who was only twelve days older than Kaline when he won it in 1907 (0.350).
1955 - Ted Williams finishes the season at .356, well ahead of Al Kaline's .340, but does not have enough at-bats to win the batting title. The same thing happened in 1954. Williams was walked 136 times in 1954 and 71 times this year. A rule change will be made to recognize plate appearances, not times at bat.
1955 - The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 10-2, to clinch the National League pennant with a seventeen-game lead.
1956 - White Sox hurler Jim Derrington becomes the youngest pitcher in modern history to start a game. He loses to Kansas City 7-6 at the age of 16 years and 10 months.
1957 - Duke Snider's 39th and 40th home runs are the last that will be hit at Ebbets Field. Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts, who has a penchant for throwing home run balls, is the loser, 7-3.
1957 - Gail Harris is the last player to hit a home run as a New York Giant in a 9-5 win over the Pirates in the second game of a doubleheader.
1957 - Hank Aaron's eleventh-inning homer gave the Milwaukee Braves a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and the National League pennant. It was the first time since 1950 that a New York team hadn't finished first
1957 - In the last game at Ebbets Field, 6,702 fans watch Dodgers lefty Danny McDevitt prevail over the Pirates 2-0. Gil Hodges has the last RBI.
1957 - The Dodgers play their last game in Jersey City, as Don Drysdale loses to Philadelphia 3-2 in 12 innings. Brooklyn ends with an 11-4 mark in New Jersey.
1957 - The Los Angeles City Council approves a 300-acre site in Chavez Ravine for a Dodger stadium if the club will finance a public recreation area
1957 - With 1895 manager Jack Doyle among the 11,606 looking on, the Giants lose their last game at the Polo Grounds 9-1. Bucs rookie John Powers hits a home run in the top of the ninth, the last homer and RBI at the Polo Grounds. This game is played on the 77th anniversary of the first Polo Grounds baseball game, Sept 29th.
1960 - For the first time since 1927, the Pirates are headed for the World Series. A gigantic torchlight victory parade in Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle at midnight celebrates the pennant.
1960 - In his final major-league plate appearance, against Baltimore's Jack Fisher, Ted Williams picks out a 1-1 pitch and drives it 450 feet into the right-center field seats behind the Boston bullpen. It is Williams' 521st and last home run, putting him third on the all-time list. The blast gives the seventh-place Red Sox a 5-4 victory. Williams stays in the dugout, ignoring the crowd's cheers, but when he trots out to left field in the ninth, he is replaced immediately by Carroll Hardy. He retires as a standing crowd roars.
1961 - Roger Maris tied Babe Ruth's 34-year-old record with his 60th homer, off Baltimore's Jack Fisher.
1961 - Sandy Koufax notches seven strikeouts in a 2-1 win over the Phillies to set a National League record for strikeouts in a season: 269. This surpasses Christy Mathewson's 267 in 1903, which was accomplished in 367 innings pitched, as opposed to Koufax's 255.
1962 - A 12-2 Dodgers' loss at St. Louis is enlivened by Maury Wills, who ties Ty Cobb's long-standing Major League single-season record of 96 steals by swiping second base after singling in the third, and breaks it with a repeat performance in the seventh.
1962 - Willie Mays homered to give the San Francisco Giants a 2-1 victory over the Houston Colt. 45s in the season's final day. That, coupled with the Los Angeles Dodgers' 1-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, forced a playoff for the National League pennant. The Giants won in three games.
1963 - All three Alou brothers - Felipe, Matty and Jesus - played in the outfield at the same time for the San Francisco Giants in a 13-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1963 - Baseball historian Lee Allen says the Indians vs Senators Sept 6th game is the 100,000th in Major League history.
1963 - Braves pitcher Warren Spahn ties Christy Mathewson with his thirteenth 20-win season by notching a 3-2 victory in Philadelphia. At forty-two, Spahn becomes the oldest twenty-game winner.
1963 - Playing in his one and ONLY Major League game, Houston Colt 45 outfielder John Paciorek, brother of Jim and Tom, went three for three (all singles), walked twice, had three runs batted in and scored four times.
1963 - The New York Mets lost their last game at the Polo Grounds to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, in front of only 1,752.
1964 - Manager Gene Mauch's first-place Phillies lost 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds on Chico Ruiz's steal of home in the sixth inning. It was Philadelphia's first of ten straight losses, a streak that cost the National League pennant.
1964 - Southpaw relief pitcher Masanori Murakami becomes the first Major League player from Japan. He debuts in a 4-1 San Francisco loss at New York. His first eleven innings will be scoreless ones.
1964 - St. Louis becomes the first National League club to score in each inning since the Giants did it on June 1, 1923. They coast 15-2 at Wrigley Field.
1965 - Another Kansas City publicity stunt makes the great Satchel Paige baseball's oldest performer. At fifty-nine, Paige hurls the first three innings, garners one strikeout, and allows just one hit, to Carl Yastrzemski, in his first Major League appearance since 1953. The Red Sox jump on reliever Don Mossi for a 5-2 win.
1965 - Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City A's played all nine positions in a loss to the Angels, 5-3, in 13 innings.
1965 - Preparing a move to Anaheim, the Angels change their name from Los Angeles to California. They will stay in LA for another year before going to Anaheim.
1966 - Los Angeles became the first team in Major League history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road as the Dodgers beat the Reds, 8-6, before 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.
1966 - The Baltimore Orioles clinched their first American League pennant in 22 years with a 6-1 victory over the Kansas City A's. Their last pennant came in 1944 when they were the St. Louis Browns.
1968 - Carl Yastrzemski maintains a .3005 batting average to win his second straight batting crown with the lowest championship average ever. Yaz is the American League's only .300 hitter; Oakland's Danny Cater is second with .290.
1968 - Cesar Tovar played one inning at each position for the Minnesota Twins, becoming only the second Major Leaguer in history to do it. Bert Campaneris of the Oakland A's was the other.
1968 - Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland A's 5-4 to become the first pitcher since Dizzy Dean in 1934 to win thirty games.
1968 - Denny McLain won his 31st game, the most in the American League since Lefty Grove's thirty-one in 1931
1968 - Mickey Mantle hit his last home run in the Major Leagues, a solo shot against Boston's Jim Lonborg. Mantle had 536 homers.
1968 - Ray Washburn pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park, one day after the Giants' Gaylord Perry tossed a no-hitter against Washburn's St. Louis Cardinals
1971 - Baltimore achieves 108 wins for the season with a doubleheader sweep at Boston, 10-2, and 5-4. The Orioles become only the third team to win 100 games in three straight seasons.
1971 - The Senators, in their final game in Washington, hold a 7-5 lead over the Yankees with two outs in the ninth. Fans then swarm onto the field, causing the game to be forfeited to the Yanks.
1972 - Roberto Clemente doubled off Jon Matlack during Pittsburgh's 5-0 victory over the New York Mets. The hit was the 3,000th and last for the Pirates star right fielder, who was killed in a plane crash during the offseason.
1974 - Giants pitcher John Montefusco makes his Major League debut, homers in his first official time at bat, and hurls nine innings of relief to earn a 9-5 victory over the Dodgers.
1974 - It took the St. Louis Cardinals 25 innings - 7:04 - to beat the New York Mets. A record 202 batters went to the plate, as Felix Millan and John Milner had twelve appearances apiece.
1975 - The Pittsburgh Pirates routed the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field 22-0. It was the most one-sided shutout since 1900. Rennie Stennett had seven hits, including two two-hit innings.
1975 - The Red Sox top the Brewers 8-6 as Robin Yount breaks Mel Ott's 47-year-old record by playing in his 242nd game as a teenager.
1976 - Los Angeles catcher Steve Yeager was seriously injured when the jagged end of a broken bat struck him in the throat while he was waiting in the on-deck circle.
1976 - Minnie Minoso comes to bat for the White Sox after a twelve-year hiatus. He goes hitless in his three at bats against Frank Tanana, but his appearance makes him one of a handful of Major League players to play in four decades. His at bat in 1980 will match him with Nick Altrock as a five-decade player.
1976 - Minnie Minoso singled in three at-bats on Sept 12th, as the designated hitter for the Chicago White Sox. At age 53 he became the oldest player to get a hit in a regulation game
1976 - Walter Alston, after 23 years and 2,040 victories with the Dodgers, steps down as manager. Third base coach Tom Lasorda is promoted to the post
1977 - In the second game of a doubleheader in Boston, Tigers rookies Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell debut together. They will hold down the second base and shortstop jobs in Detroit for a record nineteen years.
1977 - Japan's Sadaharu Oh hits the 756th home run of his career to surpass Hank Aaron's total and make him the most prolific home run hitter in professional baseball history at that time.
1977 - The Angels acquire Dave Kingman from the Padres for cash. Nine days later the Yankees will buy Kingman, making him the first player to wear four uniforms in four divisions in the same year. Kingman, who started the season in New York with the Mets, will hit twenty-six home runs to set the mark for the most by a player with more than two teams.
1978 - The Red Sox throw 22-year-old Bobby Sprowl at the Yankees and the lefty last just two-thirds of an inning as the Yankees win 7-4. New York out hits the Red Sox 67-21, and outscores them 42-9, in a sweep that leaves the teams in a tie for first place, and caps a remarkable march to the top from fourth place, 14 games out.
1978 - The Yankees, four games behind the Red Sox in the American League East, arrive in Boston for a crucial four-game series. The Yanks begin the "Boston Massacre" with a 15-3 rout. New York outhits the Red Sox 67-21, and outscores them 42-9, in a sweep that leaves the teams in a tie for first place, and caps a remarkable march to the top from fourth place, 14 games out.
1979 - Atlanta's Phil Niekro notches his 20th win of the season by beating his brother Joe, the National League's only other 20-game winner of the season, 9-4. The Niekro brothers are the second pair (the other was Jim and Gaylord Perry) to win 20 games in the same year. Phil Niekro, who finishes at 21-20, is the first pitcher since fellow knuckleballer Wilbur Wood in 1973 to win and lose 20 games the same year, and the first National League pitcher to do so since 1905.
1979 - Lou Brock stole base No. 938, breaking Billy Hamilton's record, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Mets 7-4 in 10 innings.
1979 - Pete Rose singles as the Phillies fall to the Cardinals, 7-2. Rose reaches 200 hits in a season for the tenth time. He breaks the Major League record of nine such seasons held by Ty Cobb.
1979 - Royals third baseman George Brett collects his 20th triple of the season in a 16-4 romp over the Angels. Brett becomes the sixth player ever, and the first since Willie Mays in 1957, to collect twenty doubles, twenty triples, and twenty home runs in the same season. He will finish with totals of 42, 20, and 23.
1979 - Switch-hitting Cardinals shortstop Garry Templeton collects three hits against the Mets and becomes the first player to get 100 hits from each side of the plate. During the last nine games, he batted exclusively righthanded to set the record.
1980 - After surrendering a two-run home run to Rusty Staub, Rick Langford is removed with two outs in the ninth inning of Oakland's 6-4 win over Texas, ending his consecutive complete-game streak at 22
1980 - A's outfielder Rickey Henderson sets the American League single-season stolen base record with his 97th in a 5-1 win over the White Sox, breaking Ty Cobb's record of 96 set in 1915. Henderson will finish the season with one-hundred stolen bases.
1980 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends Fergie Jenkins indefinitely as a result of his August 25 drug arrest in Toronto. On September 22, the suspension will be overturned by arbitrator Raymond Goetz, the first time ever a commissioner's decision is overruled by an arbitrator.
1980 - George Brett goes 0-for-4 in a 9-0 loss to the A's to drop his average below .400 for good. He is now hitting .396 and will finish the season at .390.
1981 - Fernando Valenzuela sets the National League rookie record with his eighth shutout of the season, a three-hitter to beat the Braves, 2-0. He had shared the record with Irv Young (1905), Grover Alexander (1911), and Jerry Koosman (1968).
1982 - Playing against the Royals at Anaheim Stadium, outfielders Fred Lynn and Brian Downing crash through the left field fence while trying to catch a fly ball. Lynn makes the catch and it is ruled an out, the umpires reasoning that it is the same as if he had tumbled into the seats.
1983 - Oakland's Rickey Henderson steals three bases in a 6-5 win over Texas to give him 101 for the season. It is his third season with one-hundred or more steals.
1983 - Tim Raines becomes the first player since Ty Cobb to steal 70 bases and drive in 70 runs in the same season.
1984 - Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets struck out Ron Cey of the Chicago Cubs in the second inning - his 228th of the season setting a National League record for a rookie. Gooden passed Grover Alexander, who set the mark with 227 in 1911.
1984 - Pete Rose reached the 100-hit plateau for the 22nd consecutive year, an all-time record.
1984 - Rick Sutcliffe pitches a two-hitter in a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh to clinch the National League East title for the Cubs, who will be making their first postseason appearance since 1945. The win is Sutcliffe's 14th in a row.
1984 - The Padres clinch their first National League West title since entering the league in 1969 with a 5-4 win over the Giants. The key blow is winning pitcher Tim Lollar's three-run home run, his third home run of the season.
1985 - Expos outfielder Andre Dawson slugs three home runs, including a pair of three-run shots in a 12-run fifth inning, to lead Montreal to a wild 17-15 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Dawson joins Willie McCovey as the only players to hit two home runs in one inning on two different occasions.
1985 - One night after scuffling with a patron in the bar of the Yankees' Baltimore hotel, manager Billy Martin has his right arm broken by pitcher Ed Whitson in an early-morning brawl in the same bar.
1985 - Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds became the career hit leader with his 4,192nd hit to break Ty Cobb's record (Sept 11). Rose lined a 2-1 pitch off San Diego pitcher Eric Show to left-center field for a single in the first inning. It was the 57th anniversary of Ty Cobb's last game in the majors.
1986 - Bob Brenly of San Francisco tied a Major League record with four errors in one inning, but atoned with two homers, including the game-winner, to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Brenly, normally a catcher, was playing third base.
1986 - Chicago Cubs rookie Greg Maddux defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 8-3. The losing pitcher was his brother, Mike, also a rookie. It was the first time brothers faced each other as rookies.
1986 - Minnesota's Bert Blyleven broke Robin Roberts' 1956 record of 46 home run pitches in a season, when he gave up a two-out, third-inning homer to Cleveland rookie Jay Bell. Despite giving up two more homers, Bert Blyleven was the winner when the Twins rallied in the eighth for a 6-5 victory.
1986 - Texas hit a club record seven home runs as the Rangers routed the Minnesota Twins 14-1. The Rangers rocked starter Bert Blyleven for five home runs, raising his season total to forty-four and breaking an American League record.
1987 - Detroit's Darrell Evans became the first 40-year-old player in Major League history to hit 30 home runs in a season as the Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6.
1987 - Padres catcher Benito Santiago extends his hitting streak to 28 games in a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers, setting a new Major League record for rookies. Pittsburgh's Jimmy Williams had held the record with a 27-game streak in 1899.
1987 - Williamsport (Eastern League) Bills catcher Dave Bresnahan introduces a new wrinkle to baseball, the hidden potato. With a Reading runner, Rick Rudblad, on third base, Bresnahan returns from a time out with a shaved potato hidden in his mitt. On the next pitch he throws the potato wildly on a pickoff attempt. When the runner trots home, Bresnahan tags him out with the real ball. The umpire, unamused, rules the runner safe, gives the catcher an error, and fines him $50. He is released the following day. But that night, their last game of the season, the Bills admit any fan for $1 and a potato. On each potato, Bresnahan autographs, "This spud's for you.
1988 - Bruce Sutter joins Rollie Fingers and Rich Gossage as the third pitcher to save 300 games as Atlanta beats San Diego 5-4 in 11 innings. It is the last save of his career.
1988 - Dave Stieb of the Toronto Blue Jays lost a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth for the second consecutive start, and finished with a 4-0 one-hitter over the Baltimore Orioles. Stieb faced the minimum 26 batters until Jim Trabor lined a single down the right-field line about 3 feet from the glove of first baseman Fred McGriff.
1988 - In his last start of the regular season, Orel Hershiser pitches ten shutout innings to extend his consecutive-scoreless-inning streak to 59, breaking Dodger Don Drysdale's Major League record by one.
1988 - Oakland's Jose Canseco becomes the founder of baseball's 40-homer, 40-stolen base club by stealing two bases in a 9-8, 14-inning win over Milwaukee. He also hits his 41st home run.
1988 - Wade Boggs became the first player this century to get 200 hits in six consecutive seasons as the Boston Red Sox pounded Toronto 13-2. Boggs also joined Lou Gehrig as the only players to get 200 hits and 100 walks in three consecutive years.
1989 - Dave Stewart becomes the first pitcher since Jim Palmer (1975-78) to win twenty games in three straight seasons by beating the Twins 5-2. It is also Stewart's 100th Major League win.
1989 - Eight days after banning Pete Rose from baseball for life, Commissioner Bart Giamatti dies suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51.
1989 - Five days after hitting a home run for the Yankees in a 12-2 win over the Mariners, Deion Sanders returns a punt 68 yards for a touchdown in his NFL debut with the Atlanta Falcons. He is the first player to accomplish both these feats in the same week at the professional level.
1989 - Wade Boggs becomes the first player in Major League history to achieve both 200 hits and 100 walks in four consecutive seasons. It is his seventh straight 200-hit season overall, extending his own modern Major League record.
1990 - Dave Stieb, who had lost three no-hit bids with one out to go in the previous two seasons, finally pitched one as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Cleveland, 3-0. It was the record ninth no-hitter of the season.
1990 - Ken Griffey and his son hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of the Seattle Mariners' 7-5 loss to the California Angels. The unprecedented father-and-son homers came off Kirk McCaskill.
1990 - Oakland beats New York 7-3 to complete a twelve-game sweep of the Yankees this year. The season sweep is a first for the Yankees.
1990 - The White Sox beat Seattle 2-1 in the last game played at historic Comiskey Park, which is to be torn down after eighty seasons of major-league ball. Chicago will play next season at the new Comiskey Park located across the street.
1991 - A 55-ton block collapses in Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The Expos, already in last place, will have to play the rest of their home games on the road.
1992 - Bip Roberts tied the National League record with his 10th consecutive hit, then grounded out against Pedro Astacio to end his streak in the Cincinnati Reds' game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1992 - Philadelphia second baseman Mickey Morandini made the first unassisted triple play in the National League in 65 years, just the ninth in Major League history, in the Phillies' 3-2, 13-inning loss to Pittsburgh.
1992 - Terry Mulholland of the Phillies becomes the new pickoff king. His 14 pickoffs are the most by any pitcher since the stat became official in 1989.
1992 - Toronto's Dave Winfield becomes the oldest player in Major League history to reach the 100-RBI plateau. The 40-year-old does the trick in his 2,700th career game.
1993 - Baseball joins the other major sports and expands the postseason as well as its divisions. The measure passes by a 27-1 vote with Texas, one of two teams other than the new expansion teams never to go to the postseason by the old setup, as the lone dissenter.
1993 - Paul Molitor's home run against California puts him over the 100-RBI mark for the first time in his career. At thirty-seven, Molitor is the oldest to reach this plateau for the first time.
1993 - The Colorado Rockies played their final game of their first season and finished with a Major League home attendance record. The Rockies played before 4,483,350.
1993 - The Yankees trail the Red Sox 3-1 in the ninth inning when Mike Stanley hits a popup to left field. Just before the pitch, a fan runs onto the field and umpire Tim Welke calls timeout, so the last out doesn't count. The Yankees rally for three runs and the Red Sox lose the game as well as the protest filed by the team.
1995 - Cal Ripken, Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive Major League game to surpass Lou Gehrig's 56-year record. Ripken received a 22-minute standing ovation and went 2-for-4, including a homer, in Baltimore's 4-2 win over California.
1995 - Cleveland ends a postseason drought of forty-one years by clinching the American League Central Division with a 3-2 win over the Orioles.
1995 - Greg Harris of the Montreal Expos became the first MODERN Major Leaguer to pitch with both arms. Harris faced four batters, two from his usual right side and two from the left, in the ninth inning of a 9-7 loss to Cincinnati.
1995 - Greg Maddux of the Braves sets a Major League record with his 17th consecutive road victory in a 6-1 triumph over the Reds.
1995 - Robin Ventura became the eighth player in Major League history - and the first in 25 years - to hit two grand slams in one game as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas, 14-3.
1995 - Tim Raines is out stealing in a 10-4 win over the Blue Jays to snap the White Sox outfielder's American League record streak of 40 consecutive stolen bases.
1996 - Mike Greenwell set a Major League record by driving in all nine Boston runs, the final one on a 10th-inning single to give the Red Sox a 9-8 victory over Seattle.
1996 - San Francisco's Barry Bonds became only the second player to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in a season. Jose Canseco was the other. Bonds, who had 42 homers, stole his 40th base in a 9-3 win over Colorado.
1996 - The Baltimore Orioles set baseball's season home run record with five against Detroit, including Mark Parent's record-breaking shot in the third inning and Brady Anderson's tenth leadoff homer of the year. The homers gave the Orioles 243, three more than the 1961 New York Yankees.
1997 - Mike Piazza becomes the first Dodger, and the first player in 25 years, to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. Piazza's 478-foot drive off Colorado's Frank Castillo bounces off the left field pavilion roof. Pittsburgh's Willie Stargell was the only other player to hit a ball out of the stadium (in right field), accomplishing the feat in both 1969 and 1973.
1997 - San Diego's Tony Gwynn tied Honus Wagner's record by winning his eighth National League batting title. Gwynn finished at .372, becoming the first to win four consecutive National League batting titles since Rogers Hornsby won six straight from 1920-25.
1997 - The Giants become the first team in baseball history to finish last two years in a row and then win a title. A 6-1 win over the Padres clinches the National League West. Wilson Alvarez, who came over from the White Sox on July 31, faces only 23 men in seven innings, allowing two hits and three walks.
1997 - Tim Raines, Derek Jeter and Paul O'Neill hit consecutive homers in the sixth inning against Cleveland, making the New York Yankees the first team to hit three straight homers in a postseason game. O'Neill's homer made it 8-6, the final score of the Yankees' Game 1 victory in the American League division series.
1998 - Cal Ripken, Jr. took himself out of the starting lineup and did not play in the Baltimore Orioles' loss to the New York Yankees, ending his consecutive-game streak at 2,632 games. After nearly 16 years, Ripken said he decided the time was right to end the streak, which began on May 30, 1982.
1998 - Denny Neagle put Atlanta's pitching staff into the record books as he improved to 15-11 with a 1-0 victory over Arizona. Neagle's victory made the Braves the first Major League team with five 15-game winners since the 1930 Washington Senators. Neagle joined Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Kevin Millwood.
1998 - Houston's Craig Biggio became only the second player this century to have 50 steals and 50 doubles in a season, joining Hall of Famer Tris Speaker. Biggio, with 51 doubles, singled for his second hit of the game and easily stole his 50th base with two outs in the sixth.
1998 - The New York Yankees officially clinched the American League East title (Sept 9th), the earliest in American League history, beating the Boston Red Sox 7-5. The Yankees improved to 102-41, 20 1/2-games ahead of second-place Boston.
1998 - The New York Yankees won their seventh straight game and ended the regular season with 114 victories. With a .704 winning percentage, the Yankees (114-48) became the first team since the 1954 Cleveland Indians (111-43) to play .700 ball over an entire season.