April 25

Events, births and deaths that occurred on April 25.

[edit] Events

• 1901 - At Bennett Park, the Detroit Tigers make an incredible comeback in their American League debut. Trailing 13 - 4 in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Tigers score 10 runs in their last at-bat to defeat the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, 14 - 13. Frank Dillon drives in the game-winning run with a double, his fourth of the game. Dillon's four doubles is an opening day record that will be matched by Jim Greengrass in 1954.
• 1904 - New York Highlanders pitcher Jack Chesbro posts the first of his 41 wins on the season, an American League record that still stands.
• 1916 - At the Polo Grounds, Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox pitches a 10-inning complete game to defeat the Yankees, 4 - 3. Ruth gives up two earned runs on eight hits, but is hitless at the plate.
• 1922 - In a 5 - 3 win over Detroit, Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns hits his sixth home run in four days, off Howard Ehmke, tying Babe Ruth's 1921 feat. Williams will take the American League home run and RBI titles and become the first 30-30 man in major league history, with 39 home runs and 37 stolen bases.
• 1933 - New York Yankees rookie Russ Van Atta makes a successful major league debut when he pitches a five-hit shutout against the Washington Senators and collects four singles in four at-bats. Earle Combs adds five hits as the Yankees win, 16 - 0.
• 1937 - New York Giants pitcher Cliff Melton strikes out 13 batters in his major league debut, but loses a 3 - 1 decision to the Boston Bees. In spite of the loss, Melton will go on to win 20 games in his rookie season.
• 1948 - Larry Doby of the Cleveland Indians ties a major league record by striking out five times in the Indians' 7 - 4 victory over Detroit at Tiger Stadium.
• 1957 - The major leagues adopt a new rule that prohibits baserunners from interfering with batted balls in the field of play. The rule is adopted in reaction to recent actions by several Cincinnati Redlegs baserunners. Earlier in the week, Don Hoak and Johnny Temple had intentionally interfered with batted balls as a way of preventing double plays.
• 1958 - Reds-killer Roberto Clemente once again commandeers Crosley Field; his first home run of the season gives Pittsburgh a 4 - 3 win over Cincinnati. Clemente is in on all the scoring, carrying home the tying run in the 6th and, one inning later, putting Pittsburgh ahead for good with a three-run shot. Redlegs third baseman Don Hoak is eaten alive by Clemente's 6th-inning leadoff smash, the latter's crazy carom affording Clemente a hustle double. One ground ball and one fly ball later, Roberto is in with the run that cancels out George Crowe's 2nd-inning homer. The tie will last exactly one inning and, even then, only because of Clemente's arm, whose mere presence prevents Frank Robinson's 7th-inning double from scoring speedy Vada Pinson from first with the tie-breaker. The 1 - 1 tie thus secured, Clemente climaxes the bottom of the frame with a 2-out, three-run, 400-foot blast to right center, supplying the remainder of Pittsburgh's offensive output, just enough to outlast Cincy.
• 1961 - Two weeks after the Boston Celtics win the NBA championship, their reserve center, Gene Conley, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, gets his first American League victory, a 6 - 1 win over the visiting Washington Senators.
• 1962 - Catcher Harry Chiti is traded for himself when the Cleveland Indians send him to the New York Mets in exchange for a player to be named later. On June 15th, the Mets will sell Chiti back to Cleveland to complete the deal.
• 1969 - San Francisco Giants catcher Jack Hiatt drives in seven runs in a 12 - 8 victory over the Houston Astros. Hiatt's unexpected outburst includes a two-run home run in the 1st inning and a game-winning grand slam in the 13th inning. Usually a light hitter, Hiatt will finish the season with only 34 RBI and a .196 batting average.
• 1970 - For the 7th time in his career (and the second time this week), Willie Stargell homers over Forbes Field's right field roof, a two-out, two-run blast which erases a one-run deficit and provides the final margin of victory as the Bucs beat Atlanta, 8 - 7, in a barn-burner featuring 8 doubles, one triple and 2 tape measure home runs, the other being Rico Carty's bases-empty blast over the Barney Dreyfuss monument in straight-away centerfield.
• 1976 - Chicago Cubs centerfielder Rick Monday rescues an American flag from two spectators who try to set it on fire in the outfield of Dodger Stadium. The incident happens in the 4th inning of a 5 - 4, 10-inning loss to Los Angeles.
• 1977 - George Foster of the Cincinnati Reds has seven RBI, five runs, two home runs, a double and a single in the Reds' 23 - 9 victory over the host Atlanta Braves. Cincinnati ties a National League record by scoring 12 runs in the 5th inning off three Braves pitchers.
• 1981 - Seattle Mariners manager Maury Wills is suspended for two games as punishment for ordering the grounds crew to enlarge the batter's boxes at the Kingdome. Wills decided to tamper with the chalk lines after the Oakland Athletics complained that Seattle's Tom Paciorek repeatedly stepped out of the batter's box while hitting.
• 1982 - Just 14 games into the season, New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fires manager Bob Lemon and replaces him with Gene Michael, the man Lemon had replaced the previous September. Michael won't finish the season either.
• 1990 - At Fenway Park, gimpy-legged Bill Buckner, 41, hits an inside-the-park home run for the Boston Red Sox. It will be his only homer in this, his last, season as he will play just 22 games. The Red Sox lose, 3 - 1, to Kirk McCaskill and the California Angels.
• 1995 - Major League Baseball returns after a 257-day layoff as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins, 8 - 7. Players had gone on strike the previous August.
• 1997:
  • Matt Williams hits three home runs and David Justice hits a pair as the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers combine to match a major league record for home runs in a nine-inning night game with 11. Cleveland hits a club-record 8 in all, including 3 in one inning as the Indians beat the Brewers, 11 - 4.
  • Ken Griffey, Jr. of the Seattle Mariners hits three home runs in a 13 - 8 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. The three homers give Griffey a major league-leading 13 on the year, and a major-league record for the month of April. The first two dingers come off Roger Clemens and the third, hit off Mike Timlin, is the 250th of Griffey's career. He also had a three-homer game in May of last year.
• 2000 - Honoring the work stoppage called by Cuban-Americans over the Elian Gonzalez situation, Alex Fernandez, Vladimir Núñez, Michael Tejera and Mike Lowell of the Marlins, Jose Canseco of Tampa Bay, and the Mets' Rey Ordóñez and Cookie Rojas do not participate in major league action.
• 2001 - Rickey Henderson of the San Diego Padres sets a major league record with his 2,063rd base on balls in San Diego's 5 - 3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. The mark had been held by Babe Ruth.
• 2006:
  • Preston Wilson ends the longest regular-season game in Minute Maid Park history when he hits a sacrifice fly in the 14th inning of Houston's 4 - 3 victory over the Dodgers. Willy Taveras scores the winning run in the 4-hour, 48-minute game. In Game 3 of last year's World Series, the Chicago White Sox beat Houston, 7 - 5, in a game that took 5:41.
  • Jonny Gomes hits his American League-leading 10th home run in Tampa Bay's 9 - 1 loss to the Yankees. Gomes ties the club record for home runs in a month with Jose Canseco and Aubrey Huff.
  • Kevin Mench extends his home run streak to five games, matching a Texas Rangers record in a 5 - 3 victory over Oakland. Mench becomes the fourth Texas player to homer in five straight games, joining Carl Everett, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez.
• 2007 - Jake Peavy of the Padres strikes out 16 Diamondbacks hitters, including 9 in a row at one point, but San Diego still loses, 3 - 2, to Arizona. The 9 consecutive Ks are one short of the record set by Tom Seaver in 1970.
• 2009 - Albert Pujols hits a grand slam off rookie David Patton and drives in the 1,000th run of his career as St. Louis beats the Cubs, 8 - 2.
• 2010:
  • David Price, the first overall pick of the 2007 amateur draft, pitches the first complete game and shutout of his career in a 6 - 0 Rays win at home against Toronto. Catcher Jose Molina guns down a team record four Tampa Bay baserunners trying to steal against him, but to no avail.
  • Mike Pelfrey throws a rain-shortened 5-inning shutout as the Mets complete a series sweep of the Braves, 1 - 0, at Citi Field. Pelfrey is in trouble all five innings, but manages to escape unscathed in extending his string of scoreless innings to 24. It is actually Raul Valdes who is on the mound for New York when the game is stopped in the top of the 6th, but everything after the 5th is wiped out, giving Pelfrey credit for a complete game. The game's lone run comes when Jose Reyes runs wild in spite of the sloppy conditions, stealing second after a two-out bloop single in the 1st, and coming to score on Jason Bay's infield single when 3B Chipper Jones's throw skips away from 1B Troy Glaus just enough to allow Reyes to dash home.
• 2011:
  • Jered Weaver is the hottest pitcher in the majors at this time, winning his 6th straight start in a 5 - 0 Angels win over the Athletics. He strikes out 10 batters and lowers his ERA to 0.99 in pitching a complete game shutout. Weaver becomes the fourth pitcher to go 6-0 before the end of April.
  • Commissioner Bud Selig appoints Tom Schieffer to oversee the operations of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which were taken over by Major League Baseball last week. Schieffer served as president of the Texas Rangers from 1991 to 1999 when George W. Bush was the team's principal owner. Bush later appointed him United States Ambassador to Australia and to Japan after being elected President.
  • For the first time, the IBAF tie-breaker rule is used in the Dutch Hoofdklasse. The Pioniers beat Mr. Cocker HCAW, 12 - 9, after the game is tied at 8 after 9 innings. Norbert Lokhorst reaches base six times, Nik Gumeson scores three and Dave Draijer gets the historic win. For the losing side, Dirimo Chavez scores four runs and Maarten Mulder takes the defeat. Oddly, one of the umpires (Olav Steijger) and official scorer (Linda Steijger, Olav's wife) had each worked another "first" for the tie-breaker rule - Olav had been an umpire when the rule was first used in an international competition game at the 2008 World University Championship and Linda had been official scorer at a game in the 2008 Olympics when the rule was first used in the Olympics.
• 2012:
  • With a two-run homer off Mark Buehrle in the 6th inning, David Wright becomes the all-time RBI leader in Mets franchise history with 735, passing Darryl Strawberry. R.A. Dickey is the winner over the Marlins, 5 - 1.
  • The Royals end a 12-game losing streak with an 8 - 2 win over the Indians. They belt four homers - two by Billy Butler - in support of Luke Hochevar's pitching, but still have the worst record in the major leagues at 4-14.
• 2013 - Gio Gonzalez allows just one hit in 8 innings as the Nationals beat the Reds, 8 - 1. The only hit is a solo homer by Joey Votto in the 4th. Denard Span and Danny Espinosa drive in three runs each for the Nats, while Bryce Harper hits a solo homer. Rafael Soriano adds a hitless 9th inning for a combined one-hitter.

[edit] Births

• 1864 - Tom Quinn, catcher (d. 1932)
• 1865 - Dick Conway, pitcher (d. 1926)
• 1867 - Jim Sullivan, pitcher (d. 1901)
• 1868 - Fred Hartman, infielder (d. 1938)
• 1883 - Russ Ford, pitcher (d. 1960)
• 1884 - Pop Lloyd Hall of Famer (d. 1965)
• 1885 - Hack Spencer, pitcher (d. 1969)
• 1886 - Ralph Good, pitcher (d. 1965)
• 1887 - Lee Dashner, pitcher (d. 1959)
• 1890 - Red Bird, pitcher (d. 1972)
• 1890 - Lloyd Bishop, pitcher (d. 1968)
• 1891 - Pete Standridge, pitcher (d. 1963)
• 1892 - Snipe Conley, pitcher (d. 1978)
• 1893 - Hank Swasey, college coach, scout (d. 1980)
• 1895 - George Lowe, pitcher (d. 1981)
• 1896 - Fred Haney, infielder, manager (d. 1977)
• 1896 - Marty Shay, infielder (d. 1951)
• 1898 - Red Thomas, outfielder (d. 1962)
• 1900 - George Fiall, Negro League infielder (d. 1936)
• 1900 - Jake Freeze, pitcher (d. 1983)
• 1900 - Bill Grieve, umpire (d. 1979)
• 1903 - John Wilson, pitcher (d. 1980)
• 1907 - Roy Parmelee, pitcher (d. 1981)
• 1909 - Curtis Lloyd, Negro League player (d. 2009)
• 1910 - Jimmy Brown, infielder; All-Star (d. 1977)
• 1911 - Connie Marrero, pitcher; All-Star
• 1911 - Bobby Estalella, outfielder (d. 1991)
• 1911 - Tokuhisa Kawamura, NPB infielder (d. WWII)
• 1913 - Woody Davis, pitcher (d. 1999)
• 1914 - Carlos Blanco, Negro League infielder
• 1914 - Manuel González Guerra, AINBA president (d. 1997)
• 1917 - John Dagenhard, pitcher (d. 2001)
• 1917 - Red Flaherty, umpire (d. 1999)
• 1917 - Fukuyoshi Okada, NPB infielder (d. 1944)
• 1917 - Kazuo Kito, NPB outfielder (d. 1944)
• 1918 - Tex Shirley, pitcher (d. 1993)
• 1920 - Yukio Nishimoto, NPB infielder and manager; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (d. 2011)
• 1923 - Shizuka Watanabe, NPB outfielder (d. WWII)
• 1924 - Art Schallock, pitcher
• 1928 - James Herndon, minor league pitcher (d. 2009)
• 1930 - Ed Vargo, umpire (d. 2008)
• 1933 - Joyce Ricketts, AAGPBL outfielder (d. 1992)
• 1941 - Chuck Harrison, infielder
• 1943 - Rolando Camarero, minor league infielder-outfielder and manager
• 1943 - Bob Johnson, pitcher
• 1943 - Lew Krausse, pitcher
• 1944 - Drew Baur, owner (d. 2011)
• 1944 - Joe Hague, infielder (d. 1994)
• 1944 - Ken Tatum, pitcher
• 1947 - Takeshi Yasuda, NPB pitcher
• 1950 - Bill Greif, pitcher
• 1950 - Kerry Lamont Taylor, minor league pitcher (d. 1970)
• 1953 - Herminio Domínguez, minor league pitcher; Salon de la Fama
• 1954 - Frank Cacciatore, minor league outfielder and manager
• 1954 - Craig Minetto, pitcher
• 1954 - Greg Wells, infielder
• 1956 - Larry Pashnick, pitcher
• 1958 - Dave Owen, infielder
• 1959 - Tony Phillips, infielder
• 1960 - Darryl McNealy, minor league infielder
• 1960 - Derwin McNealy Sr., minor league outfielder
• 1964 - Blaine Beatty, pitcher
• 1966 - Darren Holmes, pitcher
• 1966 - Erik Pappas, catcher
• 1967 - Ramon Bautista, minor league infielder
• 1967 - Octavio Orozco, minor league pitcher
• 1967 - Mike Sarbaugh, minor league infielder and manager
• 1968 - Tyrone Boykin, minor league player and manager
• 1968 - Terry Carr, minor league outfielder
• 1968 - William Miller, minor league outfielder
• 1969 - Joe Buck, announcer
• 1969 - Eric Christopherson, minor league catcher
• 1970 - Sean Mulligan, pinch hitter
• 1971 - Brad Clontz, pitcher
• 1972 - Micah Franklin, outfielder
• 1975 - Jacque Jones, outfielder
• 1980 - Rodrigo Bruera, Serie A1 pitcher
• 1980 - Mike Rouse, infielder
• 1980 - Kazuhito Tadano, pitcher
• 1981 - Andrew Ehling, college coach
• 1981 - Sean White, pitcher
• 1982 - Brian Barton, outfielder
• 1982 - Byung-yong Chae, KBO pitcher
• 1982 - Kevin Huang, minor league pitcher
• 1983 - J.P. Howell, pitcher
• 1983 - Juan Miranda, infielder
• 1983 - Garrett Mock, pitcher
• 1984 - Robert Andino, infielder
• 1986 - Rafael Fernándes, NPB pitcher
• 1987 - Danny Espinosa, infielder
• 1987 - Seb Visser, Hoofdklasse infielder
• 1988 - Jacobus Mostert, South African national team pitcher
• 1988 - Kenny Vandenbranden, First Division pitcher
• 1991 - Mathew Sušac, Croatian national team pitcher
• 1994 - Stryker Trahan, minor league catcher

[edit] Deaths

• 1890 - Charlie Hodnett, pitcher (b. 1861)
• 1905 - Jackie Hayes, catcher (b. 1861)
• 1910 - Jim Carleton, infielder (b. 1848)
• 1911 - Jack Rowe, infielder, manager (b. 1856)
• 1918 - Dave Williams, pitcher (b. 1881)
• 1919 - Bill Higgins, infielder (b. 1859)
• 1931 - Garry Herrmann, general manager (b. 1859)
• 1937 - George Gilham, catcher (b. 1899)
• 1944 - Tony Mullane, pitcher (b. 1859)
• 1945 - Jim Murray, outfielder (b. 1878)
• 1947 - John Walsh, infielder (b. 1879)
• 1950 - Offa Neal, infielder (b. 1876)
• 1957 - Lazaro Salazar, minor league player and manager; Salon de la Fama (b. 1912)
• 1963 - Hal Elliott, pitcher (b. 1899)
• 1966 - Art Decatur, pitcher (b. 1894)
• 1968 - Billy Kelsey, catcher (b. 1881)
• 1970 - Earl Wolgamot, coach (b. 1892)
• 1970 - Gene Steinbrenner, infielder (b. 1892)
• 1971 - Max West, outfielder (b. 1904)
• 1975 - Bruce Edwards, catcher; All-Star (b. 1923)
• 1975 - Ichiro Kimishima, author; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1887)
• 1978 - Leonardo Alanís, minor league outfielder (b. 1889)
• 1978 - Leo Najo, minor league outfielder (b. 1899)
• 1979 - Lew Carpenter, pitcher (b. 1913)
• 1983 - Carlos Paula, outfielder (b. 1927)
• 1992 - Nobuo Fujita, college coach; Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (b. 1903)
• 1992 - Bob Hazle, outfielder (b. 1930)
• 1994 - Gordon Jones, pitcher (b. 1930)
• 1994 - Mike Kreevich, outfielder; All-Star (b. 1908)
• 2003 - Clif Keane, writer (b. 1912)
• 2006 - Tokuji Kawasaki, NPB pitcher; manager (b. 1921)
• 2011 - Bobby Thompson, outfielder (b. 1953)
• 2013 - Rick Camp, pitcher (b. 1953)