August 24

From BR Bullpen


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Stats of players who were born this day
Stats of players who died on this day
Standings on this day
Permanent link to Today's Entry
Sources
Baseball Library Chronology
Today in Baseball History

Events, births and deaths that occurred on August 24.

[edit] Events

1901 - Irate Boston fans jump on umpire Joe Cantillon after a call goes against the Somersets. Chick Stahl and Parson Lewis rescue the umpire.
1903 - The Cubs split with the Giants at the Polo Grounds, beating Joe McGinnity 7-3 in the opener. Iron Joe is not helped by eight Giant errors, including five by SS Charlie Babb. The nitecap is called after Chicago's at-bats in the 7th with the score 8-1. Christy Mathewson picks up the victory for New York over Jock Menefee.
1904 - The Highlanders Willie Keeler collects two home runs against the St. Louis Browns in a 9 - 1 win at New York. Both drives are inside the park.
1904 - In Chicago, Christy Mathewson blanks the Cubs on three hits and the Giants defeat Herb Briggs, 3 - 0. The 2nd game is called after 10 innings with the score 2 - 2. Chicago fans show their feelings towards McGraw's Giants by tossing bottles onto the field. RF George Browne is hit on the leg and is almost hit in the head while chasing a fly ball. McGraw tells ump Bob Emslie that he will not allow his team to continue play until all the broken glass is cleared, and by the time that occurs it is too dark to continue play.
1905 - Chicago's Ed Reulbach defeats Philley starter Tully Sparks in a 20-inning 2 - 1 Colts marathon win over the Phils, exactly two months after Big Ed topped the Cards by the same score in 18 innings. Frank Chance's single drives in Jack McCarthy with the winning run. The game ties the existing ML mark for the most innings played in a game. A high point in the game, as recounted in Johnny Evers Touching Second, is when OF Jimmy Slagle, in the 18th, shoves his hand in his back pocket to get a plug of chewing tobacco just as the batter cracks a long line drive. Slagle starts after the ball and discovers that he can't get his hand out of his pocket. He makes a leaping one-handed catch with his gloved hand, then stops, pulls the tobacco out, bites off a piece and bows to the crowd.
1905 - The Giants win their 12th straight over the Reds, as Christy Mathewson wins easily, 8 - 0. Matty allows two scratch hits. The 2nd game is called on account of darkness, 6 - 6, after nine innings.
1905 - In Philadelphia, the Cubs defeat the Phillies in 20 innings, 2-1, with Ed Reulbach going the distance for Chicago.
1906 - The Reds' Jake Weimer pitches a 7-inning no-hitter against Brooklyn, winning 1-0, when a run scores with two outs in the 7th. Brooklyn takes the first game, 6-4, behind Jim Pastorius.
1907 - Christy Mathewson pitches for the 3rd day in a row, beating the Pirates, 7-4. Matty allows just one hit over the last six innings.
1908 - The Giants gain the NL lead by winning two at Pittsburgh, after first refusing to play a doubleheader. John McGraw protests that only one game was scheduled and he was not given 24 hours notice about the 2nd match. But after polling the players, he relents. Hooks Wiltse then tops Vic Willis, 4-1 and Christy Mathewson beats Lefty Leifield, 5-1. Willis tires in the 8th, giving up a 2-run triple to Roger Bresnahan, followed by a Mike Donlin homer. In the nitecap, Donlin and Larry Doyle each drive home a pair. The doubleheader is watched in New York on electric diamonds known as "Compton's Baseball Bulletin" at Madison Square Garden and the Gotham Theatre. Bulletins will display all remaining games.
1909 - The Giants split with the Pirates, taking the first game 4-3 behind Hooks Wiltse, then losing the 2nd. Bugs Raymond toils the whole nine innings for the Giants and gets clobbered 11-3. John McGraw leaves the high-living pitcher in the runaway to teach him a lesson.
1909 - At Detroit, A's catcher Paddy Livingston throws out Ty Cobb trying to steal 3rd during an intentional walk to Sam Crawford. Cobb intentional spikes 3B Frank Baker on his bare hand during the play, prompting howls of protest from the Athletics. The Tigers win, 7-6, and A's manager Connie Mack will complain to Ban Johnson about Cobb's dirty play. Cobb gets a warning from the AL president.
1910 - Atop the Washington Monument, White Sox pitcher Ed Walsh throws 23 balls before C Billy Sullivan snares one, then catches two more, 555 feet below. It duplicates Gabby Street's catch of August 21, 1908. The estimated speed of the ball is 161 feet per second. On the field Walsh will be 18 - 20 despite a league-leading 1.27 ERA, the only time a pitcher with a losing record loses 20 and leads either league in ERA.
1911 - The Cubs lose to Brooklyn, 6 - 5, in 10 innings to lose sole possession of first place. Doc Scanlan bests Mordecai Brown.
1911 - The Giants split with Pittsburgh, but move into a tie for 1st place. Christy Mathewson loses the opener, 3 - 1, giving up six hits and two earned runs in eight innings. Rube Marquard salvages the nitecap with a 2-hitter, striking out 11.
1912 - Fred Merkle's 3-run homer off Babe Adams in the 7th to give the Giants a 3 - 2 lead over Pittsburgh, and Christy Mathewson pitches the last three innings to preserve Hooks Wiltse win over the Bucs. The Giants won a pair yesterday from the Bucs by one-run scores.
1913 - In Chicago, Walter Johnson wins his 14th straight, a 2 - 1 decision over the Sox. Johnson fans the side in the 8th inning, then with two on and two out in the 9th, strikes out Eddie Collins.
1914 - In the 2nd game of a twinbill at Washington, Detroit's Hooks Dauss and four Nats pitchers combine to plunk a record seven batters, a major-league record that will remain unmatched until 1971. Hooks hits three while Jim Shaw, Al Bentley, Harry Harper, and Jim Stevens hit four. The Tigers win 11 - 0 and take the opener as well, 3 - 1.
1914 - At Chicago, the Cubs trounce the Braves, 9 - 5, putting Boston back in 2nd place.
1915 - The Browns bring George Sisler in to pitch five innings of relief. Sisler gives up one run and earns the win, a 10 - 7 victory over the A's Rube Bressler.
1916 - Babe Ruth fires his 7th shutout of the year, stopping Detroit on three hits as Boston wins, 3 - 0.
1918 - Secretary Baker grants an extended exemption to players in the WS; three days later the National Commission gets an official approval to play from General Enoch Crowder, providing that 10 percent of the revenues go to war charities.
1919 - Cleveland P Ray Caldwell is flattened by a bolt of lightning in his debut with the team. He recovers to get the final out of the game, and defeats Philadelphia 2-1.
1921 - The Pirates, in front by seven 1/2 games, drop a doubleheader to the Giants in New York before 35,000. Art Nehf wins the opener 10 - 2 handing Babe Adams his first loss in 10 games. Phil Douglas takes the nightcap, 7 - 0.
1922 - The Browns collect 20 hits and score nine runs in the first two innings to stun the Red Sox, 13 - 2. Ken Williams extends his hitting streak to 28 games, but will be stopped here.
1930 - New York's Fred Lindstrom has his 24-game hit streak stopped as the Giants lose to the Cubs 3 - 2. The game is tied 2-all in the bottom of the 9th, when the Cubs load the bases with two out. With the count 0-and-2, Danny Taylor the runner on 3rd, races safely home as surprised Giant reliever Joe Heving watches and then completes his deliberate windup with a wide pitch.
1935 - Giants OF Hank Leiber ties the major-league record with two HRs during an 8-run, second-inning assault on the Cubs.
1938 - Virgil Trucks strikes out his 418th batter -- the highest season total in organized ball -- for Andalusia in an Alabama-Florida League game.
1940 - In the Tigers 12-1 victory at Fenway Park, Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams pitches the last two innings against Detroit allowing one run on three hits.
1940 - At Fenway, LF Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox pitches the last two innings in a 12 - 1 loss to the Detroit Tigers and Tommy Bridges. Williams allows three hits and one run scores when 3B Charlie Gelbert juggles a DP grounder. On three pitches Williams strikes out Tiger slugger Rudy York, who had driven in five Detroit runs. Joe Glenn, who caught Babe Ruth's last pitching appearance in 1933, is Williams' catcher. Pitcher Jim Bagby plays the OF for the Sox.
1940 - The Dodgers split a pair in Pittsburgh, losing the opener, 4 - 3 before winning, 8 - 1. In the nitecap, Joe Gallagher hits a double and homer in the same inning.
1941 - A rag tag group of five musicians, dubbed the Dodger SymPhony, by announcer Red Barber, make their Ebbets Field's debut. This band, none of which could read music, perform their zany antics at all evening and weekend games.
1942 - The Dodgers open a 4-game series in St. Louis with Larry French (13 - 1) on the mound for the front-runners. Terry Moore scores four runs for the Birds as they coast to a 7 - 1 victory behind Max Lanier's 14th victory.
1943 - The Philadelphia Athletics drop their 20th game in a row, losing to Chicago 6-5. This ties the AL record. They dodge the bullet in game two by scoring 8 runs in the 2nd inning to win 8-1.
1945 - Cleveland ace Bob Feller returns from the Navy and attracts a home crowd of 46,477, who watch him strike out 12 and yield only four hits in a 4 - 2 win over Detroit's Hal Newhouser. He will get nine starts during the remainder of the year, and his five wins will include a one-hitter and two 4-hitters. With the war now over, fans are clamoring for entertainment and it is clear Feller is still baseball's number one ticket seller.
1947 - In the 1st game of the doubleheader in Philadelphia, the Reds score nine runs in the 10th inning to win, 12 - 3. Ten batters go the plate before an out is made. Schoolboy Rowe wins the nitecap for Philly, 8 - 6, and helps the cause with a homer.
1947 - The Giants break the National League record for homers in a season, held by the Cubs, with their 172nd in a 4 - 0 shutout by Larry Jansen. Chicago's Hank Borowy takes the loss. The Cubs take the nitecap, 8 - 3, led by Eddie Waitkus' inside-the-park grand slam. This is the 3rd IPH slam this season and that won't be matched till 1990.
1948 - At Fenway, with the Red Sox trailing Cleveland 8 - 7, Vern Stephens crashes a 2-run homer to give the Sox an 9 - 8 win and move them into first place. This is Stephen's 15th game-winning hit of the year.
1950 - Boston SS Vern Stephens ninth inning grand slam against the Browns gives the Red Sox a 6 - 2. win. The Sox have now won nine straight. The Sox have whipped the Browns 18 times in 19 games this year.
1951 - In another of Bill Veeck's legendary PR stunts, "Fans Managers' Night," the Browns defeat the Athletics 5 - 3. The Browns coaches hold up placards for 1115 fans, who vote "yes" or "no" on the options given them. Manager Zack Taylor sits in a box behind the dugout with two fans who monitor the voting. Adding to the festivities is Max Patkin, the clown prince of baseball, who coaches at 1B for several innings. Sherm Lollar voted in behind the plate instead of Matt Batts, has three hits including a homer, and Hank Arft, also voted in, knocks home two. Gus Zernial's 28th home run, off Garver, accounts for all the A's runs. When the stunt was announced on August 15th, A's GM Art Ehlers bitterly denounced it as "farcical."
1951 - At the Polo Grounds, the Giants tie the Cards in the 9th on three singles, and with the bases loaded, Bobby Thomson scores the winner on a fielder's choice play at the plate. New York wins, 6 - 5, its 12th in a row and 4th in a row in coming from behind.
1951 - Against Cleveland's Early Wynn, Gene Woodling cracks his 3rd homer off the Tribe ace this year, as the Yanks win, 2 - 0. Woodling went deep on Wynn on June 24th, July 24th and today. Mickey Mantle makes his first appearance since his recall from the minors.
1951 - At Ebbets Field, the Dodgers Ralph Branca outduels Cubs pitcher Paul Minner to win 1 - 0. Branca strikes out 10 Cubs, walks none, and gives up three hits.
1954 - Robin Roberts is lifted in the seventh as the Braves finally knock out the Phillies ace, winning 5-1. Roberts had pitched 13 straight complete games against the Braves over three years, with a 12-1 record.
1957 - The Dodgers use eight pitchers in one game, tying the NL record, in a 13-7 loss to first-place Milwaukee. Johnny Podres leaves after giving up three HRs in the fourth. Hank Aaron hits the first grand slam of his career
1957 - The Dodgers use eight pitchers in one game tying a major league record. Johnny Podres gives up three home runs in the third including Hank Aaron's first grand slam.
1959 - New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses allocates $150,000 for a preliminary study on building a stadium.
1960 - Despite Roy Sievers two homers and a double, the Yankees beat the White Sox, 3 - 2, dropping Chicago one 1/2 games off the pace and into a 2nd place tie with the Orioles. Art Ditmar is the winner over Herb Score.
1961 - The Red Sox announce that they will not pay Jackie Jensen for any games he misses due to his fear of flying.
1961 - Ageless Satchel Paige signs with Portland (PCL). In 25 innings for the Beavers, he will have a 2.88 ERA.
1962 - Dodger coach Leo Durocher suffers a near-fatal allergic reaction to a penicillin injection while in the clubhouse at the Polo Grounds before a game. An emergency intravenous injection of adrenaline saves his life.
1962 - The Reds Bob Purkey wins his 20th game, defeating Houston, 4 - 2.
1963 - The Little League World Series is televised for the first time . With ABC's Wide World of Sports providing coverage of the championship game, Grenada Hills (CA) beats Stratford (CT), 2-1.
1965 - In Milwaukee, Tommy Harper cracks a two-run homer with two outs in the 9th inning as the Reds beat the Braves, 3 - 2. Billy O'Dell is the pitcher serving up Harper's homer.
1967 - While pushing a car, Philadelphia's Richie Allen suffers a severe injury when he pushes his had through the headlight. It will sideline him for the remainder of the season. The Phils will go 14 - 21 without him.
1968 - New York's Mel Stottlemyre tops the Tigers ace Denny McLain, 2 - 1.
1969 - Seattle trades P Jim Bouton to Houston for pitchers Dooley Womack and Roric Harrison.
1969 - At St. Louis, Hank Aaron belts a 14th inning 3-run homer to give the Braves a 4 - 1 win over the Cards. There are no stolen bases in the game, though Bob Didier and Tim McCarver throw out six would-be thieves between them.
1970 - Oakland tags Dave McNally for 10 hits but the Orioles ace still wins his 20th, 5 - 1, the 3rd straight year he's reached the charmed circle.
1971 - Braves OF Rico Carty announces he has suffered permanent damage to his right eye from an altercation with three policemen in Atlanta.
1971 - Padre Ed Acosta makes his ML pitching debut and shuts out the Phillies 2 - 0. He's the first Padre to debut with a shutout.
1971 - Ernie Banks hits his final home run of his career as the Cubs beat the Reds, 5-4. Mr. Cub's 512th home run comes in the first inning off Jim McGlothin.
1971 - At Wrigley Field, Ernie Banks hits his 512th and final home run, connecting off the Reds Jim McGlothin in the 4th inning. Ernie moves past Mel Ott into an 8th place tie with Eddie Mathews on the all-time list. Chicago beats Cincy, 5 - 4. The Cubs will lose 10 of their next 12, however, to drop out of contention.
1974 - Davey Lopes steals five bases as the Dodgers top the Cardinals 3 - 0. He is thrown out on his 6th attempt. Don Sutton is the shutout winner.
1974 - The Red Sox, leading the American League By eight games. lose today, 4 - 1 to Oakland's Catfish Hunter, to start their slide. They will finish in 3rd place, seven games in back.
1975 - In the second game of a doubleheader sweep, Giant hurler Ed Halicki no-hits the Mets, 6-0.
1975 - After stealing 2B in the 7th to add to his ML-record of 38 consecutive steals, Davey Lopes is nabbed in the 12th by Montreal C Gary Carter. The Expos then score three in the 14th off Mike Marshall to beat the Dodgers, 5 - 2.
1975 - Lou Brock steals the 800th base of his career as the Cardinals beat the visiting Braves 6 - 2. Carl Morton is on the mound and Biff Pocaroba behind the plate when Lou swipes 2B.
1975 - After New York wins the first game, 9 - 5 in San Francisco, the Giants Ed Halicki records a somewhat controversial no-hitter in beating the Mets 6 - 0 in the 2nd game. The 6'7" righthander strikes out 10 Mets to improve his record to 8 - 10. Craig Swan takes the loss. The controversy arise when Rusty Staub hits a ball off Halecki's leg, which caroms to the 2B Derrel Thomas, who picks it then drops it. Official scorer Joe Sargis rules it an E-4. NY columnist Dick Young, watching the game on TV, writes that it should be a hit and accuses Sargis of subscribing to the theory that the first hit of a starter should be a 'good one.' The no-hitter stands but UPI's Sargis loses his job as a sometime scorer.
1975 - Dodger second baseman Dave Lopes steals his major league record 38th consecutive base but the streak is snapped by Gary Carter in the 12th inning. Expos win the game in 14 innings, 5-3.
1976 - At Tiger Stadium, Bill Freehan hits 200th and final home run in a 12-7 loss to the White Sox. The Detroit catcher will finish his career with 100 homers hit at home with the other dingers 100 hit on the road.
1976 - Mariners is selected as Seattle's nickname from 15,000 contest entries
1977 - Catfish Hunter notches his final win of the year, an 11 - 1 four-hit victory over the Twins. New York supports Hunter with homers outages by Roy White, Mickey Rivers, Chris Chambliss and Bucky Dent.
1980 - Nolan Ryan holds the Cubs to two hits in nine innings to give the Astros their 10th straight victory, 2 - 1, winning over Bill Caudill. Jose Cruz homers. During the streak, the Houston bull pen has thrown 37 2/3 shut out innings.
1980 - Twins manager Gene Mauch resigns following a 3 - 2 loss to the Tigers. He will be replaced by John Goryl.
1981 - The Reds top the visiting Mets, 2 - 0, behind Bruce Berenyi's 2-hitter.
1981 - In his first ML game, Kent Hrbek homers in the 12th inning to give the Twins a 3 - 2 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The 21-year-old 1B grew up in Bloomington, MN, less than a mile from Metropolitan Stadium, and jumped directly to his hometown club from Class-A Visalia (California League), where he was hitting .380 with 27 home runs and 112 RBI.
1981 - In his first major league game, first baseman Kent Hrbek hits a twelfth-inning homer giving the Twins a 3-2 victory over the Yankees .
1982 - Kansas City's John Wathan steals his 31st base of the season in a 5 - 3 win over the Rangers, breaking the single-season record for catchers set by Ray Schalk in 1916. Wathan will finish the season with a career-high 36 SBs.
1982 - Royals' catcher John Wathan steals his 31st base breaking Ray Schalk's 1916 record for stolen bases by a catcher. The backstop will wind up with 36 for the season.
1983 - Orioles' southpaw Tippy Martinez picks off three runners in the 10th inning as the Blue Jays take long leads trying to take advantage of his new battery mate, Len Sakata, an infielder pressed into service behind the plate. The converted catcher gets revenge as his three-run homer in the bottom of the frame wins the game, 7-4.
1983 - 1B Pete Rose does not play in the Phillies 5 - 3 loss to the Giants, ending his consecutive games played streak at 745. Manager Paul Owens had planned to use Rose as a pinch hitter in the 10th inning, but Joel Youngblood ends the game with a 2-run home run off Steve Carlton in the bottom of the 9th.
1983 - Cubs Chuck Rainey is one out away from a no-hitter when the Reds Eddie Milner singles to center on the first pitch. Rainey settles for a 3 - 0 one-hitter, his first complete game of the season. For Milner, this is the 3rd of five instances that he will collect his team's only hit in a game, a ML mark he'll share with Cesar Tovar. The other solos are Dickie Noles and Jerry Reuss (1982), Len Barker & Donnie Moore (1984) and Alejandro Pena (1986).
1983 - Making his only career appearance behind the plate, Oriole infielder Lenn Sakata catches the 10th inning against the Blue Jays and then hits a 3-run homer as the O's win, 7 - 4. Toronto goes ahead 4 - 3 in the top of the 10th after Cliff Johnson homers and Barry Bonnell singles. Tippy Martinez relieves Tim Stoddard and picks off Bonnell, walks Dave Collins and picks him off. Tippy then allows a Willie Upshaw single, and picks him off. Helped by the runners' eagerness to test Sakata, Tippy sets a never-to-be-topped ML record.
1984 - Despite allowing just one hit"”an RBI single to Dave Parker in the 7th inning"”Pittsburgh's Jose DeLeon loses to the Reds 2 - 0. DeLeon walks three and strikes out eight but is beaten by Jeff Russell, who tosses a 3-hitter of his own.
1984 - The Giants sweep a pair from the Mets with reliever Frank Williams winning both games. He totals three innings of work.
1985 - Three outs away from a no-hitter against the White Sox, Toronto's Dave Stieb surrenders consecutive home runs to Rudy Law and Bryan Little and is driven from the game. His replacement, Gary Lavelle, gives up a 3rd-straight home run, to Harold Baines, before Tom Henke comes in to save the 6 - 3 win.
1985 - Yankee Don Baylor ties a major league record when he hit by a pitch for the 189th time in his career.
1989 - After weeks of legal wrangling, Commissioner Bart Giamatti permanently bans Pete Rose from baseball for his alleged gambling on ML games. Although the 5-page document signed by both parties includes no formal findings, Giamatti says that he considers Rose's acceptance of the ban to be a no-contest plea to the charges. Coach Tommy Helms is named Rose's interim replacement as Cincinnati manager.
1989 - Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life by Commissioner Giamatti for gambling. The Reds' manager signs a five-page agreement with Giamatti in which he agrees to a lifetime penalty but does not admit to gambling on the national pastime.
1991 - Mariners hurler Rob Murphy sets what is believed to be a major league record by appearing in his 121st straight game without a win, a 7-2 loss to Detroit. Tom Henke had pitched in 120 consecutive winless games from 1986 to 1988.
1993 - In the battle of the division tail enders, Milwaukee OF Kevin Reimer is 6-for-6 and scores four runs in the Brewers' 7 - 6, 12 inning win over Oakland in the nitecap of 2. The Brew Crew collects 21 hits. They have 13 hits in the opener, a 9 - 2 win in which Reimer is 1-for-2. Milwaukee trails 2 - 1 until the 7th.
1993 - The Padres score 13 runs in the first inning against the Cardinals. They win, 17 - 4.
1993 - The Phils Danny Jackson beats the Rockies for his 10th win of the year. The Phils have five starters in double figures for the first time since 1932.
1996 - Atlanta defeats Chicago, 6-5, led by 1B Fred McGriff, who strokes five hits, including a double and two homers, and drives in four runs.
1996 - Cubs' minor leaguer Kerry Wood of Daytona combines on his 2nd no-hitter, a 3 - 0 win over Vero Beach. Wood goes eight innings, and he pitched seven innings of no-hit ball on July 28 against Tampa.
1999 - Mariner Ken Griffey Jr. joins Babe Ruth, Ralph Kiner, Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Harmon Killebrew and Mark McGwire as the only players to hit 40 homers in four consecutive seasons.
1999 - The Cards lose to the Brewers despite Mark McGwire's 508th career homer. He has hit 493 of these while playing 1B, equaling Lou Gehrig's mark for the position.
1999 - The Red Sox acquire P Kent Mercker from the Cardinals in exchange for C David Benham and P Mike Matthews.
1999 - The Phillies defeat the Padres, 18-2, as CF Rob Ducey gets five of Philadelphia's 22 hits.
2000 - In his fifth rehabilitation start in the minors, Devil Rays' 26-year old pitcher Tony Saunders left arm breaks again throwing a wild pitch. The Devil Ray southpaw first broke his left humerus on May 26, 1999 throwing a 3-2 pitch in a game against Rangers at Tropicana Field.
2001 - The Colorado Rockies defeat the Mets, 10 - 0, in P Jason Jennings' major league debut. Jennings hurled a 5 - hit shutout, while getting three safeties himself, including a home run. He becomes the first pitcher since 1900 to hurl a shutout and hit a home run in his first big league game.
2002 - The Angels defeat the Red Sox, 2 - 0. Manny Ramirez's streak of reaching base in 14 straight plate appearances is stopped two short of the ML mark.
2002 - The Orioles drop a pair to the Blue Jays, losing 4 - 1 and 8 - 3. This is the start of a miserable 4 - 31 year - end slide. In game 1, a makeup of a July 23 rainout, Vernon Wells has four hits, including a homer, and scores three runs. Pete Walker pitches seven innings for the win. The bright spot for Baltimore is Mike Bordick, who fields four chances flawlessly to set a major-league record with 428 straight chances without an error. It breaks the mark that Cal Ripken set in 1990. Wells and Chris Woodward hit homers in game 2.
2004 - Bud Selig, citing how disruptive a delay in the major league schedule would be on pennant races, says it unlikely major league players will ever be able to take part in the Olympics. The baseball commissioner hopes a World Cup, which begins in 2006, will serve as a substitute for the Summer Games.
2005 - After fouling off three Jose Valverde full-count fastballs, Mike Jacobs goes deep at BOB to become the only player to hit four home runs during the first four games of a major league career. The Mets rookie, who hits two round-trippers in the 18-4 rout of the Diamondbacks, has homered four times, including his first big league at-bat, in his first 13 plate appearances.