May 16

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 May 16.

[edit] Events

1892 - A Supreme Court decision permitting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to give reduced rates to groups of 10 or more is a boon to ML baseball teams, who can expect to save 25 percent on transportation costs.
1894 - Losing to Cincinnati 6 - 4 in the 8th inning, Louisville's William "Farmer" Weaver hits a grand slam, and Danny Richardson follows with a solo shot - the last home run of his 11-year career - to spur a 9 - 7 win.
1897 - Fans assemble for Cleveland's first Sunday baseball game only to have the police arrest the players after the first inning. Players and umpire Tim Hurst are released on bail provided by Cleveland club owner Frank DeHaas Robison. A test case is made of rookie hurler John Powell. On June 10th, he will be found guilty of playing ball on Sunday and fined $5.
1902 - Two deaf-mutes face each other for the first time when Dummy Hoy leads off for the Reds against Dummy Taylor of the Giants. The Reds win 5-3 with a 5-run rally in the 9th. Hoy goes 2-for-4.
1903 - A record 31,500 at the Polo Grounds see the Giants beat Pittsburgh, 7-3, behind Christy Mathewson. Matty allows eight hits in beating Brickyard Kennedy, who is bricked for 13 safeties. The first-place New Yorkers will soon fade, and the Pirates, now in 3rd place, will win their 3rd straight pennant.
1904 - The Pirates overcome a 5-0 deficit against Christy Mathewson by scoring a run in the 5th and five more in the 6th for a 6-5 win.
1905 - Red Ames stops Chicago, 4-0, the 3rd shutout in a row over Chicago by the Giants.
1906 - The visiting Giants, clad in their new all-black uniforms, are sliced up by the Pirates, 11-0. The Bucs tally 15 hits to back sinkerballer Vic Willis, obtained from Boston last December. Willis will toss shutouts in his next two outings.
1907 - The Highlanders swap P Walter Clarkson and OF Frank Delahanty -- both siblings of future Hall of Famers -- to Cleveland for P Earl Moore. New York is hoping that Moore will return to the form he showed before a Highlander line drive injured his foot last season, limiting him to six games.
1909 - NL President John Heydler calls a meeting with the league's umpires to discuss ways that the new two-umpire system can prevent fighting by the players. A serious incident occurred several days earlier in Boston when Reds catcher Frank Roth attacked umpire Steve Cusack after a play at home. Several other Reds players threatened the umpire with baseball bats.
1912 - Due to his assault on Claude Lucker, a handicapped fan and a regular heckler, Ty Cobb is suspended. Although today's game is rained out, the Tigers meet in Philadelphia, voting to boycott if the 'Georgia Peach' is not allowed to play.
1913 - Pirates OF Ed Mensor will draw eight walks all year, but one of them comes in the 3rd inning against New York, ending Christy Mathewson's string of perfect control at 47 innings. Mathewson takes a 7 - 1 lead into the 8th, but Ham Hyatt roasts a fastball into the RF stands to lead off and the Bucs follow with five singles. Matty holds on for a 7 - 4 win.
1914 - Giants' spitballer Jeff Tesreau's no-hit bid against Pittsburgh is spoiled with two outs in the 9th when Joe Kelly lines a single. Tesreau retires the last batter to win, 2 - 0.
1916 - Behind the pitching of Babe Ruth, the Red Sox stop the Browns, 3 - 1. The only St. Louis score comes on a double steal.
1917 - Thanks to a scoring change made after the game by a panel of sportswriters who reverse a first inning hit into an error, Bob Groom of the Browns no-hits the White Sox, 4-0. His teammate, Ernie Koob also threw a no-hitter yesterday against the Pale Hose.
1927 - Yankee OF Bob Meusel swipes 2B, 3B, and home in the 3rd inning as New York tops Detroit, 6 - 2. Lou Gehrig contributes a homer and two doubles to back Dutch Ruether's pitching.
1929 - In Boston, Mel Ott hits for the cycle in New York's 5 - 4, 10-inning loss to the Braves in a doubleheader nightcap. Ott's home run in the 7th lands half-way up in the RF bleachers, the longest home run to that section since 1915. Joe Dugan matches Ott's four hits and scores the winner. The Braves also win the opener, 4 - 3.
1930 - Washington wins a doubleheader from Philadelphia and moves into first place. Bump Hadley wins the opener, 5 - 3, and Ad Liska adds a 3-hit 4 - 0 shutout in the nitecap, beating George Earnshaw. Joe Judge's 3-run homer in the 8th puts the game away.
1931 - The A's move into first place to stay with a 12 - 5 win over the Indians at Cleveland. Philadelphia scores nine runs in the past two innings to give the win to Grove.
1931 - At Detroit, Tommy Bridges gives up three hits in stopping the Yankees, 3 - 1, and dropping the Bombers to 2nd place as they will not retake first.
1932 - The Yankees record their 4th straight shutout to equal the record set by Cleveland and Boston in 1903 and 1906. Johnny Allen, George Pipgras, Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez were the hurlers. Lefty stops Cleveland on five hits to win, 8 - 0, New York's 5th shutout in seven games.
1933 - In a 12-inning game against the Indians, Senators' rookie Cecil Travis gets five hits in his major league debut. The teams break the major-league record by using 11 pitchers in the extra-inning game won by Washington, 11-10. General Crowder defeats Mel Harder.
1934 - The Reds send pitcher Syl Johnson and OF Johnny Moore to the Phils for pitcher Ted Kleinhans, Art Ruble and OF Wes Schulmerich. Moore will turn out to be the class of the swap, hitting .300+ in the next three years.
1937 - A sac fly by Chick Hafey in the 9th gives the Reds a 3 - 2 win over the Cubs. Hafey makes his 1st appearance since retiring in May 1935.
1937 - Browns 3B Harlond Clift equals the American League record at the hot corner with nine assists in a 5 - 4 loss to the Tigers. A fumble and late throw in the 1st inning would have given him a 10th assist. By the end of the season, Clift will set a new record for total chances and the still-standing mark of 405 assists. The Tigers' Gee Walker has a single to run his hit streak to 21 games.
1939 - With half the expected crowd on-hand due to the cold weather, only 15,109 fans at Shibe Park see the Indians defeat the A's 8-3 in 10 innings, in the first night game ever played in the American League. Johnny Humphries is the winner over Roy Parmelee.
1941 - The Yankees bench top prospects Phil Rizzuto and Jerry Priddy, putting back Joe Gordon and Frankie Crosetti. New York then rallies in the 9th to beat the White Sox, 5 - 4.
1944 - The White Sox beat the Yankees 10 - 4 to stop Hank Borowy's 2-year winning streak at 11.
1945 - Mort Cooper goes AWOL from the Cardinals, returning to St. Louis. A 20-game winner for three previous seasons, Cooper, along with his brother, has had his salary frozen at $12,000 for three years, and is in a salary dispute with owner Sam Breadon. Without Cooper, the Cards drop a pair to the Braves, losing 5 - 4 in 14 innings, and 4 - 1.
1946 - Pinch-runner Jeff Cross steals home in the 10th inning to give St. Louis a 9 - 8 win over Boston. A week ago the Braves won on an extra-inning steal of home. The Cards win their 9th of 10 road games but will lose tomorrow.
1947 - New York's Johnny Mize scores a run in his 16th straight game, helping his team beat the Cubs 5 - 3. Mize, who will lead the National League in runs, eclipses the NL mark of Max Carey and Freddie Lindstrom. Ted Kluszewski will better the league mark seven years later.
1948 - Pete Gray, one-armed OF with the 1945 Browns, starts his comeback at Elmira after a year out of baseball. He will hit .290 in 82 games.
1948 - At Wrigley, the Cubs spot the Reds an 8 - 1 lead in the 2nd inning, then roar back to win, 13 - 11.
1951 - At Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle drives in four runs and scores three as New York routs the Indians, 11 - 3. Mantle connects for the first of his 206 homers at the Stadium, the blast coming off Dick Rozek.
1953 - At Yankee Stadium, White Sox lefty pitcher Tommy Byrne pinch-hits for slugger Vern Stephens and hits a grand slam off Yankees reliever Ewell Blackwell to climax a 5-run 9th inning and give Chicago the 5 - 3 win. Stephens has 10 career grand slams: Byrne now has two.
1953 - After the Braves' Billy Bruton's leadoff single in the first, Phillies P Curt Simmons retires the next 27 batters to win, 3 - 0 at Milwaukee. The loss snaps the Braves six-game win streak.
1954 - The Indians sweep the A's 12 - 7 and 6 - 0 to take over first place. This begins a streak of 11 wins in a row.
1954 - The Orioles draw a record 46,796 fans at Memorial Stadium for a doubleheader with the Yankees. Allie Reynolds wins the opener for New York, 2 - 0, on three hits, before Don Larsen stops the Yankees, 6 - 2 in the nitecap.
1954 - Ted Williams is back, though grimacing with each swing, and goes 8-for-9 with two home runs and seven RBI in a doubleheader against the Tigers. Williams has three hits in game one, a 7 - 6 loss. He goes 5-for-5 in the nightcap, including both home runs, but Boston loses 9 - 8 in 14 innings.
1956 - On a blustery day in Cleveland, the Yankees top the Indians, 4 - 1. Mickey Mantle hits a homer, off Bud Daley, while his pal Billy Martin is benched for the first time. Bobby Richardson takes his place at 2B.
1956 - In Jersey City, Cards RF Wally Moon hits the first ML home run, but St. Louis loses 5 - 3 to the Dodgers. The Dodgers score five unearned runs in the 4th.
1957 - The Yankees top Kansas City 3 - 0 behind Bob Turley's four-hit shutout. Mickey Mantle has a homer off Alex Kellner, the 11th time in his last 12 at bats he's reached base safely. That night a group of Yankees celebrate Billy Martin's 29th birthday in a raucous fashion. An ensuing fight at Manhattan's Copacabana Club leads to $5,500 in fines and the eventual trade of Billy to Kansas City. Hank Bauer allegedly starts the fight by hitting a patron, although Bauer denies it. The Yanks fine Whitey Ford, Bauer, Yogi Berra, Mantle and Martin $1,000 each and Johnny Kucks $500.
1963 - The Reds sell aging slugger Wally Post to Minnesota.
1965 - Oriole teenager Jim Palmer picks up his first major league win, topping the Yankees, 7 - 5. Palmer also bangs his first major league homer, a two-run drive off Jim Bouton, to give himself the victory margin.
1966 - Chuck Dressen suffers his 2nd heart attack in two years. Coach Bob Swift again takes the helm of the Tigers.
1967 - Reliever Phil Regan loses his first game in 77 appearances. The 'Vulture' gets pinned with his first defeat in over a year when Astros' third baseman Bob Aspromonte hits a two-run triple in tenth to beat the Dodgers, 5-3.
1967 - Philadelphia voters approve a $13 million bond issue to build a new stadium.
1967 - On the field, the Phillies tie a National League record with their 11th straight errorless game, but they still lose 4 - 3 to St. Louis.
1968 - With his third 2-HR game in four games, Senators LF Frank Howard ties the American League record for most home runs (7) in a four-game stretch (at least one in each). Washington wins 4 - 1 at Cleveland.
1968 - In Los Angeles, the Cubs' Rich Nye tops Don Sutton, 1 - 0, in a Year of the Pitcher special.
1969 - In the highest-scoring 11th inning ever, Seattle scores six runs, then allows 5, but hangs on for a 10 - 9 win at Boston. Jim Bouton gets the win with three shutout innings. Wayne Comer has a pair of homers, including one in the 11th. John Kennedy adds a homer in the 11th and Rico Petrocelli goes deep in the 11th for the Sox.
1969 - Despite five home runs -- three by Mike Epstein -- the Senators lose to the White Sox, 7 - 6. Carlos May's 10th homer of the year breaks a 6 - 6 deadlock.
1970 - At Fenway Park, Carl Yastrzemski belts a Dean Chance pitch out of the park to the right of the flagpole. Only Jimmie Foxx (twice) and Bill Skowron had previously done it. Ray Culp is the 6 - 2 winner over Cleveland.
1970 - Bill Mazeroski's 9th inning pinch-single paves the way for a Pirate win, 4 - 3, over the Expos. It is Maz's first pinch-hit in his career, which began 14 years earlier.
1970 - The Reds' Jim McGlothlin shuts out the Braves 2 - 0, stopping Rico Carty's 31-game hitting streak in the process. Carty batted .451 (51-for-113) during the streak, which started April 8th.
1971 - Doug Rader connects for a grand slam and a 2-run double to tie the Houston Astros club franchise record of six RBIs. The Astros outhits the Cards 17 - 16 and outscore them 12 - 4. St. Louis strands 10.
1972 - With a Ruthian blast at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium off Burt Hooton, left fielder Greg Luzinski 'rings' the Liberty Bell hanging in dead center field on fourth level. The 500-foot clanger will account for the Phillies' only run as they lose to the Cubs, 8-1. Rick Monday hits a single and three consecutive home runs, driving in five runs for Chicago.
1972 - In the Reds' 4 - 3 win over the Giants, Pete Rose knocks in the winning run on an attempted intentional walk. On a 3 - 0 count, Giants pitcher Ron Bryant comes close to the plate with ball four and Rose drives it on the ground and reaches base on an error.
1976 - The Yankees send P Larry Gura to Kansas City for C Fran Healy. Healy's best moment will come in the radio booth, while Gura will help KC to the 1978 playoffs with a 16 - 4 record.
1978 - The Tigers top Seattle, 4 - 2, in 16 innings, winning on a home run by Lance Parrish. Steve Foucault, who pitches the last three innings, gets the win. Relief ace John Hiller tosses six 2/3 shut out innings. The M's Ruppert Jones ties a major-league record for CF by making 12 putouts.
1978 - The White Sox trade OF Bobby Bonds to the Rangers for OF Claudell Washington and OF Rusty Torres.
1978 - The Reds' Tom Seaver strikes out 13 in beating the Expos, 7 - 1, in Montreal.
1978 - David Clyde, who has not won since May 1974, tosses a 4-hitter to lead the Indians to a 3 - 2 win over the A's. The winning runs are unearned for Cleveland.
1979 - NL owners approve the sale of the Houston Astros from the Ford Motor Credit Company to John McMullen for a reported $19 million.
1981 - Astros' shortstop Craig Reynolds hits three triples in one game helping Houston to beat the Cubs, 6-1. The Texan native is only the seventh player to accomplish this feat.
1983 - Despite six 9th-inning runs on solo home runs by Dave Engle and Bobby Mitchell and 2-run shots by Gary Gaetti and Mickey Hatcher, the Twins lose 7 - 6 to Oakland. Engle's and Hatcher's are pinch hits.
1983 - In an 11-4 rout of the Pirates, Mets' rookie right fielder Darryl Strawberry hit his first major league home run.
1984 - The Orioles release veteran pitcher Jim Palmer, who was 0 - 3 with a 9.17 ERA this season. Palmer is asked to retire and accept a job with the organization, but he declines, hoping to find a roster spot on another ML team.
1984 - Catcher Carlton Fisk hits for the cycle in a losing effort as Kansas City tops Chicago, 7 - 6. Fisk's only triple of the year comes in the cycle and he joins the 1945 Pirates' Bill Salkeld as the only catcher this century to hit his lone season triple in a cycle.
1984 - The Twins sell 51,863 tickets to their 8 - 7 loss to the Blue Jays, but only 6,346 fans show up for the game. The skewed numbers are the result of a massive ticket buyout plan organized by Minneapolis businessman Harvey Mackay to keep the Twins in Minnesota; if the club does not sell 2.41 million tickets this season it can break its lease with the Metrodome. Taking advantage of reduced prices on the Family Day promotion, Mackay pays $218,718 for 44,166 tickets.
1984 - Steve Carlton lifts a grand slam off Fernando Valenzuela to lead the Phillies to a 7 - 2 win over the Dodgers.
1986 - A's infielder Tony Phillips (5-for-5) hits for the cycle and drives in four runs as Oakland beats Baltimore 8 - 4.
1987 - After starting off with an 18 - 2 record, the Brewers drop their 10th in a row, losing 13 - 0 to Kansas City. The Brew Crew's only hit off Charlie Leibrandt is a bunt single.
1991 - The Calgary Cannons hit three grand slams in their 22-7 win over the Tacoma Tigers. Dave Cochrane, Chuck Jackson and Alonzo Powell connect with the bases full for the Cannons in what is believed to be a first in professional baseball.
1993 - Seattle P Randy Johnson hurls a 1-hit, 7-0 victory over the Athletics. He loses his no-hitter when Lance Blankenship singles with one out in the 9th inning.
1995 - Just 10 days after the record for the highest-scoring day in National League history is tied, four shutouts are tossed, by the Cubs, Mets, Padres and Pirates. It is the 1st time this has happened since 1991.
1996 - Sammy Sosa became the first Cub ever to hit two homers in one inning, hitting them in the 8-run 7th inning at Wrigley. The slugger accomplishes the feat leading off the seventh with solo shot off Jeff Tabaka and then hits a two-run round tripper off Jim Dougherty. The Cubs roll over the Astros, 13 - 1, as rookie Amaury Telemaco, recalled two days ago from the Iowa Cubs, allows just one hit in seven shutout innings.
1996 - Albert Belle homers twice, his 15th and 16th of the year, to lead the Indians to a 8 - 3 win over the Tigers. Jack McDowell (5 - 1) is the winner for the division-leading Indians, now five 1/2 games ahead of the White Sox. Before the game, the American League orders Belle to receive "immediate counseling" and do community service as a result of his winging baseballs at a photographer several weeks ago. Belle's agent replies that the star is already doing both.
1996 - As Tony Phillips says, "It's not been a good 24 hours." The White Sox OF is picked off base in the 9th inning of Chicago's 3 - 2 loss to Milwaukee, then returns to the clubhouse to learn that battery charges have been pressed against him by a fan. Phillips and the fan got into a shoving match after the outfielder left yesterday's game in the 7th inning, changed into street clothes and sought the fan. Phillips contends the fan was yelling racial slurs during the game. Both Phillips and the fan will eventually be charged with disorderly conduct and fined.
1997 - In Chicago, the Cubs erupt for 21 hits in clubbing the Padres 16 - 7. Sammy Sosa goes 4 for 4 with a career-high six RBIs. Brian McRae also has four hits for the Cubs.
1997 - Montreal spots the Giants an early 9-run lead, then stages its biggest rally in franchise history to win, 14 - 13. Barry Bonds and Glenallen Hill homer as the Giants take an 11-2 lead after three innings. Montreal responds with four runs in the fourth, three in the fifth and three more in the sixth for a 12-11 lead.
1997 - Michael Tucker's 2-out double in the 9th breaks up Alan Benes' no-hitter. Benes, unfortunately, is matched against Greg Maddux, who holds the Cards scoreless for eight innings. The Braves finally push across a run in the 13th on Andruw Jones' infield dribbler to beat Cardinals reliever John Frascatore, 1 - 0. The teams combine for 33 strikeouts, three shy of matching the National League record for an extra-inning game set by the Giants and Mets in a 23-inning contest in 1964.
1998 - At Busch Stadium, Mark McGwire crushes a Livan Hernandez pitch for a 545-ft. homer to lead the Cards to a 5 - 4 win over the Marlins. "It's the best ball I've ever hit," says the Cards slugger. On May 12, he hit a homer 527 feet.
1999 - Mark Sweeney must wonder what you have to do as Cincinnati sends him to the minors and calls up pitcher Brett Tomko. Sweeney is hitting .357 with an .857 slugging average and a .471 OBA.
1999 - The Orioles outslug the Rangers, 16-5, pounding out 24 hits in the process. All nine Baltimore starters have two or more hits for the Orioles, with Mike Bordick leading the way with 4. Albert Belle hits a pair of homers and knocks home five runs for the Orioles.
2000 - After a fan steals Los Angeles' catcher Chad Kreuter's hat and hits him in the back of the head, many Dodgers, including coaches John Shelby and Rick Dempsey, go into the stands and start fighting with the Wrigley Field faithful. When the melee ends, several fans are arrested as the game is delayed nearly ten minutes, and there is litter all over the field. The Dodgers defeat the Cubs, 6-5.
2000 - The Brewers defeat the Astros, 6-5, in 16 innings. 3B Ken Caminiti gets five hits for Houston, including a double.
2001 - Rickey Henderson leads off with a home run, extending his major-league record for leadoff home runs to 79. This is more than the combined total for the #2 and #3 players on the list: Brady Anderson (44), and Bobby Bonds (35).
2001 - Connecting off Astros P Shane Reynolds, Cub outfielder Sammy Sosa hits his 14th home run of the year to become the 33rd major leaguer to reach 400 career homers. Sosa has hit 371 homers as a Cub, putting him third on the all-time Cub list behind Ernie Banks (512) and Billy Williams (392).
2002 - The Mariners score eight times in the 7th inning and go on to batter the Blue Jays, 15 - 2. LF Mark McLemore goes 5 - 5, including a double and 3 - run home run, for Seattle.
2002 - The New York Times reports October 1, which is the first day of the postseason, is also being considered as a possible strike date. In yesterday's edition, the newspaper had indicated an early August date was being considered for a labor action by the Players Association if a new CBA can't be reached.
2008:
- The Phillies top the Blue Jays, 10-3, behind Jayson Werth. Werth clouts three homers and ties the Phillies record with 8 RBI in a game. He has a chance for a 4th home run in the 7th but fouled out to first base.
- The Rangers pound the Astros, 16-8. Shawn Chacon, the Houston starter, gets his 9th straight no-decision, a MLB record for starting pitchers at the beginning of the season.