BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

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On January 15 in Baseball History...

• • 1934 - Babe Ruth accepts a cut of $17,000 and signs a 1934 contract with the Yankees for $35,000.
    
  • 1936 - Horace Stoneham is elected president of the New York Giants, succeeding his late father. Stoneham, 32, will remain president for the next 40 years before selling the team in 1976.
    
  • 1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives baseball the go-ahead to play despite World War II. FDR encourages more night baseball so that war workers may attend. Ironically, the Cubs, who had signed contracts to install lights at Wrigley Field, drop their plans because of the military need for the material. There will be no lights at Wrigley for 35 more years.
    
  • 1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers extend their five-year lease on Ebbets Field by signing a new three-year lease with real estate developer Marvin Kratter, who bought the field in 1953. A year later, the Dodgers will call Los Angeles their new home.
    
  • 1958 - In a deal worth over $1 million, the Yankees announce that they will televise 140 games in the 1958 season. Six days later, the Phillies agree to televise 78 games into the New York City area, which is without N.L. baseball for the first time since the league's inception in 1876.
    
  • 1964 - Major league baseball executives vote to hold a free agent draft in New York City. A new TV pact is also signed.
    
  • 1981 - In his first year of eligibility, former Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson is the only player elected to the Hall of Fame. Gibson won 20 games five times, struck out 3,117 batters, and captured the Cy Young and M.V.P. in 1968 with a 1.12 ERA. Players falling short of the 301 votes needed for election include Don Drysdale (243), Gil Hodges (241), Harmon Killebrew (239), Hoyt Wilhelm (238), and Juan Marichal (233).
    
  • 1990 - Former Blue Jays first sacker Cecil Fielder signs with Detroit as a free agent. He spent 1989 with Japan's Hanshin Tigers and hit 38 home runs.

Baseball Birthdays on January 15...

• • 1856 - Baker, Charlie
  • 1858 - Mansell, Mike
  • 1868 - Menefee, Jock
  • 1872 - Fox, Bill
  • 1881 - Orndorff, Jess
  • 1882 - Kinsella, Ed
  • 1885 - Lowdermilk, Grover "(Grover) Laudermilk (sic) is a fearfully speedy pitcher and his only weekness is lack of control." - Alfred H. Spink in The National Game (1911
  • 1891 - Chapman, Ray "With the Indians leading 3-0, (Ray) Chapman led off the top of the fifth inning. (Carl) Mays, who was known for pitching batters inside with his submarine-style delivery, sailed a pitch toward Chapman's head. Moments later, the batter was on the ground. As fans watched in horror, Chapman walked off the field, supported by two teammates, drawing applause of relief. Hours later, though, Chapman died, never recovering from the blow. Mays played for nine more seasons, but never escaped the stigma of a pitch that killed. Chapman's teammates were stunned at the loss of their star shortstop and friend, but were inspired by his memory." - Inside Pitch Newsletter (National Baseball Hall of Fame, 08-16-2004)
  • 1891 - Townsend, Leo
  • 1896 - Cantwell, Mike
  • 1897 - Genewich, Joe
  • 1903 - Oliver, Tom
  • 1915 - Culler, Dick
  • 1917 - Rucker, Johnny
  • 1920 - Gromek, Steve "I will always cherish that photograph and the memory of (Steve) Gromek hugging me and me hugging him, because it proved that emotions can be put into a form not based on skin color." - Larry Doby
  • 1932 - Maranda, Georges
  • 1933 - Durnbaugh, Bobby
  • 1937 - Sadowski, Bob
  • 1943 - Marshall, Mike "The whole secret of pitching to me, besides having the ability to throw the ball where you want it, which we assume every Major League pitcher has, is sequencing your pitches properly." - Mike Marshall (Marshall, Mike. Baseball Digest: Dr, Mike Marshall. May 1979. Page 37.)
  • 1946 - Robson, Tom
  • 1947 - Schoen, Gerry
  • 1947 - Solaita, Tony
  • 1949 - Grich, Bobby "When I was a kid growing up in Long Beach (California), I used to dream about some day playing for the California Angels. That's not unusual. Most kids have dreams like that. I was fortunate enough to realize my dream. If I had a hero in those days it was the Angels' shortstop, Jim Fregosi. As often as I could, I'd go see the Angels and Fregosi play. I'd hop in my '56 Ford – I paid $125 for it – and drive from Long Beach to Anaheim, get a general admission ticket, and root for Fregosi and the Angels." - Grich, Bobby. The Game I'll Never Forget. Baseball Digest. February 1986. Vass, George. Editor.
  • 1949 - Alvarado, Luis
  • 1954 - Cappuzzello, George
  • 1956 - Mulliniks, Rance
  • 1956 - Narron, Jerry
  • 1957 - Cooper, Don
  • 1960 - Brown, Curt
  • 1961 - Lansford, Jody
  • 1963 - Brennan, William
  • 1965 - Banister, Jeff
  • 1967 - Wertz, Bill
  • 1969 - DeShields, Delino
  • 1973 - Gomes, Wayne
  • 1974 - King, Ray
  • 1975 - Diaz, Edwin

Copyright � 2001-2007. All Rights Reserved.
Part of the Baseball Almanac family: 755 Home Runs | Around the Horn | Baseball Box Scores | Baseball Fever | Today in Baseball History.​

 

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BIRTHDAYS
1870 Jimmy Collins HOF 3rd baseman (World Series 1903 Boston Americans; NL HR leader 1898 Boston Beaneaters) and manager (Boston Americans 1901–06), born in Niagara Falls, NY (d. 1943)


1910 Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean HOF pitcher (MLB All-Star 1934–37; World Series & NL MVP 1934 St Louis Cardinals), born in Lucas, Arkansas (d. 1974)


1966 Jack McDowell pitcher (NY Yankees, White Sox, Indians), born in Van Nuys, California


1970 Ron Villone pitcher (San Diego Padres, Iowa Cubs, Nationals), born in Englewood, New Jersey


1978 Alfredo Amézaga, Mexican baseball player, born in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico


1980 Albert Pujols 1st baseman (NL MVP 2005, 2008-09; 4th in history to 700 HRs; St. Louis Cardinals), born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

 

FROM MLB's This Day in Baseball History+​

1878 The Providence Grays hire Benjamin Douglas as the team's manager and names Tom Carey as the team's captain. The skipper of the new National League franchise in Rhode Island will be fired for insubordination before the season begins, being replaced by left fielder Tom York, who led the team to a third-place finish with a 33-27 (.550) record.

1886 The Washington Nationals, also known as the Statesmen, are admitted to the National League. The new franchise, which will play its home games at the Swampoodle Grounds, will win only 28 games of the 120 games played, finishing 60 games behind the first-place Chicago White Stockings in their first season of the team's four-year existence in the nation's capital.

1891 The National League, American Association, and the Western Association sign a new national agreement that creates a three-person panel to settle disputes. Two days ago, the Senior Circuit owners voted to allow the American Association to place a team in Boston, despite the fierce opposition from the owners of the Boston Beaneaters, the existing NL franchise in town.

1952 Stan Musial gets a salary raise to $85,000 despite a Korean War wage freeze. The U.S. Standardization Board gives its okay for teams to give individual players pay increases using a complex formula.

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1960 The Cubs trade Alvin Dark, along with John Buzhardt and Jim Woods, to the Phillies in exchange for Richie Ashburn. After a slow start in Philadelphia, the team deals the 'Swamp Fox' to the Braves, where he hits .298 for Milwaukee before retiring as a player at the end of the season to become the skipper for the Giants, the team he served as captain during their 1951 and 1954 World Championship campaigns.

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1960 The Bucs' very competitive shortstop Dick Groat scores 14 points against the NFL Steelers in a scheduled 15-minute benefit basketball game for the Children's Hospital. The Duke University hoop standout takes exception to a foul called on him by Bob Prince, the team's broadcaster refereeing the game, that allows their football rivals to tie the score in the final few seconds of the contest and eventually win the exhibition against the Pirates in overtime, 22-20.

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1964 The American League owners, by a 9-1 vote, nix Charlie Finley's proposal to move the A's to Louisville, giving the maverick owner an ultimatum to sign a lease in Kansas City by February 1 or lose his franchise. Ten days ago, Finley had announced he had signed a two-year deal with Louisville and had plans to shift the franchise there to start playing for the upcoming season.

 

1973 Steve Carlton becomes the highest-paid pitcher when he signs a contract with the Phillies for a reported $165,000. The 28-year-old southpaw, last season's unanimous Cy Young Award winner, will lose a league-leading 20 games this season after posting a 27-10 record in the previous campaign for the last-place team.

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1974 The BBWAA elects former Yankees teammates southpaw Whitey Ford and slugger Mickey Mantle to the Hall of Fame. The franchise leader in wins (236), innings pitched (3,171), strikeouts (1,956), and shutouts (45), and his buddy, the 'Mick,' only the seventh player to make it in his first year of eligibility, will be enshrined in Cooperstown in August.

WITH THE OLD PROFESSOR

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1996 The Giants signed much-acclaimed amateur free-agent Osvaldo Fernandez. The Cuban National squad's All-Star hurler, who defected when his club played Team USA in Tennessee, will post a disappointing 10-17 record during his two-year stay by the Bay.

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1997 At the winter meetings in Phoenix (AZ), the owners voted 26-2 to place the Devil Rays in the American League and put the Diamondbacks in the Senior Circuit. The Royals and the Rangers opposed the plan, fearing realignment may result in their team playing in a western division, a reality Texas is trying to escape, and a scenario Kansas City wants to avoid due to the two-hour difference in the starting times.

2001 The BBWAA elects Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett to the Hall of Fame. The former Twins, both selected in their first year of eligibility, played together for Minnesota in 1993-94, becoming the seventh pair of teammates to be chosen by the writers in the same year.

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2001 The Angels sign free agent Jose Canseco, offering an incentive-laden contract, ranging from $200,000 to as much as $5 million based on plate appearances as a designated hitter. At the end of spring training after 39 at-bats, Anaheim releases the 36-year-old slugger, who will start the season with the independent Atlantic League Newark Bears before joining the White Sox in June.

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2002 Pedro Astacio (8-14, 5.09) agrees to a one-year, $5 million incentive-laden free-agent deal with the Mets. The 32-year-old right-hander, after being traded to the Astros by the Rockies last season, developed shoulder problems.

2003 The owners establish the minimum age of 14 for batboys after a near collision at home plate during Game 5 of the World Series involving four-year-old Giants' batboy Darren Baker. The Nationals will select the San Franciso skipper Dusty's son, who prompted the change from not having any age requirement, in the 27th round of the 2017 MLB draft.

2003 Gary Carter will become the first player, and most likely the only one, to wear an Expos hat on his Hall of Fame plaque. Although the former catcher had expressed his wish to be immortalized as a member of the Mets, the team which presently employs him, and the franchise he helped win the 1986 World Series, Cooperstown decided the 'Kid' should enter the Hall with a Montreal logo.

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2003 To restore the competitive edge to the All-Star Game, the owners unanimously approve the World Series home-field advantage goes to the team representing the winning league of the Midsummer Classic. The players' approval is needed to change the current rotation between the two circuits, a schedule used since the inception of the World Series in 1903.

2006 Dontrelle Willis (22-10, 2.63), signing a record-setting one-year contract with the Marlins, avoids arbitration by agreeing to a $4.35 million one-year offer, potentially worth $4.55 million if he reaches specific performance-based incentives. The All-Star southpaw's deal surpasses those for Roy Halladay and Andy Pettitte, each inking $3.8 million contracts for the highest amount ever given to a starting pitcher in his first year of arbitration eligibility.

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2007 The Marlins, the team with the lowest payroll in the majors, spending only $15 million last season, agrees to a one-year deal with southpaw Dontrelle Willis (12-12, 3.87) for $6.45 million, a significant raise from the $4.35 million he received on this date last season. In his final season with the club before being traded to the Tigers in December, the 25-year-old Florida ace leads the league in games started (35) but also gives up the most earned runs (118) in the circuit, compiling a 10-15 record along with a hefty ERA of 5.17.

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2008 Jon Lieber (3-6, 4.73), a former 20-game winner with the team in 2001, signs a $3.5 million, one-year deal to rejoin the Cubs. The right-handed veteran, who played with the Phillies for the past three years, missed most of last season due to surgery needed to repair a ruptured tendon in his foot.

2008 The Tigers, avoiding salary arbitration, sign Nate Roberts (9-13, 4.76) to a three-year $21.25 million deal. The 30-year-old southpaw, who would have been eligible to become a free agent after the 2009 season, has made 30+ starts during each of his previous four seasons with Detroit.

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2009 The Red Sox sign another infielder to a long-term contract when Kevin Youkilis agrees to a four-year deal reportedly worth $41 million. The 29-year-old Gold Glove first baseman will join Dustin Pedroia, who inked a six-year contract extension in December, on the right side of Boston's infield for the foreseeable future.

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2010 Scott Hairston returns to the Padres, the team that traded him last July, in a four-player deal with the A's. The Friars send third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and prospect Eric Sogard to Oakland in exchange for their former outfielder and Aaron Cunningham.

2011 Joey Votto and the Reds agree to a three-year contract extension worth $38 million. The 27-year-old first baseman, last season's National League's Most Valuable Player, had a career year, batting .324 and hitting 37 home runs, driving in 113 runs.

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2013 The Mariners acquire Michael Morse from the Nationals in a three-way trade that sends catcher John Jaso to the A's, who deal minor league pitchers A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen, and a player to be named later to Washington. The 30-year-old outfielder/first baseman, obtained to provide additional punch to Seattle's middle-of-the-order, spent the first four years of his big league career playing for the Northwest team.

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2014 Expanded instant replay, a concept previously agreed to by the Players Association and World Umpires Association, is unanimously approved at the quarterly Owners Meetings. Each manager will begin a game with one challenge, with the crew chief initiating reviews when necessary from the Replay Command Center at MLB Advanced Media headquarters in New York, starting at the top of the seventh inning.

 

2017 The World Champion Cubs are welcomed at the White House by President Barack Obama, a noted White Sox patron who is offered a midnight pardon by Chicago GM Theo Epstein for his partisanship with the South Side team. In addition to receiving No. 44 jerseys from his fellow No. 44, Anthony Rizzo, the Commander in Chief is given a lifetime pass to any Cubs game, a gift Michelle, the First Lady, will probably appreciate more than her husband.

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2020 The Giants announce Alyssa Nakken, who joined the club as an intern in baseball operations in 2014, will become baseball's first female coach on a major league staff. The former Sacramento State softball standout will be in uniform as an assistant under recently hired manager Gabe Kapler.

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2020 The Mets and recently-hired skipper Carlos Beltrán announced they have "agreed to mutually part ways," due to his role in the Astros' cheating scheme of using electronics to steal signs. The move follows the dismissal of Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Houston's bench coach in 2017, when Beltrán, the only player mentioned by name in the Commissioner's nine-page report, played for the team.

2020 George Springer and the Astros come to terms on a one-year, $21 million incentive-laden contract that amounts to an increase of a little less than nine million dollars the 30-year-old All-Star outfielder made last year. The 2017 World Series MVP from New Britain (CT) set career highs last season, hitting 39 home runs with 96 RBI while batting .292 for the American League champions.

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Today in Baseball History
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Search archives: Historical Events Baseball Birthdays Baseball Deaths
On January 16 in Baseball History...

• • 1952 - The U.S. Standardization Board clears the way for Stan Musial to get a salary increase to $85,000. Prior to this relaxation of the rules, there was a wage freeze in effect due to the Korean War. Under the new rules, a team is free to raise individual salaries, as long as they do not exceed a complicated formula, based on total team salaries for any one year, from 1946-1950, plus 10 percent.
    
  • 1964 - A.L. owners vote 9-1 against Charlie Finley's proposal to move the A's to Louisville. Finley is given an ultimatum to sign a lease in Kansas City or lose his franchise.
    
  • 1970 - Gold Glove outfielder Curt Flood files a civil lawsuit challenging baseball's reserve clause, a suit that will have historic implications. Flood refused to report to the Phillies after he was traded by the Cardinals, contending the baseball rule violates federal antitrust laws.
    
  • 1974 - The BBWAA elects former Yankees teammates Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford to the Hall of Fame. Mantle becomes only the seventh player to make it in his first try. His 536 home runs with the Yankees ranked second only to Babe Ruth and he played in more games (2,401) than any other pinstriper, including Lou Gehrig. Ford was arguably the greatest Yankees pitcher of all time, retiring with more wins (236), more innings (3,171), more strikeouts (1,956), and more shutouts (45) than anyone in club history.

Baseball Birthdays on January 16...

• • 1855 - Macullar, Jimmy
  • 1858 - Whitney, Art
  • 1863 - Hunter, Lem
  • 1870 - Collins, Jimmy
  • 1877 - Bruce, Lou
  • 1878 - Murray, Jim
  • 1885 - Kutina, Joe
  • 1886 - Moulton, Allie
  • 1888 - Kocher, Brad
  • 1889 - Mayer, Erskine
  • 1889 - Jansen, Ray
  • 1891 - Goodwin, Marv
  • 1891 - Schupp, Ferdie
  • 1892 - Bratschi, Fred
  • 1894 - Divis, Moxie
  • 1895 - Guisto, Lou
  • 1899 - Fisher, Showboat
  • 1900 - Rabbitt, Joe
  • 1902 - Koehler, Pip
  • 1902 - Connell, Joe
  • 1904 - Morrissey, Jo-Jo
  • 1907 - Jordan, Buck
  • 1908 - Watson, Johnny
  • 1910 - Dean, Dizzy "I want you boys to realize what a great opportunity you have in baseball. I hope all of you make this Hall of Fame. You have to practice and work hard. Give everything you have." - Dizzy Dean (1953 Hall of Fame Induction Day Speech)
  • 1911 - McDonald, Hank
  • 1917 - Ramazzotti, Bob
  • 1920 - Poole, Ray
  • 1920 - Talcott, Roy "'Hitting's a gift,' (Bill) Clarke (Princeton Head Coach) once told a Princetonian reporter investigating this phenomenon, 'just like God Almighty hanging a good arm on you.' Providence, which continued to provide Clarke with good pitchers -- one of them, George Lauritzen '37 pitched a 9-0 no-hitter against Lehigh in 1935 -- also favored him with four league batting champions in his last years: Rolf Paine '37 (.452), Brooks Jones '40 (.467), Bill MacCoy '42 (.452), and Roy Talcott '43 (.385). Talcott's batting record was a notable achievement for his position -- pitcher. In Clarke's last decade, two teams won Eastern Intercollegiate League championships -- 1941 and 1942. Talcott and MacCoy stood out among some very fine players these years. Talcott had a 12-0 pitching record the first year, 9-0 the second. MacCoy, who was captain in 1942, scored the winning run in two decisive extra-inning games, against Yale in the tenth inning, against Harvard in the fourteenth. MacCoy was killed in plane crash while serving in the United States Air Force in World war II; he is memorialized by a bronze plaque on Clarke Field given by his family." - Leitch, Alexander. Columnist. A Princeton Companion. Princeton University Press. 15 April 1978
  • 1923 - Sipek, Dick
  • 1924 - Wooten, Junior "I didn’t grow up thinking about playing in the Major Leagues. I grew up wanting to play for the mill team. That’s what all the boys grew up dreaming about." - Junior Wooten in the Anderson Independent (Megan Nichols, 08/12/2006)
  • 1934 - Owens, Jim "Husky Jim Owens, with three straight victories for a 4-3 season record, has arrived as a major league pitcher as far as manager Eddie Sawyer and the Phillies are concerned. He's due to face the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight in the opener of a 3-game series at Connie Mack Stadium. The strong-as-an-ox right-hander—the call him 'The Bear'— should be a great pitcher, in Sawyer's opinion. Furthermore, he's only 24, and should stick around for a long while, Sawyer said. 'He certainly has the stuff to do it,' Sawyer said. 'He has lots of guts, and he certainly has lots of stamina.'" - UPI Sports Writer Russ Green in The Courier-Post (06/09/1959, Sawyer Says Phillies' Owens Has Arrived as Big Leaguer,
  • 1937 - Morhardt, Moe
  • 1938 - Herbel, Ron
  • 1940 - Miller, Rod
  • 1940 - Baird, Bob
  • 1941 - Bonikowski, Joe
  • 1944 - Stone, Gene
  • 1953 - DeBarr, Dennis
  • 1954 - Stapleton, Dave
  • 1957 - Castillo, Marty
  • 1957 - Balboni, Steve
  • 1959 - Buckley, Kevin
  • 1966 - McDowell, Jack "As a baseball player, (Jack) McDowell developed 'a nasty reputation as a cruel dude,' earning the nickname Black Jack McDowell. He showed no fear in tongue-lashing Chicago White Sox management and no reluctance to throw at a batter." - Paul Vercammen of Showbiz Today on CNN.com (07/10/2001)
  • 1970 - Villone, Ron
  • 1979 - Cust, Jack
  • 1980 - Pujols, Albert "He (Albert Pujols) has a passion for the game, a love for the game. You can see it. You can sense it. He's got natural God-given ability. A natural baseball player. A warrior. The man is good at every little thing he does." - Former St. Louis Cardinals Hitting Coach (1999–2001) Mike Easler

Copyright � 2001-2007. All Rights Reserved.
Part of the Baseball Almanac family: 755 Home Runs | Around the Horn | Baseball Box Scores | Baseball Fever | Today in Baseball History.​

 

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