BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

3/9
BIRTHDAYS
1893 Billy Southworth HOF manager (World Series 1942, 44 St. Louis Cardinals; Boston Braves) and outfielder (World Series 1926 NY Giants), born in Harvard, Nebraska (d. 1969)


1912 Arky Vaughan HOF shortstop (9 × MLB All-Star; NL batting champion 1935; NL stolen base leader 1943; Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Dodgers), born in Clifty, Arkansas (d. 1952)


1927 Jackie Jensen (AL MVP 1958), born in San Francisco, California (d. 1982)


1934 Jim Landis outfielder, 1957-67, 5X Gold Glove, 2X All-Star (Chicago White Sox, and 5 other teams), born in Fresno, California (d. 2017)


1942 Bert Campaneris player (Oakland A's), born in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba


1963 Terry Mulholland pitcher (Philadelphia Phillies, Cubs), born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania


1965 Benito Santiago player (Philadelphia Phillies,Padres), born in Ponce, Puerto Rico


1981 Clay Rapada born in Chesapeake, Virginia

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FROM MLB's This Day in Baseball History+
1897 The Cleveland Spiders sign Penobscot Indian Louis Sockalexis. Although the former Holy Cross star plays only three seasons due to alcoholism, the fans admire his outstanding skills and refer to the team as the 'Indians'- in 1915, the name will become official.

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1922 Rogers Hornsby, coveted by John McGraw of the Giants, signs a three-year contract with Cardinals' owner Sam Breadon. The 25-year-old second baseman, who will hit .404 over the three years of the deal, agrees to $18,500 per season, making him the highest-paid player in National League history.

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1943 The Dodgers trade first baseman Babe Dahlgren to the Phillies for outfielder Lloyd Waner and infielder Al Glossop. Philadelphia's new 31-year-old infielder will enjoy an all-star season during his only year in the City of Brotherly Love, hitting a solid .287 for the seventh-place team.

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1948 "Golf is a game of coordination, rhythm, and grace; women have these to a high degree." - BABE DIDRIKSON ZAHARIAS, commenting on women's ability to play golf. Ted Williams accepts Babe Didrikson Zaharias's challenge to compete in a driving contest at a local range. The former Olympic track star, turned golf champion, playfully teases the Red Sox superstar, giving him pointers when the 'Kid' slices most of his drives as her shots go straight, and usually, longer.

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1960 The police find Arnold Johnson en route to his Palm Beach home after watching his A's play a spring training intrasquad game semi-conscious and slumped behind the wheel of his car. The 53-year-old club owner will die early tomorrow morning due to a cerebral hemorrhage.

1961 The Yankees announce the team will be leaving its spring training home in St. Petersburg to move to Fort Lauderdale by 1963. The Yankee owners also encourage the new yet unnamed National League New York franchise to play its home games at the Polo Grounds and not consider Yankee Stadium.

1963 Songwriters Ruth Roberts and Bill Katz introduced the official Met theme song, Meet the Mets, to the public. The tune will be modernized in 1984, adding Long Island, New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens, Uptown and Down, to the team's East Side, West Side geographical realm.

1979 Fearing legal consequences, Bowie Kuhn gives female reporters access to major league locker rooms. The commissioner's unpopular ruling puts the players in an awkward position in their once-all-male domain.

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1994 After being hit in the groin by an errant pickoff throw from teammate Mitch Williams that breaks his protective cup, John Kruk will be diagnosed with testicular cancer. The Phillies' first baseman/outfielder will make a full recovery after surgery.

1995 At a meeting in West Palm Beach (FL), the major league owners vote unanimously, 28-0, to add their 13th and 14th expansion teams, officially granting franchises to Phoenix and Tampa Bay. The new cities, selected over municipalities that included bids from Orlando and two by groups from Washington, DC, will be assigned leagues in January of 1997.

1995 Tampa Bay's new expansion team will be known as the Devil Rays, a name that will prove unpopular due to its un-Christian reference after being selected from more than 7,000 entries submitted by the public. The club's owner Vince Naimoli preferred his team be called the Sting Rays, but he refused to pay the $35,000 needed to buy the trademark from a club in the Hawaiian Winter League, which owned the nickname's rights.

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2005 Current and former big-league players and baseball executives are issued subpoenas to appear on March 17 by the House Committee on Government Reform. The eleven 'invitees' to the congressional hearing on steroid use include Sandy Alderson, Jose Canseco, Donald Fehr, Jason Giambi, Rob Manfred, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Curt Schilling, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas, and Kevin Towers.

2005 Nikko Smith, Ozzie's son who made it to the third round of the American Idol semi-finals, is voted off the popular reality show. Days later, the young entertainer will be asked back by the producers to replace contestant Mario Vazquez, prompting judge Paula Abdul to call him "The Comeback Kid" after his performance of West Side Story's "One Hand, One Heart."

2006 At Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, a "Down with Fidel" sign, seen by millions of television viewers, including those watching the WBC contest in Cuba, creates an international incident. A Cuban official attending the game confronts the sign-holder, with local police quickly intercede, taking Angel Iglesias to a nearby police station, where authorities remind the vice president of Cuba's National Institute of Sports that Puerto Ricans enjoy the right to freedom of speech.

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2009 Alex Rodriguez undergoes an 80-minute arthroscopic surgical procedure to repair torn cartilage in his right hip. The Yankee's third baseman, who will need a more extensive operation in the offseason, expects to return to the lineup in May.

 

2010 Amidst much hoopla, former San Diego State right-hander Stephen Strasburg throws two scoreless innings against Detroit in his much anticipated first exhibition start for the Nationals this spring. The recipient of the Golden Spikes Award as the best amateur baseball player in the nation was selected as the number one overall pick in last year's draft, signing a record $15.1 million, four-year deal with Washington.

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2011 A helicopter airlifts Luis Salazar from just outside Champion Stadium in Kissimmee (FL) to Orlando Regional Medical Center after being struck in the face by a line drive pulled into the dugout by Brian McCann in the first inning of a Braves exhibition game. The 54-year-old minor league manager sustains a concussion and will lose his left eye due to the injury.

2014 Barry Bonds returns to the Giants as a special spring training instructor for the young Giants' hitters, a role the organization believes will benefit the club for years to come. The much-maligned former superstar, who played in his last major league game in 2007, has a ten-year personal services contract with San Francisco, which has yet tocommence.

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2017 Kris Bryant (.292, 39, 102), who made $652K in his rookie year, becomes the highest-paid second-year player when he comes to terms with the World Champion Cubs on a contract reportedly worth $1.05 million. The Chicago third baseman’s deal surpasses the previous record major league record of one million dollars, given to sophomore outfielder Mike Trout in 2014 by the Angels.

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2017 "Major League Baseball’s greatest responsibility is to ensure that today’s youth become active participants in our game as players and fans. The ‘MLB Little League Classic’ exemplifies our entire sport’s commitment to building a stronger connection between young people and the National Pastime" - ROB MANFRED, Commissioner of Baseball. Major League Baseball announces Williamsport's BB&T Ballpark, the second-oldest minor league ballpark in the United States, formerly known as Bowman Field when it opened in 1926, will host the first "MLB Little League Classic." The regular-season game between the Cardinals and Pirates on August 20, originally scheduled to be played at PNC Park, will occur in conjunction with the Little League World Series that will be taking place in nearby Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

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61,773

 

Today in Baseball History
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On March 9 in Baseball History...

• • 1897 - Cleveland signs Holy Cross star Chief Sockalexis to a contract. Sockalexis, a full-blooded Penobscot Indian, soon earns the admiration of Spiders supporters because of his outstanding all-around skill. Before long, baseball fans start referring to the Cleveland team as the Indians. Sockalexis plays only three years with the team because of acute alcoholism, but the nickname Indians will be revived in 1915 to become the club's official name.
    
  • 1936 - Babe Ruth turns down an offer by Reds general manager Larry MacPhail to make a comeback as a player. Ruth, who retired in June 1935, is inclined to accept the offer at first, but after talking it over with his wife, Claire, he says he has put on too much weight and is concerned about injuries to his legs if he returns as a player.
    
  • 1946 - Ted Williams is offered $500,000 to play in the Mexican League. He stays in the U.S. and captures the A.L. MVP while leading the Red Sox to the pennant.
    
  • 1972 - Players on the White Sox vote 31-0 in favor of a strike, if necessary, during negotiations between players and owners. The dispute centers around health and pension benefits for players. This is the first of a series of landmark team votes.
    
  • 1979 - Commissioner Bowie Kuhn issues a notice to all clubs urging that all reporters, regardless of sex, be treated equally in the matter of access to locker rooms.
    

Baseball Birthdays on March 9...

• • 1861 - Atkinson, Al
  • 1869 - Quinlan, Frank
  • 1869 - McPherson, John
  • 1872 - Delahanty, Tom
  • 1875 - Bliss, Elmer
  • 1877 - Pearson, Alex
  • 1882 - Compton, Jack
  • 1890 - Mapel, Rolla
  • 1890 - Davis, George
  • 1893 - Williams, Lefty "He (Lefty Williams) was a quiet, steady, almost scholarly type on the mound. His style was careful, almost delicate. His concentration was perfect." - Author Eliot Asinof in Eight Men Out
  • 1893 - Southworth, Billy
  • 1895 - Kane, Frank
  • 1896 - Yarrison, Rube
  • 1897 - Dawson, Joe
  • 1906 - Wise, Hughie
  • 1908 - Hoag, Myril
  • 1912 - Vaughan, Arky "I'd say he (Arky Vaughan) was as good a man at short as I ever saw. He could do it all and he was a good hitter. He could hit for power, and he could field for average. And could he ever fly around those bases." - Rip Sewell in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Yearbook (1989)
  • 1916 - Rich, Woody
  • 1918 - Alderson, Dale
  • 1927 - Jensen, Jackie
  • 1930 - Raines, Larry
  • 1932 - Kline, Ron
  • 1934 - Landis, Jim "I remember two things (about playing in the 1962 All-Star Game). When I was growing up I admired Stan Musial. In those days both teams stayed at the same hotel. Well I come out of the hotel getting on the bus to go to the park and who's looking right at me? Stan Musial. I got to sit next to him on the bus and we talked. The other thing I remember is that I got into the game and came up to hit and the pitcher for the National League is Bob Shaw. I got a real funny feeling because I didn't want to hit against him. He was my friend and my teammate for a number of years." - Jim Landis (Jim Landis Interview, Baseball Almanac, Mark Liptak)
  • 1942 - Campaneris, Bert
  • 1944 - Acosta, Ed
  • 1948 - Curtis, John
  • 1948 - Neumeier, Dan
  • 1948 - Chaney, Darrel
  • 1950 - Ault, Doug
  • 1959 - Babitt, Shooty
  • 1963 - Mulholland, Terry "Mulholland, known for having one of the best pickoff moves in the Majors, had an interesting, as well as a long, big-league career. A play he made with the Giants has been shown countless times on TV because he fielded a hard ground ball, and when the ball got stuck in the web of his glove, he tossed the glove to the first baseman to retire the runner. His no-hitter was against the Giants in 1990, and he faced the minimum of twenty-seven hitters. The only man to reach base did so on an error and then was retired on a double play. He is one of the few pitchers to beat ever Major League team at least once. Among other things, he was noted for durability and versatility. With the Cubs in 1998, he sometimes would pitch in relief one day and as a started the next. In 2004, when he was forty-one years old, his catcher was Pat Borders, also forty-one, making them the oldest battery in big-league history at the time." - Author Gary Caruso in Marietta College Baseball: The Story of the 'Etta Express
  • 1965 - Santiago, Benito
  • 1967 - Horsman, Vince
  • 1973 - Boone, Aaron
  • 1973 - Nitkowski, C.J.
  • 1974 - Franklin, Wayne
  • 1975 - Sasser, Rob

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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3/10
BIRTHDAYS
1963 John Cangelosi outfielder (Houston Astros), born in Brooklyn, New York


1966 Michael Timlin, American MLB pitcher (Toronto Blue Jays), born in Midland, Texas


1971 Shad Williams, American pitcher (California Angels), born in Fresno, California

 

FROM MLB's This Day in Baseball History+​

1941 The Dodgers announce their players will start to wear helmets when batting. The safety headgear will not become mandatory in the National League until 1954, with the AL will follow suit four years later.

1951 J. Edgar Hoover, longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, declines the baseball commissioner's post. President Calvin Coolidge appointed him in 1924, and the nation's top cop remained in the FBI until he died in 1972.

1963 In an exhibition game against the White Sox, 21-year-old rookie Pete Rose goes 2-for-2 in his first appearance in a Reds' uniform. The future all-time major league leader in hits will be named the National League's Rookie of the Year.

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1966 The Orioles trade 22-year-old minor league outfielder Lou Piniella to the Indians for reserve catcher Camilo Carreon, who retires at the end of the season after playing in only four contests for his new team. The Tribe's latest flycatcher will appear in more than 1,700 big-league games, but only six games for Cleveland, all in 1968, before his selection in the expansion draft by the Pilots, the team that trades him at the start of 1969 campaign to the Royals for John Gelnar and Steve Whitaker.

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1967 Ted Davidson, who had five wins and four saves for the Reds last season, is gunned down in an alley as he leaves a local restaurant, telling police his estranged wife shot him once in the abdomen and twice in the chest. The judge dismisses the charge against Mary Ruth Davidson when the southpaw, who will return to the team in June, but without his same effectiveness, fails to appear in court on two occasions.

 

1992 The Pirates trade pitcher Neal Heaton (3-3, 4.33) to the Royals for outfielder Kirk Gibson (.236, 16 HR, 18 SB). After being released by the Bucs in May, the veteran flycatcher, who will turn down an offer to play for the Arena Football League's Detroit Drive, ends his brief retirement, playing his last three years as a Tiger for his former manager Sparky Anderson.

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1993 Sherry Davis becomes the first full-time female major league public address announcer when the Giants hire her to work at Candlestick Park. The legal secretary, chosen from five hundred contestants, won the job in an open audition.

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1995 Former Chicago Bull superstar Michael Jordan, citing labor unrest as the reason, announces that he is leaving the White Sox organization to return to the Chicago Bulls. In his only season in professional baseball, the future NBA Hall of Famer batted .202, hit three home runs, drove in 51 runs, stole 30 bases, and made 11 errors playing the outfield for the Double-A Birmingham Barons last season.

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2004 When asked by Senator John McCain to renegotiate the major league baseball's contract concerning the use of controlled substances, Donald Fehr refuses to comply. Although the union boss condemns the use of steroids, he believes the players oppose random drug testing as a violation of privacy, an argument countered by the Arizona Republican as unacceptable, promising congressional action if the status quo remains in place.

2005 Singling off Brad Thompson in a Cardinal intrasquad game, former pitching prospect Rick Ankiel goes 1-for-2 in his debut as a position player. Historic wildness and injuries ended the 25-year-old's once very-promising career on the mound.

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2009 At Puerto Rico's Hiram Bithorn Stadium, the Netherlands World Baseball Classic team, mostly of unknown players, upsets a heavily-favored Dominican Republic club for the second time in four days, advancing to the next round. The Dominicans, considered to be an odds-on favorite, with a roster filled with major league All-Stars, including David Ortiz (Red Sox), Hanley Ramirez (Marlins), and Miguel Tejada (Astros), are eliminated in the first round of the 16-team tournament.

2010 Nomar Garciaparra, announcing his retirement before the exhibition game against Tampa Bay, signs a ceremonial one-day contract with Boston, six years after rejecting the team's four-year, $60 million offer that resulted in an acrimonious trade to the Cubs in 2004. The former Rookie of the Year and AL batting champion, who finishes his 14-year major league career with a .313 batting average, gets his wish to leave the game in a Red Sox uniform when he throws out the ceremonial first pitch to former teammate Jason Varitek.

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2010 Justin Upton (.300, 26, 86) and the Diamondbacks come to terms on a $51.25 million, six-year contract, the second-largest deal in franchise history being slightly less than Randy Johnson's $52.4 million pact in 1999. The 22-year-old outfielder, the team's No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft, was selected to last season's National League All-Star squad.

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Today in Baseball History
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Search archives: Historical Events Baseball Birthdays Baseball Deaths
On March 10 in Baseball History...

• • 1951 - F.B.I. director J. Edgar Hoover reports that he has declined the post of baseball commissioner. California Governor Earl Warren had earlier turned down the post.
    
  • 1959 - Dorothy Comiskey Rigney, granddaughter of the Old Roman, Charles Comiskey, sells her 54 percent ownership in the White Sox to Bill Veeck's syndicate for $2.7 million. Brother Chuck fails in his attempt to match or improve the bid. Comiskey control of the franchise ends after 60 years.
    
  • 1962 - Because it does not allow black guests, the Phillies leave Jack Tar Harrison Hotel and move to Rocky Point Motel, 20 miles outside Clearwater, Florida.
    
  • 1963 - Rookie Pete Rose plays his first spring training game, and goes two for two against the White Sox.
    
  • 1982 - Travis Jackson and Happy Chandler are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. Jackson hit .291 in 15 seasons as the New York Giants shortstop in the 1920s and 1930s, while Chandler was baseball's second commissioner. He oversaw and encouraged the dismantling of the color barrier in 1947.
    
  • 1983 - Walter Alston, who managed the Dodgers to four world championships, and George Kell, who hit .306 over 15 major league seasons, are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee.
    
  • 1986 - Ernie Lombardi, the N.L. MVP in 1938, and Bobby Doerr, a nine-time A.L. All-Star, are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee.

Baseball Birthdays on March 10...

• • 1852 - Fisher, Charles
  • 1862 - Lytle, Dad
  • 1867 - Shea, Mike
  • 1868 - Whistler, Lew
  • 1868 - Conovar, Ted
  • 1869 - Bird, Frank
  • 1870 - Goodall, Herb
  • 1871 - Kelty, John
  • 1877 - Lundbom, Jack
  • 1877 - Godwin, John
  • 1880 - Nagle, Judge
  • 1882 - Cermak, Ed
  • 1883 - Liebhardt, Glenn
  • 1889 - Mercer, Jack
  • 1890 - Fahrer, Pete
  • 1892 - Huhn, Emil
  • 1893 - Curry, Jim
  • 1894 - Johnson, Fred
  • 1894 - Wieneke, Jack
  • 1895 - Propst, Jake
  • 1897 - Ennis, Russ
  • 1898 - Loftus, Frank
  • 1906 - Herring, Art
  • 1921 - Atkins, James
  • 1921 - Elder, George "'Hey Elder! Come here,' rang out a familiar voice as George Elder jogged in from center field after a baseball game between armed forces teams in 1945 in Samoa. Elder was the starting center fielder for the U.S. Marine all-star team and was playing not long after he saw extensive action on Iwo Jima earlier in the year. As he left the field, the U.S. Navy officer who called him over said: 'I hear you played football back home. ... Well, forget about football. Stick with baseball.' Elder was a good football player prior to World War II. He was the captain of his high school football team and played running back for Fordham University in New York. His family was well-known for the sport as his older brother, Jack, starred at the University of Notre Dame in the late 1920s under legendary coach Knute Rockne. But when Ted Williams, 'the greatest hitter who ever lived,' tells you to play baseball, you play baseball." - Vaccarelli, Joe. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. 14 April 2019.
  • 1921 - Blatnik, Johnny
  • 1924 - Perkovich, John
  • 1925 - Limmer, Lou
  • 1929 - Thomas, Bud
  • 1932 - Martin, Paul
  • 1934 - Mackenzie, Ken
  • 1939 - Heath, Bill
  • 1942 - Hilgendorf, Tom
  • 1944 - Campbell, Joe
  • 1944 - Briggs, Johnny
  • 1947 - Fast, Darcy
  • 1948 - Twitchell, Wayne "In the days when I was playing you had the Bob Gibsons, the Drysdales, the Seavers, the Carltons, the Juan Marichals - but those guys were not the toughest on me. If I give you a name, you probably might not remember, but Wayne Twitchell or Bill Stoneman were guys who gave me problems." - Bob Watson in Baseball Digest (September 1988, Ed Connolly, 'Bob Watson: More Than An Answer to a Trivia Question', Page 85)
  • 1958 - Howe, Steve "The entire Dodger organization is deeply saddened by the loss of Steve and our sympathies go out to his family and friends. Steve was a huge part of the Dodgers' 1981 World Championship club and he will go down as one of the best closers in franchise history. He will be missed." - Los Angeles Dodger. Press Release. 28 April 2006.
  • 1961 - Birkbeck, Mike
  • 1963 - Cangelosi, John
  • 1966 - Timlin, Mike
  • 1971 - Williams, Shad
  • 1971 - Hughes, Bobby
  • 1972 - Stanifer, Rob
  • 1977 - Redman, Tike
  • 1977 - Davis, Ben

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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