BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

4/12
OTD
BIRTHDAYS
1917 M Marie Wadlow softball pitcher (Hall of Fame 1957), born in St Louis, Missouri (d. 1979)

1930 Johnny Antonelli pitcher (6 × MLB All-Star 1954, 56–59²; World Series, NL ERA leader 1954; SF Giants), born in Rochester, New York (d. 2020)

1940 Woodie Fryman, born in Ewing, Kentucky (d. 2011)

1964 Mike Macfarlane catcher (KC Royals), born in Stockton, California

1972 Paul Lo Duca, born in Brooklyn, New York

1973 Antonio Osuna pitcher (LA Dodgers), born in Sinaloa, Mexico

1979 Jordan De Jong, born in Orange City, Iowa

 

FROM MLB's This Day in Baseball History+​

1906 At Brooklyn’s Washington Park, Boston Beaneater rookie Johnny Bates becomes the first modern player to homer in his first major league at-bat. The 23-year-old outfielder connects off Harry McIntire in the top of the second inning in the team’s 2-0 Opening Day victory over the Superbas.

1909 The 61-year history of Shibe Park begins with the A's defeating the Red Sox, 8-1. The Philadelphia stadium, renamed to honor Connie Mack in 1953, is the first concrete and steel ballpark in major league history.
1916 Due to a salary dispute with Joe Lannin, the Red Sox president, Boston trades Tris Speaker to the Indians for Sam Jones, Fred Thomas, and approximately $50,000. The future Hall of Fame outfielder will spend half of his Hall of Fame career in Cleveland, compiling a .354 batting average during his 11 seasons playing for the Tribe after playing nine outstanding seasons in Boston.

1916 On Opening Day, the Giants begin the season with a 5-4 loss to the Phillies at the Baker Bowl. The game marks the debut of New York's new purple plaid uniforms, fortunately, a trend that will last only a year.
1927 Giants' first baseman Bill Terry becomes the first major leaguer to hit a grand slam on Opening Day. The New York infielder's four-run round-tripper comes off Phillies' right-hander Hal Carlson in the fifth inning of the team's 15-7 victory at Baker Bowl.

1931 Former Cubs pilot Joe McCarthy makes his debut as Yankee manager, beating Boston at the Bronx ballpark, 6-3. The future Hall of Fame manager, who is the team's all-time leader in managerial wins with 1460, guides the club to eight pennants and seven World Championships during his 16-year tenure in the Bronx.

1935 The Yankees name Lou Gehrig to be the fifth captain in team history. The 33 year-old first baseman joins Hal Chase (1912), Roger Peckinpaugh (1914-1921), Babe Ruth (six days in 1922), and Everett Scott (1922-1925) to receive the honor as a player.

 

1953 During an exhibition game in Brooklyn, the Ebbets Field PA announcer informs the crowd, including the new dad as he approaches home plate to bat, "Mickey doesn't know it yet, but he has just become the father of an eight-pound, twelve-ounce baby boy." Mickey Mantle Jr., whose given middle name is Elven in memory of the Yankee slugger's recently deceased dad, is the first of four children, all sons, with his wife, Merlyn.

1955 Pinch-hitting for Braves' southpaw Warren Spahn, Chuck Tanner, who becomes better known for his managerial skills, hits a home run on the first pitch of his first major league at-bat. The 26-year-old outfielder's eighth-inning round-tripper off Gerry Staley ties the score in Milwaukee's eventual 4-2 victory over Cincinnati at County Stadium.

1955 At Municipal Stadium, the recently arrived Athletics beat the Tigers, 6-2, in their first game in Kansas City. At first, the franchise's shift from Philadelphia will be warmly received by the Missouri fans as the A's draw 1,393,054 patrons to the ballpark in their first season, second only to the Yankees in American League attendance.
1955 In front of a standing-room crowd of 32,147 at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium, 70-year-old former US president Harry Truman throws out the ceremonial first pitch as a southpaw before the A's take the field in their first home game in the City of Fountains. The enthusiastic fans show their support of the transplanted team from Philadelphia with a large civic parade prior to the newcomers taking a 6-2 decision from the Tigers.

 

1960 In the first game ever played at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, after Vice President Richard Nixon throws out the ceremonial first pitch, Giants' starter Sam Jones three-hits the Cardinals, 3-1. During the third inning, the umpires noticed that both foul poles were positioned well inside fair territory instead of on the foul line, necessitating the need to improvise a new ground rule until the team corrects the problem.
1960 The Indians trade Norm Cash to the Tigers in exchange for Steve Demeter. The Tribe, who acquired Cash in the off-season from the White Sox, will regret the move, giving away a future American League batting champ, who will hit 373 homers during his 15 years in Detroit in exchange for a third baseman who plays only four games with the franchise.

1962 In front of 40,000 fans, the expansion Mets are honored with a ticker-tape parade up lower Broadway. The players, wearing their brand new home uniforms, broadcasters, and other officials ride in open convertibles, throwing plastic baseballs to the enthusiastic crowd as they drive by.
1962 Pete Richert, making his major league debut, comes out of the bullpen and strikes out the first six batter he faces, a major league record. The rookie southpaw fans four in the third inning in LA's 11-7 comeback victory over the Reds at Dodger Stadium.

1965 In Cincinnati, Joe Torre hits two home runs in Milwaukee's 4-2 Opening Day victory at Crosley Field. Next season on the same date, the Braves catcher will do it again, joining teammate Eddie Mathews as the only major leaguers to have hit two round-trippers twice in games played on Opening Day.

1965 At the Astrodome, the Astros lose the first regular-season indoor game to the Phillies 2-0. Houston third baseman Bob Aspromonte, who collected the first Houston hit in Colt Stadium in 1962, also gets the first hit in the Astrodome, and Dick Allen of the Phillies blasts the first National League homer in the 'Eighth Wonder of the World.'
1965 The A’s mascot Charlie-O the Mule, chosen to highlight the role the Missouri mules played in Allies victory in World War I by lugging ammunition and supplies through the mud and snow of France, makes his debut on Opening Night at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium. In a pregame ceremony, Warren Hearnes, the governor of Missouri, presents the 1,400-pound animal to team owner Charlie O.Finley, who rides his namesake much to the delight of the 18,109 fans attending the game against the Tigers.

1966 Atlanta's first-ever major league game goes overtime when Pittsburgh beats the hometown Braves, 3-2. With the game deadlocked at 1-1 in the top of the thirteenth inning, starter Tony Cloninger, who will go the distance, gives up a two-run homer to Willie Stargell.

1966 On Opening Day, Jim Lonborg's 13th-inning balk plates Bob Johnson with the deciding run in Baltimore's 5-4 victory. The Red Sox reliever miscue on the mound occurs with two outs and the bases loaded at Fenway Park.

1967 On Opening Day at Boston's Fenway Park, the Red Sox draw only 8,324 to watch the team beat Chicago, 5-4. The eventual American League champs finished last season in ninth place with a 72-90 record.

 

1970 Phil Roof, followed by Hank Aaron and Felipe Alou, becomes the first of only three major leaguers to play for both the Milwaukee Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers, scoring three runs in the team's 16-2 rout of Chicago in at White Sox Park. In 1960, the catcher mhis major league debut with the Braves, appearing in three games before being traded to the Angels in 1964.
1972 The first players strike in baseball history ends when the owners agree to the addition of salary arbitration to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and a $500,000 increase in pension fund payments. The owners will cancel the 86 games missed during the 13-day strike, refusing to compensate the players for the time they lost during the work stoppage.
1976 Rain postpones the game against the Padres at Dodger Stadium, marking only the second rainout in the 14-year history of the ballpark. The washout ends a streak started in April 1967, covering a span of 724 straight contests, with subsequent postponements coming much sooner when inclement weather cancels two consecutive home dates in September.
1977 On Opening Day, fans attending the Comiskey Park contest receive a foam ball with the idea of having the first pitch of the White Sox season thrown by everybody in the stands. The concept is the brainchild of Rudie Schaffer, team owner Bill Veeck's right-hand man, also credited with the Bat Day promotion and the innovative exploding scoreboard.
1986 In a humiliating 9–8 extra-inning loss against the Phillies, the Mets blow a three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, thanks, in part, to Keith Hernandez's error allowing the leadoff batter to reach base, opening the floodgates to Philadelphia's comeback. Six years later, the New York first baseman's Veterans Stadium miscue (albeit placed in the wrong date and season in a different venue) becomes the background of a conspiracy theory detailed in an hour-long Seinfeld episode, The Boyfriend.
1988 Frank Robinson replaces Cal Ripken Sr. as the Orioles' manager after the team gets off to a 0-6 start. The new skipper, who has previously managed the Indians and Giants, will be winless in his first 15 games in the Baltimore dugout.

1988 Bobby Witt ties an American League record, committing four balks in the Rangers' 4-1 loss in Detroit. The major league record for the most balks in one game is five, established in 1963 by Braves' right-hander Bob Shaw, which included three in the third inning of the team's 7-5 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

 

1990 Brett Butler walks five times in the Giants' 13-4 win over the Braves at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The speedy outfielder will score four times after being issued a free pass.

1992 In a doubleheader at Cleveland, the Indians are no-hit by Red Sox hurler Matt Young in the first game but win, 2-1, and in the nightcap, the Tribe gets only two safeties off Roger Clemens to set a major league record for fewest hits (2) in a twin bill.
1993 Barry Bonds, who signed a six-year, $43 million deal as a free agent, the richest contract in baseball history, delights the crowd of 56,689 at Candlestick Park by homering in his first at-bat in front of the hometown fans. The clean-up hitter's second-inning drive to deep right field off Chris Hammond proves to be the difference in the Giants' 4-3 extra-inning victory over Florida.

1994 Scott Cooper hits for the cycle, the first Red Sox player since Mike Greenwell to accomplished the feat since 1988, driving in five runs to helping the team rout the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, 22-11. The third baseman's fifth-inning triple is the result of being thrown out at the plate trying to stretch the three-bagger into an inside-the-park home run.

2001 The Blue Jays postpone the game against the Royals when SkyDome's retractable dome gets jammed during a routine test opening, sending chunks of the roof, some as big as eight feet by six feet, crashing onto the field below. The gaping hole in the dome is clearly visible from the outside of the ballpark, making the damage easy to spot by the city's commuters on a nearby expressway.
2001 The combat-ready Padres, wearing camouflage jerseys and green caps, finally win the battle against the Giants, after five consecutive losses to the black and orange, 8-3. San Diego donned the uniforms to honor the area's significant military population.
2002 In front of 48,244 loud and enthusiastic fans at the Metrodome, their first sellout since winning the World Series in 1991, the Twins beat the Tigers in the home opener, 4-2. The MLB had considered eliminating the Minnesota franchise under its contraction plan proposed during the off-season.
2002 Barry Bonds, with his 574th career round-tripper, passes former Twin first baseman Harmon Killebrew on the all-time home run list. The Giants' left fielder hit his milestone homer, which ranks him sixth overall, in the first inning off Nelson Figueroa in the Giants' 3-2 victory over Milwaukee.

2003 Fenway's Green Monster, the left-field wall in the major league's smallest park, has a new look. In the place of a net that the team used to collect home runs balls that cleared the wall, the fans now occupy the space, sitting 310 feet away and 40 feet above the field, as they watch Red Sox right-hander Pedro Martinez give up ten runs in 4.1 innings in a 13-6 loss to the Orioles.
2003 With a 5-2 victory over the Indians at Cleveland's Jacobs Field, the Royals set a franchise record for victories at the start of the season, winning their ninth consecutive game since Opening Day. In 1977, Kansas City won 16 straight from August 31st through September 15th for the overall team's mark for consecutive wins.

 

2004 At the Giants' home opener at SBC Park, the torch is passed both literally and figuratively as Barry Bonds hit his 660th career homer to tie his godfather, Willie Mays, for third on the all-time home run list. The 72 year-old Hall of Famer Mays greets his godson at home plate with a torch studded with $18,000 of diamonds forming the numbers 660, 25, which is Barry's number, and 1, the number to needed move ahead.

2004 In front of a sellout crowd of 41,626 fans, the Phillies play their first game in their $458 million Pattison Avenue ballpark. On a cloudy day, the Citizens Bank Park history begins with a 4-1 loss to the Reds with right fielder Bobby Abreu hitting the park's first homer, accounting for Philadelphia's only run.
2004 The Phillies unveiled a ten-foot bronze statue of Richie Ashburn at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies' new home. Zenos Frudakis's work of the five-time All-Star, located behind centerfield in Ashburn Alley, in the team's Walk of Fame.

2006 Twenty-two-year-old college senior Jeffrey Maier hits a third-inning two-bagger against Bates to become the all-time career hits leader at Wesleyan, with 169, surpassing the 2003 mark set by Bill Robinson. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound third baseman gained national notoriety a decade ago as a 12-year-old fan when he leaned over the Yankee Stadium fence to catch Derek Jeter's fly ball 'homer,' which prevented Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco from catching the ball during the 1996 ALCS.
2008 The Charleston RiverDogs, a Class-A minor league affiliate of the Yankees, commemorate the first visit of Benedict XVI to the United States with a Pope on a Rope Night promotion. The first 1,000 fans attending the South Atlantic League game against Rome at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park receive a soap figurine bearing a likeness of the Holy Father.

2009 With runners taking off from first and second base, Pirates' shortstop Jack Wilson turns Reds third baseman Edwin Encarnacion's soft liner into a triple play. The triple killing is the Bucs' first since 1993, and the team's first on the road in 41 years.
2009 A pair of tickets for the Mets home opener at Citi Field, with a face value of $525 apiece, is auctioned off for $7,500 on eBay. The ducats belonged to Bernard Madoff, who is in jail after pleading guilty last month to defrauding investors, including Mets owner Fred Wilpon, in a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
2010 On an unusually warm spring day, the hometown Twins beat Boston, 5-2, in the first regular-season game at Target Field. Minnesota DH Jason Kubel hits the ballpark's first home run, a seventh-inning shot into the right-field seats.
2010 With 9,129 fans in attendance, the smallest crowd in the 19-year history of the ballpark, the Orioles lose to Tampa Bay at Camden Yards, 5-1. The club, off to a 1-6 start in the new season, has scored only three runs in their last three games.
2011 The Rakuten Eagles, unable to use their stadium due to the extensive damage caused by last month's massive earthquake and tsunami, beat the Chiba Lotte Marines at QVC Marine Field, 6-4, in Japan's Pacific League opener. The crowd of 22,525 attending the game is not disturbed after feeling an aftershock at the ballpark caused by an earthquake in Chiba earlier in the day.
2012 Paulo Orlando becomes the first major leaguer to have each of his first three career hits be a triple when he bangs out his second three-bagger in the Royals’ 9-2 victory over Los Angeles at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Three days ago, the 29-year-old rookie outfielder also legged out a three-bag base hit off White Sox left-hander John Danks, after being walked in his big-league debut at the plate.

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4,925

 

Today in Baseball History
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On April 12 in Baseball History...

• • 1909 - Philadelphia's Shibe Park, the first steel-and-concrete structure built for baseball, is dedicated.
  • 1955 - In their first game at Kansas City, the transplanted Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-2 at Municipal Stadium.
  • 1965 - Richie Allen hit the first home run in the Houston Astrodome, off Bob Bruce, as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Astros 2-0.
  • 1966 - A crowd of 50,671 welcomed the Braves to Atlanta, but Willie Stargell spoiled the opener with a two-run homer in the 13th inning, giving the Pirates a 3-2 victory.
  • 1980 - Cecil Cooper and Don Money each hit grand slams in the second inning of Milwaukee's 18-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
  • 1992 - Boston's Matt Young pitched eight no-hit innings at Cleveland but lost 2-1 in the opener of a doubleheader. In the second game, the Indians managed only two hits off Roger Clemens to set a major league record for fewest hits (2) in a doubleheader.
  • 1994 - Scott Cooper hit for the cycle and drove in five runs, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 22-11 victory over the Kansas City Royals

Baseball Birthdays on April 12...

• • 1850 - Nava, Sandy
  • 1859 - Harkins, John
  • 1863 - Hoover, Buster
  • 1875 - Post, Lew
  • 1876 - Willis, Vic
  • 1879 - Clancy, Bill
  • 1879 - Brown, Fred
  • 1880 - Joss, Addie
  • 1881 - Ostdiek, Harry
  • 1887 - Agnew, Sam
  • 1888 - Klawitter, Al
  • 1888 - Sullivan, Harry
  • 1888 - McLaughlin, Kid
  • 1889 - Russell, Reb
  • 1889 - Bailey, Bill
  • 1895 - Vick, Sammy
  • 1899 - Henderson, Bernie
  • 1899 - Horne, Trader
  • 1900 - O'Neil, Mickey
  • 1908 - Vitelli, Joe
  • 1909 - McNair, Eric
  • 1910 - Miller, Bill
  • 1912 - Wilson, Jack
  • 1918 - Ramos, Chucho
  • 1922 - Wight, Bill
  • 1926 - Moryn, Walt
  • 1926 - Possehl, Lou
  • 1929 - Held, Mel
  • 1930 - Antonelli, Johnny
  • 1933 - Lau, Charlie
  • 1942 - Sisk, Tommie
  • 1942 - Roberts, Dale
  • 1943 - Romo, Vicente
  • 1943 - Suarez, Ken
  • 1944 - Harmon, Terry
  • 1956 - Alvarez, Jose
  • 1960 - Lindsey, Bill
  • 1964 - Goff, Jerry
  • 1964 - Macfarlane, Mike
  • 1968 - Brantley, Cliff
  • 1968 - Staton, Dave
  • 1971 - Williams, Matt
  • 1972 - Lo Duca, Paul
  • 1973 - Osuna, Antonio
  • 1976 - Wallace, Jeff

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4/13
OTD
BIRTHDAYS
1885 Vean Gregg, born in Chehalis, Washington (d. 1964)

1962 Dave Miley player and manager, born in Tampa, Florida

1963 Mark Leiter pitcher (SF Giants), born in Joliet, Illinois

1964 Doug Strange infielder (Seattle Mariners), born in Greenville, South Carolina

1964 José Rijo pitcher (NY Yankees, Cincinnati Reds), born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic

1983 Hunter Pence born in Fort Worth, Texas

 

FROM MLB's This Day in Baseball History+​

1883 "Good ballplayers make good citizens." - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States.
Chester A. Arthur brings the Forest Cities ball club, a recently defunct franchise of the National Association, to the White House, making it the first professional team to visit with a president in Washington, D.C. Later in the season, the country's Commander-in-Chief will host the new National League's New York Gothams, who will become better known as the Giants in 1885.

1914 Major league baseball returns to Baltimore as the first Federal League game is played with approximately 27,000 patrons on hand to watch the Terrapins beat the Buffalo Blues at Terrapin Park, 3-2. After the elimination of the hometown Orioles from the National League at the end of the 1899 season, John McGraw's club joins the new rival American League in 1901, staying in the Charm City for two seasons before moving to New York to become the Yankees, after briefly known as the Highlanders.

1921 After President Warren Harding, an avid baseball fan, tosses the ceremonial first pitch at Griffith Stadium, Washington loses to the Red Sox, 6-3. The contest marks the first time in six Opening Days contests the Senators have failed when the United States President throws out the first pitch.
1926 On Opening Day, 38-year-old Senators' hurler Walter Johnson strikes out a dozen A's batter when he outduels Eddie Rommel for 15 innings, beating Philadelphia at Washington's Griffith Stadium, 1-0. In his next-to-last season, the' Big Train finishes the campaign 15-16 (.484) with an ERA of 3.63 for the fourth-place club.

1933 At Sportsman's Park in the season's second game, Browns' flycatcher Sammy West goes 6-for-6, collecting five singles and a double. The southpaw-swinging outfielder's offensive output isn't enough when the team drops a 4-3 decision to the White Sox in 11 innings.

1939 In a spring training game played in Norfolk, Virginia, Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, with apparent muscle loss, especially around his shoulders, goes deep twice in a 14-12 exhibition loss against the Dodgers. The second and ninth-inning home runs will be the last round-trippers the 'Iron Horse' will ever hit.