BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

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Today In 1936: New York #Yankees rookie Joe DiMaggio gets a spring training hit wearing uniform #18! Joe would end up wearing #9 during the '36 regular season before switching to his famous #5 the following year
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MARCH 22 BASEBALL BIRTHDAYS
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1926 Billy Goodman infielder (MLB All-Star 1949, 53; AL batting champion 1950; Boston Red Sox), born in Concord, North Carolina


1952 Bob Costas sportscaster


1963 Rich Monteleone, pitcher (California Angels), born in Tampa, Florida


1966 Sean Berry infielder (Houston Astros), born in Santa Monica, California


1968 Ramón Martínez, Dominican pitcher (MLB All-Star 1990; pitched no-hitter 1995 LA Dodgers), born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

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This Day in Baseball History
March 22nd​

1939 The 20-year-old injury-plagued Pete Reiser homers in his first at-bat during the Dodgers' second spring training game, beginning a streak of ten consecutive hits. 'Pistol Pete,' one of 74 minor-leaguer free-agents when Commissioner Landis ruled the Cardinals signed too many players to play on multiple teams in the same leagues, hits .301 in 38 games with the Elmira Pioneers, the team's Eastern League Single-A affiliate.

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1962 In the first meeting between the two New York clubs, the Mets defeated the World Champion Yankees in a spring training game with a dramatic walk-off 4-3 victory at Al Lang Field. Casey Stengel, the former skipper of the Bronx Bombers, now the expansion team's manager, clearly wanting to beat his old club, calls upon veteran Richie Ashburn, who delivers a ninth-inning pinch-hit single for the Amazins'.

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1962 Roger Maris declines to pose with Mets coach Rogers Hornsby because the veteran had criticized him in the recently published autobiography, My Wars with Baseball. In the book, the 65-year-old Hall of Famer dismisses the Yankees slugger as a mediocre hitter who couldn't bat .400 even with all of his averages added up.

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1972 The Yankees trade first baseman Danny Cater to the Red Sox for lefty reliever Albert Walter Lyle. Sparky will pitch in 420 games in relief over the next seven years with a 57-40 record and a 2.41 ERA, notching 141 saves as he helps the Bronx Bombers appear in three World Series.

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1986 The Yankees announce Britt Burns, an 18-game winner with the White Sox last season, will miss the entire season due to a degenerative hip condition. The 26-year-old southpaw will never throw another major league pitch, ending his eight-year career, played entirely with Chicago, with a 70-60 (.538) won-loss record.

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2002 After a miserable spring trying to make the Dodgers as a bench player, 38-year-old Dante Bichette (.299, 274, 1,141) announces his retirement. The four-time affable All-Star, who played with the Angels, Brewers, Rockies, Reds, and Red Sox during his 14-year major league career, will have a brief stint as the Rockies' batting coach in 2009.

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2005 Giants' slugger Barry Bonds, 11 home runs shy of passing Babe Ruth on the all-time list, indicates he may not play this season. Implicated in the sport's steroids scandal, the 40-year-old National League MVP, who has had two knee operations, cites being physically and mentally "done," blaming the media for his unhappiness.

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2010 With the same pen he used to sign his rookie contract in 2001, Twins catcher Joe Mauer (.365, 28, 96) signs a $184 million, eight-year contract extension, keeping him with the small-market team through 2018. Last year, the 26-year-old backstop, after starting the season on the DL as a result of back surgery the previous year, captured his third batting crown and was named the American League's Most Valuable Player.

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2014 At Sydney Cricket Grounds, the Dodgers defeat the Diamondbacks, 3-1, to open the Major League Baseball season. The contest marks the first regular season game played in Australia. MLB has previously opened seasons in Mexico (1999); Japan (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012); and Puerto Rico (2001).

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2016 In a game attended by Barack Obama, the first sitting United States president on Cuban soil since 1928, the Rays beat the Cuban National team, 4-1, marking the first time in 17 years a major league team has visited the island nation. In 1999 at Havana's Estadio, the Orioles edge the home team, 3-2, thanks to Harold Baines' eventual game-winning hit in the 11th inning.

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Today In 1927: Babe Ruth gets some pointers on pitching horseshoes at New York #Yankees spring training in Florida!
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Today In 1912: Honus Wagner and the Pittsburgh #Pirates team pose at spring training camp in Hot Springs, Arkansas

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Sammy Sosa and Walter Payton
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Mark Langston led the AL in Strikeouts in 3 of his first 4 MLB seasons ('84, '86, '87)
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MARCH 23 BASEBALL BIRTHDAYS
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1920 Tetsuharu Kawakami, Japanese Baseball HOF first baseman (JBL MVP 1941, 51, 55 Tokyo Kyojin/Yomiuri Giants) and manager (11×Japan Series C'ship; Yomiuri Giants), born in Hitoyoshi, Japan (d. 2013)

1926 Johnny Logan shortstop (World Series 1957 Boston / Milwaukee Braves; MLB All Star 1955, 57, 58, 59), born in Endicott, New York (d. 2013)


1943 Lee May "The Big Bopper", 1st baseman, born in Birmingham, Alabama (d. 2017)


1944 George Scott, first baseman, 1966-79 (Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and 2 other teams), born in Greenville, Mississippi, (d. 2013)


1953 Bo Diaz baseball player (d. 1990)


1966 Mike Remlinger pitcher (Cincinnati Reds), born in Middletown, New York


1976 Joel Peralta relief pitcher, 2005-16 (Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays, and six other teams
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1979 Mark Buehrle


1981 Tony Peña, Jr.

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This Day in Baseball History
March 23rd​

1934 Babe Didrikson, a recent House of David baseball team member, throws the opening frame for the Cardinals, giving up three runs in a spring exhibition contest against the Red Sox in Bradenton (FL). Redbirds' ace Dizzy Dean teaches the 32-year-old female Olympian, a winner of two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 summer games, how to wind up on the mound and throw a curveball.

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1938 Commissioner Landis releases seventy-four Cardinal minor leaguers from six teams, with their owners fined $2,176 for their non-compliance to the rules. The Redbirds controlled the players in two clubs in the three Class D leagues in 1936 and four Class D leagues in 1937.

1951 Brooklyn signs a 21-year lease with the City of Vero Beach to use an abandoned naval base as their spring training facility, which will become known as Dodgertown. The site will be the team's Grapefruit League home through the 2008 season, with exhibition games played at the 6,000-seat Holiman Stadium.

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1959 The Cardinals trade Sam Jones to the Giants for first baseman/outfielder Bill White and third baseman Ray Jablonski. The right-hander, called Toothpick Sam by his teammates, will be the runner-up for the Cy Young Award this season, posting a 21-15 record and an ERA of 2.83 for San Francisco.

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1962 The Phillies trade third baseman Andy Carey and second baseman Lou Vassie to the White Sox for right-hander Cal McLish, a 36-year-old Oklahoman who will post an 11-5 record for the seventh-place club. Chicago then trades Carey, who will retire at the end of the season after appearing in 53 games, to the Dodgers for infielders Ramon Conde and Jim Koranda, who play in 14 major league games. The Philadelphia new hurler's father named his newborn Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, but his teammates call him Buster.

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1963 On the day he is fitted for his big-league Orioles uniform, 23-year-old Steve Dalkowski, pitching in an exhibition against the Yankees, feels something pop in his left elbow, losing feeling in his hand while facing Bobby Richardson. The fireballer from New Britain, Connecticut, who once struck out 24 batters in a minor league game, will never appear in the major leagues.

1973 The Cardinals play three Cruz brothers, Cirilo, Hector, and Jose, all nine innings in the outfield during the team's 9-2 spring training victory over New York at Al Lang Field. The trio of Puerto Rican siblings personally outscore the Mets, bat first, second, and third in the Redbird's lineup, making all three outs in the first and eighth frames.

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1978 The Mets deal an unhappy 33-year-old Bud Harrelson, who lost his starting job when the team obtained Tim Foli from the Giants to Philadelphia for approximately $50,000, and minor-league call-up Freddie Andrews, an infielder who will never play another game in the major leagues. As an 11-year veteran, the fan-favorite shortstop could have vetoed the trade but chooses to go to Philadelphia to play for a contending team, where he will back up Larry Bowa.

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1990 The FBI arrest Howard Spira, once an unpaid publicist with the Winfield Foundation who approached George Steinbrenner and received $40,000 to dig up dirt on the outfielder, is arrested after trying to extort money from the Yankees owner. In July, Commissioner Fay Vincent will ban the Boss from playing any role in the team's day-to-day operations for thirty months upon learning about the arrangement with the Bronx professional gambler.

2009 Ichiro Suzuki's two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th, Japan defeats South Korea, 5-3, winning its second consecutive World Baseball Classic title. South Korea, the reigning Olympic champs, tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth on Lee Bum-ho's two-out RBI single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish in front of a Dodger Stadium enthusiastic crowd.

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2009 The Miami-Dade County commissioners approve the final documents necessary to move forward on the Marlins' new 37,000-seat home, located on the present grounds of Miami's Orange Bowl. The long-anticipated retractable-roof ballpark will become a reality in 2012, with the team breaking ground this July.

2015 Deciding to have lunch in the air-conditioned clubhouse, Noah Syndergaard, not scheduled to pitch in the Mets' intrasquad scrimmage, is quietly but firmly reprimanded by team captain David Wright who demands he join his teammates in the dugout immediately. When the stunned 22-year-old rookie right-hander hesitates, fellow moundsman Bobby Parnell tosses the former first-rounder's nearly full plate of food into a nearby trash can.

2019 After acquiring Paul Goldschmidt in an offseason trade with the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals sign him to a five-year (2020-24) contract extension. The National League All-Star first baseman's contract, reportedly worth $130 million, is the largest in club history, surpassing the seven-year, $120 million deal for left fielder Matt Holliday before the 2010 season.

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