BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

1992 The A's take over first place in the AL West when Dennis Eckersley extends his major league record to 39 straight saves, far surpassing the mark of 25 established by Blue Jay closer Tom Henke last season. Oakland outfielder Jose Canseco walks in his first two plate appearances in the team's 4-3 victory in Texas, tying a major league record with seven consecutive base-on-balls in over two games.

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1993 In the Padres' 11-10 victory over the Giants, Tony Gwynn goes 6-for-7 in the 12-inning contest at Qualcomm Stadium. The San Diego right fielder's performance marks the fourth time he has collected five or more hits this season, tying the major league record shared by Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Stan Musial.


1994 Jeff Bagwell establishes a new Astros single-season home run record when he hits number 38, a fifth-inning two-out, two-run homer, off reliever Pat Gomez in the team's 12-4 victory over the Giants at the Astrodome. The Houston first baseman, who also breaks the record of 110 RBIs set by Bob Watson in 1977 with the round-tripper, surpasses the mark established 27 years ago by Jimmy Wynn.


1999 Mark McGwire hits his 500th career home run off Padres' hurler Andy Ashby, becoming the 16th major leaguer and the fastest to reach this milestone. The St. Louis slugger is the first to accomplish the feat a year after reaching the 400 home run plateau.

 

2000 Sammy Sosa becomes the first Cubs player to reach 100 RBIs six consecutive times. Hack Wilson did it for five straight seasons from 1926-30.

2001 Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield, elected by the BBWAA in their first year of eligibility, are enshrined in the Hall of Fame. World Series hero Bill Mazeroski and the late Negro Leagues pitcher Hilton Smith, players selected by the Veterans Committee, join the former Twin teammates.

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2001 At Jacobs Field, the Indians, who trailed in the game 14-2 after six innings, tally twelve runs to tie the score and beat the Mariners, 15-14, thanks to Jolbert Cabrera's 11th inning broken-bat single scoring Kenny Lofton to complete the unbelievable comeback. The Tribe joins the 1911 Tigers and 1925 A's to become the third team in major league history to have won after being down by a dozen runs.

2002 In a make-up game against the Angels, the Tigers host 'Silent Night.' The fans hear no electronic, video, or commercial enhancements during Detroit's 6-3 loss to Anaheim at Comerica Park.

 

2005 Albert Pujols becomes the first player to connect for 30 home runs in his first five big-league seasons. The Cardinals first baseman has hit 190 homers from the start of his career in 2001, equaling Eddie Mathews' total (1952-56) and 25 fewer than Ralph Kiner (1946-1950).

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2006 With four bases on balls, three of which are intentional, the Rangers finally prevent Vladimir Guerrero from getting a hit. The Angel All-Star outfielder, who started playing in the American League after leaving Montreal as a free agent in 2003, had safely hit in all of his previous 44 games against Texas.​

2006 Trevor Hoffman throws a scoreless ninth inning in San Diego's 6-3 victory over the Nationals at Petco Park to become the first major league reliever to record 30 saves for eleven seasons. The Padres closer's milestone establishes a major league record, surpassing the mark set by Lee Smith, the sport's previous all-time saves leader.

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2007 With his 246th career victory, an 8-5 win over Kansas City, Yankees right-hander Mike Mussina becomes the winningest pitcher in baseball history without a 20-win season. 'Moose' will reach the elusive milestone with a 20-9 record next season, his last in the majors.

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2007 At Wrigley Field, Tom Glavine, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, becomes the 23rd player in major league history to win his 300th victory. The crafty southpaw, the fifth lefty to reach the milestone, limits the Cubs to six hits and a walk in 6.1 innings as the Mets bang out 16 hits and beat Chicago in a nationally televised ESPN Sunday night game, 8-3.

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2010 The bankrupt Rangers are sold at an auction for $385 million to a group led by Hall of Famer and club president Nolan Ryan. The new ownership group outbid the recently formed partnership of Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Houston investor Jim Crane, who tried to buy the team in 2008.

2010 In the top of the ninth, the Twins recover from blowing a 6-0 lead when Jason Kubel's two-out pop-up lands behind the pitcher's mound untouched by the Rays' middle infielders for the go-ahead single in the team's eventual 8-6 victory. The odd play, resulting from the ball ricocheting off a catwalk and changing direction 190 feet above Tropicana Field, will prompt changing ground rules for postseason games played in Tampa Bay.

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2011 The Twins celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1991 controversial play when Kent Hrbek and Ron Gant became entangled at first base in Game 2 of the World Series with a bobblehead doll depicting one of the worst of all-time decisions by an umpire. Drew Coble called Gant out when it appeared first baseman Kent Hrbek had lifted him off the bag.

 

2011 Darla Harlow, a big fan of the Mississippi Braves, is honored to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Trustmark Park in Pearl. After tossing the ball to home plate, the military wife is surprised when the catcher takes off his mask, revealing the 'player' is her husband, Michael, an Army major who has been away from home, serving in Afghanistan for the past nine months.

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2012 Darwin Barney, who hasn't made an error since April 17, becomes the Cubs' all-time leader for second basemen when he plays in his 91st consecutive game in a single season without a miscue at the position. En route to setting the National League mark with a 127 straight errorless-game streak, the 26-year-old Chicago infielder surpasses Ryne Sandberg's team record that the Hall of Famer established in 1989.

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2013 Major League Baseball releases the names of 13 players suspended for their involvement with performance-enhancing substances supplied by the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic. Thirty-eight-year-old Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez receives the harshest punishment, sidelined without pay for 211 regular-season games, much more than the 50-game suspensions given to most players implicated in the announcement.

2013 Minnie Forbes, the 81-year-old former owner of the Negro League Detroit Stars from 1956 to 1958, and about a dozen former baseball players meet with President Barack Obama at the White House. The country's first black president honors the group for their contributions to athletics and civil rights.

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2017 The Indians unveil a bronze statue honoring Lou Boudreau, who managed the team to their last World Series title in 1948 while also being the Tribe's starting shortstop. The team places the sculpture of the seven-time All-Star outside the main entrance of Progressive Field near two fellow Hall of Famers and former teammates, Bob Feller and Larry Doby.

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Let’s play two
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Today In 1973: Atlanta #Braves ace pitcher Phil Niekro hurls a no-hitter vs. the San Diego Padres!

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Two #HallofFame pitchers, José Méndez and Bullet Rogan of the Kansas City Monarchs, combined to throw a no-hitter #OTD in 1923. In the 7-0 victory over the Milwaukee Bears, Rogan surrendered one walk, the only baserunner the pair allowed
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45 Years Ago Today: Willie Mays & Satchel Paige pose together at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown! (August 5, 1979)

Today In 1979: Willie Mays gives his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech in Cooperstown, New York!
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AUGUST 6 BASEBALL BIRTHDAYS
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1916 E. Michael Burke, sports executive President New York Yankees,

1926 Clem Labine pitcher (MLB All-Star 19 pitcher 56, 57; World Series 1955, 59, 60; Brooklyn / LA Dodgers, Detroit Tigers),


1928 Herb Moford Pitchers Mets, Tigers, Red Sox, Cardinals


1941 Ray Culp pitcher (MLB All Star 1963, 69; Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox)


1945 Andy Messersmith pitcher Braves, Dodgers, Angels


1957 Bob Horner, Braves


1967 Mike Greenberg sportscaster

1973 Max Kellerman sportscaster

1975 Victor Zambrano Pitcher Rays, Mets,Jays



1982 Justin Germano Pitcher, Padres, Dodgers, Rangers, Indians

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This Day in Baseball History
August 6th​

1890 John Reilly becomes the first major leaguer to hit for the cycle in different leagues when the Reds, who moved to the National League this season, beat Pittsburgh at League Park, 16-3. The Cincinnati first baseman hit for two cycles in 1883, also a first, when the team played in the American Association and were known as the Red Stockings.


1890 Cy Young wins in his major league debut when the Cleveland Spiders beat the Colts in Chicago's West Side Park, 8-1. During his 22-year career, the 23-year-old right-hander will average more than 23 victories per season en route to a major league record of 511, a mark believed by many to be unbreakable.


1906 At Cleveland's League Park, the Boston Americans are shut out for the fourth consecutive time, bowing to the Indians, 4-0. Combined with a scoreless three-game sweep by the White Sox, the team establishes a new American League record.

1908 Detroit outfielder Ty Cobb gets married, having departed the Tigers three days ago to attend the ceremony without the team's permission. Club co-owner Frank Navin considers the 21-year-old Georgia Peach's six-day defection during a pennant race the most arrogant act he had ever heard of in baseball.

 

1930 Gene Rye hits three homers in one inning, blasting a solo homer, a three-run shot, and a grand slam in the Waco Cubs' 18-run eight-inning eruption in their eventual 20-7 Texas League victory over the visiting Beaumont Exporters at Katy Park. The 24-year-old diminutive southpaw-swinging outfielder, called Half Pint by his teammates, will be signed by the Red Sox, spending the first two months of next season with the team before being released, hitting just .179 in 17 games.

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1937 The Braves become the first National League team to lead off a game with back-to-back homers. At Wrigley Field, Roy Johnson and Rabbit Warstler go deep to start the first inning off Tex Carleton, but Boston's quick start isn't enough when Chicago wins the contest, 12-6.
Rabbit Roy with brother Bob


1939 The West wins the first of two Negro League East-West All-Star Games this season, defeating the East 4-2 behind a strong outing by Ted 'Doubleduty' Radcliffe in the Comiskey Park. The estimated crowd of 40,000 is more than double the 18,198 fans at Wrigley Field, watching the Cubs lose to the Bees, 9-8.

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1941 Al Benton becomes the first major leaguer to have two sacrifice bunts in one inning. The Tiger right-hander accomplishes the feat in the top of the third inning, a frame that features 17 batters coming to bat, in an 11-2 rout of the Indians at Cleveland's League Park.

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1947 Skeeter Webb is inserted into the game to run for Fred Hutchinson and scores a run in the Tigers' nine-run eighth inning in Detroit's 13-6 victory over Cleveland. Later in the frame, he comes to the plate and delivers an RBI sac fly, an unusual accomplishment for a pinch-runner.

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1952 At approximately 46, Satchel Paige becomes the oldest pitcher in major league history to hurl a complete-game shutout, beating Virgil 'Fire' Trucks and the Tigers, 1-0, when Bobby Young scores the game's only run in the 12th inning. The Browns' hurler will extend his record at 46 years and 75 days by throwing another scoreless complete game against the White Sox next month.

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1962 For the fifth time, a team record, Willie Mays collects five hits in a game. In the Giants' 9-2 victory over Philadelphia at Candlestick Park, the 'Say Hey Kid' hits a pair of two-run homers in the first and second innings and follows up with singles in the fourth, fifth, and eighth.

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1967 Orioles' third baseman Brooks Robinson hits into his fourth career triple play, setting a major league record. The fifth-inning around-the-horn triple killing (5-4-3) doesn't hurt the club when the Birds beat the White Sox at Memorial Stadium, 4-0, to complete a twin bill sweep.

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1969 In an alley behind a Detroit bar, Twins' manager Billy Martin intervenes in a scuffle between his starting pitcher Dave Boswell and outfielder Bob Allison, which leaves the right-hander unconscious and in need of 20 stitches after being pummeled by his skipper. Although he will miss several starts because of the incident, the 24-year-old Maryland native will finish the season 20-12 for the first-place Minnesota club.

 

1972 The postponement of the second game of the Midland Cubs and Amarillo Giants doubleheader becomes necessary when thousands of grasshoppers, swarming from their nests behind the center-field wall, invade Christensen Stadium. The massive cluster of insects emerges when the ballpark's lights turn on, making play impossible when infielders can't see their outfielders through the hordes of fluttering invaders.

1972 With his 660th and 661st career homers, Hank Aaron breaks Yankee legend Babe Ruth's record for hitting the most home runs with one team. Hammerin' Hank's second round-tripper of the day, a 10th-inning blast, enables the Braves to beat Cincinnati at Riverfront Stadium, 4-3.

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1973 Roberto Clemente becomes the first Latin-born player inducted into the Hall of Fame when baseball waives the mandatory five-year waiting period. The late Pirates outfielder, who died tragically on New Year's Eve in a crash carrying relief supplies to the earthquake victims in Nicaragua, was elected posthumously

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1979 After delivering the eulogy at Thurman Munson's funeral in Ohio, Bobby Murcer, a teammate and close friend of the deceased Yankee catcher, drives in all the runs in the Yankee 5-4 comeback victory over the Orioles at Yankee Stadium. With a bat he will never use again, the New York outfielder hits a three-run home run and wins the game with a two-run single in the ninth inning.

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1981 The players approved a split-season format necessitated by the seven-week strike. The Yankees, A's, Phillies, and Dodgers are declared the first-half champions, automatically qualifying for the divisional series.

1983 Eric Rasmussen throws a 4-0 shutout against the Red Sox in his first American League outing. The Royals starter, who also blanked the Padres as a Cardinal in his first-ever major league game in 1975, becomes the first pitcher to toss a shutout in his National League and American League debuts.


1985 As announced three weeks ago, the Players' Association follows through on its threat to strike. The second midseason baseball work stoppage lasts only two days, with the owners abandoning their plan for a salary cap, a concept also vehemently opposed by baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth.

1986 In the game that establishes a new record for bases-full homers in one game, Texas beats Baltimore, 13-11. Rangers' infielder Toby Harrah hits a second-inning grand slam, and Larry Sheets and Jim Dwyer go deep with the bases loaded in the Orioles' nine-run fourth frame.

Sheets

1988 Jim Gott balks three times in the eighth inning, allowing two runners to score from third base. The Pirates' relief pitcher's poor form on the mound proves to be the difference in the Mets' 5-3 victory over the Bucs at Three Rivers Stadium.

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