<< Yesterday

This Day in Baseball History
August 5th

Tomorrow>>
37 Fact(s) Found
1901 Burt Hart punches John Haskell and will be banned for life as a result of his assault on the umpire. The Orioles' first baseman will play only a total of 58 games in his major league career.
1921 Pittsburgh's radio station KDKA provides its listeners with the first-ever broadcast of a major league game. Harold Arlin, detailing the action in the Pirates 8-5 victory over the Phillies at Forbes Field, becomes baseball's first play-by-play announcer.
1931 On a bloop single by pinch-hitter Dave Harris, the 27th batter he faces, Tommy Bridges loses his bid for a perfect game in the Tigers' 13-0 rout over Washington. The 24 year-old right-handed Tennessean will toss two more one-hitters for Detroit next season.
1935 On a very rainy Monday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Yankees and Red Sox engage in stalling and hurry-up tactics trying to take advantage of the inclement weather. American League president John Heydler will fine both managers Joe Cronin (Boston) and Joe McCarthy (New York) $100 each for their antics during the Bronx Bombers' eventual 10-2 victory.
1940 In a rain-shortened 4-0 victory over the Tigers, Silent John Whitehead of the St. Louis Browns pitches a six inning no-hitter. It will be the quiet Texan's only victory this season.
1942 In front of a crowd of less than three thousand patrons at Chicago’s Comiskey Park, the White Sox beat the Tigers, 1-0. The game’s only run scores when Don Kolloway steals home with two outs in the fifth inning.
1953 St. Louis Browns' pitcher Don Larsen goes 3-for-3 and establishes a record for consecutive hits by a pitcher with 7. The rookie hurler will hit .284 in 81 at bats this season.
1954 In a 13-4 rout of the Dodgers in Brooklyn, Stan Musial paces the Cardinals attack hitting two homers and driving in seven runs. It is Preacher Roe's first loss to St. Louis at Ebbets Field in four years.
1955 White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox's consecutive game streak ends at 274 games. The next day he will begin a new streak which will last for 798 games.
1960 The Tigers and Indians become the first teams to swap skippers. The Tribe's new manger, Jimmy Dykes, will compile a 103-115 record for Cleveland, while Joe Gordon posts a 26-31 mark in his two-months stay in Detroit.
1969 With a titanic blast that clears the right-field pavilion, Willie Stargell becomes the first player to hit a home run completely out of Dodger Stadium. The 506-foot round-tripper helps the Pirates defeat LA, 11-3.
1972 Tiger shortstop Ed Brinkman commits an error ending his major league record of 72 games and 331 total chances without making a misplay.
1973 Phil Niekro goes the distance holding the Padres hitless in a 9-0 rout at home. It's the first no-hitter thrown by a Braves hurler since the team shifted to Atlanta in 1966.
1975 At Veterans Stadium, Cubs starter Bill Bonham gives up a major league record of 7 hits to the first seven Phillies he faces. Without retiring a batter, the former UCLA hurler is replaced by Ken Crosby, who promptly gives up a single to Johnny Oates.
1979 In an 8-1 win over the Giants, Dodger right-hander Don Sutton becomes the team's all-time strikeout leader with his 2,487th career strikeout.
1979 Willie Mays, Warren Giles and Hack Wilson are inducted into the Hall of Fame.
1983 Billy Martin is suspended for two games for calling umpire Dale Ford "a stone liar" after the July 31st extra-inning 12-6 victory against the White Sox in Chicago. It is second time this season the Yankee manager has been disciplined by the league due to his continued abuse of umpires.
1984 Blue Jay Cliff Johnson hits his 19th career pinch-hit home run breaking a major league record shared with Jerry Lynch. His round-tripper gives Toronto a 4-3 victory over the Orioles.
1985 Darryl Strawberry belts three home runs helping the Mets beat the Cubs, 7-2. The victory propels New York into first place in the National League East.
1986 At Candlestick Park, Giants' southpaw Steve Carlton gets his 4000th strikeout fanning Reds' center fielder Eric Davis. The historic whiff occurs in the third inning with two runners on base and no outs in the eventual Reds' 11-6 victory.
1992 Oakland A's flychaser Jose Canseco is walked for the seventh consecutive time in the span of two games to tie a major league record.
1993 In the Padres' 11-10 victory over the Giants, Tony Gwynn goes 6-for-7 in the 12-inning contest played at Qualcomm Stadium. It is the fourth time this season the San Diego right fielder has collected five hits or more hits which ties the major league record shared by Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Stan Musial.
1994 At the Astrodome, Jeff Bagwell establishes a new club record for home runs. The Houston first baseman hits number 38, a fifth inning two-out, two-run homer, off reliever Pat Gomez as the Astros blast the Giants, 12-4.
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 Former Twin teammates Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield along with 1960 World Series hero Bill Mazeroski and the late Negro Leagues pitcher Hilton Smith are enshrined in Hall of Fame.
2001 The Indians, who trailed the game 14-2 after six innings, tally a twelve runs to tie score and will win the Jacobs Field contest, 15-14, in the 11th inning on Jolbert Cabrera's broken bat single scoring Kenny Lofton to complete the unbelievable comeback. The Tribe join the 1911 Tigers and 1925 A's to become the third team to 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 and 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 each of his first five big league seasons. The Cardinals first baseman has hit 190 homers during this five-year span from the start of his career in 2001, equaling Eddie Mathews' total (1952-56) and with 25 fewer than Ralph Kiner (1946-1950).
2006 It takes four bases on balls, three of which are intentional, for the Rangers to finally prevent Vladimir Guerrero from getting a hit. The Angel All-star outfielder, who started playing in the American League after leaving Montreal as an free agent in 2003, had hit safely in all of his previous 44 games played against Texas.
2006 Trevor Hoffman throws a scoreless ninth inning in San Diego’s 6-3 victory over the Nationals at Petco Park to becoms 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, baseball's all-time saves leader.
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.
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.
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, a result of the ball ricocheting off a catwalk and changing direction 190 feet above Tropicana Field, will prompt a change of the ground rules for post-season games played in Tampa Bay.
2011 Darla Harlow, a big fan of the Mississippi Braves, is given the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at Trustmark Park in Pearl. After tossing the ball to home plate, the military wife is totally surprised when the catcher takes off his mask revealing the 'player' is really her husband, Michael, an Army major serving in Afghanistan who has been away from home for the past nine months.

2012 Darwin Barney becomes the Cubs' all-time leader for second basemen when he plays in his 91st consecutive game in a single season without committing an error. The 26 year-old Chicago infielder, en route to setting the National League mark with a 127 straight errorless-game streak, surpasses Ryne Sandberg's team record that the Hall of Famer established in 1989.
37 Fact(s) Found