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This Day in Baseball History
July 9th

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37 Fact(s) Found
1937 Joe DiMaggio hits for the first of his two career cycles as he hits two home runs, a triple, double, and single, helping the Yankees maul the Senators, 16-2. The 'Yankee Clipper' will accomplish this feat again in 1948.
1940 At Sportsman's Park, five National League hurlers combine to throw the first shutout in All-Star history. Paul Derringer, Bucky Walters, Whit Wyatt, Larry French, and Carl Hubbell three-hit the junior circuit, 4-0, with Max West's three-run homer providing most of the offense.
1946 At Boston's Fenway Park, hometown favorite Ted Williams hits two homers and two singles, collecting five RBIs in the American League's 12-0 rout of the Senior Circuit in the most lopsided game in All-Star history. The first-place Red Sox placed eight players on the Midsummer Classic roster, which includes starters Dom DiMaggio (cf), Johnny Pesky (ss), and Bobby Doerr (2b), in addition to Williams, who plays the entire game in left field.
1953 At Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium, Phillies reliever Bob Miller replaces Robin Roberts, ending the starter's consecutive complete-game streak at 28. The future Hall of Famer (1976) had finished every game he started since beating the Cardinals last season on August 28.
1956 After Commissioner Ford Frick shares his belief that hurlers lack support in the MVP voting, the BBWAA, by a narrow margin of 14-12, votes to establish the Cy Young Award to honor the major leagues' most outstanding pitcher. The first recipient of the Cy Young Award will be Dodger Don Newcombe, ironically the winner of the Most Valuable Player Award.
1958 On Capitol Hill, Casey Stengel and Mickey Mantle appear in front of a Senate subcommittee investigating baseball's antitrust exemption. After 'the Old Perfessor' gives 45 minutes of rambling and confusing testimony, Sen. Estes Kefauver laughs when he asks 'the Mick' to respond to his inquiry about the issue, and the slugger answers, "My views are just about the same as Casey's."

1963 The Indians host their third Midsummer Classic in front of a disappointing crowd of 44,160 fans at Cleveland Stadium. The Junior Circuit's 5-3 loss to the National League does not feature any players from the Tribe.
1964 Frank Thomas, pinch-hitting for Roy McMillan, strokes a two-out, two-run homer off Curt Simmons, giving the Mets a 4–3 victory over the Cardinals at Shea Stadium. The round-tripper comes in the outfielder's first at-bat in five weeks due to being sidelined by a glandular infection.
1966 During a contest between the Cardinals and Astros on a hot and humid evening at Busch Stadium, Harry Caray does the game's play-by-play in just his underwear and socks. Surprised by a photographer taking a photo of him, the veteran broadcaster adjusts the waistband of his boxer as the camera clicks.
1968 In the first All-Star Game played indoors, the National Leaguers hold the Junior Circuit to just three hits in the Astrodome, winning the first Midsummer Classic to end with a score of 1-0. The contest's lone tally comes in the bottom of the first frame when Willie Mays, who had been picked off but stayed on the bases due to Luis Tiant's throwing error, scores an unearned run when Willie McCovey hits into a double-play.
1969 Tom Seaver's near-perfect game, immortalized as "The Imperfect Game," is broken up when Cubs rookie outfielder Jim Qualls, a lifetime .223 hitter, singles into center field. The 24-year-old right-hander, who tosses five one-hitters for the Mets, will finally get his no-no in 1978 against St. Louis, pitching for the Reds.

1970 Dalton Jones comes off the bench at Tiger Stadium against his former team and hits an upper-deck grand slam 'single' against the Red Sox. The pinch-hitter passes teammate Don Wert between first and second, resulting in the hit becoming a three-RBI single instead of a round-tripper.
1971 In the longest shutout in American League history, the A's beat the Angels, 1-0, when Angel Mangual plates Curt Blefary with a two-out single in the bottom of the 20th inning. Oakland's 21-year-old southpaw Vida Blue fans 17 batters in the first eleven innings of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum contest.

1971 Royals' Freddie Patek completes the cycle with a two-run ninth-inning homer off Minnesota starter Jim Perry. The 5'5" Kansas City shortstop's round-tripper breaks a 3-3 deadlock in Kansas City's eventual 6-3 victory over the Twins at Metropolitan Stadium.
1972 Striking out three Red Sox batters in the second inning en route to a 16 K complete game performance against Boston, Nolan Ryan becomes the third pitcher in baseball history to have struck out the side on nine pitches twice during his career. The Angels fireballer, who first did it with the Mets in 1968, joins Lefty Grove (twice in 1938) and Sandy Koufax (1962 and 1964) as the other hurlers who have accomplished the feat.
1973 Mets reliever Tug McGraw interrupts Board Chairman M. Donald Grant's pep talk during a team meeting shouts, "Ya Gotta Believe," which will become the rallying cry for the club climbing out of the cellar en route to the NL pennant. Although New York beats Houston, 2-1, in 12 innings, their closer's words of encouragement will not immediately light a fire under the team, as they will continue struggling until mid-August.
1976 Astros' hurler Larry Dierker no-hits the Expos, 6-0, striking out eight of the 30 batters he faces in the Astrodome contest. The future team broadcaster and manager had previously thrown two one-hitters.
1976 Longtime Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey dies of leukemia at New England Baptist Hospital. The Fenway Park center field flag is lowered to half-mast to pay tribute to the 73-year-old philanthropist the Boston Herald called "'baseball's best friend," a legacy questioned due to allegations of racism during his four-plus decades in Boston.
1986 Braves outfielder Dale Murphy's consecutive-game streak ends at 740 games when he sits on the bench in the team's 7-3 victory over the Phillies at Veterans Stadium. The 30-year-old five-time All-Star hadn't missed a game since September of 1981.
1987 The Twins win their eighth consecutive game when they blank the A's at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, 7-0. The eventual World Champions will not win another game until July 22, dropping their next nine decisions, a dubious feat the streaky team also accomplished in April.
1988 Giants second baseman Chris Speier hits a seventh-inning triple to complete the cycle in the 21-2 rout of the Cardinals at Candlestick Park. The twenty-one runs crossing the plate establish a San Francisco record.
1988 Nolan Ryan, notching his 100th victory as an Astro, becomes only the second hurler to win a hundred games with a team in each league when Houston beats New York, 6-3. The 41-year-old right-hander, who also won 134 games for the Angels, joins Cy Young, who reached the plateau with the Cleveland Spiders (NL) and the Boston Pilgrims (AL), a team known as the Red Sox starting in 1908.
1990 As a result of a dream of being devoured by spiders, Glenallen Hill suffers cuts and bruises when he falls through a glass table, attempting to flee his eight-legged demons in a semiconscious state. The 25-year-old sophomore Blue Jays outfielder will now be known affectionately as 'Spiderman' to his teammates during his 13-year tenure in the major leagues.
1991 Cal Ripken's three-run homer helps the AL defeat the Nationals, 4-2, giving the Junior Circuit its fourth consecutive All-Star win. Tony La Russa becomes the first manager with three straight Midsummer Classic victories.
1996 Mike Piazza, named the All-Star Game's MVP, hits a moon shot into the upper deck at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium. The Dodger backstop also strokes an RBI double, helping the National League beat the AL, 6-0.

1998 The owners elect Bud Selig, the acting commissioner for nearly the last six years, as baseball's ninth commissioner. The Brewer owner plans to place the Milwaukee franchise in trust to avoid any conflict of interest.
2001 Luis Gonzalez, the first Diamondback player to participate in the Home Run Debry, wins the All-Star long ball contest at Seattle's Safeco Field. The Arizona outfielder, who will hit 57 home runs this season, almost double the amount he will compile in any other year, defeats 2000 Derby Champ Sammy Sosa in the final round, 6-2.
2002 Despite chants of 'Let them play!' from the sellout crowd of 41,871 at Milwaukee's Miller Park, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig declares the 73rd All-Star Game a 7-7 tie after 11 innings. No player is selected to receive the first Ted Williams Most Valuable Player award, an honor named for the late Red Sox legend who died five days ago.

2005 After 11 years, Coors Field finally has a 1-0 game as the Rockies escape a bases-full ninth inning to edge the Padres. The span of 847 regular-season games is the longest time ever needed for any big-league ballpark to host a contest with baseball's lowest possible score.
2005 Mike Sweeney's 5-for-5 performance helps him tie a franchise record, collecting eight consecutive hits. With knocks in his last three at-bats yesterday, the Royals designated hitter's streak includes three doubles and five singles.
2005 On the first pitch of his only big league plate appearance, 24-year-old Adam Greenberg, entering the game as a ninth-inning pinch-hitter for the Cubs, is struck in the head by a 92-mph fastball thrown by Marlin hurler Valerio de Los Santos. The Guilford High School (CT) standout, the first player in the state's history named to four All-State teams, sustains a concussion and experiences positional vertigo due to the beaning.

(Ed. Note: Thanks to an online petition to get Greenberg another Major League plate at-bat, he will appear as a pinch-hitter, striking out on three pitches, after signing a one-day contract with the Marlins in 2012. - LP)
2009 Washington completes a game suspended at Nationals Park on May 5th with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning and the score knotted at 10, playing as the home team on the road with an 11-10 walk-off victory over the Astros when the frame continues at Minute Maid Park. Joel Hanrahan, traded to Pittsburgh in the interim, is credited with the win even though he is wearing a Pirates uniform.
2011 The Dayton Dragons have a sellout for their 815th straight home game, surpassing the record for a North American professional sports team, previously held by the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA. The Cincinnati Reds affiliate in the Midwest League has sold out for every game it has played at Fifth Third Field since its move from Rockford in 2000.
2011 With a third-inning home run off Tampa Bay southpaw David Price, Derek Jeter becomes the 28th player and the first in a Yankee uniform to collect his 3000th hit. The 'Captain' enjoys a five-hit day in the Bronx, including an infield single in the eighth inning that drives in the winning run in the team's 5-4 victory.

2013 Boston's David Ortiz ties Harold Baines for the most hits by a designated hitter with his eighth-inning single off Seattle's Charlie Furbush, giving him 1,688 career hits as a DH. 'Big Papi,' before the record-tying at-bat, had already collected a home run and a pair of doubles in the Red Sox' 11-8 victory at Safeco Field.
2013 Alex Rios ties a franchise and the American League single-game mark when he collects his sixth hit, a ninth-inning single in the White Sox' 11-4 victory over Detroit at Comerica Park. The Chicago right fielder, the first player to get four hits off Justin Verlander in one game, goes 6-for-6 at the plate with a triple and five singles.
2022 The Mets retire No. 17 in tribute to their former first baseman Keith Hernandez, the franchise's first captain who batted .297 and won six straight Gold Gloves during his seven years with the club (1983-89). The spark plug of the team's 1986 World Championship and longtime SNY color analyst joins players Tom Seaver, Mike Piazza, Jerry Koosman, and managers Casey Stengel and Gil Hodges to earn the honor.
37 Fact(s) Found