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This Day in Baseball History
September 29th

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72 Fact(s) Found
1907 Phillies' freshman hurler George McQuillan begins his major league career with 25 shutout innings, establishing a rookie record. The 22-year-old right-hander's feat will not be matched for 101 years until broken by A's reliever Brad Ziegler, who will extend the mark to 39.1 innings in 2008.
1908 Allowing only one walk, Ed Walsh wins both ends of a doubleheader to establish an American League record. The Meriden (CT) resident beats the Red Sox at Chicago's South Side Park 5-1 and 2-0.
1908 At Exposition Park, Pittsburgh blanks the Cardinals, 7-0. The last-place Redbirds are shut out for a record 33rd time, averaging more than one whitewash every five games.
1911 Phillies right-hander Pete Alexander sets the modern single-season record for wins for a rookie when he beats the Pirates at Forbes Field, 7-4, recording his 28th victory with a complete-game effort. The 24-year-old freshman surpasses the previous mark established by Russ Ford, who won 26 games last season hurling for the Highlanders.
1913 Senators' legend Walter Johnson beats the Philadelphia A's, 1-0, to finish the season with 36 victories. The future Hall of Fame right-hander will toss a record 110 shutouts during his 21 seasons in the major leagues.
1915 The Phillies clinch their first National League pennant when Grover Cleveland Alexander tosses a one-hitter, blanking Boston at Braves Field, 5-0. It will take another 35 years before the franchise wins another flag.
1921 Right-hander Allen Sothoron establishes a major league record by not yielding a home run during the 178 innings he throws this season. The 28-year-old pitches most of his games with the Indians (22), after starting the season with the Browns (5) and briefly appearing with the Red Sox (2).
1928 At Navin Field, the Tigers establish a club record, collecting 27 hits in a 19-10 victory over the first-place Yankees. The club equals the mark in 2004 in a 17-7 rout over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.
1934 At Griffith Stadium in Washington (DC), Yankees legend Babe Ruth hits his 659th and final home run wearing pinstripes. The 'Bambino' had 49 homers with the Red Sox before coming to New York and will add six additional round-trippers with the Braves before retiring next season.
1935 In his only major league game, Pirates rookie Aubrey Epps goes 3-for-4 in the Bucs' season finale, a 9-6 loss to Cincinnati at Crosley Field. The 23-year-old catcher, known as Yo-Yo to his teammates, finishes his one-game big league career with the same batting average (.750) and fielding percentage when he commits two errors in eight chances.
1935 Augie Galan, who makes a league-leading 748 plate appearances while playing the full 154-game schedule, ends the season without hitting into a double play. The Cubs center fielder did line into an eleventh-inning triple play in the team's 3-2 loss to the Reds in April at Wrigley Field.
1943 Vern Stephens becomes the first player to hit two extra-inning home runs in the same game. The Browns shortstop puts St. Louis ahead with a solo shot in the 11th, and after the Red Sox tie the score in the bottom of the frame, he goes deep again in the 13th with the eventual winning run in the team's 4-3 victory at Fenway Park.
1943 The Red Sox drop a 4-3 decision to the Browns at Fenway Park, thanks to Browns' shortstop Vern Stephens' home runs in the 11th and 13th frames. The contest marks Boston's final and record 31st extra-inning contest this season, with the team on the field for 73 extra frames or the equivalent of eight nine-inning games, compiling a 15-14 record, along with two tied games.
1945 Paul Gillespie becomes the first of only two players, joined by John Miller in 1966, to hit a home run in their first and last big-league at-bats. The wartime Cubs reserve catcher went deep against the Giants at the Polo Grounds on September 11, 1942, and ends his career with a two-run round-tripper off Pirate right-hander Rip Swell in the team's 5-0 victory at Forbes Fields.
1946 On the last day of the campaign, by striking out opposing pitcher Hal Newhouser and four others, Bob Feller establishes a major league record by striking out 348 batters in one season. Future research, however, will show Rube Waddell had struck out 349 in 1904.
1951 Don Newcombe becomes the first black to post twenty victories in a season. In a must-win contest for the Dodgers, the right-hander bests Robin Roberts, also a 20-game-winner, when he blanks the Phillies at Shibe Park, 5-0.
1954 Willie Mays gives the glove he used to make one of the most spectacular catches in baseball history, an amazing over-the-shoulder grab that robbed Vic Wertz of extra bases in Game 1 of the World Series, to teammate Don Liddle's 6-year-old son. Craig Liddle will use the immortal piece of leather when he gets older in Little League games.
1954 At Polo Grounds, World Series opponents feature black players on both sides for the first time when the Giants beat the Indians in ten innings, 5-2. Eight Afro-Americans, four from each team, participate in the Fall Classic, including the future Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Larry Doby, and Monte Irvin.
1954 In a game best remembered for Willie Mays' spectacular over-the-shoulder grab of a ball hit deep to center field, robbing Vic Wertz of an extra-base hit, Dusty Rhodes becomes the second player in World Series history to end a game with a homer. The Giants pinch-hitter's walk-off three-run home run off Bob Lemon beats the Indians 5-2 in Game 1 of the Fall Classic.

1956 On the last day of the season, Al Lopez resigns as the manager of the Indians after leading the team to five second-place finishes and a pennant in his six seasons in the dugout. Disappointed with the fans and organization’s lack of support for their slumping All-Star third baseman Al Rosen, the low-key skipper ends his Tribe tenure with a 570-354 record (.617).
1958 Solly Hemus is traded to St. Louis by the Phillies for utility infielder Gene Freese. The 36-year-old former Redbird will become the Cardinals' player-manager for the next three seasons, compiling a 190-192 record.
1959 At the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, the Dodgers capture the NL flag with a dramatic 6-5 come-from-behind victory over the Braves, taking the first two games of the three-game playoff necessitated by the teams tied on the last day of the season. The deciding run comes in the bottom of the 12th inning after the first two batters make outs when Gil Hodges walks and scores on singles by Joe Pignatano and Carl Furillo.
1961 Johnny Blanchard's ninth-inning single plates Roger Maris, giving the Yankees a 2-1 walk-off victory over the Red Sox. The super-sub, playing right field, hit his 21st home run of the season in the fourth inning off of Boston's complete-game loser Bill Monbouquette, accounting for New York's other run.
1961 Whitey Ford goes six innings in the Yankees' 2-1 victories over the Red Sox to finish the season with a 25-4 record. 'Slick' hurls 283 innings during the campaign without allowing a stolen base.
1962 Branch Rickey, returning to the Cardinals for the second time in his long career, becomes the team's senior consultant for player development. The 'Mahatma' will have the power to make deals in this role, but the team owner Gussie Busch asks him to regularly confer with general manager Bing Devine.
1963 Stan Musial helps the Cardinals beat the Reds, 3-2 at Busch Stadium, getting two hits in the final three at-bats of his career. The 'Man' will retire with 3,630 hits during his 22-year tenure with the Redbirds, collecting 1,815 in St. Louis and the other 1,815 on the road.
1963 On the season's final day, John Paciorek, brother of Tom and Jim, goes 3-for-3, driving in three runs and scoring four times in his big league debut as Houston routs the Mets at Colt Stadium, 13-4. The 18-year-old Colt .45s right fielder, who also makes two outstanding defensive catches, will never again play in a big-league game due to severe back problems.
1964 Masanori Murakami becomes the first player born in Japan to win a major league game. At Candlestick Park, the 20-year-old southpaw one-hits the Colt .45s over three innings, and the Otsuki native gets the victory when Matty Alou, who hasn't homered in two years, goes deep to give the Giants a dramatic walk-off 5-4 win in the bottom of the 11th inning.
1964 At a press conference, the Mets announce Casey Stengel, the only skipper the franchise has ever known, will continue to manage next season. Although the expansion team has finished last in all three years of its existence, the 'Old Perfessor' receives a raise.
1968 Going 1-for-3 to keep his average at .335, Reds' right fielder Pete Rose wins the batting title, staying ahead of Matty Alou by a slim percentage point on the last day of the season. The Pirates outfielder is hitless in four trips to the plate, finishing the year with a BA of .332. Yesterday, the batting crown rivals collectively went 9-for-9 in their respective games.
1968 In a pregame ceremony with Harry Caray as the master of ceremonies, the Cardinals honor retiring outfielder Roger Maris. The former two-time MVP with the Yankees, who has never had his accomplishments recognized in the Bronx, thanks the friendly Busch Stadium crowd and the team, remarking that his two seasons in St. Louis were his "most enjoyable years in baseball."
1968 After the A's drop a 4-3 decision to Minnesota, Charlie Finley fires Oakland manager Bob Kennedy on the last day of the season. The A's owner, who has dismissed eight skippers in eight years, rehires Hank Bauer, who guided the team to ninth-place finishes in 1961 and 1962 when the club played in Kansas City.
1968 Carl Yastrzemski, who hit .326 last season, captures his second consecutive and third overall batting crown. The 29-year-old Red Sox outfielder's .301 mark is the lowest average to win the title in the American League.
1969 Going deep off Senator hurler Jim Shellenback, Rico Petrocelli becomes the first shortstop in American League history to hit 40 home runs in a season. The Red Sox infielder's record will stand until 1998 when Alex Rodriguez blasts 42 bombs with the Mariners.
1971 Expos' second baseman Ron Hunt is plunked by a pitch for the 50th time this season, establishing a big-league record. By comparison, the runner-up in the league, teammate Rusty Staub, will be hit by a pitch only nine times.
1973 Hank Aaron takes Houston's Jerry Reuss deep for his 40th home run in the Braves' 7-0 victory at Atlanta Stadium. 'Hammerin' Hank' joins teammates Davey Johnson and Darrell Evans in reaching the milestone, making them the first trio to accomplish the feat for the same club.
1973 Steve Carlton, a 27-game winner for the cellar-dwelling Phillies last year, suffers his 20th loss when the Cardinals beat Philadelphia, 7-1. 'Lefty,' who will post a 13-20 record and a 3.90 ERA for the last-place team, becomes the first major leaguer to drop 20 decisions after winning the Cy Young Award the previous season.
1976 Tommy Lasorda is named to succeed Walter Alston as the Dodger manager. 'Smokey' compiled a 2040-1613 record (.558) during his 23-year tenure with the club, winning seven pennants and four world championships.
1977 Win a 6-3 victory over the Angels at Royals Stadium, Kansas City reaches the 100-win mark for the first time in the franchise's nine-year history. The eventual American League Western Division champions will finish the regular season with 102 victories.
1979 Manny Mota sets a major league record with his 146th career pinch-hit, a single to right field, in LA's 6-2 victory over Chicago at Dodger Stadium. The Dominican Republic native surpasses the record set by Smoky Burgess, who collected his last hit as a pinch-hitter in 1967.
1983 In a game that lasts only two hours and twenty minutes, Mike Warren, in his last start of the season, no-hits the White Sox, 3-0, in front of 9,058 fans at the Oakland Coliseum. The 22-year-old right-hander from California, who will win only four more games in his three-year career, is the 15th rookie to throw a no-hitter.
1986 In his first visit to a big-league ballpark, Jay Bell hits the first pitch he sees in the major leagues for a home run off Minnesota hurler Bert Blyleven, the player the Twins traded for him last season. The Twins right-hander's gopher ball to the Indians rookie shortstop breaks Robin Roberts's infamous record when he serves up his 47th gopher ball this season.
1986 Mike and Greg Maddux become the first siblings to start a game against one another. In the rookie match-up, Cubs' righty Greg beats his older brother and the Phillies in the 'City of Brotherly Love,' 6-3.
1987 Don Mattingly sets a major league record by hitting his sixth grand slam of the season, surpassing the mark shared by Ernie Banks (1955 Cubs) and Jim Gentile (1961 Orioles). The Yankees' first baseman will not hit any other round-trippers with the bases loaded during his 14-year career.

1993 George Brett plays his last game at Kauffman Stadium, and after the Royals' 3-2 ninth-inning walk-off victory, a post-game ceremony pays tribute to the future Hall of Famer. After the ceremony, with fireworks lighting up the sky, the KC third baseman circles the stadium in a golf cart, kneels, and kisses home plate.
1996 Two weeks after the Rangers retire Nolan Ryan's number, the Astros follow suit and honor the 'Ryan Express' by retiring his #34. The right-handed fireballer played for nine seasons for Houston, striking out 1,866 batters en route to winning 106 games, including his fifth no-hitter against L.A. in 1981.
1996 During a 4-1 loss at the SkyDome, Orioles' center fielder Brady Anderson becomes the 14th player to hit 50 home runs in a season. The power surge is a surprise, given the Baltimore leadoff hitter's previous season-high was only 21 round-trippers.
1996 Hitting his 40th homer, Rockies third baseman Vinny Castilla joins Andres Galarraga (47) and Ellis Burks (40) to become the first trio of teammates in 23 years to hit 40 homers for one team. Davey Johnson (43), Darrell Evans (41), and Hank Aaron (40) accomplished the feat for the Braves in 1973.
1996 Although he is four shy of the 502 plate appearances requirement, Tony Gwynn, hitting .353, is given the National League's batting crown using the Oh-fer Clause, which has been in the rule book for 30 years but never invoked. Adding four mythical hitless at-bats would leave the Padres outfielder with a .349 average, still five points better than the runner-up Ellis Burks of the Rockies.
1998 At Jacobs Field, Pedro Martinez snaps Boston's 13 consecutive postseason streak of losses by beating the Indians, 11-3, in Game 1 of the ALDS. Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn contributes to the victory with two homers and ties an LDS record with seven RBIs, but the team will begin a new streak when they drop the series's final three contests.
1999 Doug Glanville becomes the first Phillie player to collect 200 hits in a season since Pete Rose accomplished the feat twenty years ago. The center fielder reaches the milestone with a fourth-inning three-run home run off Micah Bowie in Philadelphia's 5-0 victory over Chicago at Veterans Stadium.
2000 At Edison Field, Darin Erstad becomes the first player to collect 100 RBIs batting leadoff when his sixth-inning sac fly plates Adam Kennedy in the Angels’ 9-3 victory over the Mariners. The Halo center fielder’s record will be surpassed in 2017 by Charlie Blackmon, who drives in 104 runs batting in the top spot for the Rockies.
2000 Gary Sheffield ties the Dodgers' single-season home run record when he goes deep off Woody Williams in the team's 3-0 victory over San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium. With his career-best 43rd round-tripper, the left fielder now shares the team mark with Duke Snider, who established the record in 1956 when he played for Brooklyn.
2001 Astros' starter Dave Mlicki gives up homers to Fred McGriff, Rondell White, and Todd Hundley on three consecutive pitches. The back-to-back-to-back homers, which come in the first inning with two outs, enable the Cubs to beat Houston at Wrigley Field, 6-2.
2001 Mariners' outfielder Ichiro Suzuki gets his 234th hit of the season, breaking 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson's 1911 rookie record for the most in a season. The historic knock also ties the 1985 major league mark for singles, established by Wade Boggs with 187, playing with the Red Sox.
2001 Miguel Tejada's seventh-inning grand slam makes him the 15th player in A's history to hit for the cycle. The slugging shortstop had tripled in the first inning, singled in the third, and doubled in the sixth.
2002 On the last day of the season, the Braves use 24 players, with the Mets using 21 to tie the major league record for the most players employed in a nine-inning game. On September 5, 1978, the Expos and the Cubs combined to use 45 players.
2002 Barry Bonds sets a new season mark for on-base percentage with a .582 OBP. The 38-year-old Giant left fielder, who became the oldest first-time batting title winner, hitting .370, easily surpassed the 1941 mark established by Ted Williams with a .553 OBP.
2004 With the Braves beating the Mets 6-3, Bobby Cox becomes the ninth manager in baseball history to win 2,000 games. The other skippers who have reached this milestone are in the Hall of Fame, except for Tony La Russa, the current skipper of the Cardinals.
2004 Major League Baseball announces Washington (DC) will become the Montreal Expos' new home in time for the 2005 season. The nation's capital, chosen over finalists including Las Vegas and Northern Virginia, will have baseball for the first time in 33 years since the expansion Senators left in 1971 to become the Texas Rangers.
2004 Hours after MLB's announcing the franchise's impending shift to Washington, D.C., the Expos played their final game in Montreal, a 9-1 loss to Florida in front of 31,395 enthusiastic fans at Olympic Stadium. As part of the ceremonies, the team commemorates their unfinished 1994 season by unfurling a banner that reads "1994 Meilleure quipe du Baseball/Best Team in Baseball," a reference to the club's 74-40 record before the work stoppage ended the season and the city's hopes of playing in a World Series.

2005 Staving off what would have been one of the worst collapses in baseball history, the White Sox clinch their first American League Central title since 2000, beating the Tigers at Detroit's Comerica Park, 4-2. The Pale Hose had watched their 15-game lead on August 1 shrink to only a game and a half over the rampaging Indians.

2005 Jhonny Peralta sets a new club record for home runs hit by an Indian shortstop. The 24-year-old's third-inning blast against the Devil Rays gives the Dominican his 24th round-tripper of the season, one more than Woodie Held hit in 1961.
2007 During the sixth inning of a 5-3 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto, Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon pulls Delmon Young out of the lineup for showing "blatant disrespect" of the game and the team by not running hard to first base. The 21-year-old outfielder responds with a profanity-laced tirade, claiming being unfairly singled out, and says he will not play in tomorrow's season finale, making it the only game in the 162-game season he will miss.
2007 One out away from clinching a playoff berth, Padres closer Trevor Hoffman gives up a game-tying pinch-hit triple to Tony Gwynn Jr., a former teammate's son whom he used to babysit. The Padres will lose the game and tomorrow's season finale, resulting in a one-game playoff loss to Colorado that keeps the team out of the postseason.
2010 With the game tied 5-5 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Texas pinch-hitter Nelson Cruz strikes out, apparently sending the game into extra innings. The third strike turns out to be a wild pitch, and when the catcher makes an errant throw trying to complete the putout, Mitch Moreland scores the winning run from first base to give the Rangers a 6-5 victory over the Mariners on a walk-off strikeout at the Ballpark in Arlington.
2012 With a 6-4 win in St. Louis, the Nationals establish a franchise record with their 96th victory of the season. In 1979, playing as the Expos, representing Montreal, the team won 95 games, finishing the season two games behind Pittsburgh.
2013 With 13 combined K's in the season finale, the Tigers pitchers end the season with 1,428 to establish the major league record for strikeouts by a team, surpassing a mark set by the 2003 Cubs. Detroit's starting rotation features Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Anibal Sanchez, who have struck out 200+ batters this season.
2013 The Rangers and Rays win on the last day of the season to force a one-game tiebreaker for the second AL wild-card spot. Texas, who won its last seven games, will host Tampa Bay in the 163rd game of the season, with the winner playing the Indians in a third consecutive do-or-die game.
2017 At Coors Field, Charlie Blackmon's second-inning 454-foot solo second-deck blast gives him 101 runs batted in as a leadoff batter, establishing a new high from that spot in the lineup. The Rockies' center fielder surpasses Darin Erstad's record, who collected 100 RBIs for the Angels in 2000.
2018 The Mets' all-time hits leader, David Wright, sidelined by neck, back, and shoulder injuries for nearly two and a half years, plays his final game in the team's 1-0 extra-inning victory over the Marlins. After an emotional ceremony, the 35-year-old seven-time All-Star third baseman exits the game in the top of the fifth frame, hugging shortstop Jose Reyes and acknowledging the overwhelming response from the sell-out crowd on-hand at Citi Field to say goodbye.
2019 In the season finale against the Royals, the Twins win the home run race en route to setting a record with 307 long balls, one more than the Yankees. Although Minnesota didn't win the contest, round-trippers by C.J. Cron, Jake Cave, and Jason Castro overcome the Bronx Bombers' total of 306, including today's four-bagger hit by New York slugger Aaron Judge.

72 Fact(s) Found