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This Day in Baseball History
July 2nd

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36 Fact(s) Found
1869 In front of 2,000 spectators at Case Commons, the Forest Citys, a team including unpaid amateur players who do not want compensation to remain 'pure,' play the first professional baseball game in Cleveland, losing to the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 25-6. The club will continue to play next season, becoming a National Association of Professional Baseball Players charter member in 1871.
1903 Ed Delahanty, who once hit four homers in one game, goes over a Niagara Falls railroad bridge and drowns. The circumstances of the Senator outfielder's death will remain a mystery, but rumors persist he was kicked off a train by a conductor for being drunk and disorderly.
1930 Carl Reynolds becomes only the second player in big-league history to homer in three consecutive innings and the first to accomplish the feat in the first three frames, when he goes deep in the first three frames of the 15-4 White Sox victory over the hometown Yankees. The Chicago outfielder's power surge includes two inside-the-park round-trippers.
1934 At Wrigley Field, with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning, veteran ump Bill Klem's delayed call of the infield fly rule leads to the Cardinals, trailing by four runs, successfully protesting their game against the Cubs with the Redbirds. The contest resumes from the point-of-the-protest, on July 31, with St. Louis losing 7-1.
1941 On a sweltering day in front of 52,832 fans at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio hits a three-run homer off Red Sox hurler Dick Newsome to extend his consecutive game-hitting streak to 45 games. The Yankee Clipper surpasses Wee Willie Keeler's 1897 major league mark of 44 straight games with a hit accomplished when the diminutive outfielder played with the Orioles.
1962 Johnny Podres ties a major league mark record, striking out eight consecutive batters in LA's 5-1 victory over Philadelphia. The 29-year-old southpaw's streak begins with the third out in the top of the fourth frame and ends after the first out in the seventh inning of the Dodger Stadium contest.
1963 In one of baseball's most memorable pitching duels, Giants' right-hander Juan Marichal and Braves' lefty Warren Spahn hurl 15 scoreless innings before Willie Mays ends the marathon, homering off Spahnie in the bottom of the 16th to give Francisco a 1-0 win.
1967 After the Cubs' 4-1 victory over the Reds, many of the 40,464 patrons stay at Wrigley Field, awaiting the outcome of the Cards/Mets game, hoping for a New York victory, putting the Cubs in first place by half of a game. The enthusiastic fans refuse to leave the 'Friendly Confines' until the flags above the scoreboard reflect the home team's current position at the top of the standings, a task usually accomplished the next day.
1969 Reds' pitcher Gerry Arrigo ties a major league mark when he hits his third Braves' batter in the second inning of a 9-4 victory. The Braves also match the big league mark by plunking five batters in one game.
1970 Joe Niekro keeps the Yankees hitless until Horace Clarke legs out an infield single with one out in the ninth inning of the team’s 5-0 victory at Tiger Stadium. The hit marks the third time the Bronx Bomber second baseman has broken up a no-hitter in the past four weeks, having spoiled no-no bids by Royals left-hander Jim Rooker (June 4th) and Red Sox righty Sonny Siebert (June 19th).
1970 Tony Horton hits for the cycle against Baltimore in the Indians' 10-9 victory at Memorial Stadium. The Cleveland first baseman completes the feat with a leadoff home run in the top of the ninth inning off Pete Richert.
1972 At Montreal's Jarry Park, the Expos walk away with a 4-3 victory when Mets right-hander Bob Rauch issues his fourth free pass of the inning, forcing Carl Morton in with the winning run. The frustrating loss will be the 23-year-old rookie's only decision during a brief 19-game major league career.
1975 Don Baylor goes deep in his first three plate appearances in the Orioles' 13-5 victory over Detroit at Tiger Stadium. Today's trio of home runs gives the Baltimore left fielder four consecutive round-trippers, hitting one off Reggie Cleveland in his last at-bat yesterday in the team's 10-6 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
1976 The Astros tie a franchise record, banging out 25 hits in a 10-8 victory over Cincinnati at Riverfront Stadium. Houston established the mark two months earlier in a 16-5 rout of the Braves at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
1977 For the second time this season, White Sox's first baseman Jim Spencer ties the club record set by Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1920, when he collects eight RBIs, duplicating a feat he first accomplished in May against the Indians. The 29-year-old infielder's two home runs help beat the Twins at Comiskey Park, 13-8.
1977 The Cubs commit five errors in one inning, a feat that will not occur again until 2017 when the Mariners accomplish the dubious deed. Chicago's first-frame woes, which include two misplays each by second baseman Manny Trillo and pitcher Bill Bonham and one by left fielder Gene Clines, lead to four Cardinals runs en route to a 10–3 loss to the Cardinals before a packed house at Busch Stadium.
1978 Ron Guidry improves his record to 13-0 with a 3-2 Yankee victory over the Tigers at the Bronx ballpark. The 27-year-old southpaw, known as Louisiana Lightning, establishes the best start in franchise history en route to finishing the season with a 25-3 record.
1979 The White Sox fire player-manager Don Kessinger (46-60) and replace him with rookie skipper Tony La Russa, who had been managing the club's Triple-A Iowa Oaks in the American Association. During his eight-year tenure with Chicago, La Russa compiles a 522-510 record, with his team winning the AL West title in 1983.
1985 Astros' hurler Joe Niekro notches his 200th career victory. The Niekro brothers (Joe & Phil) will join the Perrys (Jim & Gaylord) as the only brothers to win at least 200 games per pitcher.
1986 The Blue Jays score three runs in the eighth inning to beat the Red Sox and Roger Clemens, 4-2. The loss prevents the 'Rocket' from getting a record-tying 15th consecutive winning decision.
1993 In a pregame ceremony at the ballpark, Kansas City officially renames Royals Stadium to Kauffman Stadium to honor Ewing M. Kauffman, the team's owner since its inception in 1968. The 77-year-old philanthropist, who humbly discouraged the name change, will die within a month.
1993 The latest game in major league history ends at 4:40 am when relief pitcher Mitch Williams, in his first at-bat of the season, singles home the winning run in the tenth inning, giving the Phillies a 6-5 victory over the Padres. The Veterans Stadium contest, which started at 1:26 am due to the three rain delays in Game 1 of the twin bill, eclipses the 3:35 am mark established in Atlanta on July 4, 1985, in a game that ended with fireworks after the Mets beat the Braves in 19 innings, 16-13.
1995 During a pregame ceremony at Kauffman Stadium, the Royals retire five-time All-Star second baseman Frank White's uniform number 20. The Royals Hall of Fame inductee will also be honored in 2004 with a bronze statue dedicated outside the Kansas City ballpark, joining club owners Ewing & Muriel Kauffman and Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett.
1995 Dodger right-hander Hideo Nomo, leading the National League in strikeouts, becomes the first player from Japan selected for the major league All-Star game. As the starter for the Senior Circuit, the 26-year-old rookie tosses two scoreless innings in National League's 3-2 victory over their American League rivals at The Ballpark in Arlington.

1999 National League President Len Coleman suspends Tom Hallion for three games without pay for bumping Colorado catcher Jeff Reed and pitching coach Milt May during an argument. The incident marks the first time an umpire receives a suspension for an on-field dispute.
2000 After hitting two home runs in a 2-1 victory over the Expos, Marlins outfielder Mark Smith becomes a hero for the second time when he pulls a man from a smoke-filled car minutes before the car explodes.
2000 At Shea Stadium, Gregory Sweeney is arrested and charged with reckless endangerment after throwing a ball onto the field after Braves reliever John Rocker had tossed it into the stands. A few days later, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown exonerates the 26-year-old Brooklyn man, concluding the Mets fan had no criminal intent and was doing nothing more than following a baseball tradition of returning an unsolicited and unwanted souvenir.
2002 At Coors Field, every Giants starter gets at least one hit, with the #8 hitter Tsuyoshi Shinjo going 5-for-6 with a pair of home runs, including a first-inning grand slam. The former Japanese big leaguer will finish the season, hitting just two more homers and driving in nine more runs.
2002 Fifty-three major league players hit 62 home runs, five more than the record 57 on April 7, 2000. The barrage includes a record-tying dozen hits at Chicago's Comiskey Park by the White Sox and the Tigers, the same two teams that set the major league record for homers in a game with 12 at Tiger Stadium in 1995.
2004 Suffering through their worst season since their inception in 1998, the Diamondbacks replace manager Bob Brenly with third-base coach Al Pedrique. The former skipper of Arizona's Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders becomes the second Venezuelan to manage in the big leagues.
2005 In one of the most severe penalties ever imposed by the commissioner's office for on-field behavior, Kenny Rogers is suspended for 20 games and fined $50,000 for actions that sent a camera operator to the hospital and launched a police investigation. The veteran southpaw, who will appeal the MLB decision, has been selected by his peers to be a member of the American League All-Star squad, scheduled to play next week in Detroit.
2007 With skipper Joe Torre watching from the Yankee dugout, Roger Clemens, throwing eight innings of a two-hit ball of a 5-1 win over the Twins, becomes the eighth pitcher to record 350 career victories. The New York manager was the catcher for Warren Spahn's 350th win, making him a participant on the only two occasions a pitcher has reached the milestone since 1928.
2013 At Great American Ball Park, Homer Bailey becomes the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan to throw two no-hitters before another hurler accomplishes the feat, giving up just a walk in the Reds' 3-0 victory against the Giants. Last September, the 27-year-old Cincinnati right-hander, the youngest pitcher to have pitched two no-hitters in his career, hurled the first no-hitter in PNC Park history, a dramatic 1-0 victory over the hometown Pirates.

2019 The Dodgers overcome a 4-3 deficit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning when the Diamondbacks' bullpen walk five consecutive batters, including Cody Bellinger's base-on-balls forcing in the winning run. The last time the Chavez Ravine club got a walk-off win with a walk was when Bellinger drew the fourth consecutive free pass issued by the Royals relievers, plating the winning run in a 5-4 extra-inning victory in 2017.
2021 Pablo Lopez becomes the first starting pitcher to throw one pitch and take the loss. The umpires eject the right-hander for intentionally plunking Braves' leadoff batter Ronald Acuña Jr., who scores the game's only run in the Marlins' 1-0 loss to Atlanta at Truist Park.
2022 Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez, and Dylan Carlson go deep in four consecutive at-bats in the first inning off Phillies' right-hander Kyle Gibson. The Cardinals become the 11th team to accomplish the feat in their eventual 7-6 victory over Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park.

36 Fact(s) Found