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This Day in Baseball History
June 6th

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42 Fact(s) Found
1892 At Washington, DC's Boundary Field, Benjamin Harrison becomes the first U.S. president to attend a Major League Baseball game. The Commander in Chief watches Cincinnati defeat the Senators, the last-place team in the National League, 7-4 in 11 innings.
1913 The Yankees lose their thirteenth game without a victory when the Indians defeat the team at the Polo Grounds, 2-1. The 9-34 club's futility, which sets a franchise record, includes a 3-3 tie to Boston during the 14-game span.
1920 The Cardinals play their last game at Robison Field (renamed Cardinal Field in 1917), their home field since 1893, beating the Cubs, 5-2. Owner Sam Breadon agrees to a ten-year lease for $20,000 annually, allowing the team to share the Browns' Sportsman's Park, and the sale of the ballpark providing funds for Branch Rickey's idea of establishing a farm system, starting with an affiliation of a minor league team in Houston.
1925 At Griffith Stadium, future Hall of Famer Eddie Collins hits a double to become the sixth major leaguer to collect 3000 hits. The 38-year-old White Sox infielder strokes the historic two-bagger off Washington's Walter Johnson, also a future inductee in Cooperstown.
1934 Myril Hoag becomes the first Yankee in franchise history to collect six hits in one game, a major league record of six singles. The 26-year-old outfielder's 6-for-6 performance helps the Bronx Bombers rout Boston at Fenway Park, 15-3.
1939 Carl Stolz's dream of providing a wholesome baseball experience for local boys as a means of teaching the concepts of sportsmanship, fair play, and teamwork becomes a reality when the first Little League game occurs when Lundy Lumber defeat Lycoming Dairy in Williamsport (PA), 23-8. Allen "Sonny" Yearick, a participant in the inaugural contest, will be the first graduate of the fledgling youth league to play professional ball, becoming a farmhand in the Boston Braves organization in 1948.
1939 In a 17-3 win over the Reds at the Polo Grounds, the Giants become the first team to hit five home runs in one inning. Harry Danning, Frank Demaree, Burgess Whitehead, Manny Salvo, and Joe Moore all go deep with two outs in the fourth inning.
1940 Warren Spahn, who will become the winningest left-hander in baseball history with 363 victories, signs a contract with the Boston Bees. Due to a clash with manager Casey Stengel and his enlistment in the U.S. Army, the 19-year-old southpaw waits six years before he gets his first major league win.
1941 The Giants join the Dodgers and Senators to have their players wear protective headgear. The sewn-in durable plastic liners do not provide a defense against a pair of defeats when the team drops both ends of a doubleheader to Pittsburgh at the Polo Grounds, 5-4 and 4-3.
1944 Baseball cancels today's scheduled eight-game slate due to the Allied invasion of Normandy, known as D-Day. The military operation has 60,000 Allied troops, including six minor leaguers who will be killed in action, landing along a heavily protected 50-mile stretch of the coastline in France to fight Germany to begin an offensive assault against Hitler and the Nazi party.
1948 Having accomplished the feat on Opening Day, the Red Sox become the first team to hit three consecutive homers in one inning twice in one season. Stan Spence, Vern Stephens, and Ted Williams all go deep off Fred Hutchinson in the sixth inning of the team's 12-4 rout of Detroit at Fenway Park.
1957 After an 86-minute delay, the first fog out in major league history occurs at Ebbets Field when the umpires call off the Dodgers' game against the Cubs due to poor visibility. The postponement comes with Brooklyn having a 1-0 lead with one out in the bottom of the second inning.
1958 Ozzie Virgil becomes the first black player to appear in a Tigers' uniform. The 26-year-old versatile Dominican will eventually play every position but pitcher during his nine-year major league career.
1961 Amid a 13-game losing streak, Twins manager Cookie Lavagetto receives a 'seven-game vacation.' At first, team owner Calvin Griffith insists he has no intention of firing his skipper but will replace him with Sam Mele later in the month.
1965 Tom Tresh hits three consecutive home runs when the Yankees blast the visiting White Sox, 12-0. The outfielder's first-inning round-tripper is off starter Juan Pizarro, which he follows up with third and fifth-frame homers off reliever Bruce Howard.
1968 The day after the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, Maury Wills refuses to play in a 4-2 loss to the Dodgers, his former team. The 35-year-old Pirate shortstop stays in the Chavez Ravine training room, reading RFK's book, To Seek a New World.
1971 All youngsters attending the Yankee game are given a youth-sized Bobby Murcer model wooden Hillerich & Bradsby Louisville Slugger during the team's annual Bat Day promotion. The banging of the bats in unison by young fans during the late innings of the Bronx Bombers' 5-2 victory over Kansas City caused pieces of concrete to start to fall into lower levels of the stadium, a harbinger that the Bronx ballpark may be in pressing need of repair.
1978 The Braves select Bob Horner as their first overall pick in the June draft and promptly promote him to the parent club. The Arizona State corner infielder was the first recipient of the Golden Spikes Award, an honor given annually by USA Baseball to the best amateur baseball player.
1986 Padres' manager Steve Boros, before the game against Atlanta, tries to give Charlie Williams a videotape of a disputed play from last night's 4-2 defeat. The ump promptly ejected the San Diego skipper before the first pitch of today's contest at Jack Murphy Stadium.
1990 Stump Merrill replaces Bucky Dent as Yankee manager. During his two-year tenure in the dugout, the former minor league skipper will compile a 120-155 (.436) record before being fired in favor of Buck Showalter at the end of next season.
1991 At Royals Stadium, Ranger left fielder Kevin Reimer ties a club record when he collects five hits, all singles, in the team’s 4-3 loss in eighteen innings to Kansas City. In 1993, the 29-year-old Macon, Georgia native, as the DH, will become just the second Brewer to go 6-for-6 in a game.
1992 Eddie Murray sets a new RBI record for switch hitters, driving in the 1,510th run of his career with a first-inning sac fly in the Mets' 15-1 rout of Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium. The New York first baseman surpasses Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle's 18-year total to establish the new mark.
1993 Cal Ripken suffers a twisted right knee when he catches his spikes in the infield grass during the Birds' 5-2 victory over Seattle at Camden Yards. The resulting swollen knee almost ends the Orioles' shortstop historic streak at Game 1,790, 341 contests shy of Lou Gehrig's remarkable accomplishment.
1994 Mike Piazza hits the longest home run recorded in the history of Joe Robbie Stadium when his first career grand slam is estimated to travel 477 feet. The catcher's Ruthian blast, one of four Dodger round-trippers during the Florida contest, isn't enough to thwart the Marlins' 11-10 come-from-behind victory.
1996 For only the second time in major league history, a triple play and a cycle occur in the same game when Red Sox shortstop John Valentin collects a single, double, triple, and home run, and the White Sox execute an around-the-horn triple killing in the first inning of the team's 7-4 loss at Fenway Park. In 1931, the Phillies turned a triple play, and their outfielder, Chuck Klein, hit a cycle in a contest against the Cubs.
1996 John Valentin becomes the 14th player in Red Sox history to hit for the cycle, collecting a two-run homer in the first inning, a triple in the third, a single in the fourth, and a double in the sixth. The Boston shortstop's ten total bases, three runs, and two RBIs contribute to Boston's 7-4 victory over Chicago at Fenway Park.
1997 Sandy Alomar ties the major league record when he hits four doubles in the Fenway Park contest. The Indians catcher's quartet of two-baggers plates two runs, helping the first-place Tribe beat the Red Sox, 7-3.
1999 Derek Jeter's streak of safely reaching base ends at 54 straight games when the Mets keep him off the basepaths in their 7-2 win over the Yankees in the Bronx. The defeat also marks the end of Roger Clemens' streak of 20 consecutive victories, an American League record.
2000 Thanks to the Angels' video crew playing a clip from the 1994 movie "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective" on the JumboTron, the Rally Monkey is born. With the words "Rally Monkey" superimposed over a monkey jumping up and down in the Jim Carrey movie, the crowd goes wild when Anaheim scores two runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Giants, 6-5.

2002 The Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission agrees to drop its lawsuit against the Twins and Major League Baseball. The deal settles pending legal action blocking baseball's contraction plan and removes the Twins from consideration for elimination for the 2003 season.
2003 Major League Baseball suspends Sammy Sosa for eight games, ignoring the Cub slugger's insistence that he accidentally used a corked bat. Bob Watson, baseball's vice president of on-field operations, agreed that the Chicago's outfielder's use of an illegal bat, designed to put on home run displays during batting practice, was an "isolated incident," but still deserved a penalty.
2006 When Eric Gagne, who will earn his first save in over a year, throws his first pitch to his receiver Russell Martin, the pair become the first All-French-Canadian battery in major league history. The pitcher and catcher each attended Polyvalente Edouard Montpetit High School, one of the few schools in Montreal with a baseball program.
2006 On the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the century, the Dodgers score six runs in the sixth inning during the sixth game of the homestand, beating the Mets, 8-5. On 05/05/05, the Twins scored five times in the fifth inning en route to a 9-0 victory over the Indians.
2006 Jason Schmidt, whiffing 16 Marlins during a 2-1 complete-game victory, ties a franchise record for strikeouts in one game, established in 1904 by Christy Mathewson. Also, the 33-year-old right-hander surpasses the San Francisco record of 15 K's set by Gaylord Perry in 1966.
2007 At Petco Park, Trevor Hoffman becomes the first reliever to save 500 games. The all-time saves leader tosses only ten ninth-inning pitches, including an 87 mph fastball thrown past Russell Martin for the final out, to reach the milestone in the Padres' 5-3 victory over the Dodgers.
2008 Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski announces the club is optioning their off-season blockbuster acquisition Dontrelle Willis to their Class A minor league team in Lakeland of the Florida State League. The 2003 Rookie of the Year, who posted a 22-10 record two years later with the Marlins, recently signed a three-year, $29 million deal to play with Detroit.
2008 The Kimberly-Clark Corporation donates nearly sixty acres to the city of Hendersonville, a parcel of land that includes the historic Berkeley Mills ballpark. In 2015, the North Carolina city will try to place the storied stadium, the former home of the Berkeley Spinners, a semi-pro mill team sponsored by Berkeley Mills from 1948-1961, on the National Register of Historic Places.
2008 At Turner Field, Brad Lidge gets his 16th consecutive save when Gregor Blanco is thrown out at home plate, dramatically ending the game and preserving a Phillies 4-3 victory over the Braves. The Philadelphia closer's flawless record from the start of the season breaks Al Holland's club mark, who converted his first 15 opportunities in 1984.
2010 The Nationals announce the team is donating the hat Stephen Strasburg wore in his major league debut to the Hall of Fame. The 21-year-old rookie right-hander struck out 14 batters in Washington's 5-2 victory over Pittsburgh.
2013 With John Sebastian's song Welcome Back playing in the background, the Seattle fans cheer Ichiro Suzuki when the longtime Mariner legend returns to Safeco Field as a Yankee. The 39-year-old outfielder, who hit .322 during his 12 seasons with the team, was traded to the Bronx last July for Danny Farquhar and D.J. Mitchell.
2015 In the inaugural contest played in MGM Park, the Biloxi Shuckers, coming off a season-long, 54-game road trip, beat the Mobile BayBears, 5-4, in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,065 enthusiastic fans. The Opening Night dramatic 14-inning walk-off Southern League victory marks the first time since 1908, when the Sand Crabs played in the Cotton States League that a minor league team at home has represented the city.
2017 Scooter Gennett, claimed off of waivers by the Reds at the end of spring training, becomes the 17th player in major league history and the first in the franchise's 135 years to hit four homers in a game. The Cincinnati second baseman establishes a franchise record with 17 total bases with his quartet of round-trippers in consecutive at-bats, contributing 10 RBIs to the club's 13-1 victory over the Cardinals at Great American Ball Park.

42 Fact(s) Found