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This Day in Baseball History
May 10th

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26 Fact(s) Found
1909 Church bells ring when Fred Toney completes the longest no-hitter in organized baseball history, a 1-0 victory over the Lexington Colts of the Blue Grass League. As word spread around town about the Class D Winchester Hustlers right-hander's performance on the mound, fans continued to stream into the ballpark before the contest's lone run scored on a squeeze play in the bottom of the 17th.
1910 Bill Purtell gets the dubious distinction of becoming the first major league player to strike out twice in the same frame. During the sixth inning of the White Sox' 10-3 victory over Washington, the Chicago third baseman is victimized twice by future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson.
1934 Ben Chapman, who will lead the protest against Jackie Robinson in 1947, harasses a Jewish fan during a Yankees' 13-3 victory over the White Sox at the Bronx ballpark. The New York left fielder shouts disparaging epithets and taunts the team's supporters with Nazi salutes.


1933 Goudey Baseball Card of Ben Chapman
1934 In an 11-3 rout over the White Sox at Comiskey Park, Lou Gehrig ties a big-league record, stroking four extra-base hits, including two doubles and two home runs. The Yankee first baseman accumulates 12 total bases and seven RBIs in just five innings when he benches himself due to having a severe cold.
1939 In front of thousands of onlookers gathered to watch the bizarre publicity stunt, Phillies' backstop Dave Coble catches a ball thrown from the top of Philadelphia's City Hall. The 26-year-old rookie catcher, wearing a leather football helmet, handles the 521-foot dropped ball cleanly but likens the experience of a man jumping into his arms.
1953 With a double and home run, Roy Campanella drives in all the runs in the Dodgers' 5-0 victory over the Phillies at Ebbets Field. Campy's 40+ RBIs in the first 30 games stay unequaled until Tino Martinez accomplishes the feat in 1997 with the Yankees.

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1955 Dodger right-hander Don Newcombe faces only 27 batters when he one-hits Chicago at Wrigley Field, 3-0. Gene Baker, who ruins Newk's bid for perfection with a fourth-inning single, is thrown out trying to steal second base.
1958 The Tigers name Bill Norman, the field boss of their Triple-A American Association Charleston Senators affiliate, as the team's manager. The second-division club will finish in fifth place, posting a 56-49 record for the rest of the season under the tutelage of their new skipper.
1967 Braves' outfielder Hank Aaron hits an inside-the-park homer off future Hall of Fame right-hander Jim Bunning in the team's 4-3 loss to the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. The eighth-inning round-tripper will be Hammerin' Hank's only homer, which doesn't clear the fence out of his record-setting 755 round-trippers.
1968 Denny McLain wins his fifth consecutive start, all complete games, going the distance in the Tigers' 12-1 rout of the Senators at D.C. Stadium. With the victory, Detroit takes possession of first place, a position the eventual World Champs will maintain for the remainder of the season.
1969 In the bottom of the ninth inning, Orioles hurler Jim Hardin goes deep off Royals' reliever Moe Drabowsky, giving the Birds a 6-5 walk-off win at Memorial Stadium. Besides earning a victory thanks to his one-out solo blast, the right-hander becomes the last hurler to end a game with a home run for 25 years until weak-hitting Padres southpaw Craig Lefferts accomplishes the feat in 1986 against the Giants.
1970 Hoyt Wilhelm becomes the first major league pitcher to appear in 1000 games when he enters in the ninth inning with the bases full and no outs, trying to protect a 5-3 lead against the Cardinals. The 46-year-old Braves' knuckleballer, who will end his 21-year career in 1972 with 1070 appearances, blows the save in the team's eventual 6-5 loss at Atlanta Stadium.

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1981 🇫🇷 Expos' hurler Charlie Lea no-hits the Giants, 4-0, becoming the first French-born pitcher to accomplish the feat. The 24-year-old right-hander was born in Orleans, France.

1993 Marlins right-hander Ryan Bowen hurls the first complete game in franchise history. The 25-year-old gives a lone run on three hits but loses the Shea Stadium contest, 1-0, to the Mets' Bret Saberhagen, who also goes the distance.
1999 Nomar Garciaparra hits two grand slams in the same game and adds a two-run homer in a 12-4 rout of the Mariners at Fenway Park. The Red Sox shortstop becomes the first American League player to drive in 10 runs in a game since Fred Lynn, also playing for Boston, accomplished the feat in 1975.

2001 An MRI reveals White Sox's first baseman and two-time Most Valuable Player Frank Thomas has a right tricep tear, which will require surgery. The injury caused by diving for a ground ball will keep the 'Big Hurt' out of action for the rest of the season.
2002 The Devil Rays lose a franchise-record 15 games in a row, dropping a 6-5 decision to the Orioles at Tropicana Field. The 9-and-25 last-place team started their season with a three-game sweep of the Tigers at Tropicana Field, marking the best start in its five-year history.
2005 Tony Pena, the 2003 American League Manager of the Year, resigns when the Royals start slowly. Bob Schaeffer, the team's bench coach, will try to improve the worst record in the big leagues (8-25) when he becomes Kansas City's skipper on an interim basis.
2006 At Safeco Field, the Devil Rays beat the Mariners, 1-0, with the lone run crossing the plate due to a fifth-inning balk committed by Jamie Moyer. When the Seattle southpaw tries to adjust his grip on the ball without removing his foot from the rubber, his body sways allowing Toby Hall to cross the plate on the miscue.
2008 With the Padres' 3-2 victory over the Rockies at Petco Park, Greg Maddux, on his fifth attempt, wins the 350th game of his career. The 42-year-old right-hander gives up three hits in six innings to become the ninth pitcher in major league history to reach the milestone, and only the third hurler, along with Warren Spahn and Roger Clemens, to accomplish the feat since 1928.
2010 To honor the request of the late Ernie Harwell, the Tigers ask Jose Feliciano to return to Detroit to perform the national anthem, 42 years after many fans were upset by his original rendition at Tiger Stadium. The legendary broadcaster asked the Puerto Rico-born musician to perform during the pregame ceremony in 1968 before Game 5 of the Fall Classic, not knowing the singer's guitar-based, bluesy interpretation of the national anthem would become very controversial.
2011 Bill Gallo, the creator of colorful characters such as General Von Steingraber, a caricature of the late George Steinbrenner, and Basement Bertha, a rooter of the hapless Mets who radiated good-humored optimism for the fans of the fledgling team, dies from complications of pneumonia at the age of 88. The cartoonist's final published drawing, which appeared last month in the Daily News, his employer for seven decades, featured Bertha window shopping with the hope of being invited to the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine.

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2012 At Camden Yards, the Orioles start the game with back-to-back-to-back home runs when Ryan Flaherty, J.J. Hardy, and Nick Markakis give the team a 3-0 lead on the first eight pitches thrown by Rangers starter Colby Lewis. The Birds' first-inning trio of round-trippers is the fourth occurrence in major league history but marks the first time in the American League.

2013 In front of their home crowds, Cardinal rookie Shelby Miller and Red Sox southpaw Jon Lester throw a one-hitter against the Rockies and Blue Jays, respectively. Each hurler faces only 28 batters, allowing no walks or hit-by-pitches in their errorless complete-game shutout performances.
2013 Tampa Bay starter Alex Cobb strikes out 13 San Diego hitters but doesn't make it out of the fourth inning in the Rays' 6-3 victory at the Trop. The right-hander records 12 of his 14 outs with K's, including four in the third frame, when a wild pitch on strike three allows the batter to reach first.
2015 On Mother's Day, 29-year-old Felix Hernandez becomes the fourth-youngest player to strike out 2,000 batters when he whiffs A's outfielder Sam Fuld in the Mariners' 4-3 victory at Safeco Field. Only Walter Johnson, Bert Blyleven, and Sam McDowell have accomplished the feat at a younger age than the Seattle right-hander known as King Felix.
26 Fact(s) Found