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This Day in Baseball History
November 13th

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44 Fact(s) Found
1899 The National League announces two umpires will work each game starting next season. A crew of four umps employed for all regular-season games will not begin until 1952.
1931 Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert buys the International League's Newark franchise. The Bears will successfully send many players to the Bronx, including Charlie Keller, Joe Gordon, and Spud Chandler.
1934 Bucky Harris is re-hired in Washington, replacing recently sold manager Joe Cronin. The 'Boy Wonder' previously managed the Senators to American League championships in 1924 and 1925.
1935 Long-time owner Tiger owner Frank Navin, 64, dies suddenly after suffering a heart attack while riding his favorite horse, Masquerade, at the Detroit Riding and Hunt Club. Thirty-seven days previously, the Detroit institution watched the club win their first World Series in five attempts during his 32-year reign.
1951 The Japanese Pacific League All-Star team beats Lefty O'Doul's All-Stars, 3-1. The contest marks the first time American pros have lost to professional players from another country.
1958 After trying to woo the Reds, Phillies, and Pirates to come to the Big Apple, New York's mayor Robert Wagner, who appointed a four-person committee to bring the National League back to the city, announces the preliminary plans for the Continental League. Chairman William Shea proposes the new league, implying that the upstart circuit might raid National and American League rosters due to baseball's refusal to consider expansion.
1965 At the beginning of his induction speech at the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Branch Rickey mumbles to the audience before collapsing over the podium, "I don't believe I'm going to be able to speak any longer." The 83-year-old baseball executive, who suffered a massive heart attack on stage, will remain unconscious while in intensive care at Boone County Memorial Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, before dying three weeks later.
1968 Bob Gibson (22-9, 268 strikeouts, 1.12 ERA) wins the National League's Most Valuable Player Award, outpointing runner-up the Reds' Pete Rose, 242-205. The Cardinals' right-hander was also the unanimous choice for the Senior Circuit's Cy Young Award, garnering all 20 BBWAA first-place votes. 
1974 Steve Garvey, who didn't lead the league in any offensive category (.312, 21, 111), receives 13 of the 22 first-place votes cast by the BBWAA to win the National League MVP Award, outpointing runner-up Lou Brock, who stole major league record 118 bases and scored 105 runs for the Cardinals. The Dodgers' Gold Glove first baseman’s played a pivotal role in the team's National League championship.
1978 The Yankees sign Luis Tiant as a free agent to a two-year $875,000 contract. The 38-year-old right-hander will post a 21-17 (.553) record during his tenure in New York, but El Tiant will not appear in the postseason in 1980 when the team wins the American League East division.
1979 Two players are named co-winners of the National League MVP award for the first time in major league history. Cardinal first baseman Keith Hernandez and Pirates outfielder Willie Stargell share the honor, with both garnering 216 points in the BBWAA balloting, but 'Pops' receives ten first-place votes compared to the four for the Redbird infielder.
1980 In the re-entry draft, Dave Winfield is selected by ten of the 26 teams, including the Mets, Yankees, and Braves, the front-running clubs hoping to land the San Diego superstar. The 29-year-old outfielder, who will ink a record $16 million ten-year free-agent deal with the Bronx Bombers, is limited to signing a contract with one of the teams that had chosen him, a provision which usually weakens a free agent's bargaining position.
1984 Chicago second baseman Ryne Sandberg (.314, 19, 84) is overwhelmingly selected as the National League's Most Valuable Player, receiving 22 of the 24 first-place votes in the BBWAA balloting. The Gold Glove infielder known as Ryno becomes the first Cub to capture the award since the writers honored Ernie Banks in 1959.

(Ed. Note: Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez and Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn received the other first-place votes cast by the writers. - LP)

1987 Jim Frey, the team's former manager and broadcaster, is named the Cubs' Director of Baseball Operations. The first major move made by the skipper of the 1984 Chicago squad that won the NL East title will be to name long-time friend Don Zimmer as Chicago's field boss.
1989 The Red Sox release Jim Rice, ending his 16-year tenure with the team. The future Hall of Fame outfielder/DH, who played his entire career with Boston, retires with a lifetime .298 average and 382 home runs.
1990 A's hurler Bob Welch (27-6, 2.95, 127) wins the AL Cy Young Award. The 34-year-old right-hander's 27 wins are the most in the majors since 1972, when Steve Carlton won that many for the last-place Phillies.
1995 Reds' shortstop Barry Larkin wins the National League's Most Valuable Player award, with Colorado outfielder Dante Bichette and Atlanta right-hander Greg Maddux as the runners-up in a close election. The Cincinnati infielder, the first shortstop since Maury Wills in 1962 to cop the prestigious prize, provided excellent defense and batted .319 to help his team capture the NL West Division.
1996 Padres' third baseman Ken Caminiti is selected as the fourth unanimous winner of the National League's Most Valuable Player award, joining Orlando Cepeda (1967 Cardinals), Mike Schmidt (1980 Phillies), and Jeff Bagwell (1994 Astros). In a 2002 Sports Illustrated cover story, the oft-injured San Diego infielder admitted using steroids during his 1996 MVP season and several seasons afterward.
1998 The ball thrown by Red Sox hurler Howard Ehmke and hit by Babe Ruth for the first home run hit in Yankee Stadium is sold at an auction for $126,500 ($110,000 bid + 15% commission). Mark Scala found the 1923 historic ball in the attic of his grandmother's home several years ago.
2000 Red Sox hurler Pedro Martinez (18-6, 1.74) wins his third American League Cy Young Award in the last four seasons. The right-hander is the first AL pitcher to be honored unanimously in consecutive years.
2001 Randy Johnson (21-6, 2.49, 372) wins his fourth Cy Young Award, his third straight as a member of the Diamondbacks. The 'Big Unit,' who also won the honor in 1995 with the Mariners, is the second pitcher to win three consecutive Cy Young awards, joining Greg Maddux, who won four in a row from 1992-95.
2002 The Giants select former Expo veteran skipper Felipe Alou to replace Dusty Baker as their new manager. The 67-year-old Dominican Republic native compiled a 691-717 record during his ten years at the helm with Montreal, getting the nod as the National League Manager of the Year in the 1994 strike-shortened season.
2003 Eric Gagne, who saved 55 consecutive games for the Dodgers, becomes the ninth reliever to win a Cy Young Award. The runner-up is Jason Schmidt of the Giants, the pitcher with the NL's best won-lost percentage (17-4, 77%) and an ERA of 2.34 to lead the circuit.
2003 MLB announces that the drug screens taken during the past baseball season tested positive in 5-to-7 percent of the 1,438 samples provided by the players. The results will set into motion a mandatory testing program for performance-enhancing drugs with punitive consequences for failure for the first time in baseball history.
2006 Three of the top four National League vote-getters for Rookie of the Year Honors finishers are Marlins teammates. In an extremely tight race, Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez edges Nationals' third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and his teammates, second baseman Dan Uggla and hurler Josh Johnson.


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2006 The Mets stage a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the construction of the 45,000-seat ballpark, which will replace Shea Stadium in 2009. The new $800-million Citi Field ballpark, named in association with Citigroup Inc., will be reminiscent of Ebbets Field, featuring a statue of Jackie Robinson in a rotunda named after the immortal Brooklyn Dodger infielder.

2006 Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander (17-9, 3.63) cops the AL Rookie of the Year award, receiving 26 first-place votes of a possible 28 cast by the BBWAA. The 23-year-old hard-throwing hurler becomes the first starting pitcher to win the freshman award since Yankee newcomer Dave Righetti accomplished the feat in 1981.
2007 Given their postseason match-ups of the CYA candidates, many baseball observers are surprised when CC Sabathia (19-7, 3.21) beats out Red Sox ace Josh Beckett (20-7, 3.27) for the American League Cy Young Award. In the ALCS, the 27-year-old Indian southpaw faced Beckett twice and lost each time, but voting takes place at the end of the regular season.
2008 Cliff Lee (22-3, 2.54) receives 24 of 28 first-place votes from the BBWAA to win the American League Cy Young award. Joining Gaylord Perry (1972) and CC Sabathia (2007), the 30-year-old southpaw becomes the third Indian hurler to cop the honor.
2008 With a year left on his contract, Ron Gardenhire agrees to a two-year extension to remain the Twins skipper through 2001. The 51-year-old manager, who replaced Tom Kelly in 2002, has compiled a 622-512 record during his seven-year tenure in Minnesota, winning four division titles with the small-market team.
2008 In a five-player trade with the White Sox, the Yankees obtained Nick Swisher and Triple-A right-hander Kaneoka Texeira for pitching prospects Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez, along with infielder Wilson Betemit. The Bronx Bombers plan to use the flexible 27-year-old switch hitter to replace the departing first baseman Jason Giambi, but he could be moved to the outfield if the team acquires a big-name free agent to play first.
2010 The Marlins send outfielder Cameron Maybin to the Padres for right-handed relievers Edward Mujica and Ryan Webb. The 23-year-old outfielder, the 10th overall pick in 2005, was traded by Detroit two years later in a major multiplayer Winter Meeting deal that included Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.
2010 During an auction at the Louisville Slugger Museum, the winning bid for the ball Yankee slugger Babe Ruth hit for his 702nd career home run costs $264,500, three times the estimated price. The historic horsehide, hit at Chicago's Comiskey Park in 1934 off future Hall of Fame right-hander Ted Lyons, had been passed down by three generations of a Minnesota family before being made available to the public. 
2012 Bob Melvin, for the second time in his career, is selected as the Manager of the Year when the Baseball Writers' Association of America name him first on 16 of 28 ballots to narrowly outpoint Buck Showalter of the Orioles, 116-108. The Oakland skipper, the National League's BBWAA managerial award recipient in 2007 with the Diamondbacks, guided the A's to the American League West title before losing Game 5 in the ALCS to Detroit.
2012 Davey Johnson, who led the Nationals to the most victories in the major leagues with a 98-64 record, is selected as the National League Manager of the Year, receiving 23 of the 32 first-place votes cast by the writers. The 69-year-old manager, honored by the BBWAA in 1997 for his managerial skills with the Orioles, joins Bobby Cox (Blue Jays, Braves), Tony La Russa (White Sox and A's, Cardinals), Lou Piniella (Mariners, Cubs), and Jim Leyland (Pirates, Tigers) as the fifth skipper to have won the award in both leagues.
2013 The Phillies and Marlon Byrd, who helped the Pirates reach the postseason for the first since 1992, agree on a two-year, $16 million deal. Last offseason, the 36-year-old outfielder signed a minor league contract with New York, emerging as one of the team's few offensive assets before being dealt to Pittsburgh in August, where he hit .318 for the eventual Wild-Card Bucs.
2013 Max Scherzer is selected by the BBWAA as the American League's Cy Young Award winner, receiving 28 of 30 writers' first-place votes to finish ahead of Ranger ace Yu Darvish and Mariner starter Hisashi Iwakuma. The 29-year-old Tigers right-hander, who posted a 21-3 record with a 2.90 ERA in 32 starts for the pennant-winning club, joins Justin Verlander (2011), Denny McLain (1968-69), and Willie Hernandez (1984) as the fourth hurler to cop the prestigious pitching prize hurling for Detroit.
2014 Clayton Kershaw (21-3, 1.77 ERA ) becomes the first pitcher to win the National League MVP award since Cardinal right-hander Bob Gibson copped the honor in 1968. The 26-year-old Dodger southpaw won his third NL Cy Young Award yesterday, receiving 18 of 30 of the writers' first-place votes, easily outdistancing runner-ups Giancarlo Stanton (8) and Andrew McCutcheon (4).
2014 Angels outfielder Mike Trout is the unanimous selection of the BBWAA for the American League's Most Valuable Player Award after finishing as the writers' second choice during the previous two seasons to the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera. The 23-year-old South Jersey native becomes the youngest unanimous MVP selection in baseball history.
2017 Bobby Doerr, the last living person to play in the majors during the 1930s, dies at 99 after becoming the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012. The former Red Sox second baseman and coach was also the last living person to play against Lou Gehrig.
2019 The Baseball Writers' Association of America announces the NL's Cy Young Award recipient is Jacob deGrom, who received 29 of 30 first-place votes after finishing the campaign 11-8 with an ERA of 2.43 while leading the circuit with 255 strikeouts. The 31-year-old Mets' right-hander won the prestigious pitching prize last year, marking only the 11th time in baseball history that a hurler has coped the honor in back-to-back seasons.
2020 Freddie Freeman, receiving 28 of 30 of the writer's first-place votes, becomes the first Braves player named the National League's MVP since Chipper Jones won the prestigious award in 1999. After dealing with the debilitating effects of COVID-19 during the team's pre-season summer camp, the 31-year-old first baseman batted .341 and collected 37 extra-base hits, including 13 homers, while playing in the full slate of Atlanta's 60 games.
2020 The Marlins hire Kim Ng, who has worked for major league teams for over three decades, to be the club's new general manager, making her the first female general manager in baseball history. The 51-year-old Asian American, most recently the MLB's senior vice president of baseball operations, previously held positions with the Yankees, Dodgers, and the White Sox, where her career started as an intern in 1990.
2023 The BBWAA selects Orioles' first baseman Gunnar Henderson (.255, 28, 82), who receives all of thirty of the writers' first-place votes, as the American League Rookie of the Year award over runners-up right-hander Tanner Bibee of the Guardians and Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas. The 22-year-old Silver Slugger played a major role in the team's 101-win AL East championship season.
44 Fact(s) Found