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This Day in Baseball History
January 16th

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30 Fact(s) Found
1878 The Providence Grays hire Benjamin Douglas as the team's manager and names Tom Carey as the team's captain. The skipper of the new National League franchise in Rhode Island will be fired for insubordination before the season begins, replaced by left fielder Tom York, who led the team to a third-place finish with a 33-27 (.550) record.
1886 The Washington Nationals, also known as the Statesmen, are admitted to the National League. The new franchise, which will play its home games at the Swampoodle Grounds, will win only 28 games of the 120 games played, finishing 60 games behind the first-place Chicago White Stockings in their first season of the team's four-year existence in the nation's capital.
1891 The National League, the American Association, and the Western Association sign a new national agreement that creates a three-person panel to settle disputes. Two days ago, the Senior Circuit owners voted to allow the American Association to place a team in Boston, despite the fierce opposition from the owners of the Boston Beaneaters, the existing NL franchise in town.
1952 Stan Musial becomes eligible for a salary raise to $85,000 despite a Korean War wage freeze. Using a complex formula, the U.S. Standardization Board gives the okay for major league teams to provide pay increases to individual players, not to exceed a complicated calculation, based on team salaries for any one year, from 1946 to 1950, plus ten percent.
1960 The Cubs trade Alvin Dark, along with John Buzhardt and Jim Woods, to the Phillies in exchange for Richie Ashburn. After a slow start in Philadelphia, the team deals the 'Swamp Fox' to the Braves, where he hits .298 for Milwaukee before retiring as a player at the end of the season to become the skipper for the Giants, the team he served as captain during their 1951 and 1954 World Championship campaigns.
1960 The Bucs' very competitive shortstop Dick Groat scores 14 points against the NFL Steelers in a scheduled 15-minute benefit basketball game for the Children's Hospital. The Duke University hoop standout takes exception to a foul called on him by Bob Prince, the team's broadcaster refereeing the game, that allows their football rivals to tie the score in the final few seconds of the contest and eventually win the exhibition against the Pirates in overtime, 22-20.
1964 The American League owners, by a 9-1 vote, nix Charlie Finley's proposal to move the A's to Louisville, giving the maverick owner an ultimatum to sign a lease in Kansas City by February 1 or lose his franchise. Ten days ago, Finley had announced he had signed a two-year deal with Louisville and had plans to shift the franchise there to start playing for the upcoming season.
1973 Steve Carlton becomes the highest-paid pitcher when he signs a contract with the Phillies for a reported $165,000. The 28-year-old southpaw, last season's unanimous Cy Young Award winner, will lose a league-leading 20 games this season after posting a 27-10 record in the previous campaign for the last-place team.
1974 The BBWAA elects former Yankees teammates southpaw Whitey Ford and slugger Mickey Mantle to the Hall of Fame. The franchise leader in wins (236), innings pitched (3,171), strikeouts (1,956), and shutouts (45), and his buddy, the 'Mick,' only the seventh player to make it in his first year of eligibility, will be enshrined in Cooperstown in August.
1996 The Giants signed much-acclaimed amateur free-agent Osvaldo Fernandez. The Cuban National squad's All-Star hurler, who defected when his club played Team USA in Tennessee, will post a disappointing 10-17 record during his two-year stay by the Bay.
1997 At the winter meetings in Phoenix (AZ), the owners voted 26-2 to place the Devil Rays in the American League and put the Diamondbacks in the Senior Circuit. The Royals and the Rangers opposed the plan, fearing realignment may result in their team playing in a western division, a reality Texas is trying to escape and a scenario Kansas City wants to avoid due to the two-hour difference in the starting times.
2001 The BBWAA elects Dave Winfield and Kirby Puckett to the Hall of Fame. The former Twins, both selected in their first year of eligibility, played together for Minnesota in 1993-94, becoming the seventh pair of teammates to be chosen by the writers in the same year.
2001 The Angels sign free agent Jose Canseco, offering an incentive-laden contract ranging from $200,000 to $5 million based on plate appearances as a designated hitter. At the end of spring training, after 39 at-bats, Anaheim releases the 36-year-old slugger, who will start the season with the independent Atlantic League Newark Bears before joining the White Sox in June.
2002 Pedro Astacio (8-14, 5.09) agrees to a one-year, $5 million incentive-laden free-agent deal with the Mets. After being traded to the Astros by the Rockies last season, the 32-year-old right-hander developed shoulder problems.
2003 The owners establish the minimum age of 14 for batboys after a near collision at home plate during Game 5 of the World Series involving four-year-old Giants' batboy Darren Baker. The Nationals will select the San Franciso skipper Dusty's son, who prompted the change from not having any age requirement, in the 27th round of the 2017 MLB draft.

2003 Gary Carter will likely become the first and only player to wear an Expos hat on his Hall of Fame plaque. Although the former catcher had expressed his wish to go in as a member of the Mets, the team that now employs him, and the franchise he helped win the 1986 World Series, Cooperstown decided the 'Kid' should enter the Hall with a Montreal logo.

2003 To restore the competitive edge to the All-Star Game, the owners unanimously approve the World Series home-field advantage to the team representing the winning league of the Midsummer Classic. The players' approval is needed to change the current rotation between the two circuits, a schedule used since the inception of the World Series in 1903.
2006 Dontrelle Willis (22-10, 2.63), signing a record-setting one-year contract with the Marlins, avoids arbitration by agreeing to a $4.35 million one-year offer, potentially worth $4.55 million if he reaches specific performance-based incentives. The All-Star southpaw's deal surpasses those for Roy Halladay and Andy Pettitte, each inking $3.8 million contracts for the highest amount ever given to a starting pitcher in his first year of arbitration eligibility.
2007 The Marlins, the team with the lowest payroll in the majors, spending only $15 million last season, agrees to a one-year deal with southpaw Dontrelle Willis (12-12, 3.87) for $6.45 million, a significant raise from the $4.35 million he received on this date last season. In his final season with the club before being traded to the Tigers in December, the 25-year-old Florida ace leads the league in games started (35) but also gives up the most earned runs (118) in the circuit, compiling a 10-15 record along with a hefty ERA of 5.17.
2008 Jon Lieber (3-6, 4.73), a former 20-game winner with the team in 2001, signs a $3.5 million, one-year deal to rejoin the Cubs. The right-handed veteran, who played with the Phillies for the past three years, missed most of last season due to surgery needed to repair a ruptured tendon in his foot.
2008 The Tigers, avoiding salary arbitration, sign Nate Roberts (9-13, 4.76) to a three-year $21.25 million deal. The 30-year-old southpaw, who would have been eligible to become a free agent after the 2009 season, has made 30+ starts during his four seasons with Detroit.
2009 The Red Sox sign another infielder to a long-term contract when Kevin Youkilis agrees to a four-year deal reportedly worth $41 million. The 29-year-old Gold Glove first baseman will join Dustin Pedroia, who inked a six-year contract extension in December, on the right side of Boston's infield for the foreseeable future.
2010 Scott Hairston returns to the Padres, the team that traded him last July in a four-player deal with the A's. The Friars send third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff and prospect Eric Sogard to Oakland in exchange for their former player and outfielder Aaron Cunningham.
2011 Joey Votto and the Reds agree to a three-year contract extension worth $38 million. The 27-year-old first baseman, last season's National League's Most Valuable Player, had a career year, batting .324, hitting 37 home runs, and driving in 113 runs.
2013 The Mariners acquire Michael Morse from the Nationals in a three-way trade that sends catcher John Jaso to the A's, who deal minor league pitchers A.J. Cole and Blake Treinen, and a player to be named later to Washington. The 30-year-old outfielder/first baseman, obtained to provide additional punch to Seattle's middle-of-the-order, spent the first four years of his big league career playing for the Northwest team.
2014 Expanded instant replay, a concept previously agreed to by the Players Association and World Umpires Association, is unanimously approved at the quarterly Owners Meetings. Each manager will begin a game with one challenge, with the crew chief initiating reviews from the Replay Command Center at MLB Advanced Media headquarters in New York when necessary, starting at the top of the seventh inning.
2017 The World Champion Cubs are welcomed at the White House by President Barack Obama, a noted White Sox patron who is offered a midnight pardon by Chicago GM Theo Epstein for his partisanship with the South Side team. In addition to receiving a No. 44 jersey from Anthony Rizzo, the Chicago first baseman who wears the same digits, the Commander in Chief is given a lifetime pass to any Cubs game, a gift Michelle, the First Lady, will probably appreciate more than her husband.

2020 The Giants announce Alyssa Nakken, who joined the club as an intern in baseball operations in 2014, will become baseball's first female coach on a major league staff. The former Sacramento State softball standout will be in uniform as an assistant under recently hired manager Gabe Kapler.
2020 The Mets and recently hired skipper Carlos Beltrán announced they have "agreed to mutually part ways" due to his role in the Astros' cheating scheme of using electronics to steal signs. The move follows the dismissal of Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Houston's bench coach in 2017, when Beltrán, the only player named in the Commissioner's nine-page report, played for the team.
2020 George Springer and the Astros come to terms on a one-year, $21 million incentive-laden contract that amounts to an increase of a little less than nine million dollars the 30-year-old All-Star outfielder made last year. The 2017 World Series MVP from New Britain (CT) set career highs last season, hitting 39 home runs with 96 RBI while batting .292 for the American League champions.
30 Fact(s) Found