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This Day in Baseball History
May 16th

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38 Fact(s) Found
1912 The National Commission suspends Detroit outfielder Ty Cobb, barring him from playing this season due to his attack on Claude Lucker, a handicapped fan, two days ago. In support of their not-so-popular teammate, the Tigers go on strike to protest the decision, which will end after one game with the reinstatement of the Georgia Peach.
1913 🇪🇸 Alfredo Cabrera, born in the Canary Islands, becomes the first person from Spain to appear in the majors. The 32-year-old Cardinal shortstop plays in only one big-league game, going 0-for-2 in a 6-5 loss to the Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
1917 Thanks to a scoring change made after the game by a panel of sportswriters reversing the first-inning hit into an error, Bob Groom of the Browns no-hits the White Sox, 4-0. Ernie Koob, his St. Louis teammate, also threw a no-hitter yesterday against the Pale Hose.
1932 Lefty Gomez throws a five-hitter en route to an 8-0 victory over Cleveland, giving the Yankees their fourth consecutive shutout. The southpaw's performance joins Johnny Allen, George Pipgras, and Red Ruffing, who also held their opponents scoreless.
1933 Senators' third baseman Cecil Travis becomes the second rookie to collect five hits in his major league debut, joining Hall of Fame left fielder Fred Clarke, who accomplished the feat in 1894 for the Louisville Colonels. In the 12-inning Griffith Stadium contest, the 19-year-old freshman strokes five singles in the team's 12-11 victory over Cleveland.
1939 Four years after the Senior Circuit began playing evening tilts, the American League plays its first night game when Cleveland defeats the A's in front of 15,109 hometown fans, 8-3. Unseasonably cold temperatures in Philadelphia are responsible for the small Shibe Park crowd, which is about half the expected attendance.
1953 After loading the bases against the Yankees in the top of the ninth inning, the White Sox pinch-hit southpaw pitcher Tommy Byrne for the right-handed hitting third baseman Vern Stephens, who has ten career grand slams. The unusual move pays off when the lefty pinch-hitter homers off Ewell Blackwell to give Chicago a 5-3 victory.
1954 In their inaugural season in Baltimore, the Orioles draw a record 46,796 fans at Memorial Stadium for a doubleheader with the Yankees. The Birds split the twin bill with the Bronx Bombers, losing the first game 2-0 and taking the nightcap, 6-2.
1959 In Pittsfield (MA), Amherst and Williams reenact their original contest, celebrating the centennial of the first intercollegiate baseball game. Massachusetts. Commissioner Ford Frick, American League president Joe Cronin, and National League president Warren Giles are on hand to enjoy the festivities, including a chess match that also occurred between the schools a century ago.

1965 Future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, pitching 3.2 innings in relief, wins his first major league game when the Orioles defeat the Yankees at Memorial Stadium, 7-5. The 19-year-old Orioles' rookie right-hander makes the day more memorable when he hits a two-run homer off Jim Bouton in the fourth inning.
1966 Bob Swift is named Detroit's acting manager when Chuck Dressen suffers a heart attack, his second in two years. In August, the 67-year-old recovering Tiger skipper will die due to being stricken with a kidney infection.
1967 Reliever Phil Regan loses his first game in 77 appearances. The 'Vulture' gets pinned with his first defeat in over a year when Astros' third baseman Bob Aspromonte hits a two-run triple in the tenth to beat the Dodgers, 5-3.
1969 Jim Bouton records his first victory as a knuckleball pitcher when the Pilots hold on to defeat Boston, 10-9, in an extra-inning contest played at Fenway Park. The 30-year-old right-hander throws three scoreless innings and gets the win when Seattle scores six runs in the 11th inning, and the Red Sox's five-run rally falls a run short in the bottom of the frame.
1970 During a game against the Giants at Dodger Stadium, Alan Fish, sitting with friends from the Poinsettia Playground in the second-row seats along the first-base line, is struck in the head by a foul ball off the bat of Manny Mota. The 14-year-old boy will die four days later to become the first fatality resulting from a batted ball in major league history.
1972 First baseman Greg Luzinski rings the replica of the Liberty Bell hanging in dead center field on the fourth level with a Ruthian blast at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium off Burt Hooton. The 500-foot clanger, overshadowed by Rick Monday's three routine round-trippers, will account for the Phillies' only run when they lose to the Cubs, 8-1.

1978 Pete Rose surpasses Mickey Mantle for the most runs scored by a switch-hitter when he crosses the plate for 1677th time in his career, tallying on Del Unser's single in the third inning of the Phillies 13-0 rout of the Cubs at Wrigley Field. 'Charlie Hustle' will extend the mark to 2,165 before ending his 24-year tenure in the major leagues in 1986.
1978 Indians southpaw David Clyde, who pitched straight out of high school for the Rangers five years ago, earns his first major league victory since May 15, 1974, when he throws a complete game to beat the A's, 3-2, at Cleveland Stadium. The 23-year-old left-hander, acquired from Texas in an offseason trade, will start the season with four consecutive wins en route to posting an 8-11 (.421) record and an ERA of 4.28 for the Tribe.
1981 Astros shortstop Craig Reynolds hits three triples in one game, helping Houston beat the Cubs, 6-1. The Texas native, the 29th player since 1920 to have accomplished this feat, scores only one run but drives in four with his three-baggers in the Astrodome contest.
1983 In an 11-4 rout of the Pirates, rookie right fielder Darryl Strawberry hit his first major league home run, a two-run round-tripper off Pittsburgh's Lee Tunnell at Three Rivers Stadium. The troubled Mets outfielder, the eventual franchise leader with 252 homers, will hit 335 during his turbulent 17-year career with the Mets, Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees. 
1984 Although the Twins sell 51,863 tickets for their Family Day promotion, only 6,346 fans are on hand to see the team's 8-7 loss to the Blue Jays. The inflated attendance results from a massive ticket buyout plan conceived by businessman Harvey Mackay, who paid $218,718 for 44,166 discounted ducats to keep the team in Minnesota, knowing if the club does not sell 2.41 million tickets, it can void its lease with the Metrodome.
1988 Mets catcher Gary Carter hits his 299th career home run, connecting for a three-run round-tripper off Greg Booker in the seventh inning of the team’s 7-4 victory over the Padres at Jack Murphy Stadium. The future Hall of Fame backstop will go 230 at-bats and three months before hitting #300 on August 11th.
1995 The first printed reference to 'Manny Being Manny' is attributed to Mike Hargrove by Newsday's Jon Heyman. In a feature titled Baseball Homecoming, the Indian skipper reportedly uses the phrase to describe his young outfielder, Manny Ramirez.
1996 In a 13-1 rout over the Astros, Sammy Sosa becomes the first Cub to hit two home runs in one inning. The slugger accomplishes the feat leading off the seventh with a solo shot off Jeff Tabaka and then hits a two-run round-tripper off Jim Dougherty later in the frame.

1997 Trailing 11-2 after three innings, the Expos come back to beat the Giants at Olympic Stadium, 14-13. David Segui's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning plates Mike Lansing to break the 13-13 deadlock.
2000 After a fan steals Los Angeles' catcher Chad Kreuter's hat and hits him in the back of the head, many Dodgers, including coaches John Shelby and Rick Dempsey, go into the stands and start fighting with the Wrigley Field faithful. The melee, which delays the game for nearly ten minutes, ends with the arrest of several fans and litter all over the field.
2001 Chicago outfielder Sammy Sosa becomes the thirty-third major leaguer to reach 400 career homers when he goes deep off Houston's Shane Reynolds at Wrigley Field. The popular Dominican outfielder has hit 371 homers as a Cub, putting him third on the all-time franchise list behind Ernie Banks (512) and Billy Williams (392).
2002 The New York Times reports October 1, the first scheduled day of the postseason, is among the possible strike dates in consideration by the Players Association. In yesterday's edition, the newspaper indicated an early August date was another possibility for a labor action by the major leaguers without a new CBA in place.
2004 Ben Sheets, en route to a complete-game three-hitter, becomes the 14th pitcher in baseball history to strike out 18 batters in a nine-inning game when the Brewers beat the Braves at Miller Park, 4-1. The 25xyear-old right-hander whiffs eight of the final 11 hitters he faces to break the team record of 14 established by Moose Haas in 1978.
2006 In a game that features the Molina brothers as the respective catchers for their teams, Jose's theft in the fourth proves to be the key to an Angel four-run inning. Blue Jays backstop Bengie takes second base without drawing a throw from his older brother, advancing on defensive indifference in the seventh inning of an 8-3 Los Angeles victory in Anaheim.
2006 For the fourth time in Yankee history, the team overcomes a nine-run deficit, defeating the Rangers at the Stadium, 14-13. Trailing 9-0 after an inning and a half, the Bronx Bombers battle back and win when Jorge Posada hits a two-out, two-run walk-off home run.

2006 After drawing a warning from home plate umpire Joe West for throwing a ball behind Barry Bonds, Astros' hurler Russ Springer strikes the Giants slugger on the shoulder with the fifth pitch of the at-bat. This incident will cost the 37-year-old right-handed reliever four games when baseball suspends him for his action against the San Francisco superstar, who needs just one home run to equal Babe Ruth's career home run mark.
2008 Jayson Werth ties the Phillies' single-game RBI record when he drives in eight runs in Philadelphia's 10-3 win over Toronto. The 28-year-old center fielder, who equals the franchise mark shared by Kitty Bransfeld (1910), Gavvy Cravath (1915), Willie Jones (1958), and Mike Schmidt (1976), accomplishes the feat with three home runs in the team's 10-3 victory over Toronto in the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park.
2008 Before starting the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium, the visiting Mets hold a closed-door clubhouse meeting to clear the air concerning closer Billy Wagner's comments yesterday about his teammates' availability after games. Although the reliever addresses the issue, his remarks focused on the team's lackluster start to the season and the need to get it done on the field.
2011 Astros owner Drayton McLane sells the team for approximately $685 million to a group led by Jim Crane, who failed to buy this team in 2008, the Cubs in 2009, and the Rangers with Mark Cuban in 2010. During McLane's tenure with Houston, which started in 1992, the club appeared six times in the postseason, including a losing trip to the World Series in 2005.
2011 Vin Mazzaro, demoted the minors after the game with an ERA of 22.74, established a franchise record by allowing 14 runs in the 19-1 Indians' rout of the Royals. The 25-year-old right-handed reliever recorded just seven outs while giving up ten runs in the fourth inning and another four in the fifth frame before being removed.
2012 At Tropicana Field, the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame, now located inside the Rays' ballpark, unveil the statue of Casey at the Bat, a seven-foot-tall sculpture that weighs over 600 pounds. The work, created by renowned sculptor Mark Lundeen, is on loan from Mike Elwell, an artist from St. Petersburg, Florida.

2015 In the Mets' 13-1 rout of the Brewers, Wilmer Flores hits a grand slam off Matt Garza from the No. 9 slot, becoming the first starting National League position player in an NL park to hit a four-run homer in that position of the batting order. Starting pitcher Jacob deGrom collects three singles, including two in the 10-run fourth frame, to become the second hurler since at least 1914 to have three hits batting eighth.
2017 At Comerica Park, Chris Davis hits a pair of extra-inning home runs,a solo shot in the 12th, and a two-run round-tripper an inning later in the Orioles' 13-11 victory over the Tigers in 13 innings. Each team scored three times in the 12th, with Baltimore taking the lead for good in the 13th on the O's first baseman's second overtime homer.
38 Fact(s) Found