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This Day in Baseball History
June 16th

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48 Fact(s) Found
1883 At the Southeast Diamond of the Polo Grounds in New York, the Gothams, a team that eventually will be known as the Giants, offer free admission to escorted and unescorted women, making the promotion the first 'Ladies' Day' in baseball history. The female fans see their hometown favorites beat the Cleveland Spiders, 5-2.
1884 Due to inflammation in his right index finger, Larry Corcoran of the White Stockings (Cubs) pitches left-handed and right-handed in a game against the Bisons. The natural right-hander hurls ambidextrously for four innings, alternating throwing arms, before moving to shortstop in Chicago's 20-9 loss at Buffalo's Olympic Park.
1909

"I hope I will be partly excused by the fact that I was simply an Indian schoolboy and did not know all about such things. In fact, I did not know that I was doing wrong, because I was doing what I knew several other college men had done, except that they did not use their own names ..." - JIM THORPE, explaining in a letter to AAU Secretary James Edward Sullivan his decision to play professional baseball.

Jim Thorpe makes his professional baseball debut with a 4-2 win pitching for Rocky Mount (NC) of the Eastern Carolina League, a team he will play in 1909 and 1910, reportedly making as little as two dollars per game. Although college players spent summers playing for pro teams using aliases, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) withdraws his amateur status retroactively, causing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to forfeit his Olympic gold medals, declaring him a professional. (Ed. Note: The IOC Executive Committee reinstated Jim Thorpe's 1912 Summer Olympics gold medals in 1983, listing him as a co-gold medalist. -LP)

1916 At Braves Field, right-hander Tom Hughes no-hits the Pirates, 2-0. 'Salida Tom' will finish the season with a 16-3 record, the best win-loss percentage in the National League, for the third-place Boston club.
1928 Bill Regan becomes the first player in Red Sox history to homer twice in an inning when he hits two round-trippers, including an inside-the-park homer, in the eight-run fourth frame of the team's 10-5 victory over Chicago at Comiskey Park. The feat will not be accomplished again by a BoSox player until 1990 when Ellis Burks homers twice in the fourth frame of the team's 12-4 rout of the Tribe at Cleveland Stadium.
1931 At Sportsman Park, Chuck Klein's first-inning round-tripper off Burleigh Grimes gives the Phillies a 1-0 lead until the bottom of the ninth. In the final frame, Philadelphia's right-hander Ray Benge, who tosses a complete-game five-hitter, yields back-to-back one-out homers to George Watkins and Frankie Frisch, giving St. Louis a 2-1 walk-off victory.
1933 Last year's National League batting champ, Lefty O'Doul, and pitcher Watty Clark, a 20-game winner last season, are traded by the Dodgers to the Giants for first baseman Sam Leslie. Brooklyn's newest infielder will bat .311 during his three seasons with the team before returning to New York in 1936.
1938 Future Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx is walked six consecutive times in the Red Sox' 12-8 victory over the Browns. The Boston first baseman will lead the American League this season with 119 bases on balls.
1941 Johnny Vander Meer, best known for throwing consecutive no-hitters, becomes the first hurler to start a game by throwing four straight bases on balls before retiring a single batter. The Reds' starter will not make it out of the first inning of the Crosley Field contest, an eventual 6-0 loss to New York.
1952 At the Polo Grounds, Bobby Thomson erases a three-run ninth-inning deficit with a walk-off grand slam, giving the Giants a come-from-behind 8-7 victory over the Cardinals. The third baseman's decisive blow comes with one out off Willard Schmidt.
1953 With a 3-1 triumph in the Bronx ballpark, the Browns halt the Yankees' winning streak at 18. St. Louis, behind the solid pitching of right-handed starter Duane Pillette and 46-year-old Satchel Paige, snaps their 14-game losing streak and hands Whitey Ford his first loss in eight decisions.
1956 After the Braves lose the 12th game of their last 17 contests, Charlie Grimm resigns as the team's manager, with coach Fred Haney immediately replacing the departing skipper. The 56-year-old skipper, offered a personnel position within the organization, leaves the dugout with a 24-22 record, only 3½ games behind the league-leading Pirates.
1957 Dixie Howell, in three and two-thirds scoreless innings in relief, limits Washington to four hits, earning his second victory of the season. The 37-year-old Kentuckian's hitting proves to be the difference when his home runs in the fifth and sixth innings propel the White Sox to an 8-6 victory at Comiskey Park.
1961 In his major league debut, 18-year-old Lew Krausse Jr., signed as an amateur free agent for $125,000 by A's owner Charlie Finley, throws a three-hit shutout and collects two hits in Kansas City's 4-0 victory over L.A. at Municipal Stadium. In 1932, the redheaded fireballer's dad blanked the Red Sox in his final major league appearance, giving the father-son duo back-to-back shutouts twenty-nine years apart.
1962 With the Tribe trailing the Bronx Bombers, 9-8, Jerry Kindall hits a walk-off two-run homer, giving the Indians a dramatic come-from-behind victory. Left-fielder Yogi Berra, watching the second baseman's homer go over his head to beat his Yankees 10-9 in the bottom of the ninth, probably experiences a "deja vu all over again" memory of Bill Mazeroski's Game 7 home run in 1960, which ended with the identical score.
1963 In the bottom of the third of a 4-3 loss to the Giants at Candlestick Park, Jim Campbell becomes only the second catcher in National League history, the first since 1946, to be credited with three assists in one inning. The 25-year-old Colt .45's backstop nails Gaylord Perry trying to advance to third on a fielder's choice, guns down Chuck Hiller in an attempt to steal second, and ends the frame by throwing out Willie McCovey, who doubled and then tried to take an extra base on a relay to home plate.

1964 In a 7-1 victory over the Astros, Cardinal third baseman Ken Boyer hits for the cycle. In the same game, Lou Brock, recently obtained from the Cubs for Ernie Broglio, makes his debut in a St. Louis uniform with two hits, including a triple, and the fleet outfielder also steals a base.
1969 In an effort to return major league baseball to Milwaukee, the Chicago White Sox play a home game at County Stadium, where only 13,133 fans show up to see the 'home' team beat the Pilots, 8-3. Ironically, the visitors will leave Seattle next season to move to the 'Cream City,' with the one-year-old American League franchise becoming known as the Brewers.
1969 In the bottom of the first inning at Metropolitan Stadium, Tony Oliva and Rod Carew complete a double steal, swiping second and third base, respectively. On the next pitch thrown by Angels' starter Tom Murphy, the pair repeats the feat when Carew steals home for the sixth time this season, tying the American League record.
1971 Recently traded from the Senators, Mike Epstein homers in his first two at-bats, giving him four consecutive homers over two games, helping the A's defeat his former team, 5-0. Oakland scores all of their runs on solo homers.
1976 Mark Fidrych, limiting the Royals to five hits, gets credit for his sixth consecutive complete game when Detroit scores two runs in a 4-3 walk-off victory at Tiger Stadium. The 21-year-old rookie, dubbed the Bird due to his resemblance to the Sesame Street character, has finished every game he has started since his May 15th debut in the rotation.
1978 Reds' right-hander Tom Seaver no-hits the Cardinals at Riverfront Stadium, 4-0. The gem is Tom Terrific's first no-no after taking a hitless game into the ninth inning three times during the first 12 years of his career.

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1984 Mario Soto's second suspension this season results from firing a baseball at a group of opposing players after he punched Claudell Washington, who Lanny Harris was restraining at home plate when the batter tried to charge the mound. The Reds suspends the fiery right-hander for three games due to this incident with Washington, who had been the target of his brushback pitches, getting five games off for pushing the home plate ump.
1987 In the sixth inning of a 6-5 Baltimore loss to New York at Yankee Stadium, Cal Ripken collects his 1,000th career hit when he singles to center field off Rich Bordi. The shortstop is the youngest player in Orioles history to reach the milestone.
1989 San Pedro de Macoris native Sammy Sosa, signed by Texas scout Omar Minaya as an athletic but malnourished and frail 16-year-old, becomes the youngest Dominican to play in the majors. The Rangers' leadoff batter, a twenty-year, seven-month-old rookie, goes 2-for-4 with a double in Texas's 8-3 loss to the Yankees.
1991 After getting off to a slow start, the Twins take over sole possession of first place when they beat the Indians, 4-2, for their 15th consecutive victory. The winning streak lifts the club from fifth place to the top spot in the standings, a lead the team will never relinquish.
1991 Otis Nixon establishes a National League record and ties the 1912 major league mark set by the A's Eddie Collins by swiping six bases in one game. Crime doesn't pay when the Braves outfielder's thievery cannot overcome a 7-6 loss to Montreal at Olympic Stadium.
1991 Against the Reds, Phillies' right-hander Andy Ashby strikes out the side on only nine pitches to become the 12th pitcher in National League history to use the minimum pitches needed to record three strikeouts in one inning. The Philadelphia rookie becomes the first in franchise history to accomplish the feat.
1992

During a pregame ceremony at Anaheim Stadium, the Angels become the first of three teams to retire Nolan Ryan's number. The hard-throwing right-hander, who compiled a 138-121 record in 291 games with California, will also have his digits retired by the Astros and Rangers in 1996.

1993 The Cubs celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cracker Jack with a party at Wrigley Field that includes distributing the candy-coated popcorn and peanut treat introduced at the Chicago World Fair in 1893, free of charge to all of the fans attending the game against Florida. Sailor Jack, the company's mascot, throws out the ceremonial first pitch.

1993 In his first major league at-bat, Marlins catcher Mitch Lyden hits a home run off Jose Bautista in the team's 6-4 loss to Chicago at Wrigley Field. The second-inning homer will be the only round-tripper in the brief career of the rookie backstop, who will play in just six games, collecting three hits in ten plate appearances.
1996 At 83, Hall of Fame broadcaster Mel Allen, best known for his years doing play-by-play for the Yankees, dies of heart failure. His "How about that" signature line will become familiar to another generation of fans through the syndicated TV show, This Week in Baseball, which he hosted from the program's inception in 1977.
1997 At Yankee Stadium, the Mets beat their crosstown rivals, 6-0, in the first-ever regular-season game between the two teams. Dave Mlicki throws a complete-game shutout, blanking the Bronx Bombers on nine hits.

1997 In the first regular-season meeting between the two major league teams in Ohio, the Reds' rookie right-hander Brett Tomko tosses 7.1 shutout innings in Cincinnati's 4-1 win over the Indians at Cleveland's Jacobs Field. The victory will prove costly for Cincy when Barry Larkin ruptures his heel running out a double, putting their All-Star shortstop on the shelf for six weeks.
1998 The Phillies score seven runs in the bottom of the ninth in an incredible 8-7 come-from-behind win over the stunned Pirates. Mike Lieberthal's two-out, three-run blast off Rich Loiselle is the final blow that sinks the Bucs.
2001 In a game that features thousands of swarming moths, the Red Sox beat the Braves and the bugs in extra innings at Turner Field, 9-5. Although the swarm has little bearing on the game's outcome, the insects bothered some players, including Dave Martinez, who claimed to have one sucked into his mouth.
2001 John Olerud hits for the cycle, becoming the twenty-first player to accomplish the feat more than once and only the second, along with Bob Watson, to do it in both leagues. Among all the players who have hit a single, double, triple, and home run in the same game, the Mariners' first baseman has the fewest career three-baggers, with just a dozen during his 13-year major league stint.

2003 Dontrelle Willis throws a complete-game one-hit shutout in the Marlins' 1-0 win over the Mets at Pro Player Stadium. The D-Train's victory, which improves his record to 6-1, marks the start of the baseball world taking notice of the high-kicking southpaw phenom, the eventual NL Rookie of the Year.
2005 After a pitch goes between his legs, Richmond Braves flycatcher Esix Snead charges the mound and pummels the Syracuse SkyChiefs hurler, David Bush. The action incites an International League brawl, which results in fines and suspensions given to 40 players, a coach, and a manager, including a ten-day hiatus for Snead.
2006 For the first time in 35 years, the Yankees play a regular-season game in the nation's capital, beating the Nationals in an interleague contest at RFK Stadium, 7-5. The Bronx Bombers' previous game in Washington on Sept. 30, 1971, in the same ballpark, ended with New York awarded a 9-0 victory when the Senators fans, with their team ahead by two runs in the season finale, refused to leave the field as a protest to losing a franchise for the second time since 1961.
2008 Seattle, the team with the worst record in the major leagues (24-45), fires Bill Bavasi as their general manager in his fifth season. Two weeks ago, in a move he came to regret, the embattled GM locked the clubhouse doors and mandated the Mariners players to sit together and be publicly held accountable for their slow start.
2010 In his first outing at the new Yankee Stadium, Jamie Moyer limits New York to only three hits in eight innings of work in the 6-3 Phillies' victory. The Bronx Bombers' new ballyard is the 48th venue the 47-year-old southpaw has pitched in during his career, surpassing Rudy Seanez's record for the most appearances in different major league ballparks.
2010 Michael Young's two-run single in the eighth inning contributes to the Rangers' 6-3 victory over Florida and establishes a club record for hits. The 33-year-old third baseman surpasses Ivan Rodriguez's club record with his 1,748th hit, reaching the mark in 91 fewer games than Pudge.
2014

"Major League Baseball today mourns the tragic loss of Tony Gwynn, the greatest Padre ever and one of the most accomplished hitters that our game has ever known, whose all-around excellence on the field was surpassed by his exuberant personality and genial disposition in life." - COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG, on the passing of Tony Gwynn.

Tony Gwynn, surrounded by his family, loses his battle with salivary gland cancer at the age of 54. The Hall of Fame outfielder played his entire major league career with the Padres, compiling a .338 career batting average over 20 seasons and collecting 3,141 hits en route to tying Honus Wagner's mark of eight National League batting titles.

2015 The Orioles blast a franchise-record eight home runs in their 19-3 rout of the Phillies at Camden Yards. Manny Machado (2), Jimmy Paredes, Chris Parmelee (2), David Lough, Chris Davis, and Ryan Flaherty go deep for the Birds.
2019 Trailing by three runs in the ninth, the Padres rally and eventually beat the Rockies at Coors Field, 14-13. The contest ends the highest-scoring four-game series in history with the teams combining for 92 runs, surpassing the record of 88 players crossing the plate, set by the Phillies and Dodgers in May 1929.

  • June 13 - COL 9, SD 6
  • June 14 - SD 16, COL 12
  • June 15 - COL 14, SD 8
  • June 16 - SD 14, COL 13

2021 With the Diamondbacks' twenty-third straight away loss, a 10-3 defeat in San Francisco, the team surpasses the mark for most consecutive road losses, previously shared by the 1943 Philadelphia A's and 1963 Mets. Arizona, who will extend the streak to 24, last won as the visitors on April 25 when Madison Bumgarner threw an unofficial seven-inning no-hitter in Atlanta.
2023 In his major league debut, Dodger right-hander Emmet Sheehan tosses six no-hit innings against the Giants but doesn't get an opportunity to finish the no-hitter when he pulled after throwing 89 pitches to 20 batters in the team's eventual 7-5 extra-inning loss at Chavez Ravine. The 23-year-old rookie, drafted out of Boston College, joins Ross Stripling (2016 Dodgers - 7⅓) and Daniel Ponce de Leon (2018 Cardinals - 7) to be taken out after 6.0+ innings in the modern era with a no-no intact in their MLB debut, only to see their club lose.
48 Fact(s) Found