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This Day in Baseball History
August 19th

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39 Fact(s) Found
1900 Rube Waddell throws two complete games in Western League action as Milwaukee sweeps a doubleheader from the White Sox, 2-1 and 1-0. Skipper Connie Mack coaxes the colorful southpaw, who threw 17 innings in the first game, promising him a few days off to go fishing to pitch the nightcap, and the left-hander responds with a five-inning one-hitter.
1917 In the first major league game in New York on a Sunday, the Reds beat the Giants at the Polo Grounds, 5-0. After the contest, authorities arrest managers John McGraw and Christy Mathewson for violating the blue laws prohibiting playing the national pastime on the Sabbath.
1921 At Navin Field, Tiger outfielder Ty Cobb, 34, becomes the youngest player to collect 3000 hits when he singles off right-hander Elmer Myers in the team’s 10-0 rout of the Red Sox. The 'Georgia Peach' will end his career with 4,191 hits, the most ever in the major leagues, until Pete Rose surpasses the mark in 1985.
1941

"All my players are going to get pneumonia because of you Jocko – you haven’t got the guts to call this game!" - FRANKIE FRISCH, manager of the Pirates, shouting his displeasure from the dugout.

During the second game of a doubleheader at Ebbets Field, Jocko Conlan ejects Frankie Frisch when the Pirates manager appears on the field with an umbrella, protesting the playing conditions at the Brooklyn ballpark. Ebbets Field. The rainy-day incident inspired Norman Rockwell's famous oil painting, Bottom of the Sixth.
1945 Better known for his home run prowess, Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx starts and throws 7.2 innings, giving up just four hits in the Phillies' 4-2 nightcap victory over Cincinnati at Shibe Park. The 37-year-old corner infielder, playing in his final season, will take the mound nine times, posting a remarkable 1.59 ERA during 22â…” innings of work for the last-place team.
1949 The Phillies host 'Eddie Waitkus Night' at Shibe Park and shower their injured first baseman with gifts. In uniform for the first time since June, the All-Star infielder had been shot in the chest at Chicago's Edgewater Beach Hotel by Ruth Ann Steinhagen, an obsessed fan upset with his trade from the Cubs to Philadelphia.
1951 Emerging from a paper-mache cake between games of a Sportsman Park doubleheader, three-foot-seven-inch Eddie Gaedel appears as a surprise leadoff pinch-hitter, walking on four pitches in his only major league appearance. American League president Will Harridge voids the small person's contract the next day, with Browns' owner Bill Veeck threatening to request an official ruling on whether 5 feet 6 inches Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto is a short ballplayer or a tall dwarf.
1955 For the sixth consecutive season, Robin Roberts is a 20-game winner when he beats Don Newcombe and the first-place Dodgers at Connie Mack Stadium, 3-2. The 28-year-old Phillies' right-hander, who will compile a 138-78 (.639) record and a 2.93 ERA during the span), finishes the season with a 23-14 record.


BaseballReference
1957 Citing poor attendance as the reason, Giants' president Horace Stoneham, ignoring baseball's edict of banning announcements about the relocation of franchises until after the World Series, informs the press the club has signed a lease to play in San Francisco next season. The club's Board of Directors voted 8-1, approving the shift to the West Coast, with the only dissenting vote cast by M. Donald Grant, future chairman of the expansion Mets, a team created to fill the National League void in New York.
1963 At Fenway Park, Dick Stuart's towering fly ball becomes an adventure for Indians' outfielder Vic Davalillo when it strikes the ladder attached to the wall above the scoreboard. After the ball ricochets off the fence and bounces off the center fielder's head, the slow-footed Red Sox first baseman crosses the plate for a very improbable inside-the-park home run in Boston's 8-3 loss to Cleveland.
1965 At Wrigley Field, Reds' hurler Jim Maloney no-hits the Cubs, 1-0, with the only run scoring on a Leo Cardenas homer in the tenth inning. The Fresno native had also no-hit the Mets for ten innings earlier in the season but lost the game in the eleventh when Johnny Lewis homered.
1966 After guiding the club to fourteen victories in their first fifteen games, Birdie Tebbetts, who will remain in the organization, resigns as the manager of the Indians. George Strickland will take over the third-place Cleveland team with a 66-57 record.
1968 In the top of the seventeenth inning at Shea Stadium, Ron Hunt's two-out single scores Hal Lanier for the game's only run as the Giants beat New York, 1-0. Bobby Bolin throws the first 11 shutout innings, with reliever Frank Linzy getting the victory and Mike McCormick picking up a save.
1969 At Shea Stadium, the Mets beat the Giants, 1-0, in the bottom of the 14th inning, with Tug McGraw tossing four scoreless frames for the win after Gary Gentry pitched the first ten, keeping San Francisco off the board on just four hits. Going the distance, Juan Marichal takes the loss, giving up only six hits and striking out 13 batters, thanks to Tommie Agee's one-out walk-off homer.
1969 At Wrigley Field, Ken Holtzman no-hits the Braves, 3-0, with Ron Santo's first-inning homer off Phil Niekro providing all of the Cubs' runs. The 23-year-old southpaw's second career no-hitter is the fifth of the season and the first since 1923 in which no batters strike out when Sad Sam Jones accomplished the feat with the Yankees.
1982 Pascual Perez misses his start for the Braves when he gets lost on Interstate 285, trying to find Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The 25-year-old right-hander, who will be called I-285 by his Atlanta teammates, finally gets to the ballpark ten minutes after the game starts.
1986 The Mariners trade their captain, Spike Owen, and center fielder Dave Henderson to the Red Sox for infielder Rey Quinones, three players to be named later, and cash. In his third game with Boston, the former Seattle shortstop ties a major league record when he scores six runs in the contest.
1989 Cubs' center fielder Jerome Walton extends his hitting streak to 29 games in an 8-4 loss to Houston at the Astrodome. With his seventh-inning single, the 24-year-old rookie establishes the longest consecutive-game hit mark in modern franchise history, surpassing the mark set by Ron Santo in 1966.
1990 Bobby Thigpen records his 40th save when he pitches a perfect ninth inning in the White Sox's 4-2 victory over Texas at Arlington Stadium. The right-handed reliever becomes only the eighth closer in major league history to reach the milestone.
1991 The Twins' southpaw swinging DH/OF Randy Bush ties an American League record set in 1981 by the Rangers' Bill Stein when he strokes his seventh consecutive pinch-hit, dating back to July 5. The Dover (DE) native doubles off Dennis Eckersley in the ninth inning of the team's 8-7 loss to the visiting A's at the Metrodome.
1992 When Bret Boone takes the field at Camden Yards against Baltimore, the Mariner second baseman becomes part of the first three-generation family to play in the major leagues. The 23-year-old Seattle rookie is the grandson of Ray Boone (1948-60) and son of Bob Boone (1972-90).
1997 Wade Boggs makes his pitching debut, throwing 16 knuckleballs and one fastball in a 12-4 loss to the Angels at Anaheim Stadium. The Yankee third baseman, a future Hall of Famer, hurls a scoreless eighth inning, giving up no hits, walking one batter, and striking out Todd Greene swinging to end the frame.

2000 For the third time in major league history and second this season by the Yankees, a team collects three sac flies in one inning, thanks to Angel left fielder Ron Gant's third-inning error, which credits Jorge Posada with a sacrifice without recording out. TheBronx Bombers first accomplished the feat in June, joining the White Sox trio of Juan Pizarro, Nellie Fox, and Al Smith, who turned the trick against the Indians in 1962.
2004 Pitching a perfect bottom of the ninth inning, John Smoltz establishes the franchise record with his 142nd save in a Braves uniform. The right-handed reliever surpasses Gene Garber as Atlanta beat the Dodgers in Los Angeles, 6-5.
2005 Losing to the A's at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum, 4-0, the Royals establish a franchise record by dropping their 19th consecutive game and tie the club's mark by dropping its 12th straight road game. The 38-82 squad needs two more defeats to match the American League record of 21 losses accomplished by the 1988 Orioles, and four more will tie the major league mark of 23 endured by the 1961 Phillies.
2005 An apprenticeship, announced by the independent minor league team, the Brockton Rox, will be dedicated in the memory of the Emerson journalism student accidentally killed in 2004 by the Boston police during a near-riot around Fenway Park after the Red Sox beat the Yankees to win the pennant. "The Victoria Snelgrove Media Internship," awarded to an aspiring journalist hosting pregame and postgame radio shows, will hopefully focus on the senseless violence that sometimes follows sporting contests.
2006 🇬🇺 John Hattig becomes the first person born in Guam to appear in a major league game. The 26-year-old Toronto third baseman from Tamuning replaces Troy Glaus in the bottom of the fourth, bats clean-up, striking out looking in both his at-bats in the Orioles' 15-0 rout of the Blue Jays.
2006 As the team makes a run for the NL wild card, the Phillies bolster their starting rotation, acquiring Jamie Moyer and cash from the Mariners for two minor league righties, Andrew Baldwin and Andy Barb. The 43-year-old veteran southpaw compiled a 6-12 record with a 4.39 ERA for the struggling Mariners this season.
2007 At the Metrodome, Johan Santana two-hits the Rangers over eight innings, striking out 17 batters to establish a Twins team record for strikeouts in a game. Designated hitter Sammy Sosa collects both hits for Texas.

2007 John Smoltz becomes the Braves' all-time strikeout leader when Diamondbacks' third baseman Mark Reynolds becomes the 40-year-old right-hander's 2,913th victim. Phil Niekro previously established the franchise record pitching for the club in Milwaukee and Atlanta for twenty seasons (1964 to 1983).
2008 B.J. Upton, not wanting to distract the team, apologizes to the Rays for a "mental lapse" on the bases after being thrown out at second on what many believed should have been an easy double. The 23-year-old center fielder has been benched three times in the past two weeks for not hustling for his first-place club.
2008 The Nationals lose their 11th consecutive game, dropping a 5-4 decision to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The streak is the team's longest skid since they moved to Washington from Montreal before the 2005 season.
2008 The Dodgers reacquired Greg Maddux (6-9, 3.99) from the Padres for cash and two minor leaguers to be named or an additional monetary sum. The 42-year-old future Hall of Fame right-hander, obtained to help the club down the stretch run, played in LA for part of the 2006 season, winning six of nine decisions.
2008 Kevin Gracie, an Ellicott City, Maryland native, becomes the 50 millionth fan to attend a game at Oriole Park. As a result, the 24-year-old second-year University of Baltimore law student wins five years' worth of season tickets and a cash prize of $50,000.
2010 The Cardinals obtain third baseman Pedro Feliz from the Astros in exchange for minor league pitcher David Carpenter. The Redbirds replace a slumping Felipe Lopez, a fill-in for the injured David Freese at the hot corner, with the 35-year-old veteran, good-fielding infielder.
2012 Gio Gonzalez, with his 16th victory, sets a team record when Washington beats the Mets at Nationals Park, 5-2. The 26-year-old southpaw, obtained in an offseason trade with Oakland, surpasses Livan Hernandez, who in 2005 posted a 15-10 record in the Nats' inaugural season in the nation's capital.
2012 Play stops in the bottom of the sixth inning of Washington's game against the Mets with the discovery of a praying mantis in the outfield of Nationals Park. The contest continues after New York outfielder Andres Torres carefully picks up the beneficial insect and gently hands it to a ballpark ground crew member.
2015 Ryan Braun becomes the all-time franchise home run leader when he hits his 252nd career homer for the Brewers in the team's 8-7 victory over the Marlins at Miller Park. The 31-year-old Milwaukee outfielder surpasses Hall of Famer Robin Yount, needing about 6,300 fewer at-bats to take the lead from the former record holder.

2016 Tyler Paquin, who, as a pinch-hitter, ended last night's game with a sac fly, plays the hero in the second consecutive Indians walk-off when he hits an inside-the-park home run to beat the Blue Jays, 3-2, at Progressive Field. The 25-year-old rookie outfielder's round-tripper marks the second time in franchise history a game ends when a batter hits a homer without the ball going out of the field of play, a feat first accomplished by Braggo Roth in 1916 against the St. Louis Browns.

39 Fact(s) Found