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This Day in Baseball History
March 23rd

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13 Fact(s) Found
1934 Babe Didrikson, a recent House of David baseball team member, throws the opening frame for the Cardinals, giving up three runs in a spring exhibition contest against the Red Sox in Bradenton (FL). Redbirds' ace Dizzy Dean teaches the 32-year-old female Olympian, a winner of two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 summer games, how to wind up on the mound and throw a curveball.
1938 Commissioner Landis releases seventy-four Cardinal minor leaguers from six teams, with their owners fined $2,176 for their non-compliance to the rules. The Redbirds controlled the players in two clubs in the three Class D leagues in 1936 and four Class D leagues in 1937.
1951 Brooklyn signs a 21-year lease with the City of Vero Beach to use an abandoned naval base as their spring training facility, which will become known as Dodgertown. The site will be the team's Grapefruit League home through the 2008 season, with exhibition games played at the 6,000-seat Holiman Stadium.


Batting instruction at the Brooklyn Dodgers training camp in Vero Beach (1949).
Florida Memory - State Library and Archives of Florida
1959 The Cardinals trade Sam Jones to the Giants for first baseman/outfielder Bill White and third baseman Ray Jablonski. The right-hander, called Toothpick Sam by his teammates, will be the runner-up for the Cy Young Award this season, posting a 21-15 record and an ERA of 2.83 for San Francisco.
1962 The Phillies trade third baseman Andy Carey and second baseman Lou Vassie to the White Sox for right-hander Cal McLish, a 36-year-old Oklahoman who will post an 11-5 record for the seventh-place club. Chicago then trades Carey, who will retire at the end of the season after appearing in 53 games, to the Dodgers for infielders Ramon Conde and Jim Koranda, who play in 14 major league games. (Ed. Note: The Philadelphia new hurler's father named his newborn Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, but his teammates call him Buster. -LP)
1963 On the day he is fitted for his big-league Orioles uniform, 23-year-old Steve Dalkowski, pitching in an exhibition against the Yankees, feels something pop in his left elbow, losing feeling in his hand while facing Bobby Richardson. The fireballer from New Britain, Connecticut, who once struck out 24 batters in a minor league game, will never appear in the major leagues.

1973 The Cardinals play three Cruz brothers, Cirilo, Hector, and Jose, all nine innings in the outfield during the team's 9-2 spring training victory over New York at Al Lang Field. The trio of Puerto Rican siblings personally outscore the Mets, batting first, second, and third in the Redbird's lineup, making all three outs in the first and eighth frames.
1978 The Mets deal an unhappy 33-year-old Bud Harrelson, who lost his starting job when the team obtained Tim Foli from the Giants to Philadelphia for approximately $50,000, and minor-league call-up Freddie Andrews, an infielder who will never play another game in the major leagues. As an 11-year veteran, the fan-favorite shortstop could have vetoed the trade but chose to go to Philadelphia to play for a contending team, where he will back up Larry Bowa.
1990 The FBI arrest Howard Spira, once an unpaid publicist with the Winfield Foundation who approached George Steinbrenner and received $40,000 to dig up dirt on the outfielder, is arrested after trying to extort money from the Yankees owner. In July, Commissioner Fay Vincent will ban the Boss from playing any role in the team's day-to-day operations for thirty months upon learning about the arrangement with the Bronx professional gambler.
2009 Ichiro Suzuki's two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th, Japan defeats South Korea, 5-3, winning its second consecutive World Baseball Classic title. South Korea, the reigning Olympic champs, tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth on Lee Bum-ho's two-out RBI single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish in front of a Dodger Stadium enthusiastic crowd.
2009 The Miami-Dade County commissioners approve the final documents necessary to move forward on the Marlins' new 37,000-seat home, located on the present grounds of Miami's Orange Bowl. The long-anticipated retractable-roof ballpark will become a reality in 2012, with the team breaking ground this July.
2015 Deciding to have lunch in the air-conditioned clubhouse, Noah Syndergaard, not scheduled to pitch in the Mets' intrasquad scrimmage, is quietly but firmly reprimanded by team captain David Wright who demands he join his teammates in the dugout immediately. When the stunned 22-year-old rookie right-hander hesitates, fellow moundsman Bobby Parnell tosses the former first-rounder's nearly full plate of food into a nearby trash can.
2019 After acquiring Paul Goldschmidt in an offseason trade with the Diamondbacks, the Cardinals sign him to a five-year (2020-24) contract extension. The National League All-Star first baseman's contract, reportedly worth $130 million, is the largest in club history, surpassing the seven-year, $120 million deal for left fielder Matt Holliday before the 2010 season.
13 Fact(s) Found