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This Day in Baseball History
May 26th

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30 Fact(s) Found
1916 In Boston, Giants outfielder Benny Kauff is picked off first base three times by Lefty Tyler. The center fielder's miscues don't hurt the team when New York reels off its 14th consecutive road victory, beating the Braves, 12-1.
1925 In Chicago, Tiger outfielder Ty Cobb becomes the first player to collect 1,000 career extra-base hits when he doubles in Detroit's 8-1 win over the White Sox. The 'Georgia Peach,' who surpassed Honus Wagner's record of 993 earlier in the season, will finish his 24-year major league career with 1,139.
1929 Coming off the bench, Giants' Pat Crawford and Les Bell of the Braves blast grand slams in consecutive innings, marking the first time two pinch-hit four-run homers occur in the same game. Crawford goes yard off Socks Seibold in the sixth inning, and Bell takes Carl Hubbell long in the seventh in New York's 15-8 victory over Boston in the Polo Grounds.
1930 During the nightcap of a twin bill, Joe Sewell strikes out twice against White Sox southpaw Pat Caraway in Cleveland's 5-2 victory over Chicago. This season, the Indians' infielder will be fanned only three times in his 353 at-bats.

1937 Cleveland's Billy Sullivan and Bruce Campbell both homer as pinch-hitters, marking the first time two batters on the same team hit round-trippers coming off the bench in an American League game. Their home run heroics prove to be the difference when the Indians beat the A's at Shibe Park, 8-6.
1947 The largest crowd ever to attend a single game in baseball history occurs when 74,747 fans watch the Yankees beat Boston, 9-3, in a Monday evening tilt at the Bronx ballpark. The previous mark was set in 1932 at Cleveland's spacious Municipal Stadium with a Sunday afternoon game attracting 73,592 patrons to witness Philadelphia's 1-0 victory over the hometown Indians, a contest that takes only an hour and fifty minutes to complete.
1953 Six years after Jackie Robinson makes his major league debut, the Cardinals sign their first black player when Fresno State College slugger Len Tucker agrees to a $3,000 professional contract. The 23-year-old speedy outfielder plays exceptionally well in the minors for Peoria, Saskatoon, and Modesto but never gets called up to St. Louis.
1956 Reds starter John Klippstein, Hershell Freeman, and Joe Black combine to hurl 9⅔ innings of hitless ball in a losing effort to Milwaukee. Frank Torre's eleventh-inning walk-off single scoring Hank Aaron is the difference in the 2-1 defeat at County Stadium.
1957 Cubs rookie Dick Drott establishes a franchise record when he strikes out 15 batters en route to a complete-game victory over Milwaukee at Wrigley Field. The 20-year-old right-hander's mark, accomplished in his seventh major league start, will be matched by Burt Hooton (1971) and Rick Sutcliffe (1984) and will remain the standard for a nine-inning game until Kerry Wood's 20-K performance in 1998.
1959 A Bill Veeck stunt features the return of 3-foot-7-inch Eddie Gaedel and three other little people arriving by helicopter at Comiskey Park. The quartet, dressed as Martians, give Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio toy ray guns to help the team's diminutive infielders against their giant American League Earthling foes.

1959 Pirates' hurler Harvey Haddix pitches 12 perfect innings but loses 1-0 to the Braves in the 13th inning. A Don Hoak error, a sacrifice (Eddie Mathews), an intentional walk (Hank Arron), and a two-bagger by Joe Adcock scores the heart-breaking winning run for Milwaukee, tagging the 33-year-old southpaw with the loss at County Stadium.

1959 The Yankees deal Jerry Lumpe, Tom Sturdivant, and right-hander Johnny Kucks to the A's in exchange for Hector Lopez and Ralph Terry. In three years, Terry will become the second Bronx Bomber hurler to pitch a shutout in the seventh game of a World Series, with the departed Kucks being the first in franchise history to blank opponents in Game 7 of the Fall Classic.
1964

”But did they win?” - JIMMY BRESLIN, NY Herald Tribune columnist's response that the Mets scored 19 runs.

In front of a meager crowd of 2,503 fans at Wrigley Field, the visiting Mets set a franchise record for runs scored, routing the Cubs, 19-1. New York's 25-year-old first baseman Dick Smith, batting leadoff, becomes the first player in franchise history to get five hits in a game, nearly twenty percent of his season total of 21, when he collects a double, a triple, and three singles.

1976 Ken Brett's no-hit bid ends with two outs in the ninth when White Sox third baseman Jorge Orta hopes Jerry Remy's slow roller will go foul. The ball stays fair, and the no-hitter is lost, but the southpaw, who tosses ten innings of two-hit ball, gets the victory when the Pale Hose beat California in the 11th, 1-0.
1984 Pitching two-thirds of an inning of relief to finish the seventh inning, Paul Splittorff gets credit for the win when the Royals come back to beat the Red Sox at Fenway Park, 11-7. The decision marks the southpaw's 166th and last victory of his 15-year career, all with Kansas City, the most in franchise history.
1990 Don Baylor, who will be the only Angel to win the American League Most Valuable Player Award [1979] until Mike Trout cops the honor in 2014, is inducted into the team's Hall of Fame. The seasoned veteran averaged 23 home runs and 87 RBI while batting .262 in six seasons for the California team.
1990 The Phillies retire Mike Schmidt's uniform #20, honoring the third baseman who played his 18-year Hall of Fame career with Philadelphia. At the time of his retirement in 1989, the 12-time All-Star was the Phillies' all-time leader in games played, at-bats, plate appearances, runs scored, home runs, RBI, walks, and total bases.
1993 Carlos Martinez hits a fly ball to Jose Canseco that caroms off the Ranger outfielder's head over the fence for a home run. The fourth-inning solo homer proves to be the difference when the Indians edge Texas at Cleveland Stadium, 7-6.

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1996 🇵🇭 Bobby Chouinard becomes the first player from Manila to appear in a major league game. The A's hurler pitches five innings, giving up eight hits and five earned runs in a 6-1 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards.
1996 The White Sox become the 16th team in American League history to homer four times in one inning when the team routs the Brewers, 12-1. In the seven-run eighth, Frank Thomas, Harold Baines, and Robin Ventura go deep consecutively, with Chad Kreuter adding another dinger in the frame of the Comiskey Park contest.
1997 For the first time in twenty years, two inside-the-park homers are hit in the same inning when Sammy Sosa of the Cubs and the Pirates infielder Tony Womack both circle the bases for round-trippers five minutes apart in the sixth frame of the Cubs' 2-1 victory at Three Rivers Stadium. Ranger teammates Bump Wills and Toby Harrah hit back-to-back inside-the-park home runs on consecutive pitches at Yankee Stadium in 1977.
1998 At Durham Athletic Park, Syracuse Mets Tom Evans becomes the first player to hit the Tom Evans "Hit Bull Win Steak" sign but doesn't get the beef because the offer only applies to members of the hometown Bulls. In August, Scott McCain will be the first to cash in on the promotion, receiving a $100 gift card to buy any steak or meal from Angus Grill, a renowned restaurant in the City of Oaks.

(Ed. Note: The left-field sign featuring a bull with glowing red eyes, an animatronic tail, and smoke billowing from its nostrils was created as a prop for the 1988 movie Bull Durham and remained at the ballpark after filming with a replica erected in the newer ballpark on the American Tobacco Campus in 1995. -LP)


In 2008, a larger 20' by 30' double-sided version replaced
the replica after wind gusts tore the bovine's head off. 
2000 At Yankee Stadium, the game against Boston stops when a fan falls from the upper deck, remaining motionless for five minutes on the screen behind home plate. The 24-year-old man suddenly sits up, raises both arms high, and is promptly arrested on a disorderly conduct charge.
2002 Royals reliever Cory Bailey becomes the first pitcher in a dozen years to win both ends of a doubleheader when the team sweeps the Rangers at Kauffman Stadium, 7-5 and 9-8. In 1989, David Wells accomplished the feat for the Blue Jays in a twin bill against the Angels.
2004 In the Pirates' 11-8 win over St. Louis at Busch Stadium, Daryle Ward hits for the cycle, collecting a two-run double in the first, a run-scoring triple in the fourth, a three-run homer in the fifth, and a single in the ninth. The Pirates' first baseman and his dad Gary become the first father-son combination in major league history to hit for the cycle. The elder Ward accomplished the feat 24 years ago with Minnesota.

2006 Brandon Webb becomes the first Diamondback to start the season 8-0. The 27-year-old right-hander, who signed a $19.5 million, four-year contract in the offseason, beats the Reds at Great American Ball Park, 3-0, for his second consecutive shutout.
2006 Derek Jeter, with a dribbler up the third-base line for an infield single off KC's Scott Elarton, becomes the eighth player in Yankee history to collect 2,000 career hits. The 31-year-old shortstop joins Yogi Berra, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Babe Ruth, and Bernie Williams in reaching the milestone.

(Ed. Note: The New York shortstop reaches the milestone in his 1,571st game, second only to Joe DiMaggio, who accomplished the feat in 34 fewer contests. - LP)

2008 At Citizens Bank Park, Phillies' second baseman Chase Utley homers and drives in six runs in the 20-5 rout of the Rockies. Philadelphia bats around three times, including two six-run innings, during their 19-hit attack against Colorado.

2011 Tossing a scoreless 19th inning in the Phillies' 5-4 win over Cincinnati at Citizens Bank Park, Wilson Valdez becomes the first position player to record a major league victory since Brent Mayne accomplished the feat in 2000 with the Rockies. The 33-year-old second baseman also became the first person to start as a fielder and then be credited with the win as a pitcher since Babe Ruth took the mound on October 1, 1921, after starting the game in left field.
2016 Hall of Famer Wade Boggs becomes the tenth Red Sox player to have his number retired. The third baseman's #26 joins 1 (Bobby Doerr), 4 (Joe Cronin), 6 (Johnny Pesky), 8 (Carl Yastrzemski), 9 (Ted Williams), 14 (Jim Rice), 27 (Carlton Fisk), 45 (Pedro Martinez), and 42 (Jackie Robinson) on Fenway's historic right-field facade.
30 Fact(s) Found